Frustrated

I haven't been confident in drawing lately every time I pick up a pencil I feel stressed or angry because I know I should be better it's been five months I currently have an art degree and I'm trying to get better here's some drawings I've did any critiques?

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1FKhqS81i5GU644AJHTbia-klweAwWtv0-PA4oL3NlGQ/edit

I can't access the drawing without your express invitation, so I can't comment on it for now.

Here is a method, that I sometimes use to relief frustration. Pick up a piece of paper and a clipboard, don't sit on the desk, but make yourself comfortable in bed or on your sofa, or wherever you usually crounge when you are tired. Put your pen on the paper and move it around aimlessly. Don't plan anything, just keep watching the pen, until you filled the entire huge page with scribbles.

My experience is, that even without planning, even while trying to avoid planning, and even while trying to vent frustration by drawing purposefully bad, all the training that you imprinted in your nerves will start to show. Your hand will start to reproduce your trained patterns, even without being directed to, and although the result will be extremely surreal and abstract, the beauty, that you trained so hard to achieve will show through after a while, and you can zone out just watching your pen do its own thing. Initially your very frustration will keep you from conscious decisionmaking, and if ideas come creeping up, just turn the page on its head or by 90 degrees, or randomly continue scribbling somewhere else on the page, and just keep watching your pen go.

There is a youtuber, Peter Draws, who does this kind of intuitive scribbling a lot, and watching him do it and listening to his asmr voice can also help zoning out.

Hmm, I see. You seem stuck a bit on an object level. With which I mean, they way you would describe your images in words. "Here is an arm, there is a phone, there are fingertips around the phone" "Here is a foot, the toes go to the right". And on that level, your drawings do actually work. The arm, the phone, the foot are actually depicted, and although they may not look too impressive, these objects are recognizable.

To advance, you need to find a way from looking at (and then drawing) objects, to looking at shapes. "The palm of the hand is roughly a square, the upper line of the square is curved upwards, the fingertips end in a triangular formation, although the individual tips clearly end in half-circles, the recess between the fingers go from that curved line on top of the palm to the tips in almost parallel lines. The thumb doesn't start at the top of the palm like the other fingers, instead it is attached to the side, and its shape is almost that of a rhombus with rounded edges..."

...which is totally easier said then done, as changing how you see things is hard to explain. I'll give my go-to recommendations of beginner tutorials, proko.com, and drawabox.com . Also it might be helpful to start with drawing very simple objects, like boxes or cups. Manmade things, which aren't much different from basic geometric shapes. Or look around you, and find interesting shapes, that can be reduced to geometry.

You could also print out stuff, and try to draw over the printouts, but not by following the outlines in detail, but by trying to cover the object with as few, as simple geometric shapes, as you can.

Well, Xyz, I really think, and really, really feel that you're first-ever pre-instructional drawings are definitely on the right track, in terms of your hands and feet drawings. Nice abstract and intellectual gestures so far.

Well, if I were to nitpick and critique your drawings, it would be that your perceptions are budding, but really, still not there yet, I think; and I feel that some of your line controls are the most too choppiest and the most unnatural so far. Would you please kindly loosen up those edges.....I mean, two suggestions: 1) Loosen up your line quality and consistency with a bunch of 30 minutes of 30 second hand and foot scribbles of cheap notebook paper, and the cheaper of ballpoint pens? (60 scribbles of hands and feet) 2) To really and completely do the Betty Edwards exercise of drawing the vase/face, from this link here. The two reasons I'm making you do these are because, first of all, to make your lines less stiffest in their gestures, plus to make them more boldest, most dynamic, most energetic, and most fluid and liveliest; and second of all, to get your untapped right side of your brain into action, in service of perceiving your edges (outlines), drawing out the most complex imagery, without any of your verbalization.

In conclusion, good luck to you, and I hope you've found these completely and totally detailed and informative.

hey brandon,

first of all: we've all been there! we've all been frustrated with our drawings and our progress at one point or another. plus, hands are super hard to draw und very complex. there just so many delicate, moving shapes, it can be very intimidating.

but it is the same for everybody, so, don't give up hope, you just have to power through!

i really like the face of the cat/dog person in the upper right corner of the last picture. i would say, that you are much more used to draw faces, than to draw hands and feet, right? your line seems more relaxed und you started the face with intend and a plan. and you also used contruction lines to find the eyeline und divide the head in it's symetrical left and right halfs.

so, i would recommend using the same approach for hands and feet:

first, learn about the basic forms and proportions of the hand, e.g. the palm can be treated as a box, the thumb protudes from a triangular base from the side, the fingers can be viewed as cylinders, the palm is as long as the middle finger and so on...

search for it on youtube ore google for a deeper look or get some books about it, if you can afford it. george bridgeman, andrew loomis, burne hogarth and gottfried bammes all have some great drawing books.

second i would slow waaaay down. in contrast to Polyvios Animations' recommandation, i wouldn't do many short scribbles, because the short time just puts more pressure on you and without some level of understanding, you may only amplify your mistakes. instead i would recommend intervalls of ten minutes or even more, so you have enough time of analysing what you are seeing und recognizing structures you learned in the first step.

third, that might just be a personal preference, but i would recommend to draw a little bit smaller, because i find it easier to stay on top of everything, shorter lines are easier to draw and you look at your drawing in its entirety at one glance. since the dog/cat people face is much smaller i would presume, that is your natural size to draw something.

i hope that helps. the most important thing is just to practice, practice, practice- you will get there eventually:)

I need people mission to see your price because it is a Google document