Forum posts by Icouldntthinkofaname

No worries!! Thank you so much!

I have reported them :D !

Happy Thanksgiving to you as well!

Wondering if there are any plans for how to deal with the spam onsite - I'm seeing a lot of "spam" / nonsense answers to posts.

I try to report them, but I'm wondering if there's any way to mitigate them since I'm seeing more and more pop up (I admittedly don't know enough about site moderation to know if something like this is possible, though).

I'm not sure that it does; I've read it before but it was a long time ago and can't remember the exact details, but it's not quite a drawing textbook, and is very much about understanding comics (though the information in there is good if you do want to draw comics; there's a lot of discussion of things like paneling and storytelling if I'm remembering correctly). It has good insights and may be useful for other work (and is just an interesting read), though!

If you haven't already read them, these might be more helpful to you:
Dynamic Figure Drawing by Burne Hogarth
Force: Dynamic Life Drawing by Michael D. Mattesi
Figure Drawing: Design and Invention by Michael Hampton

• Icouldntthinkofaname edited this post on November 2, 2023 5:17pm.

Afraid I don't have much advice for you, but I'm also deeply frustrated due to a different underlying issue and really sympathize.

Can you pinpoint where you're frustrated? Are you working mostly digitally or traditionally? If it's the former, it might help to just grab a sketchbook and go at it with whatever practices you can (though I also understand being too frustrated to practice, since that's where I've been) instead; allowing yourself to "waste" paper can be kind of hard to accept, but it does get you doing something, however small (I stopped when I got frustrated, as long as I had just one page done). Really quick, easy, no-energy-required exercises if you can, or watching people talk about art if you can't with videos / etc.

You may also just be burned out and need a break, or to let those creative muscles stretch a different way (if you play games, I find ones like Minecraft or Animal Crossing where you're still generally pursuing creative endeavors can really help; if not, are there other things you can use to express what you want?). Which - full disclosure, I find "take a break" to be slightly exhausting advice myself, I went through art school and breaks were practically sacrilegious - but they do work.

• Icouldntthinkofaname edited this post on November 2, 2023 5:00pm.
• Icouldntthinkofaname edited this post on November 2, 2023 5:01pm.

I'm glad! I was worried about coming across too strong. I'm not a beginner myself but I've been in a lot of the same place as you, and I tend to have trouble getting meaningful feedback without getting specific. I even did mostly those 1min drawings for a while! But doing class modes / longer times in addition to those will likely be more helpful.

I'd definitely study artists you like to help narrow down your goals - you have a subject you like, and that's a good start! Experiment, see what feels right. There's plenty of ways to depict those things (H.R. Giger is not Kazuo Umezz is not Edward Gorey); you don't have to settle on a goal right now especially if you're only two months into your art journey, but it wouldn't hurt to start hashing out those more concrete ideas (I'm a bit of a horror enjoyer myself).

It might also be good to keep things in perspective; art is hard! Drawing things the way you want will likely take a lot longer than two more months; it could be years before you're comfortable with your work (and a lot of people don't really ever feel satisfied with it, though most things get easier with practice over time for most people). But you took the first step and I can tell you're working pretty hard at it, and that's commendable in itself!!

Looking forward to the examples.

Slow down!

I've been desperate enough to ask random strangers on the internet for help myself, but your post hasn't offered enough information for people to offer you much help here. We have no way to judge your work on your terms without examples or specifics. How long have you been drawing? What do you want to express? What are you specifically hoping to work on (if you aren't sure, picking an area to focus on improving will help - "I want to improve" is vague. "I want to be able to draw muscles well" or "I want my faces to be more stylized" are still a bit vague, but much, much better)? Are there any artists you like, and how much art do you consume in general (can even just be cartoons or manga)?

I've also been in the "my drawings are awful I can't even look at it" mindset, but what about your work makes you think that way specifically?

This is all meant as gently as possible, but right now, you likely aren't going to get constructive or helpful feedback from this. Just based on your post, have you tried class mode instead (even if it's just a 30-minute session)? Has your teacher given you any specific suggestions (and have you asked them for additional feedback, since they're working much more closely with you than any of us can)?

Going to step in with the assumption that you've already tried what's being suggested to you and suggest something a bit more abstract.

You may need to brush up on some of the previous suggestions, but it's also possible that the approach you're taking is a poor fit for you; regardless of if you feel like you're improving, do you feel like you're learning? There is no one way to learn art, and repetition without really poking at your habits and methods doesn't work for everyone (it doesn't work for me, in fact - I need to understand what I'm doing to improve at it).