Icouldntthinkofaname的论坛贴

Kind of a followup to the previous post.

If you don't want to read all of that, TLDR; I think my faces in particular are getting worse over time. These were the examples I used previously; the 1st is from 4 years ago, the 2nd and 3rd are from 2 years ago, and the 4th and 5th are from about a month ago. I feel like my structure and feature placement are extremely weak, but I've been drawing for 10+ years and practicing rigorously, including drawing more realistic faces as a means of learning.

I have additionally tried Loomis, Asaro, Draw A Box, drawing skulls, and various other practice methods to improve; none of it helped.

I tried to do a simple practice with reference today, (here is the reference) and it's still nowhere near my goal or the level of technical skill I want; it took nearly an hour, with multiple iterations. In my previous post I was advised to just finish things, but I'm too stressed out to - I can't get through a rough sketch without getting frustrated. A lot of previous studies I've done clock in at around half the time. A lot of the time it feels like I forget everything when I try to draw faces nowadays. I can very clearly tell that the angle is wrong, but I couldn't fix it after several redraws of the basic structure.

Also, please no vague motivational advice, it's not helpful! Additionally, I am not self-taught or a hobbyist.

I've tried every practice method under the sun. What do I do?

I'm glad it was helpful for you, but I think it misunderstands my problem a bit -

It's not just mindset but a pattern I've observed, even if the technical differences aren't quite as severe as they are for me. Motivational advice isn't really helpful or practical for me personally; as much as I wasn't happy about my work being redlined and don't agree with all of the observations provided, I think that person's insights are likely more the kind of help I need here. Best of luck to you both!

I genuinely don't know what this means re: doing it "fast enough", but I still appreciate it. But professionals are expected to work faster than I do currently (which isn't very fast at all), and there's some time crunch to build a portfolio and develop a bigger social media presence and network.

Want to clarify that my example was an example - it's longer-term than just adjusting it in the moment, and I sometimes only notice it later. And again, the pros are inspiration, separate from being a point of comparison.

I appreciate the intent and the compliment, but I'm not sure I totally understand what you're trying to say here. The people I mentioned are strictly inspirations, they're all long-running industry pros!

But I'm struggling to do it "easily" when it should be simple for the level of experience I have, and I've noticed similar issues in my other work - if I drew the heads too big previously, I end up drawing them too small to compensate, and that becomes a problem.

I don't do well with motivational advice like this personally, but I hope you're giving yourself the same grace; I've seen your posts around.

I am also studying those artists, but the anime warning is more because common advice tends to be "learn realism first" - which is all I've been doing. I've even done master copies! None of those things have really helped, though they are good practices. Despite my frustrations I do think the other person's insights were good, though I'm still struggling to finish pieces.

I do appreciate the advice but I'm a little confused!

• Icouldntthinkofaname edited this post on August 26, 2024 5:46pm.

I appreciate the in-depth response, but please don't paint over my work without permission. It's incredibly rude. You're right about the work not being finished, but I don't have access to the sketch of the older piece anymore. I see stronger features, but weaker head anatomy and structure.

The reason I "stopped early" was because I had already redrawn it several times at that point. Composition is actually one of my strong points, but I want to focus on anatomy and things like that, which is more useful for making character concepts and references.

I really do appreciate a lot of the insight, but I'm not sure what to do anymore. Thank you.

(Edit: images finally loaded. These do look good, you're right, but please ask first! I've tried the silhouette thing but have had trouble with it).

• Icouldntthinkofaname edited this post on August 22, 2024 6:23pm.
• Icouldntthinkofaname edited this post on August 22, 2024 6:27pm.
• Icouldntthinkofaname edited this post on August 22, 2024 6:30pm.
• Icouldntthinkofaname edited this post on August 22, 2024 6:30pm.
• Icouldntthinkofaname edited this post on August 22, 2024 6:34pm.

@Cafeaulait I appreciate that !

there's no shading or colors because they actually aren't finished, though! I feel like the structure and angles / anatomy have declined - these are actually the 'refined' sketches (there'd usually be more cleanup or a third pass, but I was frustrated; the last is actually facing a totally different direction than the rough but I'm not sure why that happened). It's also is is become harder to do things, not easier (I think this is more stress, but I can't seem to get out of that).

I'd already had years of experience with the first one, though :| I was in school studying illustration when I drew that (innocent mistake but it does bother me; I keep getting called "amateur" or "intermediate" but I've been trying to get into the industry).

Uh, advance warning for anime art. I've been struggling especially hard with faces for over a year now, I tried a ton of studies and exercises, and I feel like I've only gotten worse in some aspects.

I don't want to be defensive but if there's a head-drawing method or practice out there, I've probably tried it. Loomis, Asaro, Michael Hampton, Anatomy for Sculptors, Drawing the Human Head, drawing skulls, bounding boxes, using this very website, 3D models, you name it. I even studied the stylistic choices of artists I like. And yes, I'm flipping the canvas, and I have done Draw A Box / gone back and studied fundamentals!

I did go through a phase of wanting to "re-anime" my art as opposed to going more realistic, but I feel like I haven't succeeded at making it convincing. A lot of my inspirations (pako, Range Murata, Shigenori Soejima, Yusuke Kozaki) tend to depict a range of different features as opposed to what we typically think of as anime, and I feel like I've gotten worse at that, too.

In a way, I feel like I keep going in circles, rather than actually improving.

In chronological order - these are from four years ago, two years ago, a few months later (also two years ago), two days ago, and yesterday. I'm getting really frustrated.

• Icouldntthinkofaname edited this post on August 19, 2024 5:04pm.
• Icouldntthinkofaname edited this post on August 19, 2024 5:06pm.

I completed the challenge myself; it's very common to get tired or burned out at the end and phone it in, rather than progressing in a linear fashion. Are you getting feedback / logging your challenge on the website?

Alternately, DAB may just not be a good fit for you. A lot of people praise it and swear it's the only way to improve, but it's only effective for certain experiences and learning styles; I found that it wasn't very helpful for me, personally.

Thanks all! Made the post in a fit of frustration and genuinely appreciate the responses.

@Remyalyssa glad to hear that ! I've been doing more structure lately, but I'm having trouble getting the two to mesh, timer or no timer. I don't have a mentor but I try to get more specific advice, and go to forums and the like when I'm stumped. Asking artists I like isn't much of an option (I draw more stylized / anime-esque, so most of my inspirations don't speak English, and the ones that do either haven't replied or only have their emails open for business and commission inquiries). I'd definitely be interested in your practice!

@Cafeaulait The frustration is real! Good luck to both of us, lol.

@Mahatmabolika I do have a system, but it can be hard to stick to it (I try to start with action lines / torso, but I've drawn the head first for years and fall into that really easily). Any advice on the abstract shapes? I also try to focus on one thing at a time, but it's easy to forget what I was doing before when I do, so I've been trying to get as much as possible out of whatever practice I decide to do. I'm having a lot of trouble with the things coming together part (I jumped back into these after a short break, but during that time I was working on more construction, and both feel like they're getting harder, lol).

Re: goals, technically speaking I want to not have to think too hard about posing or proportions or making things look more dimensional, but broadly it's just to get more comfortable and go back to doing personal work (it's been nothing but studies for a while - I don't have any recent finished work beyond simple portraits / headshots). Also I still appreciate the encouragement! It's just frustrating to ask a more technical question and hear "keep trying you'll get there" in place of advice, but in addition to it is something else. Someone on here told me to try meditation once.

@Quiet Katt I mostly work digitally, but I do similar excercises for other things! I do these traditionally and mostly in pen so I don't Ctrl+Z constantly.

Please read the entire post first!

I have been drawing for 10+ years. Over the last 2 years, I tried to go especially hard on studies and practice. I have specific goals, I'm practicing frequently, I have taken classes, I'm not self-taught, I tried Draw A Box already, I've read all these textbooks and watched all of these YouTube videos, - but I feel like I'm 'stuck' and / or going backwards. I am not interested in motivational / mindset advice so much as trying to identify and fix the problem.

I'm also not looking for critique about my line confidence; I know I have issues, but I haven't found much that helps. I'm not drawing from my wrist (I wear a wrist brace, which makes it pretty hard to).

These are some 1-minute some practices. The first is from 2023. The second is from a few months ago. The third is from today.

This extends to longer timers, untimed drawings, and personal art as well, but I'm using these as examples because they're similar. Taking breaks hasn't helped much (also sorry about the tone of my post; I have gotten a lot of unsolicited or unrelated advice and want to be as clear as possible).

• Icouldntthinkofaname edited this post on August 4, 2024 5:27pm.

I've been seeing your posts, and I think what might help is to slow down a bit and really get into the nitty gritty of studying forms and anatomy (some of yours are very strong, so you already have a decent foundation that might make the curve easier) - right now it feels like you're subscribing to the idea that practicing more will automatically improve your skills, but are you stopping to absorb the information? Are you learning anything?

Doing things like this can sometimes cause you to reinforce your bad habits, and will eventually burn you out. It might be worth adding longer timers, or trying to do things without the use of a timer at all - just take your time and really observe your subjects.

• Icouldntthinkofaname edited this post on June 29, 2024 4:01pm.

Have had similar issues to you!

I'm not sure what your skill level or experience is currently, but you could either try to keep working on ten-minute poses (it might just be a matter of trial and error and coming to understand what 10 minutes "feels" like to you), or you could stick to shorter timers for now if your attention span isn't having it (I know mine doesn't always). You could also try doing poses without the timers at all, which might take off some of the pressure of trying to fill things in.

I've been exactly where you are with the issue of staying aware of an entire piece. What helped me was just to try to get all of my basics down "at the same time", and then refine them later. This site's tutorial is part of what helped me (starting with the two lines of action, one for the body and one for the arms), though I think I'd need more detail to offer better feedback. Would also recommend Michael Hampton's figure drawing book, which provides a good, simplified breakdown in a similar vein.

Have dropped off of LoA a bit in favor of doing slower, more careful studies and finding methods that work for me, with a small amount of success!

I've filled several sketchbooks (as well as practiced digitally again), and I'm working on learning to design things that I feel are a ways out of my current skillset (elaborate machines, for example), but I'm not sure what to do to further my studies when it comes to drawing people.

I've gone through Proko's courses, as well as Anatomy for Sculptors and Figure Drawing: Design and Invention, and while I'm practicing things from those still, I feel like I've fallen into a bit of routine, and I want to add more variety to my practices. I have tried Draw A Box and found it wasn't a good fit for me.

Ideas? Thoughts?

Thank you!!