The Journey of an Artist

Ever wonder why some people keep on drawing and painting but never improve? They seem stuck just where they are.

Well, me and my good friend had this conversation not long ago *in fact it was only a few days back*. We were talking about this one particular artist we knew who's done a lot but improvement.
Seriously, this person has posted one new artwork almost every day, but none of them are showing any progress.
Well, maybe just A SLIGHT improvement from last year.
It's pretty pathetic, especially for someone who's claiming to do a lot of commissions.

Anyway, that doesn't only happen to that particular person, but also to a lot of artists in general.
So, what makes an artist improve heaps and leaps, and what makes one don't?

I was having this question too for the longest time in my life. I was wondering, why some of my friends improved quickly and significantly while I didn't. It took me quite sometimes to finally see some nice progress.
I used to think that maybe I was at the slower side of the team. But boy, I was wrong!
It's true though, that everybody has their own pace to level up, but I learned that we are able to speed up the process through dedication and perseverance.

I'm on my 100 heads right now, and still 900 to go (for those of you who read my story on how I've started practicing on 1000 head drawings, you'll know what I'm talking about). Still long way to reach that 1000 goal, but I saw HUGE leap of improvement going on!
Between the first couple of heads to the latest ones, a huge huge difference! I posted them on my art blog and my sketchbook in imaginefx forum.
And the amazing thing is, it took me 1 month only to be able to draw like that now. I also practice on gesture studies, and now I can clearly see that my character or figure drawing is getting a lot looser, a lot more fluid, and a lot more movement!

I'm not trying to talk big about myself, but just want to show people that with dedication and perseverance, anything is possible!
What's your weakness point? Is it drawing the head? Hands? Feet? Environment? Value and color? Or anything else?
Those things can be overcome by doing practice EVERYDAY. Draw like there's no tomorrow. Carry sketchbook wherever you go. Sketch anything FROM LIFE whenever you're bored. Spare sometimes to practice. And don't forget to set your goal.
What do you want to accomplish within this practice? How many do you need to do in order for you to improve? Write it down in your memo, table, whatever.
Or better, write how many more to go for each studies.

Important thing to remember, know what to improve in each practice. That means don't just blindly draw. Just don't!
It's bad, and it will lead you nowhere. Artist who's blindly drawing without any direction what to do next, will only find themselves going around in a circle. And they'll get frustrated.
After they get frustrated, some of them will quit art, some will stay but only to be mediocre artists.
I bet no one wants to be mediocre, right?
I certainly don't want to :).

Blindly draw doesn't literally mean you close your eyes when you draw, but take cautions on things.
For example, when I started my 1000 heads, I didn't know which area I should focus on first. So I rendered my drawing and tried to show the head and facial structures using shading instead of line.
It's not bad, but it's kinda messy.
Then Mike *my beloved mentor* said, "Don't do shading. You can turn bad drawing into something great with shading, but if it's only line, bad drawing is basically bad."

That was when I had my first revelation on what to do: show structures using line. What he said completely makes sense. If your line drawing and line quality is great, you don't need shading to make your piece to look good.
Well, a well-thought and well-put shading will make the artwork better, but it only works if we have a well-drawn line drawing for the base.
So putting that into consideration, I tried to observe the model more carefully and think about each stroke I put down on my paper. Basically not just scribble and erase.
Now I understand what Bobby Chiu said in Reverie Workshop a year ago, "Do not rush to put down strokes. One thought, one stroke."

The same goes for painting, traditionally or digitally.
If people tell you to work on that darn plane-changes on the lips area, go practice!! Observe the model, spend your time getting the right study, instead of just blindly painting another portrait with the exact same mistake over and over again!
Please don't be so ignorant, people.
And don't give people reasons like, "This is my style." "Well, I like it that way."
Ok, you like it that way and you can suck your thumb in the corner and cry when you see your friends are getting a top-notch job and you're just doing another small commission.

Another important thing: DRAW FROM LIFE!!!
It's simple, but VERY crucial for us. Especially for you, artists who are struggling with drawing environment, people, still life, anything, put down your darn wacom tablet and your oh-so-pretty character design drawing, pick up your pencil or pen and start drawing whatever is in front of you!
Laptop, mattress, your room, your table with things on top, your neighbor's cars, cats, dogs, trees, your crush, teacher, friends, anything FROM LIFE.
People tend to miss this live-sketching part as crucial part of improvement. I admit, it's not fun sometimes to draw those things, but it helps tons for recognizing shapes, practicing line quality, speeding up drawing process, and for building up our visual library.
Wonder why some artists seem so effortless when drawing buildings? I bet that's because they do TONS of live-sketching of buildings around their place.

There's no short cut for art, people.
It ain't rocket science, you need to work hard for it.

A lot of people jump into design process *armor, costume, weapon whatever you name it*, before nailing down their basics.
It's just the same as building your house in a weak foundation. It's not bad, but it will look shaky.
Even if you have a great costume design for your character, but when you can't make the anatomy or the value works, your drawing or painting fails.
Master the basic first, then you can go crazy with design, composition, illustration, color, whatever!

Oh, another thing that ticks me off when talking with fellow artists, a lot of them claim to do studies from...MANGA. or Anime. -_-a
WHATTTT!!!!
Please don't do that. Do your studies from the real thing, whether it's a photo or observing directly or any other method, I don't care, but FROM REAL THING!
First of all, manga is one of a stylized versions of realism.
Second, not all manga artists know what they're doing.
Third, do you think Inoue Takehiko can pull amazing drawing out of his butt without doing any live studies? HECK NO! I bet that person understands the human anatomy well.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not against manga at all, in fact I love them! I just can't stand people who are so ignorant, only looking at manga or anime, and neglect the rest.
Having manga or anime references is good, especially manga with great quality of drawing.
But it's also good to look other styles too, just to broaden your horizon and learn from them :).

Here are some great artists that you might want to look at *well, they're my favorites :p*:
- Jon Foster
- Adam Hughes
- Travis Charest
- Bobby Chiu and Kei Acedera
- Jason Chan
- Goro Fujita
- Stephen Silver
- Claire Wendling

Alrite! That's all for now, be inspired guys! :)
Keep your passion burrrrningg, my fellow artists! There's always a room for improvement if we work hard!

God is IN you! ^^


xoxo,

moeT~