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~

How to Train your...

Hooray! After spending time until 4.30 am this morning and had to go to class 3 hours later, I can say that I'm fairly happy with the outcome of this blog :D
And I decided to keep this blog for fun stuffs I encounter everyday *or every week*.

Speaking about blog, after a long time on indecisiveness, I finally set up a nice art blog.
I wasn't really confident with my skill, but right now I guess I'm getting better. Thanks to God for the strength He's been giving me to overcome obstacles, and everyone who's been supporting! :D
If you have time, check it out: http://sketchesmileage.blogspot.com/ :)

Anyway, I've been in love with animation world ever since I watched Dreamworks' newest movie "How to Train Your Dragon". That movie is SUPERB to the core! Poorly underrated at first, but Dreamworks managed to whoop us with awe.
The characters, storytelling, concept designs, everything is just...sweet.
Really sweet it made me watched it twice, two days in a row. And I'll totally go for the third round!
Can never get enough with Hiccup, Toothless and the vikings. They're just adorably enchanting.
For me, this is the first animation to grow so deep in me after Lion King.
For anybody who hasn't watched this movie, GO WATCH IT NOW! I demand your soul to go and buy the tickets to the nearest theater, preferably in 3D (because it just looks so much better).

It also has the bluray DVD coming out and an awesome artbook out already. A must buy! :D
Here are some of the images. I can die from too much dose of Toothless!! XD XD

credit: www.empiremovies.com

credit: www.filmofilia.com

credit: www.fanpop.com

The whole gang :D
credit: www.slashfilm.com

And here's some of the artbook preview I managed to find online. All credits go to Parka81 @flickr.


GODDDD!!! Looks soooooo GOOD!!!! TT_____TT *drooling* Definitely added to my "must-buy" list!! You can read the review at his blog: Parka Blogs.

Oh dear, how am I going to save money when I have so many artbooks I wanna buy?
But at least I managed to get Claire Wendling's and Stephen Silver's artbook when I was at Wondercon a few weeks ago :D
I also got 2 prints from Bobby Chiu and Kei Acedera (Imaginism Studio), plus a speed painting mini artbook by compilation of French artists. Spent quite a lot of money, but overall I'm really happy since those books are investment :).
I'll post them up later with a brief description of each stuff.

Oh, not forgetting 2 free posters from The Art Department aka TAD. And when I was in their booth, I saw one copy of Jon Foster's out of print artbook. I WANTED TO STEAL IT SOO BAD!! >____<" *bad Mutia!* Btw, for those of you who's never heard of Jon Foster, he's a superb illustrator who's done so many book covers. His works are just..breath-takingly beautiful. Here's the artbook that I wanted, and couple of his images.

The book!!!!! TT_____TT

Speaking about Wondercon, it was my first time coming into one, and I'll definitely go again next year! :D They had panels in Wondercon, and one of speakers was actually Adam Hughes!!! *O_o*. Unfortunately though, he didn't come T_T. I don't know what was going on but yeah..quite a disappointment.
Adam Hughes does a lot of Marvel and DC Comic stuffs, and he's one of my most fave artists right now :). I've been studying his line quality on his pencil works and painting.

Too bad I didn't bring my camera, or else I could've taken a lot of pictures -_-a. My camera right now kinda sucks. I really do think I need a new camera *sigh, MORE MONEY!!! >_<* Oh well, I really need to work now I guess? Alrity folks, that's all for now. I have to take a rest before actually going delusional because of lack of sleep and too much caffeine *weeeee!!!! XD* Cya in the next post and God is IN you! :D

GOD IS MY VICTORY!!

It's 2010 alreadyyy!!!!

This blog is practically near the brink of death for almost a year, blame to my laziness to update *haha*
It's been a lot going on for the past couple months *obviously, duh!*, but I just want to share something really simple right now.

Well, I'm in my last year of college and soon will enter the "professional" world. HUAHH!!! no longer a student!! Can you believe that?? Finally I'll be able to kick the "student" title from my shoulder MUAHAHAHA!
Honestly, I'm not ready for it. Really really not ready. The thought of real deadlines and paying bills and everything scares me away *ok mutia, how old are you???*
Sooo speaking about it, in order for me to be ready for the next journey, God has helped me a lot.

*Indo mode on*
Aduh sumpe susah bener bo ngetik pke bahasa inggris!!! -_-a
*Indo mode off*

It all started last semester when I took Anthony's class and on the very last day of class, he looked at my portfolio and said, "Honey, you'd better get crankin' right now, if not, you're not gonna make it into the industry."

....

Yes I knew from the very beginning that my level at that time didn't really cut for it. Still, hearing it directly from the professional *art director per se* punched me. Hard.
And it kinda made me realize, it was really useless to be prideful.
Yeah, I was that prideful of my work, and sometimes *a lot of times actually* looked down on people whom I thot wasn't standing in the same level. But guess what? God slapped me and crushed that ego of mine to pieces.

I knew I had to improve a lot, but had no clue where to start.
Then 1 day, I visited my best friend's classroom and talked to her teacher who used to be my teacher back in freshman year. For some reason, the conversation was going into improving skill and such, and suddenly Mike *her teacher* said to me, "Well, if you're willing to work hard, I'll help you out."

WHATTTT!!!

Seriously, it's like an answered prayer to me! God sent someone, who's been working in the industry *Lucasfilm, hello??* to be my personal mentor!
Mike said he was going to kick my butt, and he really does!!!! He even said the same thing Anthony said to me when he checked on my sketchbook. -_-a
So I guessed I really have to work hard, eh?
He assigned me 2500 drawings and 100 paintings to complete. Crazy, huh?
Those 2500 drawings consisted of 1000 heads, 500 legs, 500 arms, 250 feet and 250 hands. The 100 paintings consisted of 25 still lives, 25 portraits, 25 nude figures and 25 landscapes.
I also added 500 gestures to the "boot camp menu" to practice, plus started doing live sketching minimal 2 drawings per day.

Also, God gave me the chance to enroll into Honors Portfolio class. Some of my friends said they don't really like it and they feel like they're not improving, but it's different case for me.
The way I see that class is not just to make portfolios and get good grades. For me personally, that class is a training ground on how to surrender fully to the Lord.
Why?
Because I'm fully aware, if I don't rely on Him, I'm going to be soooo stressed out. We have the best students here, and honestly speaking, I don't deserve to enroll! I wasn't recommended to take this class when my midpoint review came out.
It's only by God's grace that Chuck *my director* reviewed couple of my stuffs for the second time and then let me take this class.

God knows my desire, and He lights up the path for me to see :).
I don't know what's more in store, but all I can believe is there's going to be something much much greater!
Remember that all believers are made for far greater things than ourselves can even imagine!
It's really amazing when I looked back on my journey with God. I've been far apart from Him for quite a long time, but He remains faithful to me.

"Be still and know that I am God." - Psalm 46:10