#i think i found out why my proportions got so wonky suddenly when i draw on paper
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#i think i found out why my proportions got so wonky suddenly when i draw on paper#still wonk but i can see the issue#i forgot how hot wwx is MAN#yk whats really cute btw?#when jc threatens every cultivator to stay tf out so jl can have a go at a nighthunt to prep him to join the other juniors#man i love this novel#im rereading bc ppl keep trying to convince me jc abused jl and im like ???? huh??? when what who WHAT?#posted thjs shitty sketch to talk in the tags#i also wanna keep an accurate tab of all the crimes nhs committed so i can cancel him on twitter#dichotomy how i treat my faves#and i need to take the blame of ALL of society for shit only nmj was paranoid about#'but people--' NO!!! it was ONLY nmj istg
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hi! your art is fantastic! i was wondering - how long does it take for you to finish an art work?
Thank you! ^^
And it varies greatly. Speed is my biggest obstacle when it comes to art. I could lie and say I doodle out stuff in an hour ā or I could call half bad drawings I spent hours on, a ādoodleā. Sometimes I think I do ā but for me, ādoodleā is more about how seriously I took the job. If I throw down lines and squiggles and do some line-arting on top without really caring about the details, thatās a doodle to me, even if I then proceed to spend hours on correcting lines, getting the colors right, and trying out different filters for every experimental shadow.
Over all, I spend a lot of time on drawing, and I mean a lot. But Iām getting better! They say youāve gotta make 50 bad pieces for every good one (simplified, but you get the gist), so youāre best served not spending days on every piece. What Iāve found helps, is to not get overly invested in every piece. Itās a little sad, because you gotta have your heart in the art, right? Yeah. But that heart should be in your love for the craft and your enjoyment in performing it; not in one specific piece and its need to be perfect. Sure, some pieces are special, but if you canāt distinguish between your magnum opus and just your average drawing, every single drawing will feel equally important to you, and that will slow you down from the sheer weight of it.Ā
Pro tip I wish someone would have told me a long time ago: nobody looks as closely at your drawings as you do (talking about the general public; loving friends might).
In other words, painfully slaving over details you find only when you zoom in,ā¦ ant nobody gonna tell the difference. Unless youāre insanely good and got 50K on insta, aint nobody gonna zoom in on all your work and look for the easter eggs you put in there (@me, lol). Learn whatās important to spend time on, and what can be left alone. If I had been given back all the time Iāve wasted on details that nobody even seesā¦ I could have made a lot more art lol.Ā
Learn what matters ā like general proportions, interesting expression, big things that people could pick out from a distance. And story! Oh boy, donāt get me started on story! Unless youāre really good, people usually wonāt be impressed with just a head shot with no story. Armin smiling generically into the void in Ā¾ view, no background?Ā
āCool. But Iāve seen a million generic Armins like it. Why should I be invested in this one in particular?āĀ
Say something with your art, make me feel or think something. Because with so many good artists out there, itās hard to get ahead on just the aesthetics alone. Make a joke. Show something mid-action (like someone slipping on a banana peel; instantly more engaging than a static pose that tells no story). Ā
Why am I being so harsh? It all ties back to speedā¦ Once you realize that your pieces, generally, arenāt that big of a deal, you can hopefully put aside some of that anxiety over it having to be perfect. It doesnāt have to be, and the details you spend an extra two days on will rarely matter to anyone but yourself (which is ok, I just want you to be aware. If youāre very proud of something, maybe point it out to invite people to pay attention to it. But otherwise, they probably wonāt look at your drawing for that long before deciding to reblog or move on). If you enjoy making those details, please go ahead! Art should be about what YOU like to do, at the end of the day. But if your speed ties into your perceived self-worth, like it does with me,ā¦ well, I got a lot faster once I realized that nobody really cares all that strongly. (Though, Iām in no way discrediting all the support and love I receive, guys, thank you ā truly. Iām talking in the grand scheme of things. Art is a lot more personal to the artist, than to the random scroller-by).Ā
How many of you would stop being my friend or suddenly dislike me just because I draw Armin with a wonky nose and disproportionate arms sometimes? Yeah, no, if I put out an unfortunate piece, so what? (Hell, if I can tell a funny joke with it, you might even enjoy it all the same!) Once I learned to understand that every piece is not a blaring spotlight on me where all eyes will be on me and my mistakes, I got faster.Ā
ā¦ and with that insanely long prologue, hereās how much time I generally spend:
The first art I started (in 2016), took over a year to finish.Ā
Though, in the meantime, I think I put out a ādoodleā. I call it a doodle because I intentionally simplified the anatomy so it would be easier to make ā but this one still took me four months to finish!Ā
(The above images took me a year, and 4 months respectively).Ā
In other words, in 2016, my average was MONTHS ā on just one drawing! Keep in mind, I quit art for ten years before this, just from how much anxiety is gave me over my self worth (if I made one bad line, it meant I was worthless).Ā
In 2017, I think my average was weeks. I had to take breaks between sessions a lot just to cope with the building anxiety. I look at the finished products now and I think ālook how few steps this needed. With how much time I spent, I must have averaged one single brush stroke an hourā. And itās probably about right. Although, I did manage to finish one drawing in a single day, and I remember being really proud of that!
(Above, the first one is an example of stuff Iād tinker with for weeks, while the second one is the one I completed in a day due to it being his birthday and the pressure was on to get it done)
In 2018, I think my average was 2 or 3 days. I put out more smaller pieces, stuff that doesnāt need to be as elaborate. At my peak, I think I could do two of those meme-things per day. Looking back, though, I can see a clear difference between time spent on ādoodlesā and time spent on projects I put my heart into. I spent days on the eremin week entries, for example. This was the year I started to learn to tier my projects.
(The above shows an art I admittedly spent over a week on, much thanks to the needless details in the bottles, while the second is one of two pieces I completed during one day) Ā
In 2019, I donāt think I shortened down my average a lot, but looking through my gallery now, I see that I started doing more elaborate pieces. Soā¦ if I spend as long as before, but get bigger and better content out of it, thatās improvement too!Ā
(AboveĀ youāll see an art that probably took me a couple of days - 4 or 5 maybe? - and the second once which took me an hour I think? A good example of how much better iāve gotten at tiering projects and not being afraid of making sloppy art just for the fun of it).Ā
So far in 2020, Iāve only drawn for Armin week, and I spent an evening to a day on each one of them. After finishing one, Iād uploading it to my drafts, then lie in bed and scrutinize it, zooming in, looking and looking. Then the next morning, Iād get up and spend an average of an hour fixing/editing them because I was getting increasingly displeased with them. So I think on averageā¦ god honest truth, even if Iām a little self-conscious about it, I think I spend an average of 8 - 18 sitting hours on anything. This includes the revisions. Ā
(Above youāll see the entry I spent the most time on first - Iām guessing probably 12 sitting hours - and the one I spent the least time on - Iām guessing 5 hours)
I love drawing, but itās very hard for me. Iāve used drawing as my main source of personal self-improvement for the last couple of years - for many reasons; it has a lot of lessons to teach me. Itās not always fun, and itās rarely easy. But.. uh. Itāa been worth it? I donāt know what your art journey is, but I hope this gave you some help, inspiration or comfort. Good luck and draw with heart, not fear.Ā
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