#sam yang

[thecollectibles]

Art by Sam Yang

[ciccerone]

The last thing you'll see 🔪 by Sam Yang

[haaaaaaaaaaaave-you-met-ted]

Regicide by Sam Yang

[kitquinlanart]

Character studies for an original story, Devil Palace 😈

[redsamuraiii]

The Ronin and The Pup by Sam Yang

[i-am-cumberbatch]

Sam Yang Art Study

[aardwolfpack]

"Wind Vibe" by Sam Yang.

[slowmissiles]

Detail from The Ronin and The Pup by Sam Yang.

[icyll]

Some Thoughts About Sam Yang's Art

First of all, as I'm going to be mostly critical of his work, I would like to make it clear that I'm not saying these as an artist, as I'm obviously nowhere near as good or skillful as him, but as an observer. Also, as a big part of the online art community and Sam's audience are young people who might be passionate or even sensitive about the subject, I would like to point out that nothing I say means anything about Sam, and to take that further it might not even proof anything about the art made by Sam neither! It is simply my impression of it, and me, if anything, is what you will learn the most about!

So you probably know Sam! If not, he usually goes by SamDoesArt on most platforms, so you can look it up and check his art out. He has an interesting style, cool forms, a few OCs that he likes to draw, nice colors and all! He is also active on Youtube where he makes reaction videos and pretty decent tutorials, which as someone that's trying to learn art I can't say I haven't learned a few things from.

Now while writing this and reflecting on the subject, I came to realize that my issue with his art is not rooted in something solely related to the art, but also a certain approach to art in general! So the next two paragraphs deal with that.

I sometimes see artists treating art in a way that I would describe as too "technical." It is as if their emphasis and efforts in art are focused on and revolve around a lot of theory, technique, structure, and know-how. And this, in my opinion, is not the best approach to have. To my mind, this is an extension of the process of making art into a craft, and by that I don't just mean trying to make money out of your art, but rather turning it into a profession, a thing that you can do, which at the end would add up to a bunch of procedures and skillsets.

This sort of attitude, this treatment that has such an industrial and production-oriented view of art, does not seem right. Sure, technique is required. For the expression of one's artistic ingenium an efficient instrument is needed, and that would be the properly trained and developed mind and body of the artist person. But currently that doesn't seem to be the reason the majority of artistic activity is focused on this aspect.

Now as for Sam's art, traces of the same tradition can be found. Everything is good. Things look nice, art is well done, but then what?! What's the substance, the value, the meaning behind it all? What does it add up to? What is pointed at by the art? Sure, there are multiple answers to these questions that I too can think about.

Not all art has to be meaningful, as not all art has to look nice. But, here's a thing, wouldn't you prefer that the art both were meaningful and looked nice?! Also, to compare art to a person, most people would agree that they have met good looking people that quickly became no more fun to be around because of how shallow or indifferent in their personality they were at least once! It's the same with Sam's art : It's NICE, then it's nice, then it's alright. Now what do I mean by meaning in art and how do I not perceive it in Sam's art?

First, I want to direct your attention to the backgrounds. They're usually the most ordinary, not at all out of this world backgrounds. Store, road, train-station, sky, etc. Now the problem with that is it does not tell a story at all; it only shows us what we already know about! Everyone has seen cities and the sky. Lack of any clue to anything beyond keeps the art from separating itself from the world of our experience and telling the story of something else. It is on the same level as anything that we see in our daily life.

To clarify this point, think of any movie or story that happens in the same world as ours. Now if that movie shows us a few hours of strictly the same things that we always encounter in our daily lives, we won't walk away from it thinking it was a good one. There is something about realistic movies that separates them from the 'real,' and that is what I'm saying is lacking in the art of the guy we're talking about.

There is so little other than a person (who is again most ordinary and typical, to add to the previous point) in a piece of his work that each piece feels more like a pose, a gesture, than a work of art. Rather than feeling like a captured moment of a dynamic world, it comes off more as an image of a statue somewhere. It ends in itself, there and then, and is done.

Moreover, I don't know if he is of the type to sometimes use photos for objects in the environment or all of the background, but often the environments are way more realistic in their style than the characters. This itself sticks out as a symptom of a lack of imagination in creating the backgrounds and on a deeper level the whole piece itself. The contrast between the realistic environments and the cartoony characters gives the art a commercial look, and is reminiscent of the cartoon face filter that would transform the person but keep the background. Is it meant to appeal to the same audience that liked that?!

So why does any of that matter? Because I think it matters what we call art! I do really think that there is a duality of what we may call productivity and creativity, of craft and art. I may talk about that more later, but here I just want to say that at this point, other than maybe the style which may be a bit creative, although I don't know how much of it is original, this is production, not art.

Additionally, I would also like to make it clear why I wrote this… article?! and why I thought this should be talked about. I think it is good for things to be known for what they are, and so in the same way it is good that people be known to do what they do, and not what they don't. Sam does draw, but does Sam art?! Not as much.

Finally, as a sort of disclaimer, I want to add that I do realize that Sam is not the only artist that I think these things are true about, and that there are artworks done by him that are not how I described. It's just that those are few, and I know Sam somewhat more so there's also that. Plus I like the guy :D❤

[brilliantdesign]

credits: Sam Yang

[nubluv]

"𝘗𝘪𝘨𝘦𝘰𝘯!"

[graciescribbles]

I would like tosteal skills from those wonderful artists. lol

[openingpandorasbox1]

Sam Yang

[haaaaaaaaaaaave-you-met-ted]

Nitro Mechanoid by Sam Yang

[anakinnaberrie]

"Hello I'm ..... 50????" part 2 electric boogaloo indeed

[mxcrayon]

losing my actual mind rn

i had this interaction in the dropout discord (i am the first and third person). short. simple. i only got the first year bc of a discount + a gift card i had, so i was planning on using this person's suggestion.

then, i got this.

oh my god!! how nice!! how sweet!!! how thoughtful!! i gave them my email and they sent over a subscription, i thanked them profusely. i was very grateful, very touched.

hours and hours later i was still thinking about it and i recalled how, in the email id gotten about it, it said "tao yang sent you a subscription" and id seen that and thought "oh haha like the tao yang" and then moved on

but now, thinking back, i was like.... theres no way, so i googled tao yang.

......

TAO YANG BOUGHT ME A FUCKING ANNUAL DROPOUT SUBSCRIPTION