DRAWING!

how to improve each factor

quickposes.com, 3d shapes, mindset, music, carrying a notebook, favour other shapes before cirles,

TLDR ADVICE

  1. Carry a cheap sketchbook with you. Its purpose is to be filled with ugly drawings. Draw WHATEVER you feel like, at any time. If it turns out like shit, the book has served its purpose. You can draw warmup shapes, draw what you see, a dream.
  2. Everything is made up of a handful of basic shapes.
  3. Draw with intent. Drawing without intent is also an intent.
  4. Fail faster. Making bad art is inevitable.

  5. Artistic talent and bad drawings

    Is there such a thing as a bad drawing?

    Are my drawings bad? What does it mean to create not despite the fact that your art sucks, but because of it?

    Difference between bad drawings and good drawings

    There are five factors. These aren't hard definitions by any means, only what I consider the improvable aspects of my art skill.

    • technical skill
    • knowledge
    • time
    • confidence
    • fun

    These factors are obviously connected, but I will try to discuss each one by itself.

    Technical Skill

    Improving technical skill will allow you to make better drawings faster. If you are confident, and you have the time, you can make a bad drawing fun by messing around with it to your hearts content, and more often than not, what comes out the other end will be something you would not have created if you thought the drawing was good.

    What do I mean by that?

    I will create a bad drawing to illustrate my four points. When I look at the picture, I am filled with dread - because it is a bad drawing. There may be a number of specific reasons why, but the only thing that makes it a bad drawing is the fact that I do not like it.

    Let's see how the bad drawing can be improved by looking at the four factors.

    First, technical skill. When I make a bad drawing, I often reduce the "badness" to my lack of technical skill. But improving techical skill isn't the end all be all on how to make better drawings. It is simply the instrument to play the song on. A master of the instrument can still play nothing but bad songs that I hate. A complete rookie can accidentally produce a catchy track I love. The key word, is accidental. Technical skill allows you to somewhat minimize the amount of RNG in your drawing process. A steady hand makes the lines you are imagining, which means less erasing and redrawing, which means more work in less time.

    Time

    Time is pretty no nonsense, at first glance. But your relationship with time is still important.

    A bad drawing is a good drawing, just x hours before it becomes good. Given enough time, any cat scratch garbage can be made into a decent art piece. But time is finite, so you have to choose what you want to spend your time on. How? When do I know to "cut my losses"?

    Giving up vs. moving on

    Confidence

    This is a tricky one, because on the surface it appears to be nothing more than the belief in your ability to create art, as a direct result of the other factors.

    Your confidence in your art is key to making art you like. If you can dream it, you can do it, if ya will.

    Other People's Art And Your Own: Demoralizing Game Of Horseshoes

    Seeing a really talented artist's work usually swings to one of two extremes - a big fat dose of inspiration or a big fat dose of demoralization. Other artists do not exist as direct competition to you! Parallels, brother, you are parallels!

    Fun, Fun, Fun

    Fun! Fun! Fun!

    Draw the way you want to draw. Trust your instincts, but stay malleable enough to let in new information.

    Most artists wishing to improve their craft have probably tried gesture drawing. The body is a complex machine and there are numerous guides out there on how to approach it. Pyramids, boxes, spheres or hinges as joints - there is no CORRECT way to do it.

    Looking at other peoples breakdowns of the 3d shapes the body is made of is certainly helpful, because you don't have to reinvent the wheel, but in the end you should be drawing what makes sense to you, not what a tutorial told you makes sense. Do not disregard your own instinctive approach in favour of a more experienced artist's, but rather try to incorporate their advice into your own method. The basic makeup of a human body is complex, but not infinitely so. That's where the fun is! Because there ARE infinite ways to portray it.

    The image in front of you is not the True Image. When in the realm of Fun, you should not strive for a perfect recreation of the photo. What's fun about copying a photo? All you get is a photo and a pale imitation. If you instead try to create a body based on the information in front of you, it's a challenge. It's restriction that breeds creativity, but remember that the restriction is self imposed! No matter how your drawing turns out, you are still gathering information on how the body moves, and accomplishing your goal. Having fun with it is when you dare to take risks, and that's when you develop your own method. And then all subsequent studies are honing it!

    Art is a hobby, first and foremost. Getting better at art is a result. Working to improve is part of the equation. Plateaus exist in any field, but when you believe you've hit a plateau with your art it is a good idea to step back and remember that you are doing this because it is fun. If it's not fun, what is the point?

    The Glory Of The Struggle

    or, struggling for the sake of the struggle itself.

    Getting better at art is a want. Sisyphus and all the various metaphors I could make for this concept could paint a real nice picture of a glamourized struggle, equating the PAIN of making a single bad sketch in my bedroom to what Guts feels when he's in some astral realm forest getting the life beat out of him psychic style by a fat evil egg.

    I make bad drawings. I struggle to make good ones. I cannot simply endure the struggle, awaiting the reward of a beautiful image at the end. When I draw what I want, I cannot let the quality of the image deter me from pursuing it. is only beautiful when I have to FIGHT for it to be beautiful.

    If I quit drawing after I make a bad drawing, I lose. If I reject an idea solely because I do not believe I possess the artistic capability to do the idea justice, I lose. If I draw what I think others want to see, instead of what I want to draw, I lose. I lose everything that means anything to me, because I view my art and the creation of it as integral to my enjoyment on this god's green earth.