Discussion Post: Wednesday, 03 October

[first_seventhe]

Hey, guys! Since it's my posting week, and we discussed this a little last week, I figured I'd bring in the first Discussion Post and see what people were more interested in doing with this community.

The first thing I think would be helpful (suggested by the wonderful kimouski) would be for people to discuss their strengths and weaknesses. What do you

Comments

[protect_vester]

Hello. <3

I can do faces and expressions and hands. I don't have to look at my own hands. I can also copy anything from a picture or copy anyone else's style. This is almost bad because if I look at a certain artist too long, I draw exactly like them for like a day.

I have a hard time drawing without reference. I know that a lot of artists use reference, but I grew up with an artist older brother who always drew straight out of his brain -- I always think that reference drawing is weak compared to what he did, which is a very stupid thing to think, since his style and mine are extremely different.

I also have a hard time planning the picture. I'd give anything to be able to plan a picture and make it work -- I'm still working on this hard-to-grasp aspect.

I am obsessed with art nouveau, Mucha's style and use of color, Beardsley's indomitable b+w lines, and Bouguereau's soft femininity and expressive body language. I'd give a lot to draw like any one of them, including time practicing.

And coloring is hard. There, I said it, and I have no idea how to do it even after experimenting for EVARS.

[th3newblack]

MORE artists need to learn to use reference, so good on you dude. As long as you're not direct tracing, of course. My own ref file of people alone is over 2,000+ pics. So don't feel like using that method is any less than coming up with something entirely without! It's better than having a picture with whacky anatomy/perspective etc when you could of used an aid to help you learn until you can go without.

I love the examples you gave, especially Bouguereau's ♥. I am totally with you on that sentiment XD

[protect_vester]

re: reference drawing -- I know, I shouldn't feel bad about it! I mean, as soon as the camera obscura was invented, the Dutch masters put it into use to make their paintings more realistic! It doesn't make any of their triptychs less of masterworks! Plus, they suspect Vermeer did the same thing and he was a genius! The same thing with photography -- they thought it was going to put painters out of business, but it just gave them another tool to make their paintings even better!

It's just an ingrained thing since childhood -- my brother taught me to never ever trace, and I'll just need to use reference more, and maybe collect a library of refs like you say. Time to rape the online ref sites, I think. <3

Mmmm, Bouguereau... it's not fair that he isn't listed with the great artists just because he was painting the old masters' Academy way when all the new kids were doing Impressionism... Everybody loves him, though -- he's extremely likable and so smooth. XD

[th3newblack]

HAHA totally, I always save really random shit too. But my people file is always a little suspicious looking

[first_seventhe]

Haha, I clicked on that right as somebody walked into my office and for a second I was like "NO! I AM NOT LOOKING AT SCANTILY CLAD MEN. I AM LOOKING AT ...a picture of a folder full of scantily clad men."

Luckily, they didn't seem to notice.

[th3newblack]

ROFLMAO. Hay those are ~~~artistic~~~ scantily clad men.

[first_seventhe]

Sadly to the 50-year-old engineers I work with here I don't think "artistic merit" matters. XD!

[kimouski]

I know what you mean about chameleoning art styles. It really messes with personal art style. It got better for me, though, once I finally figured out that I should be using real life or photographs for reference, not other people's art.

[protect_vester]

Hahaha, yes, I feel exactly that. It's not exactly a bad thing -- you can learn new ways of doing things and get richer artistically by staring open-mouthed at other paintings -- but it can be frustrating when you don't mean to do it. But still, just like a writer needs to read to become a better writer, artists need to look at other people's art to become better artists.

Remember that point when you began to look at everything and thought, "How would it look to draw that? Look, water isn't blue, it's reflections of everything above it. Look, it's not just black and white, it has colors in the black and white. Look, the white painted wall has green and purple if you look closely..." and then you realized that this drawing thing isn't going to be as easy as you thought? That was the best day of my life.

Damn, this is making me wish I had the balls to paint.

[kimouski]

Unfortunately, I can't remember that point. But that doesn't surprise me; I'm oldish. I would've been over a decade ago, I suspect.

I do remember finding Expressionism in college and thinking, "Well, that's a lot easier than trying to get flesh tone right." And then things went from humdrum to very exciting.

...and I haven't painted since. No, I take that back-I did an illustration in acrylics four years ago. But I've gotten really complacent with that side of me and I think I owe it to graphic design. Different talent muscles, you see. And since I've started writing in my spare time, art only gets taken out if there's money to be made. I'm counting on this comm and some friendly competition to help me recapture that ambition.

[protect_vester]

Haha yeah, I can barely remember not seeing stuff like that, and it was only a few years ago for me. I always thought there were sort of plateaus to getting good at art, and I think that most of the work isn't in learning to move your hands, it's learning the aesthetic, and learning to see with the eyes. Well, except for blind painter.

I know, I haven't drawn in a while -- the excitement of it seems to come and go. It's really hard to be a good writer and a good artist at the same time, or at least it seems to me. It's as if there isn't enough time in the day to practice both, so now I can just be mediocre in both. I'm a 99-pound talent weakling in everything. ;_;

Yeah, yeah, let's go competitively draw now, let's do it! Maybe we can do a painting Wednesday too? I do have paint, but I've never touched. I'm afraid to get burnnnned.

[kimouski]

Gragh! I really want to draw, but I'm forcing myself to write. I've got a couple of things I need to finish up for het_challenge and I have until the 15th. It's going to take me that long, too-I just know it.

But you're absolutely right. I was lamenting the whole "jack of all trades, master of none" earlier today, in fact. I had a rant a few weeks ago in which I compared it to a CD carousel. Can't play more than one at the same time, I'm afraid, and the longer you stay in writing the harder it is to switch to drawing (and vice versa). It sounds a little vain and selfish to complain about being multi-disciplined, and I feel guilty about it sometimes, but there it is.

[protect_vester]

I have the same thing -- I have to finish and exchange fic for the sshg_exchange, so I need to concentrate on writing for a little bit.

Kind of like being a skinny person complaining about it, isn't it? Nobody wants to hear it except for other skinny people. <3 It is a problem, though. Maybe it gets better as you get older, like more time to perfect things?

And hurry up and write, sheesh, it's almost due. -_-

[kimouski]

Yup. It sucks to be skinny and good at something. At least I've got that being a woman thing to handicap me. ;)

I'm trying to hurry, but X-Men and Katamari Damacy aren't my usual fandoms. I'm a little, uh, out-of-shape.

[protect_vester]

Hahahahahhahah you're mixing katamari and x-men? How and why in the world?

I think that you could roll up Wolverine without any trouble, if the Katamari was big enough...