Just another corner...

[Marckel]

I hit a wall again today. THE wall, that apparently smashes everyone in the face every once in a while.

No, it's not the fourth wall - although who knows? Maybe we're all living in one giant VR world.

I'm talking about the good ol' creator's block. Sucks doesn't it? I'm sure I don't need to share the gruesome details. Everyone's felt it in one form or another: feeling not good enough, envious of others, getting sick of your own work, losing motivation, and the list goes on. It's seriously the most recurring topic in the forum as far as I've observed and I'm a nearly permanent lurker ever since I spawned here.

Today's kinda different though because instead of trying to fruitlessly bandage that wound, I'm gonna let the world see it. Pressing that delete button would make it a real piece of trash and it'll be truly worthless then.

So why not just put it up? What is art even for if not as a means of expression - to share what you think, feel, imagine no matter how negative you feel? What is getting good even for if that's all there is to it? Do we get good just for the sake of getting good?

Maybe I'm ranting but is that bad too?

I'll be damned if I keep letting myself get beaten. Whenever that wall smacks me in the face, I'll post here. This is just another corner of the forum after all but maybe (hopefully) it'll be a useful corner.

[XwaynecoltX]

Well the art itself is really lice I wouldn't mind seeing more sparkle and glare come off from the water though.

~X~

[Marckel]

At 5/30/18 03:49 PM, XwaynecoltX wrote: Well the art itself is really lice I wouldn't mind seeing more sparkle and glare come off from the water though.

~X~

Thank you! Water is actually one of my current subject of study but I had intentionally decided against rendering it properly. Let's just say it's much trickier to pull off correctly than my level of motivation and patience would have allowed then.

[Marckel]

I seem to have found one of my biggest source of getting stumped and it's not even art related. It has to do with... *drumroll*

Impatience.

Apparently I can't work on one thing for too long. I tend to overthink and it drains my motivation. So despite all the other things I should be doing today, I stopped giving a crap, grabbed a few references, turned on a good Youtube video and started a clothing design study. In the end I had to actually force myself to stop after several hours so as to not get carried away.

Moral of the story is, even if you're working on big projects or personal projects you actually want to do, don't force yourself to do it just because you feel you have to finish it. Efficiency matters but quality should always be priority over speed.

Or maybe it's just me being impulsive and easily distracted.

[Mabelma]

This is a cool character, focus on bettering your anatomy and proportions.

[Marckel]

At 6/5/18 10:44 AM, Mabelma wrote: This is a cool character, focus on bettering your anatomy and proportions.

Damn it's quite noticeable, huh? It's probably a good time for me to start doing proper gesture studies again!

[Ferrohound]

Nice palette and really neat character design, I dig it!

Impatience.

Apparently I can't work on one thing for too long. I tend to overthink and it drains my motivation.

Or maybe it's just me being impulsive and easily distracted.

Yeah, I definitely feel that.
I remember a big problem I used to have was with finishing things and not putting in the time with details and that sort of thing because I was too impatient and din't want to take the time needed to do all of that

Moral of the story is, even if you're working on big projects or personal projects you actually want to do, don't force yourself to do it just because you feel you have to finish it. Efficiency matters but quality should always be priority over speed.

I agree to a degree, quality over speed is important but some advice I hear a lot that I think rings true is about how important it is to actually finish stuff even if you aren't exactly satisfied with the result; just being able to push something to completion
Really helps with the mindset going on to future works I think

[Marckel]

At 6/8/18 05:13 PM, Ferrohound wrote: Nice palette and really neat character design, I dig it!

It's all thanks to the references really!

I agree to a degree, quality over speed is important but some advice I hear a lot that I think rings true is about how important it is to actually finish stuff even if you aren't exactly satisfied with the result; just being able to push something to completion
Really helps with the mindset going on to future works I think

I have to agree with you too! I believe developing the right mindset should be more important than constant practicing and grinding. Finishing stuff despite how you feel about it is part of being professional. Hence the reason I have this little corner here: so that every time I'm about to throw away something unsatisfactory, I'll have to at least finish it before putting it up.

Thank you for the thoughtful response!

[Marckel]

A very random one-shot comic page using character designs I've made previously and based of images literally taken straight from Google images because I'm lazy and that's a sad fact. Man, I never have time to be original.

Well, no not really.

I was rushing to get this done since I'm sending it off for a professional critique! Even though I'll probably get roasted (or ignored :\) to be able to get someone with years of experience in the industry to comment on your work is something highly valuable and I sincerely hope I can get the most out of it.

Regardless, whaddya think passers-by? Was it a believable comic page or a pathetic attempt? Did it give a hint of some story or was it nonsensical and trying-too-hard-to-be-cryptic?

[Marckel]

At 6/14/18 01:24 AM, gonahens78 wrote: cool stuff!

I'm curious, how do you pick your color palettes? Do you go off of theory or just pick what you think looks good?

Thank you! Glad you like it.

I wouldn't say I implement color theory properly much or at least I don't spend a lot of time trying to decide where to balance complementary colors and what not. With this one, and most of the pieces I try to be more serious with, I use the main reference as a main palette and match all colors with how they're supposed to look like under that lighting. I'm a sucker for references coz theory is difficult xD Getting the mileage in is an easier grind

[Marckel]

A loose remake of a piece I did almost a year ago (11 months I think). I was gonna go for the trendy "let's put everything we learned and see how much we improved" but in the end I used it mostly for more studies. Midway I realized that, although there are improvements in some aspects, in the big perspective I barely made any progress. My composition is still lacking, there's minimum attention to detail and there's still that sense of having no direction in the final result. At least the background is more pleasant to look at.

But y'know that's the point of a study isn't it? You're forced to face your flaws and figure out how to fix them. If you feel like testing out critiquing skills, the old piece is this one. I'd be glad to compare notes.

*

On a different topic, I'm damn glad there's quite a bunch of art threads, old and new, popping up in the forums. Makes it easier to ste- I mean, find inspiration. It's a handicap of a kind, but one I still need to rapidly learn. Besides, reading through them can be such fun, in more ways than one.

[Marckel]

It's been a while since I sat down and did a long study. Surprisingly, the main thing I learned here deviated far from the objects of study: I'm beginning to figure out how to properly finish a piece.

See, I realized that finishing a piece is not a matter of being incredibly detailed because there's really no limit as to how detailed you could get. Would you really want to render the shape of every dust particle? .... Well, you could. You do you. But I don't have all the time in the world.

Thanks to digital art, I've learned that some techniques like adding noise filters, blurs, color dodge, help to enhance composition and give that necessary touch of finish. It's different for everyone, but I feel I've completed an image only when I've followed a clear process. It's helped a lot to have that as a guide whenever I feel lost with a picture - just follow the steps.

On a different topic, I kinda wonder why a lot of artists are so worried with having a style. Me, I'm happy to keep experimenting, figuring out ways to make things look pretty in various different ways - then again, maybe that's what makes me feel slow. I just don't have the focus.

[Marckel]

Drawing stuff just for the sake of drawing is getting boring. Though I try to put some kind of story to every piece I make, when it's not a part of some bigger project, I feel incredibly unsatisfied. The problem is, I lose focus when things take too long. Probably not a good quality for someone learning to become professional, huh? For some strange reasons, I work best with constraints. Without direction, my art feels lost. That can't be just me.

If anyone has a story needing to be illustrated or some character to design I'll spare time (depends). I neeeeed purpose to beat this dreariness.

[Marckel]

Hey folks, here's a few more melancholic thoughts for the sad artist.

I'm still much too slow. Not only that, when an artwork consumes too much time it also drains my energy. Speed comes from repetition, but I hate doing the same thing over and over again. As a result, any improvement comes at the cost of time.

In the end, I notice that I've gravitated towards a trade-off: when using texture brushes, I can't go the long distance with the details as I would with flat colored and line worked art. Having the two styles have been fun but I feel there's a lot left to be desired, even with my current skills.

Anyway. If any of y'all are WoW fans and wanna read a comic, I suggest Curse of the Worgen. I got mad art inspiration from that series, kudos to the artists Ludo Lullabi and Tony Washington.

[Marckel]

Way too late of a post in my corner of the world but y'know, t'is beyond midnight, the witching hour, when the hormones fuel the creativity of one's brain, releasing pent up artistry caged by the logic and rationality of the waking mind during the day...

But no. I'm still drawing cute girls. It's my kryptonite, what can I say ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I'm still irked by the submission's weird maturity settings. What does "some" nudity even mean? Partial? Minimally clothed? If some and lots both get M rated why bother... psahhh who cares. It's a matter of definition really but I hate being unnecessarily clickbait-y.

Regarding the current painting, I'm back to flat art again or at least my approach of it. It's just so quick and satisfying. Someday in the near future perhaps, I may be able to render a fully textured painting with beautiful lineart....

... oh, and friendly reminder, ALWAYS INCREASE RESOLUTION. I absolutely hate getting a finished piece that's much too small and can't be resized without breaking the quality. Yet I still do it for some reason every once in a while. I keep forgetting and it's annoying.

[Marckel]

I didn't draw anything for like two weeks. It feels... dreary to be honest. I blame college.

Doubts of life decisions aside, I've been trying to focus on finishing my little projects. It's been dragging on for months. I'm not too worried about too much quality control this time around, I just want to get things finished so I can start new projects.

Here's a little drawing practice to get back into things. Struggled a little bit but I'm glad I didn't lose my skills during the absence.

Again, I forgot to increase canvas size before starting. I had to sacrifice resolution size in order to reposition the final image. Not a good work ethic.

[Marckel]

Quite the opposite this time, I've been meaning to work even longer on this piece but I just don't have the time.

due to life being a real ass

The pose was so damn good... At least I got the palette correct. I found a quick way to unify your colors (credits to art gods of Youtube, I think it was KNKL) by adding a layer of color dodge (or anything else that looks good) using the most abundant dark color in the picture. Recently, the dodge layer barely showed any difference so that means I must be getting good at picking colors.

Hooray.

[Marckel]

Here's the sketch. The original pose I stumbled upon on Pinterest. It was much more... suggestive. I surprised myself by managing to create something different with just a few tweaks of body gesture.

[Marckel]

This one frustrates me. Not because I hate the piece, but because I chose terrible colors on a decent line work. That, and I spent hours upon hours trying to finish a piece that was already unsatisfactory halfway through. You win some you lose some I guess.

Let me know if you have better tips on picking color palettes under dim lighting (dawn/dusk in this case). Figuring out how the base color shifts is a total drag.

I'm going to take a break from this serious digital painting thing and just do a few goofy character designs next time.

Edit: wth the color looks even worse uploaded here for some reason. I'm just plainly disappointed now.

[Marckel]

Busts! Or headshots, whichever you prefer to call em.

I'm surprised I never felt interested to do these. I've always thought drawing just the head of a character makes the drawing feel incomplete. Boi, was I wrong.

I've also realized I've been drawing characters either smiling or in a neutral expression all this time that I've kinda started lacking skill in interpreting other emotions and ironically that's just sad.

[Marckel]

Art gets tiring when you think of it as more than just a hobby. The strange thing is, even when at times the fun feels lost, the wish to get better doesn't go away and eventually (hopefully) we get there! Cheers to fellow posters of the Forum! Thank you for putting up awesome stuff and keeping downers like me motivated.

Note: I did intend to scrap this after a frustrated night trying to work on personal projects. There's so much left behind and I was about to scrap the sketch because it was turning out so bad. But it seems a god night's rest and a few more hours of clear headed drawing brought a satisfactory lineart. Fingers' crossed the colors will turn out nice.

Also, I'm going to take master Sinix's (check out his Youtube if you need free art tutorials) advice and work on understanding color more before fussing about brushes and blending. It's going to be flats and cel-shading for this guy for the time being.

[Marckel]

Hooray I finished the piece. The coloring is still not quite there yet. The contrast is lacking - and I really don't know why. I need to look through some more materials on secondary lighting, warm and cool tones, all that fancy stuff. Even without a more painterly aesthetic, implementing those stuff can make for a much better result.

I got lazy with the background. I'm not very sorry.

[Marckel]

What have I been doing these past two days? Messing around with this 10 frames 3 fps gif. That's literally all the art I did. I was trying to study in-betweens and successive motion so I have solid reason to be lazy with lines.

I want to learn animation - for casual purposes not serious. I already know I wouldn't be able to commit to making even ten seconds 15 fps shorts.

[Template88]

well your first issue is twofold.

You want to make casual animations?

Dont color. This saves time. If you must color use solid fills and no shading. this is the fastest way to color an animation.

Size: your drawings are huge. Every stroke you make is a liability something you need to worry about in the next frame. Maximize your time and reduce your errors by drawing/animating very small.

Pixel art animation is excellently efficient for this reason, but those two points will still apply to normal animation.

[Marckel]

At 8/26/18 12:59 PM, Template88 wrote: well your first issue is twofold.

You want to make casual animations?

Dont color. This saves time. If you must color use solid fills and no shading. this is the fastest way to color an animation.

The color did play a part in why it took way longer than it should. Skipping the shadings (and color, though I'm quite adamant to still try coloring. Solid fill does take much less time!) sounds like a good idea.

Size: your drawings are huge.

Hmmm, though I did use a large canvas I was zooming out the entire time to remain focused on the entire image. It may not be very effective I admit.

Every stroke you make is a liability something you need to worry about in the next frame. Maximize your time and reduce your errors by drawing/animating very small.

Pixel art animation is excellently efficient for this reason, but those two points will still apply to normal animation.

Agreed. For the sake of study I'll take your advice for next time to avoid fussing over the errors.

Thanks for the comments!

[Marckel]

Don't mind me, just spamming old concepts, remastered. Just of last year I was obsessed with making comics and these were the cast of characters I was going to use. Not gonna lie though, I was far from capable then - and still incapable now; my understanding of animal anatomy is too little to make proper creature design without being totally random (and I still work so damn slow).

But I like to use this motley crew for design practice every now and then, fitting in elements of big medium small and picking clear silhouettes. I also have no idea why the color palette is the way it is.

[Marckel]

I've noticed that pros do draw much faster. Sure there's the extra long pieces that take hours and separate days but usually stuff like one character in a pose takes an average of 2 hours. Or at least that's what I gather.

Whaddya think? Is it necessary to practice for speed or just let it come on its own? Is it efficient to draw repetitively to increase speed?

[Marckel]

At 9/3/18 11:51 AM, gonahens78 wrote: i think speed just comes over time, my old tattoo artist could draw anything perfect in 10 mins, take me like a hour,

Damn, 10 minutes? That's crazy!

You're probably right though. Everyone says speed comes over time but I'm still wondering if it's beneficial to train speed much like one studies the human body to learn anatomy, gesture and such.

but i think its best not to compare to others

Comparison is fine I believe, especially if it's regarding work ethics such as speed and efficiency. Isn't it a good quality to strive to be on par with everyone else? On the other hand, if it's regarding content or artistic taste or even medium, I do believe everyone should discover that on their own, and not just follow the mainstream or popular taste.

[Marckel]

At 9/3/18 02:06 PM, gonahens78 wrote: it depends who 'everyone else is', although tattoo artists are crazy fast good,

I was referring to people of the same field (e.g. digital artists in my case). Indeed different medium takes different time.

most of them don't even consider digital art real art, and sell a product, they don't do this for fun

That's sad. To each their own I guess.

[Marckel]

I've succeeded to draw (almost) daily. Hooray. Now if only I can manage to complete each piece daily...

Here's a random crocodile-person-creature-because-mermaids-are-mainstream.