Blahblahblah and...art!
I've been trying pretty hard to get my art juices flowing again, but I think my hands are mocking me. Fortunately, this gets me thinking about my process and really taking long, hard, critical looks at recent and older pieces. UNfortunately, I still have commissions piled up that just aren't working, and I am really grateful to my current commissioners for being so patient through all this.
I think a lot of my problem right now is in the formulaic way I handle my drawings. I struggled for YEARS to get the whole sphere-with-lines-makes-drawing-heads-easier thing down, and now I think it's screwing me up. For one thing, I still can't apply simplified shapes to the rest of the body with any accuracy. I still don't see full bodies that way for some reason. For another, I keep trying to apply my sphere head technique to EVERYTHING, and I've essentially forgotten how to draw without it.
It's also got me thinking about artistic progress as a whole, and reminded me of this post by twirlynoodle . I go through the same process of improve-plateau, improve-plateau, improve-plateau, but it seems like I have these huge chunks where I don't even want to look at a pencil and that holds me back more than it should. When I think about a year or two ago, when I had pretty much accepted the fact that I would never get any better at drawing people and I may as well resign myself to drawing animals for the rest of my life, it gives me hope. I'm about due for another skill increase so...anytime now.
That ALSO got me thinking about how those skill increases are usually (for me anyway) attributed to outside influences. Tutorials, random tidbits floating around the internet, other artists' galleries and Livestreams etc., and sometimes I even figure stuff out for myself. Hah. My point here is that I haven't had a breakthrough in a while, so I'm wondering if any of my LJ friends have some fresh inspiration for me. Have you discovered an artist lately or maybe found a tutorial that was super informative and useful to you? I'm most interested in color theory and painting right now, but ANYTHING would be awesome. I love sharing resources <3
Also, to the artists in the house, how did you learn to draw hands? I've seen about a billion tutorials and style sheets and pose references and on and on and on, but I still haven't completely wrapped my head around hands D:
Anyway, here is the art I promised :D
My friend Tami commissioned me recently for portraits of characters from her current writing project, Choose. There's a poll with every installment about what the next installment will bring, so it's like a choose-your-own-adventure story, but with more participants :) The story is also very good, and completely worth a read if you're up for some steampunk & sky piratey-styled storytelling <3
Hackwrench, a sassy little shonfra <3
"Handsome" Hank McCoy, the leading man. He's uh. not so handsome in this picture, but I'm told this is truer to his nature.
Mack, our villain.
Bones, everyone's favorite tinker!
Nolan, a shinra.
Jinn, also a shinra. Will Nolan and Jinn hurry up and get together already?
Snow, a dresl, and one of the newest members of the Miraj's crew :3
Notch, a bad dresl D: The suspenders were my idea, hah.
And the leading lady, Remora. Painting is hurrrddddddd D:
I don't think I have much new other than those :\ I'm slowly getting back into the swing of drawing, but ugh it's like pulling teeth x_x
I think a lot of my problem right now is in the formulaic way I handle my drawings. I struggled for YEARS to get the whole sphere-with-lines-makes-drawing-heads-easier thing down, and now I think it's screwing me up. For one thing, I still can't apply simplified shapes to the rest of the body with any accuracy. I still don't see full bodies that way for some reason. For another, I keep trying to apply my sphere head technique to EVERYTHING, and I've essentially forgotten how to draw without it.
It's also got me thinking about artistic progress as a whole, and reminded me of this post by twirlynoodle . I go through the same process of improve-plateau, improve-plateau, improve-plateau, but it seems like I have these huge chunks where I don't even want to look at a pencil and that holds me back more than it should. When I think about a year or two ago, when I had pretty much accepted the fact that I would never get any better at drawing people and I may as well resign myself to drawing animals for the rest of my life, it gives me hope. I'm about due for another skill increase so...anytime now.
That ALSO got me thinking about how those skill increases are usually (for me anyway) attributed to outside influences. Tutorials, random tidbits floating around the internet, other artists' galleries and Livestreams etc., and sometimes I even figure stuff out for myself. Hah. My point here is that I haven't had a breakthrough in a while, so I'm wondering if any of my LJ friends have some fresh inspiration for me. Have you discovered an artist lately or maybe found a tutorial that was super informative and useful to you? I'm most interested in color theory and painting right now, but ANYTHING would be awesome. I love sharing resources <3
Also, to the artists in the house, how did you learn to draw hands? I've seen about a billion tutorials and style sheets and pose references and on and on and on, but I still haven't completely wrapped my head around hands D:
Anyway, here is the art I promised :D
My friend Tami commissioned me recently for portraits of characters from her current writing project, Choose. There's a poll with every installment about what the next installment will bring, so it's like a choose-your-own-adventure story, but with more participants :) The story is also very good, and completely worth a read if you're up for some steampunk & sky piratey-styled storytelling <3
Hackwrench, a sassy little shonfra <3
"Handsome" Hank McCoy, the leading man. He's uh. not so handsome in this picture, but I'm told this is truer to his nature.
Mack, our villain.
Bones, everyone's favorite tinker!
Nolan, a shinra.
Jinn, also a shinra. Will Nolan and Jinn hurry up and get together already?
Snow, a dresl, and one of the newest members of the Miraj's crew :3
Notch, a bad dresl D: The suspenders were my idea, hah.
And the leading lady, Remora. Painting is hurrrddddddd D:
I don't think I have much new other than those :\ I'm slowly getting back into the swing of drawing, but ugh it's like pulling teeth x_x