Emily
UK
Slowly teaching myself to draw and paint. Love history, nature, and jazz.
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Emily
added a new topic3yr
I'm so stuck and I don't know what to do. I would really appreciate any advice.
I haven't picked up a pencil or ipad to draw something in over a month. The last time I spent more than an hour on any drawing was probably a year ago. The last big project I put any effort into (a tattoo apprenticeship portfolio) basically got laughed at. Every time I try to make a start I just feel overwhelmed.
I get stuck in the same cycle. I know I have to draw in order to improve so I can reach my goals. Then I think about all the things that I need to improve and get intimidated (I don't even have a solid grasp of basic fundamentals). When I can force myself to sit down and draw something I hate it so much I throw it straight into the bin. I try and psych myself up to draw but I know that most of the time I feel too overwhelmed to start or hate what I make and can't bring myself to do it. Then I'm back to square one and beating myself up because if I don't draw I won't ever improve.
I know that Stan and Marshall say to plan out your art school and put the hours in and skills will come. I have ASD trying to plan a syllabus on 'how to draw everything' or even concentrate on something for more than twenty minutes is a nightmare. I've tried purchasing various online courses but find them so difficult to follow it makes me feel like an idiot.
I know I started drawing because it used to make me feel relaxed and because I wanted to put beautiful things out into the world but now it just makes me want to cry. I haven't really seen any improvement in my drawing for a couple of years, if anything it's gotten worse because I haven't been drawing as regularly.
Has anyone here ever been in the same position? How do I get out of this slump and back to drawing? I've tried forcing myself to draw but whenever I do the experience is so negative it makes me want to draw even less. I don't like giving up but I don't know what else to do.
Emily
•
3yr
I like how you picked such a difficult subject for your first drawing from imagination. It shows that you're really pushing yourself. There's two things that immediately jump to mind that I think could help you for next time.
The first is the hair. I'm not an expert at hair at all, I find it difficult still. The best advise I can give is rather than approaching the hair as one whole shape and going in to define individual strands afterward is to approach it as a series of different shapes that make up the whole. Angel Ganev has a really good way of showing this, heres a video link (https://youtu.be/ClAMuGEfFNM)
The second is the hips on the front character. Womens hips are higher up then mens and are also tilted at a more severe angle (this is what makes a woman's bum poke out more than a mans). Female hips are basically just a big bone bowl to hold a growing baby in place. On your picture the widest part doesn't start until after the public mound which isn't correct. When drawing women basically as soon as you go in at your smallest part of the waist you need to start bringing that line back out for the hips. Aaron Blaise explains it a lot better than I can in his human anatomy course. I've put a reference picture in a different pose just so you can see where the hips width is in relation to the tops of the thighs and the waist. Hope this helps!
Hey thanks much! Oddly, the things that you pointed out looked off to me, but I did not know why. Now I know! I may go back in and correct some things on that drawing just to get it right as a reference for some things in future. Thanks so much again!
Emily
•
3yr
I think its really important to establish why you're drawing and putting your art out there.
If you're drawing and sharing your art on social media because that's what you like to do and you want to share it I wouldn't worry too much. If your doing art as a hobby or only looking to make a little extra on the side it shouldn't hold you back.
If you're putting your art out there and growing your following because you want to enter the professional art space its a little different. Employers will expect you to have the skills to render a piece fully. Get to a point where you're able to render things fully and then once you've established yourself you'll be able to embrace the sketchy vibe you enjoy again. Karl Kopinski is a good example of this. Also don't forget the skills you learn from rendering (light and shadow, colour, composition) can all improve your sketching as well.
Finally, I just wanted to say that your work has value no matter how rendered it is because you took time to put your unique view of the world down on paper.
Emily
•
3yr
Everyone here is so talented!
Hi 👋 My name is Emily. I like to draw and paint with watercolour. I like to tru and draw a mix of cartoon and more realistic stuff. My stuff still needs a lot of work. I've been struggling a lot with motivation so I'm hoping to be able to get stuck into the community and find my mojo again! Here's some of my better stuff 😅
Hi ✌😁 there Emily . so real quick this reply that i am about to send to you is a copy of a reply that i sent to some one else that had just joined Proko i saw you're post and i thought that this would help everything that i stated in this post applies to any new comer artist so with that out of the way .
my name. is JDN short for Jadon. so i just went through all of you're work to
get a better understanding of you're art as a hole and to see where i can offer any of my knowledge .
see ive seen you're art but i have to get a even better understanding of it myself that is or at least that's the way i see it anyway.
with that said. i can see a lot of good progress as it is . that you have made compared to just making marks. from the point to where any artist will always begin at
now as i said before i do want to re look over all of the art that you have posted so that i can get a better understanding of what you have best as it stands . and what needs a larger amount of work before you get better . you know what im saying ? 😄
ok . so my stock advice is from what i gathered is 1st to observe. which means look around you think watch the best of the best and realize that they were where you are right now in some way shape or form and use
that to your advantage . and some times try to get a understanding of they way they see what it is that they see . and try to practice a bit of it here and there to see how far you can get.
. 2st to practice which means repetition over and over again. and i feel that even though it looks horrible most of the time. 😄 i cant believe im saying this but its totally worth saving every bit of it even if you think that it looks like trash and nothing else its worth it because later when you get burn out from all this work.
its when and only when you look at you're own art work that you see how far you have really come trust me
if you take anything away from this at all SAVE ALL OF YOU'RE ART please and thank you . you will not believe it when you it latter on 👌😉
3d never let anything make you think that you're art is just bad its not even when you know that you could have done better. but you didn't even though it seems like you failed .
let me reassure you that just because you slip up once in awhile . it dose not mean you are done. its just apart of learning .
you must fall first in order to be able to get back up again right ? . the only way you get better at any skill such as art is to make mistakes . art is a skill not a talent remember that.
4th you are who you are so dont think that you have to change who you are at the core just to get better.
its not hard to think that you are the problem when you are told that you're art is ok or that it could be better.
you make the art that you make not because its a part of you but you make the art that you make as a representation of you're personal perspective . and you're self maybe a thought that you had. a image a story a emotion a dream anything.
the thing is that its how you see it. that's what makes everybody's art unique in its own way at the end of the day.. which adds value to you're art work as a hole no matter what .
and 5th . being me telling you . that i am not the best artist ever and i might never be i am not the smartest person ever . but with all of that said . i dont need to be . to know these things and neither do you.
nor anybody else. and being an artist means never ending learning and expanding upon what you already know.
all artists are always learning new things rather if its things like learning a new short cut new ways of creating there art or just new ideas in general even the best of the best we are all stuck for ever in this loop of learning with everything witch i think is kind of funny 😂 we are all students.
so just remember that its ok if you dont learn as fast as others we all have our own flow in witch we do our thing . and that's my advice to you or to anybody that is curious.
i hope that this helps please let me know when you get the chance if you did or what you're thoughts are i love to see what others have to say always . i hope that this helps and . god bless and take care ✌😉
Sarah
•
3yr
Hello, I am looking forward to creating in an art community where I can learn and share knowledge. :D I work for a small games company making mobile game art but I still need to keep my fundamentals up to scratch!
My dream is to make comics where I can subject the world to the utter abomination that is my mind :P. - apologies.
Lucas Carvalho
•
3yr
Hey! My name is Lucas Carvalho. I'm a casual artist looking to learn about drawing, inking and maybe starting on painting.
I'm still figuring out this site/platform. Anyway, here's a quick inking I just did.
Hank Macleod
•
3yr
Hey everybody! I’m Hank, I’m from Massachusetts, and I started drawing about three years ago. Until recently, I had a casual daily practice of creating art, but for the past month I’ve been trying to buckle down and get good. I’m looking forward to getting to know some of you rad art folks!
Jeremias Fritsch
•
3yr
Hi everybody! I was eagerly waiting for this Website. Unfortunately it took me a long time to be motivated :/ Recently I started reading the Saga of Elric of Melnibone and reading it has inspired me a lot. Here are a few of my latest Paintings.
The sixth one is really interesting, is the saga any good? I'm always looking for new reading ideas
Ragnhild Wisth
•
3yr
Hi. I'm hoping this is where I say hi to everyone. :o I'm rather hopeless with figuring how to and where on sites like this so... anyways. I draw mainly, and with that I mean all the time, digitally. Right now I'm trying to improve on my portrait drawing skills. From techniques to the all inclusive anatomy, coloring, shading etc. Guess that means I'm pretty much an omnivore when it comes to learning. :D But enough about that. Here a few of my latest drawings.
Emily
•
3yr
I love the colours in the sixth one it's so striking!
thanks ! i sometimes colour my pencil sketches digitally by taking a photo of the sketch and then adding a transparent layer, gives a sort of watercolor effect.
