Sweet oblivion of studying as an excuse from actually creating
2yr
ni
I wanted to share my story — both to warn other beginners of this mistake and to receive an advice from people who already have overcome it.
I started drawing as an adult, at my twenties. And the first thing I ever did — immediatly started learning. Figure drawing, Drawabox, fundamentals and anatomy courses at our country's online school, etc etc. But the problem is...during this time, outside of courses I almost never actually created something my own.
Before my education started, I only drew as a little-little kid, time I don't even remember. I completely skipped a phase of teen artistic freedom, when most artists draw their favorite characters, silly OCs, funny comics — all of it for pure fun, without much fear of their art being perceived by others as amateurish.
I want to feel this pure joy and freedom too. I want to apply all of my ideas to paper and share it with others. But before I even tried that, I started learning, and only ever did that. Now my eyes are too trained to not perceive my artwork as amateurish. And my hands are not trained enough to apply my knowledge, since I never actually applied it outside of courses homework. This combination makes it even more difficult to give myself a freedom to create and also be satisfied with the result.
This may sound like such obvious mistake you should't fall into — but it isn't. It's sooo easy to be completely absorbed by studying alone. You do what you've been told to do, in a way you're told to do, to the deadline that was already set by someone else. It's comfy. It's sweet. You can do it nonstop. Unlike your own artistic journey, where you must face all of the decisions, mistakes and fears yourself.
If you're a beginner too, who like me wanted to become "good enough" before creating something — don't repeat my mistake. You started learning art for a reason — creating art! So be sure to create it right now, don't wait until you studied "enough". Be sure to flex your creativity from the beginning. There's no such thing as being "not good enough", anyone can draw a set of lines. Drawabox made a great point about that in this article https://drawabox.com/lesson/0/2
In order to fix my situation, I want to try two things:
1) Filling two pages of sketchbook daily and trying to make it as fun and relaxing as possible, by allowing myself making dirty, not perfect, silly sketches. While I will try to apply my knowledge to sketches to create something pretty, it won't be the main point. Main point is simply sketching what I want to, without concern that someone else will see it
2) Doing at least one serious large drawing per week. I will apply to it all of my knowledge to the best of my current ability, however much time it will consume. Not to study, but to produce my own, original idea, as good loking as I can. But if I don't know how to do something specific I want to do in the drawing — I'll make a brief research, which would also help me fill in the gaps I didn't educate myself with. These drawings I will also force myself to share with others — even if I don't like it much. It's the only way to overcome my fear of other's opinion
More experienced artists — what do you think? Is it a good direction? Maybe you have other ides what I should try, in order to be more comfortable with creating my own art?
“I completely skipped a phase of teen artistic freedom, when most artists draw their favorite characters, silly OCs, funny comics” – In my opinion, I don’t think you’ve missed out on much. Putting it in context, when I was a teenager I was often in awe of my peers who drew seemingly anything. And I had my fair share of “original” creations I were particularly fond of too. Now, do I feel the same towards these things today, and do I want to go back to when I didn’t know what I did wrong? No, absolutely not. When I look at creative work of let’s say a teenager, adult beginner or even a child, I can find qualities in it that can be appreciated for what it is, works of a beginner.
But I understand what you’re getting at, I too can find myself in a loop of ONLY studying, and then when I want to sketch out an idea from my head, it’s stiff, rigid and clunky; rather than loose and energetic. Which is why I would recommend anyone to complement their technical courses like anatomy, with courses more focused on design, like David Colmans Fundamentals of Character Design, or to engage in people sketching like Stephen Silver does here: https://youtu.be/FNXIIf9xTwI
Having an idea and putting it to paper, simple or complex, and make it believable and appealing is a skill that needs practice, just like the technical fundamentals. The pro side of having done a lot of technical studies is that when you start to tap into these exercises, you’ll have a wider arrange of tools at your disposal once you’ll get to a more intuitive level. So I think your two ideas for exercises is good place to start with.
In short, life informs art! As you get older and more experienced, you will possess more interesting stuff to share and channel into your art. And even if you did make a lot of silly cartoons and OC’s in your teenage years, I would bet you would’ve have felt “meh” about them as a more experienced artist later on.
Thank you for such informative reply! I was afraid I would scare people with that much text in original post :D
For me, it is not that much about feeling envy towards creative teens and their art, it's more about their mindset and an ability to produce and even share publicly so much creative original work, a freedom to do it despite not knowing some of the fundamental knowledge. This mindset is something that feels very important to have, but I do find it hard to get into it. Like you've said, I feel stiff once I try to produce something original outside of homework and studies.
But yeah, thank you for recommendations! I'll check them out tonight <3
