Miscellaneous Arts and Sketchbook

[MahluaandMilk]

All kneel in honor of the reigning queen of angry cyberpunk trash music.

[Suuper-san]

thanks for the scrolling warning. and there goes my internet quota @_@

so much in one go so its hard to comment on everything, but the life sketches are a lot more realistic in proportions and sort of, feel of the piece. the stick figures are also getting there in dynamics.

perhaps trading a little of quantity for quality wouldnt be so bad, as a passing thought, but some pieces do have higher quality so you are doing that anyway I guess.

when I get burnout on volume, I struggle to find inspiration for things. often though, its not inspiration I'm low on, its willpower. the effects are oddly similar but since i've noticed it, I've been able to churn out more when tired. obviously theres a physical exhaustion limit that you don't want to go past.

I also keep an inspiration list of the thing that I want to draw next, which I think of when drawing something else. Often inspiration comes all in one go and I cant remember what I wanted to draw when I finish the piece/sketch I was working on, so it serves as a RAM extension for keeping the ideas fresh. When I'm down on inspiration, I go through the list and usually find something completely different to draw. Once the item has been fulfilled, I put it at the bottom of the list, to eventually come around again. This also gives me a chance to improve on works of a similar theme. Actually, until posting this I forgot I had it, so thanks for the reminder. heres an excerpt of my list:

Its more like a tag-wish-list than an inspiration list, but it works for me

mirror /reflecttive floors walls ttiles etc
bedsheet folds
complex city/stacked houses. not cityscapee
pajamas
lighting,backlit from overexposed window
undersheets
(lots of )pillows
immediate background-contact items
props
gloves and lace
bandages/injury
hanging clothes/draped clothes
umbrella
ponytail

Actually, having a tag cloud for inspiration wouldn't be a bad idea.

[legomaestro]

Your practicality will be the life of me, suuper. I am a man of several notes and the like. I think, why not make lists and stuff as well for myself? I seriously don't like letting my laziness and/or current situations dictate how much output I do for my drawings. I am already so lazy by default: I only make the situation worse by letting life's ups and downs dictate how much I draw hehe.

I am forever the quantity over quality man. I just want proportions to work out well for me, otherwise I'm seriously quitting on anatomy. I have a little hope for rudimentary 3d, but otherwise I'm only intersted in the expression of my art rather than the accuracy lel.

@Mahlua I am bowing forever. Gawd I love her look.

[MahluaandMilk]

I have neither quantity nor quality going for me, kek. Occasionally I'll post some garbage and it's fine.

[Suuper-san]

your description of your struggles is similar to my own. I get the feeling my art has shifted away from quality to quantity lately too. And not too much of the quantity either :/
I think really the only way forward, or at least the best way forward is to understand yourself well enough to know which ways will work for you, or make your own ways to suit your learning style. This is what I am starting to work on myself. Expression is an important aspect of accuracy, if I could only have one I would be stuck for sure :P
keep up the good work.
maybe try and do a bunch of fast drawings and then one slower one every now and then. I find when I slow down my art improves automatically because I am taking my time with the lines.

[MahluaandMilk]

Either way, both of you are quite inspirational to someone like me who barely produces any content at all. I haven't been keeping up with doing sketches or figures since December. I suppose this is a textbook case of  "the grass is always greener on the other side".

I suppose I can't sit on my hands and make the same mistake Lego mentioned of "waiting for inspiration". What tends to separate the big dogs from the newbies is that those who are serious, I find, usually produce something even if they aren't feeling that golden, mysterious "motivation" vibe. They create to create, not because something external motivates them to do so. It's an inner strength.

So long as you're constantly focusing on the ins and outs and questions of what works and what doesn't and you constantly strive to answer those questions with your creations, even some not-great quantity can lead somewhere. That's what I'd think, anyway.

[Suuper-san]

glad to hear you are inspired :P
yeah I think partly what keeps me going now (ignoring the bad patches from illness which continue) is that I view it as my job, so I am always trying to push forward to gain a portfolio and eventually commissions when I feel like it. From today I finally managed to make Mondays my "art day" woohoo (after lengthy discussions with my parents convincing them that art is my job). so from 9 to 5 I will be arting (although today I will be in the paddling pool a bit cos its so hot :P). Takes a lot of passion (=obsession), commitment, and expendable savings to do that though :P

[legomaestro]

Gawd why are you always active when I don't feel like being active suuper hahaha. But the discussions are much much welcome. And it's great that you managed to convince your parents about your passion. Man, you deserve better patches of health unlike lazy bums like I who are feeling OK but can't be bothered to use their time right.

I haven't made a quality drawing in ages, simply because I ascribe to the 1,000 sketches to 10 drawings. Although for the market it's better to really worko n something than to just spam drawings, I really need output more than perfection, because I lean towards comic making and animation than anything. (Animation is dead atm, but I've been making progress on comics at least.)


Anyhow, I've decided I'm going for a burn out. My mind is stupid and I'm actually excited about it. Instead of nickel diming  one regimen and staying within boundaries, I'm going to go on a wild art rage for a bit. I'm heaping all the projects on my plate until something clicks or not. I can't be bothered anymore.

So as of now I'm going to be doing 1,000 thumbnails, 1,000 hands and 1,000 stick figures. I need to add something more, like feet or something, but I'll see how it goes.

Best thing is there were some 100-sheet drawing books being sold for 99cents, so I'm happy as a cat in catnip atm. Gawd I love stationary.

So well... Here goes nothing.


Also, lots of scrolling. I need to resize the images.

Hands 24/1000

Stick figures 40/1000

Thumbnails 18/1000

What could go wrong?

[Coryn]

Geez dude, those are some really solid hands actually.

[legomaestro]

The pen has been pretty friendly with them, and there's something so fun and immediate about ink + reference literally immediately in your face instead of going on the internet and trawling for refs. Sometimes I zone out and it's pretty fun. I still haven't got the Xray thing down though so I can't build hands from memory just yet.

[MahluaandMilk]

The fat bunny is probably my favorite, lol. I've been up to some gestures myself. Should probably post those, although good luck making any sense of my sketch stuff. You number yours. I overlap mine.

[legomaestro]

To each their own lel. I need the numbering to track my progress somehow. It encourages me a little, and I'm pretty sure I wrote '13' twice for the hands.

Oh man that bunny is the size of a small dog. I don't know if I want to pet it or eat it. So fluffy. So soft.

[Suuper-san]

very nice hands, and good sketches with just the one line rather than a bunch of lines. It makes it easier to see what you are drawing. good idea for the 1000x stuff output, I'm sure you will gain something from it.

I'm pretty sure I wrote '13' twice for the hands.

So you'll stop at 999? haha :P

@mahlua sometimes we encourage each other by the fact we are posting anything at all, regardless of the actual quality :)

[legomaestro]

Yeaup. Seeing peoples' processes is motivating, rather than just complete drawings appearing out of nowhere. It means the artists are not just robots that magically come up with complete drawings and stuff haha.

And lel negatori on the 999 haha.  I make the mistake all the time. I really need to organize my papers more, but I'm trying to be as free spirited as possible so that I don't need too much effort to just sit down and start making drawings.




Anyhow, here is where I'm at so far.

33/1000

70/1000

Miscounted the stick figures twice because of my disorder haha.

40/1000

[MahluaandMilk]

Good work on the figures and keeping up your pace.
And this may be a strange thing to say, but very nice fingernails. They're so aesthetically pleasing to me.