MR Advice Anthology

[Suuper-san]

As usual, no idea if I'm in the right place. orz

basically a carry on from the topic I just made here
http://forums.mangaraiders.com/index.php/topic,19284.0.html

In fact, I think an MR Advice Anthology would be a great item to have, especially with a bunch of before and after pictures of artwork from our own members, and a quote paragraph from them with their personal struggles and advice. I think we could all use a boost at times.

I was thinking that having a thread or a digital file with a compilation of encouraging comments and advice from our artists (and maybe writers I don't know) would be a great thing to have for newer artists just starting out, as well as those who get discouraged easily, as well as those who keep going but can't see an end to the level grinding. It can also be a tiny bit of self-advertising if you want to link to your DA or similar. So it's mainly for us, but for anyone else who visits as well.

I'm thinking to have this thread for a general discussion of the idea, and maybe a separate thread for "actual comments", or just post them here along with the discussion with maybe a google document that I update myself with the comments and pictures.

So stuff to say if you have no idea what I am talking about

• A bit about yourself, how long you have been drawing etc.
• Your struggles as an artist (+how you managed to deal with them, or how you currently deal with them)
• What you learnt that noone told you, or was unexpected
• Your advice to beginner artists
• Your advice to intermediate artists
• Your own progress of art (comparison meme etc)(year by year or just really old vs. really new)
• What are your goals for the future? have they changed from when you started drawing?
• Your credits, the name you want to sign as, as well as any DA links you want to add (I want to keep it unobtrusive as it's not the purpose, but keep the sense that we are real people and we exist and here we are feeling)

This is just a seedling of an idea, so I am completely open to suggestion on how to format and what to add/remove/change.

Since there is no particular deadline on this, it can probably permanently stay open and we just keep adding to it over time, but really I'd like to have something tangible within 4-6 months.

Let me know what you think 

[Gabryel]

Sounds like something I'd like to contribute to. Unsure how to go about it but I also think it can be really helpful to have insight to other artists progress!

[Suuper-san]

Yeah I'm not entirely sure what I intended with this but I think we all need a pick me up at times. I thought it might be nice to have a bunch of tips that have helped the artists here to improve as well as stuff to avoid and so on.

[MahluaandMilk]

Stuff to avoid: you mean shading with black on low transparency? lmfao.
Let me know if this ever gets off the ground. I love nothing more than talking about myself and the things I do for ages.

[Suuper-san]

haha good times. pink is the new black for shading :P
I suppose I'm after a sort of huge collection of bullet point phrases of art advice, as well as working ethics. not really paragraphs but quick and to the point stuff, both to help the community in their art, but also for when they start thinking that they'll never achieve anything.

so something like follows sums it up
art advice-"Don't shade in grey, shade in light pink or light blue. This helps the shade to look more natural."
work ethic - "If you have a good day, don't go over the top and draw until 4 in the morning, you'll set yourself up for a bad day the next, be balanced."
encouragement- "Your skill will vary from one day to the next, but looking back several months or years, you will be able to see the overall improvement. just keep at it."

that sort of thing. I don't really know what I want to do with it, so it's sort of a floating idea a the moment. I think a compilation of sorts into one file or place so it can be easily referenced would be cool.

I'd also love to have some artists contribute their old work and something more recent to show their improvement, as beginners might not realize the potential for growth that everyone has.

[MahluaandMilk]

I give you complete permission to take things from a thread I made in the starter gallery called "When Mahlua was a baby artist" or whatever I called it, and then more recent works of mine. I made that thread with a similar purpose in mind: to show where I came from and that art is a long, long journey.

One bullet point from me would be "If you don't want to hear people critique you on a certain aspect of your art, that probably means that thing is exactly what you need to work on."

[Suuper-san]

that's 100% true :P
ok I might go through at some point and pick some cool things. in fact it might be easier to just stalk everyones comments and collect everything without permission that sounds good.