diius:

Anonymous asks:
I looked at your work and instantly loved it. How long did it take you to be such a great artist? I am still a student, but I am trying to get to this level.

The short answer is: I’ve been drawing forever. Since I could hold a pencil. My earliest memory was when my mom sat me and my sister down and taught us how to draw apples and oranges. Exciting stuff.

But that short answer is misleading. The important thing to note about this image is that the first two pics are from a sketchbook I had for 6 years, between page 1 (2003ish) and the last page (2009) there’s not much improvement. I thought I’d trashed this book but I found it and I’m glad I did because it really helps illustrate my shift in thinking about art and how to get better at it.

Becoming a good artist is not a game of mileage. If all you do is draw the same shit over and over the same bad ways you can spend 10,000 hours and not get any better. That’s what I was doing until mid 2010, 10+ years spent drawing and I couldn’t draw for shit. Look at those ripped abs and serratus muscles. Damn son.

But that all changed in 2010, which was a really motivating year for me, I started posting my work online…

Seeing other peoples awesome work motivated me to draw.

Realizing my work was bullshit made me compare it to others, analyze it, what made their work so good? What made mine so bad? How can I do better?

The fact that people actually liked the weird ass stuff I was drawing was a big surprise to me, and it made my attitude toward drawing a lot more positive. (Keep in mind I literally drew nothing but really dramatic monsters and this was TE, the majority of the posts are fluffy and cute. My work didn’t exactly fit the demographic)

Then after a while I started getting frustrated because I’d hit a plateau, I went through months of RAPID improvement drawing meticulous lineart and then it stopped, my work wasn’t getting better so I branched out, I started rendering things, then I started using alchemy again, painting landscapes, using color. All the while continuing to be aware of what I was doing, looking at my work very critically, finding the bad shit and trying hard to fix it.

And here we are.

The advice every experienced artist will give you is “DRAW A LOT” and that’s good advice, but I think just as important is to think about what the hell you’re doing. Why you’re doing it. How could you be doing better?

Think SPECIFICALLY about what is wrong with your work and why, not in big sweeping judgements like “My anatomy sux… they know how to color and I don’t“… that is not insightful analysis.

This is why I get disappointed when I see people doling out shitty advice like “Don’t compare your work to other artists”. The theory being you’ll feel better about your work if you don’t compare it to others. This is a classic avoidance behavior.

Those other artists you love and admire are doing something you like, there is knowledge you can derive by studying how they solve problems, approach paintings, lay out their images, use shapes and color, etc., etc. (studying other artists work doesn’t mean ripping them off by the way)

TL;DR:
Logic and critical thinking are just important in art as they are in any other field.

ANALYZE AND INTERPRET
ANALYZE AND INTERPRET
ANALYZE AND INTERPRET

While I’m at it I just want to thank some of the people who’ve been generally supportive of my work for a long time. In particular Motion who took notice of my work early on at TE, had no one really cared I’d have probably just gone back to drawing on scrap paper and throwing them away. I really can’t understate how valuable it was to me to know my work actually had an audience… So… Thank you.

I couldn’t agree more with what you’ve written here. You’re most welcome, man.

(via diius-deactivated20120917)