Arsenic's arting

[Arsenic]

While I was sort of gone I have been brushing up on my arty skills.

I've started around the beginning of 07 and been sort of working on improving myself since. Though I must admit that I can't work up the courage to practice enough, too damn scared I'll **** up.

Anyway, here's my gallery on DA:

http://a-e-s-h-a-e-t-t-r.deviantart.com/

Comments and critiqe welcome.

[Stickman]

Comments and critique welcome, huh? Are you sure? You're posting it on DA, and DA tends to freak out as a whole whenever anyone says anything in any way maybe even slightly negative about something. Sad but true.

If you're interested in getting some manly critique, sign up for the forums at http://www.conceptart.org/ and start posting some stuff in the sketchbook forum. It'll take a few posts for someone to notice you, but they give some good advice.

Just as a short background, in the art world concept art is one of the most difficult jobs. A concept artist has to be able to draw anything (characters, environments, props, machines, organics, poses, designs) in very high quality and at Blizzard they have to be able to successful model in 3D their creations. Lots of real concept artists, as well as those trying to become professionals, frequent conceptart.org.

Please note that if you're seriously interested in getting better you're going to have to make sure you've got thick skin. If someone is short on time, they're going to walk in, state everything you need to work on, and walk out. And that can be rather harsh.

My preferred method of critique is to tell someone at least one thing they did right -- and how they did it right so they know how to do it again -- and then tell them the one major thing they should work on to make that picture better, followed by how to do that one major thing.

Unfortunately, this method of critique can take a long time to type up, and time is something I tend to be rather short on.

I saw some good stuff in your pictures. There's not much of a sampling there to see what things you grasp, and some of it looked like section B as per below (copied out of art books, which is good!) so I can't make a real good call about what you need to work on based on those.

The hand, though: http://a-e-s-h-a-e-t-t-r.deviantart.com/art/Cat-Lamarck-Hand-70666864 is very nice. You've got texture and construction lines and thoughts of anatomy going in to that.

So anyway, let me give you some general advice. I don't know where you want to take your art (hobby, professional, just enough to make people say you're awesome but only expending the least effort possible?)

1) Make art often, not Art. When you try to make Art with a capital A, you're going to stress about it. Figure out a good Design Process (I can tell you one) before making Art, so there's little to no stress involved. In the mean time, make art, with a lowercase a. Which means sketches and studies and practices. Things that don't matter so you don't have to be freaking out that it's not good enough. Most of the time you're not even going to show other people your art because it's just practice. Sometimes art will turn out pretty good (1 out of 100 pictures maybe) and you'll be happy to show it off as a sketch.

There are three origins to draw from.

a) Observation. Anything you draw from memory or imagination will be enhanced by knowing what something actually looks like. If you draw from observation (that is, 3D objects and not 2D pictures of 3D objects) you'll get a much better idea of what something looks like and moves and behaves in actual 3D.

b) Other artists. Copy (freehand, not trace!) the works of artists you like, of great historical artists, or random artists that have some ability or technique you like and want to steal. Stealing techniques and talents is fair game in the artist world. And for the really old stuff (75+ years old) you can redraw it all you want without worrying about copyrights, because there's nothing protecting it. But if you copy a recent artist, you may not want to show it publicly. And that doesn't matter -- it is only practice, after all.

c) Memory/imagination. Many amateur artists are against the idea of using reference. I have never met a professional artist that has said "don't use reference." In fact, they all have said, "use reference whenever possible" or simply "use reference, period." If you're drawing something like a dragon, you can't very well take a picture of a dragon or observe one in the wild -- but you can look at birds and bats and lizards and snakes and take texture or attitude or patterns or anatomy from them in bits and pieces and put them together. Reference is your friend not your enemy.

2) Use long, flowing marks. A good book that talks about this is Mike Mattesi's Force book. Don't make little scritches that build up to make a big line. Draw the big line in the first place, bold and sure. And if it didn't work? Draw it again. Don't bother erasing. Eventually you'll hardly need to, and it just wastes so much time anyway.

And that's all I have time to say. To summarize:

Practice, practice, practice.

I am curious to know where you plan to take your art, though. How good do you want to get? How much of your life are you willing to devote to this? The advice I give varies a bit depending on what people want to do with it.
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Trivium Entertainment
Morrowind Comic

[risawn]

You know, I've noticed I never get a lot of constructive critiquing in DA. I think people are afraid to give it there.

I don't really get a lot of constructive criticism period. I appreciate it if I get some now and again, but I have gotten some bad criticism recently.

I'll check your art out, see if I can see anything I can critique constructively.

[Stickman]

[risawn]

Actually you are one of the few people who actually gives me some! When you do it is always appreciated.

I need to work on the comic.