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+--- Thread: Morrad's Art - am I an alright artist? (/showthread.php?tid=362)
Morrad's Art - am I an alright artist? - Mariotroid - 01-12-2018
I need to find ways to improve my artistic skills. My girlfriend says I'm not a good artist, what do you all think?
![[Image: hKXeJ1z.png]](https://i.imgur.com/hKXeJ1z.png)
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![[Image: kF2a5ii.png]](https://i.imgur.com/kF2a5ii.png)
![[Image: 2IV8MeA.png]](https://i.imgur.com/2IV8MeA.png)
![[Image: D7Y6aSM.png]](https://i.imgur.com/D7Y6aSM.png)
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RE: Morrad's Art - am I an alright artist? - Evil Yoshi Toes - 01-12-2018
I think you're a good artist, but there's certainly room for improvement, just like in everyone else's art. Art is subjective and nobody's art looks exactly like someone else's, but I believe in certain fundamentals that should be understood. Here are some tips I'd have on improving it based on what I know about art. I go to an art school, so a lot of this I've learned from my professors, and some of it I learned through experience and frustration. Of course this also has to do with personal preference regarding what constitutes good art since that is unavoidable, but I'll try to leave that out as much as I can. These are things you'd likely be told if you were to attend an art school that aims to get you a job as an artist.
I think your kind of "messy" pen work has the potential to be really cool, but right now they're not very intentional looking and make things hard to concentrate on. You should look at master artists who use pen and ink and see what they did. Some of them, like Charles Gibson, were very controlled which might not be what you're into looking at your current work. There are, however, amazing pen and ink artists who do more gestural work, like Guercino. His pen work is very loose but everything is immediately clear, even from a bit of a distance, and the marks flow and add motion. There can also be an intentional clarity in some parts, usually what is in focus, and more gestural marks in other parts that are less in focus, to keeps us from getting lost on the page.
As for the colored images, I think using very fine strokes for everything make it look a bit scribbly. I'd try painting from life or even form photographs to build up that foundation of value and color so you can then paint from your head. Even if you want to paint in solid graphic colors you should understand how color works in real life, and perhaps try to fill in your shapes more when coloring. Dr. Seuss's illustrations are all pen work with solid color, but the shapes are all filled and it's very clear as to what is going on and where one shape ends and the other begins.
Technique aside, the anatomy and proportions could use some work. Try drawing people from life and photographs to build up an understanding of anatomy. If you're serious about it, you should get a sketchbook, carry it around with you, and draw people whenever you can to grasp how the frustratingly complex human body works. When drawing people from your head, using reference is key. Of course reference can only get you so far as you also need the skill to draw from reference and to add your own to it, as you most likely wont find a reference of exactly what you want to draw. That just comes down to practice. There's a pretty good website called Line of Action that presents to you pictures of models and gives you a set time to draw them. You can do quick gesture drawings or longer ones by setting the time yourself. Just a warning, this site uses nude models, but you can choose to only view clothed models if you aren't comfortable with nude ones. I'd also look at some of the masters' figure drawings. John Singer Sargent has beautiful figure gestures, as well as some of the best figure paintings in my opinion. You can also get books on figure drawing to help you understand certain commonly used techniques.
What a lot of it comes down to is just drawing more from observation of real life, which is very fundamental. It's hard to stylize a human figure until you know how one works in real life (and the same can be said for stylizing anything, really). I think the best thing you could do for your art at this stage is go out and draw, draw, draw. Art takes a lot of practice and frustration, but I think it's worth it!
Also, don't let anyone stop you or put you down. Don't put too much value in someone else's opinion of your art unless they are trying to be helpful, as I am. If someone simply tells you "your art is bad give up," or something along those lines, don't worry about it. Just be confident, keep practicing, and listen to advice
RE: Morrad's Art - am I an alright artist? - Mariotroid - 01-12-2018
She was mostly saying what you said. Anatomy and proportions and clear lines . She was trying to bug me too. I'm thinking of taking an online art course to improve.