So I recently had a bit of an epiphany of sorts when it comes to arting, thought I'd share it with ya'll, hopefully it'll serve to help peeps grow in their arting endevours or at the very least serve as some sorta half assed advice...ya, that means I'm gonna ramble here, so get ready. xD
Drawing is hard, we all know that. Takes a crap load of patience, dedication years of practice blah, blah, blah...But I guess I figured that somewhere along the way it'd get easier. That's what I expected anyway, made perfect sense...things you practice at, become easier over time right? Well, for me personally, it just seemed to get harder and harder and harder, which no doubt sucked a lot of the joy out of arting for me. For the longest time I could never really figure out why. Don't get me wrong, I have certainly improved a shit ton since starting out, looking back at my older stuff proves that...but back in the day it didn't take me nearly as long to finish a piece as it does today. v.v You could chalk it up to me extending my knowledge and improving the quality and that's true, quality work takes a lot more time, but that answer was never really good enough for me, because I always had this feeling something else was goin down and now I'm pretty sure I know what that is, it was me and my poor ass mindset. xD
Ya see, I fuss about almost everything when I art, I redraw things a million times over before I'm happy with something and even then, there's always something I miss or that doesn't look right. Coloring is usually a fricken nightmare going into it, because understanding colors and how they work is frickin hard Yo, and just when I think I got it figured out....nope, I don't know jack! xD It's a very stressful process for me personally. But then I noticed something, there is one phase of the whole process I don't really fuss over...inking. Inking is like a stress reliever for me, when I ink something I'm in the zone, I'm calm, I'm cool, and mostly I'm enjoying myself, and that's usually where I figure shit out and where I start to become happy with what I'm working on. So why is inking so easy and calming, well duh, it's glorified tracing..and thanx to digital art allowing for as many errors as I want, it's a frickin breeze. xD But there's more to it then that I think, when I ink, I don't really care so much about things, I loosen up I chill the frick out, I just do it and allow myself to enjoy it. xD That's the root of my problem all along I think, I just needed to chill!
So here's what I've been doing, recently I've been doing these Flat Color commissions for the Patreon, I've posted a few here, so ya'll know what I'm talking about. What ya may not know is that they've been part of a little experiment of mine. I stress to much about art and it not only slows me down but sucks the fun out of it, so with these commissions I've been essentially teaching myself to relax more, sorta like art therapy in a way. xD I give myself a time limit on each one, I keep them very simple, I take more creative liberties but most of all, I don't stress about mistakes as much and I don't give a dang if people like them or hate them. I just do them, mistakes and all and I don't give a crap. xD So far, It's been really great for me. ^_^ Loosening up and allowing myself to make mistakes more has I think made my art a lot better, I did that with the last couple Patreon pinups and they turned out great. I'm sure they are riddled with mistakes, but whatever, I'll learn from them and nail it down on the next one, fuck it. xD I don't know everything about art nor will I ever know everything and that's ok.
Stressing about things was my real problem, all I ever really needed to do was relax more, don't think about things so much, just do it. Because nothing is ever really perfect and ya know what's better then perfect...done! xD So that's my advice, and ya may already know that, but I learned it the long and hard way but I'm glad I did. I'm actually pretty excited for everything I got goin now, cause I'm not stressing about stuff as much anymore. Stressing just messes with the mind, where trusting in yourself is so much more productive I've found. :)
So..is drawing finally getting easier for me? Since switching up my mindset, yes actually. ^_^ So give it a try, stop giving a damn maybe. xD Which may sound counter productive, but it's working for me so far. :)
Though I'm curious, what you all think? How does your state of mind hinder or help improve your art? o.o
Let me know and hopefully you find this rant helpful. ^_^
