Thread 7706089

What were some eureka moments in your art journey? One for me was realizing that making eyes really small and dark automatically makes them more realistic.

every single time i copy a bridgman drawing

>>7706107
Do you have favorites? I'm copying Bridgman right now, but I'm not sure how much is sticking.

>>7706089 (OP)
that a simple way to lay down a base color is to select the background and then invert the selection. i'm legitimately retarded and never thought of doing this before.

more recent, but I starting using blue lead for comics, and holy fuck is it easier. Not having to erase over the lines is one thing, but also being able to see my own lines better, as its faint blue compared to a harsher grey is another big point. Shoulda tried it long ago, all the mangakas do it, just alot of western comic artists I followed used normal lead

>>7706089 (OP)
change in plane = change in value. beg-tier stuff but fuck it made it make sense to me lol

>>7706118
I even use blue lines in my digital drawings because they're so much easier to see. No idea why that's not just the universal default.

>>7706089 (OP)
>One for me was realizing that making eyes really small and dark automatically makes them more realistic
Wrong, the correct realization here is that you can make people interpret details that don't exist through suggestion.

Slightly lean your upper body to the side. There will be a ‘closed’ side, where the rib cage almost touches the pelvis, and an ‘open’ side: if your spine/torso is arched (‘good posture’), your upper body can only twist towards the ‘closed’ side; if it is bent forward, it can only twist towards the open side.
Similarly, if you strike a classic “contraposto” pose (David), with an arched torso and one leg supporting the body, that side of the pelvis will be raised, creating a closed side and an open side. As it is, your upper body CANNOT truly twist towards the open side, so you would have to change your pose (bend your torso, or change your supporting leg, or consciously lift the other side of your pelvis).
It is also important to note that in order for the upper body to twist, it MUST lean to one side: it is a mistake to simply represent a twist as shown on the left in the picrel, by simply turning the upper cube (like a kebab on a spit) and forgetting that it bends to one side, and keeping the lower cube completely parallel to the ground: it is better to do as shown on the right (here the torso is arched).

>>7706093
What am I looking at here?

Issues with carpal tunnel and wrist pain. Sometimes gets bad if im drawing a lot. I was super depressed over it and felt like this amazing dream was physically unobtainable. Then I realized I have another fucking hand! I drew for like 10 hours straight with my left hand and the drawings actually looked good. Then I learned that one of my heros, Frazetta, had to switch hands late in his life. It gave me a ton of confidence to keep going.

>>7706797
Incredible hustle anon, just be careful with that other hand so you don't get carpal tunnel again. Godspeed!

>>7706778
Drapery folds.

>>7706089 (OP)
Highlights go across the curve, not with it. This can be seen on a soda can.

>>7710521
Huh, now that you mention it...

>>7706089 (OP)
That shrimp chart. I was told tracing is bad. So my young and dumb mind assumed copying artwork was just as bad, and I basically did the just draw meme for years, I did learn some things. But with this: https://prrb.tumblr.com/post/30177790499/shrimp-method
What once took me years to figure out how to draw. Now takes months.

>>7706118
you may have just been looking at pencillers but most western cartoonists I've seen have used blue lead heavily at one point or another

>>7715112
Even I do, and I draw digitally.

>>7706089 (OP)
A couple of weeks ago it finally clicked for me to just keep on drawing and enjoying it without thinking about timeframes, 'getting better' and so on. I've been drawing on and off for 10 years with pauses as long as 5 years, picked up drawing again late july this year and haven't stopped since. By the end of august every time I thought about drawing my tummy filled with excitement, the same sort of excitement I felt when I was 10, waking up and running to my computer to play Oblivion. (I still play it to this day and it still fills me with joy).
I stopped caring about bad drawings, and instead started appreciating them instead. Every shit drawing is just another step for me to becoming better.
And the biggest eureka/takeaway moment for me was that getting good (I define 'good' as a point in your art journey when you're confident enough you can draw whatever you like with or w/o reference and the result satisfies YOU. That's the main criteria. Your art must satisfy YOU first and foremost.) takes a lot of time and practice. My current aim is 2 years of consistent practice, if I'm not 'good' in 2 years time I'll just extend it indefinitely, because I really fucking love drawing, lmao.

>>7716638
Absolutely fucking based.

>>7706089 (OP)
I don't usually have eureka moments but very often I unlock a new little skill. it reminds me of when Link finds a new treasure to help him through a dungeon.

>>7712949
Damn. Is that the only art advice you need?

its all boxes
everything takes up form in 3 dimensional space in x, y, and z axis
once you know the space it takes you can divide it into halves, thirds, etc and figure proportion and ratios

faces/heads are actually a lot easier to draw from angles than straight on because you dont have to deal with foreshortening as much

>>7706089 (OP)
Figuring out how to draw squares in perspective. I knew there must have been some simple method for it, but I never came across it until recently.

I suppose it's not exactly a eureka moment but tonight I realized that there is a difference between liking what you draw and drawing what you're good at. And sometimes you just need to do the latter if it's making you money so you can do the former later on.
Im pretty good at pixel art. Good enough that my project definitely looks professional and has no weird quirks of AI work thanks to a weird workflow I use.
.
How I like to draw however has a very AI appearance and simply does not stand out against other artists who I studied or a lot of the current capsule artists on steams

Color temperature, pretty much fixed all my problems with color. It's crazy how i've gone without knowing about it all this time.

>>7721224
pyw

>>7721224
Never understood that. Why would your picture be better just because you give it a blue background?

>>7721240
It's just another form of contrast that adds appeal to things.

>>7721240
That's not the only application of color temperature, just one of many examples.

https://youtu.be/cAwT1EXzckw?si=KZlMNkjubaQcPxO0

>>7721256
Is this the Cohhcarnage of art tutorials? I still don't get it btw.
All I see is just using bright colors for highlights and darker colors for shadows, which is common sense.
Making the background blue if it's supposed to be dark is nothing special. Also can be purple.

>>7721285
I mean, yeah? Like... Good shit that we know about it, i guess? Idk.

Are we good?

>>7721289
Idk, painting is too complicated for me.

>>7721298
Eh, it ain't no aeronautical engineering. You just need to always be mindful of every step you take in painting.

Fortunately for me, i have autism so i'm intuitively good at it.

luv u, dont give up !!!

>>7721302
y-you too!

>>7721195
>but I never came across it until recently.
whats the method

>>7712949
Honestly, that seems just like solid learning advice in general.
Step 1: do your best without any help.
Step 2: use help to re-do step 1 but better
Step 3: reinforce by doing the step 1 exercise without help again
Seems like a solid cycle of tackling a new problem, overcoming it and reinforcing what you have learned. I do it with language learning mostly, but I should really be doing it with art as well.

>>7721195
What do you mean by drawing squares in perspective? Isn't it just drawing lines to your vanishing points?

I only ever used a soft round brush, and the moment I decided to paint a whole picture with a textured brush it changed the whole image for the better.

Now I try out brushes one at a time to find how to properly use them

>never use pure black for values, lines and colour

It’s genuinely really good advice but I had such a habit

Such obvious bullshit since I'm a /beg/, but it's realizing that constantly grinding this fundies nonsense will not make you better without proper understanding of accuracy, observation, and even basic copying.

I'm happy I caught myself before I fell down a deep end, since I also realized most of my breakthroughs in my mediocre art was by copying things I wanted to in real life, things that I liked and more.

It's a sickening beginners trap. They search up how to get better, find bullshit, and burn themselves out.

>>7723654
Do you copy more from real life or photo references? Do you use construction when copying? And what do you tend to copy? I think I'm in this trap.

>>7723528
Same

>>7706218
I think I get what you're saying. It's the counter balance the torso needs to do to keep balanced. The ribcage can't twist around the spine like a piece of meat on a kebab, because the spine is fused to one specific side of the ribcage.