02-21-2015, 09:30 AM
@Jane Thanks! I was pretty intent on doing the 1000 heads thing, but to be perfectly honest I got burnt out trying to do that many heads for no real reason. I wound up just doing it for the sake of meeting that goal and not really learning anything! Definitely try it out but if you get sick of it and you're not learning anything there's nothing wrong with stopping
@Jyonny thanks man! Yea I know what you're saying, when I started this sb I was at a point where I was pretty damn inconsistent. Some things looked pretty tight and other things looked like someone else may as well have done them lol. So I tried to focus on making things just look consistent rather than perfect. I think consistency is a better asset than perfection, especially if you want good jobs (I haven't had any freelance yet, mostly because I'm still pretty damn inconsistent and don't feel confident in submitting a folio but I'm working on it!).
I looked through your SB again to refresh my memory and you're doing good stuff man, if I may offer you some advice. I'll leave you some feedback over there shortly
And part of the reason I focus on so many things is because I don't work like a lot of other artists in terms of volume equalling progress. It's different for everyone of course, but I've found generally most artists seem to subscribe and do pretty well on the studyflow of doing a ton of shit and learning that way (feng zhu calls it mileage). I tried that, with things like the 1000 head challenge and doing X every day for Y amount of days and I honestly felt almost no improvement and more often than not I got burnt out and frustrated. I don't do gestures everyday like most people, I don't do anatomy studies everyday like most people, I don't do anything regularly like that.
I need the variety man... it's just the way I work. I need to spend time with things and resolve them, try to do them as well as I can without spending too long on it obviously, but still enough to understand it. I think Craig Mullins said it best: "Less painting, more thinking". That might be because of my personality type (more on the analytic side of things),it might just be coincidence, or who knows maybe I did find a better way of working and using my time. Anyways, I usually feel like I understand the topic in a shorter amount of time that way, and so I move on to other things that I either haven't done in a while or feel need to brought in.
I like the analogy of the shepherd a lot: a shepherd doesnt herd one sheep at a time back into the pen after grazing, he moves the whole pack back and if there are any stragglers makes sure they keep up. It can feel like more work and less focused, but the result is safer and more consistent.
I also get bored of doing the same thing again and again... Some people can sit on their ass and crank out 1000s of anatomy drawings in one month, and if that works for them fine, but I lose my mind when i do that. I personally don't feel "rusty" switching between topics too much, in fact i actually find that they all play off each other in interesting ways and I learn MORE switching a lot than not. Don't underestimate the power of your subconscious brain; in many ways its a hell of a lot better at letting information sink in than your conscious brain. Taking a break from drawing a certain subject and coming back to it later when you're more interested/engaged in it, and after it has fermented in your subconscious was more potent as a learning tool for me than cranking it out to meet arbitrary mileage goals.
And about schedules, you know I tried following a strict schedule for a while (daves old one to be exact) and didn't work well that way either. What if you're just straight up not feeling the vibes to get out an environment that day and youd be better off doing some figures? Theres nothing wrong with going with the flow. I've found that being fluid while you study and learning many topics at once builds discipline and skill to draw on at will for when you need to focus on something very specific,
Say for instance youre participating in a challenge and need to do a lot of environment thumbnails. You've set the last few weeks up in such a way that you've been in a good state of mind by going with the flow, and so now you're perfectly fresh and in a great position to focus intensely on something. What if you've been slavishly doing only portraits for the last three weeks to meet some arbitrary goal, and suddenly you get commissioned to paint a very elaborate portrait? You might have that experience under your belt, but your sure as hell gonna be sick of doing goddamned portraits and might not be guaranteed a good result for when it actually matters.
I dunno, just my opinion man. It's been working well for me ever since I started working differently since about december. I basically haven't had a bad art day in the last several months because I tried different ways of working and doubled down on the one that works the best, and it pretty much runs contrary to a lot of the advice people give but i really don't care honestly. Find what works for you and run with it, that's pretty much what that all boils down to. I doubt if this way of working would work for a lot of people, and theres nothing wrong with that. It's pretty erratic and directionless sometimes, but for me personally it helps me conserve focus for when I it most and be consistent in my work ethic. There's nothing more valuable than time, and if the way you're working results in a time deficit because you feel like you're regressing or not improving at all, making you put off art for a long period of time because you're demotivated or whatever (not saying you are, but it happens to a lot of people who get burnt out) then just change it up, look for different answers, look for the happy synthesis between different extremes of the spectrum that's tailored to you
Sorry if that was too much to read man lol, I try to keep these things short but I always feel like I'm leaving out important information. Hope it helps!
@Jyonny thanks man! Yea I know what you're saying, when I started this sb I was at a point where I was pretty damn inconsistent. Some things looked pretty tight and other things looked like someone else may as well have done them lol. So I tried to focus on making things just look consistent rather than perfect. I think consistency is a better asset than perfection, especially if you want good jobs (I haven't had any freelance yet, mostly because I'm still pretty damn inconsistent and don't feel confident in submitting a folio but I'm working on it!).
I looked through your SB again to refresh my memory and you're doing good stuff man, if I may offer you some advice. I'll leave you some feedback over there shortly
And part of the reason I focus on so many things is because I don't work like a lot of other artists in terms of volume equalling progress. It's different for everyone of course, but I've found generally most artists seem to subscribe and do pretty well on the studyflow of doing a ton of shit and learning that way (feng zhu calls it mileage). I tried that, with things like the 1000 head challenge and doing X every day for Y amount of days and I honestly felt almost no improvement and more often than not I got burnt out and frustrated. I don't do gestures everyday like most people, I don't do anatomy studies everyday like most people, I don't do anything regularly like that.
I need the variety man... it's just the way I work. I need to spend time with things and resolve them, try to do them as well as I can without spending too long on it obviously, but still enough to understand it. I think Craig Mullins said it best: "Less painting, more thinking". That might be because of my personality type (more on the analytic side of things),it might just be coincidence, or who knows maybe I did find a better way of working and using my time. Anyways, I usually feel like I understand the topic in a shorter amount of time that way, and so I move on to other things that I either haven't done in a while or feel need to brought in.
I like the analogy of the shepherd a lot: a shepherd doesnt herd one sheep at a time back into the pen after grazing, he moves the whole pack back and if there are any stragglers makes sure they keep up. It can feel like more work and less focused, but the result is safer and more consistent.
I also get bored of doing the same thing again and again... Some people can sit on their ass and crank out 1000s of anatomy drawings in one month, and if that works for them fine, but I lose my mind when i do that. I personally don't feel "rusty" switching between topics too much, in fact i actually find that they all play off each other in interesting ways and I learn MORE switching a lot than not. Don't underestimate the power of your subconscious brain; in many ways its a hell of a lot better at letting information sink in than your conscious brain. Taking a break from drawing a certain subject and coming back to it later when you're more interested/engaged in it, and after it has fermented in your subconscious was more potent as a learning tool for me than cranking it out to meet arbitrary mileage goals.
And about schedules, you know I tried following a strict schedule for a while (daves old one to be exact) and didn't work well that way either. What if you're just straight up not feeling the vibes to get out an environment that day and youd be better off doing some figures? Theres nothing wrong with going with the flow. I've found that being fluid while you study and learning many topics at once builds discipline and skill to draw on at will for when you need to focus on something very specific,
Say for instance youre participating in a challenge and need to do a lot of environment thumbnails. You've set the last few weeks up in such a way that you've been in a good state of mind by going with the flow, and so now you're perfectly fresh and in a great position to focus intensely on something. What if you've been slavishly doing only portraits for the last three weeks to meet some arbitrary goal, and suddenly you get commissioned to paint a very elaborate portrait? You might have that experience under your belt, but your sure as hell gonna be sick of doing goddamned portraits and might not be guaranteed a good result for when it actually matters.
I dunno, just my opinion man. It's been working well for me ever since I started working differently since about december. I basically haven't had a bad art day in the last several months because I tried different ways of working and doubled down on the one that works the best, and it pretty much runs contrary to a lot of the advice people give but i really don't care honestly. Find what works for you and run with it, that's pretty much what that all boils down to. I doubt if this way of working would work for a lot of people, and theres nothing wrong with that. It's pretty erratic and directionless sometimes, but for me personally it helps me conserve focus for when I it most and be consistent in my work ethic. There's nothing more valuable than time, and if the way you're working results in a time deficit because you feel like you're regressing or not improving at all, making you put off art for a long period of time because you're demotivated or whatever (not saying you are, but it happens to a lot of people who get burnt out) then just change it up, look for different answers, look for the happy synthesis between different extremes of the spectrum that's tailored to you
Sorry if that was too much to read man lol, I try to keep these things short but I always feel like I'm leaving out important information. Hope it helps!