01-16-2021, 03:41 AM
Quote:Artloader
Hey man not sure I can give you anything helpful but here are my thoughts.
I think it is definitely a good thing to have some "art heroes" who you aspire to. It helps give some direction to your art journey.
When it comes to art study - your sketchbook already shows that you know how to study - I stand in awe of your work ethic and your plethora of study techniques so I am hesitant to suggest any more study techniques for you as you probably know them already.
It sounds like your main issue is not "how" to study but "what" to study and how to prioritise your studies.
My thinking here is that this is where having an art hero comes in handy. Prioritise the studies that will bring you closer to him. I will concede that we don't want to become clones of our heroes but I believe that before we actually reach their level we will have developed our own nuances that make us more than mere clones.
So my first strategy would be to contact my art hero and ask him to mentor me. This rarely succeeds because either they are too busy or I can't afford the mentorship or they just don't do teaching.
Next I will try to find any tutorials or classes that my art hero has produced and study from them.
If they haven't produced any tutorials then I study their art directly. I compare it to my own and see if I can identify any gaps. Once I have the gaps then I have the list of things I need to focus my studies on.
Your post really resonates with me as I also have identified Esad Ribic as my comic book art hero and want to push my work to be more like his. However I am stuck as he doesn't do tutorials so I end up jus t studying his work.
Finally I did a quick comparison of Kerschl's work with yours and in my opinion you're not a world away already :).
One difference I can see is in the level or realism - your work is more stylised than Kerschl's. Kerschl's work is stylised too but he has more realism than you. For example, Kerschl includes more realistic folds in clothing than you. If you're OK with that then there's nothing to work on here but if not then try to push the realism a little more.
Anyway - I hope that was of some use but if not please feel free to disregard no hard feelings :).
In any case I wish you all the best with the schedule Jyonny :).
Really great points, thanks for that! This way is to really hone in and target very precisely, starting off to learn from and emulate and along the way allow things to develop with our own personal differences. It's definitely an approach that's easier to manage, mentally, since every study will be based on one source. And absolutely I want to get that level of realism/believability in my work that he has, really heartened you feel I'm getting there. Gonna think about this approach, definitely.
Quote:Zorrentos
Great thread Jon, and something I recognize a lot myself. What I'm about to say may not apply to you, but it is something that has helped me a lot in my own studies recently.
I have spent about one decade now studying art and trying to become an artist, and I just don't feel like I am where I should be. I always dreamt back in the days that I would become as good as the artists I looked up to in no-time if I just kept grinding away with classes, studies, and such ... But it just hasn't happened! I have come to realize that I need to make drastic changes this year if I want my art to evolve and become drastically better.
I really recommend the book "Mastery" by Robert Greene. One of the key takeaways from that book is that we tend to over-study what we are already good at. In my case, I tended to study drawing lineart and figure drawing over and over, because I am relatively good at it, and it stroked my ego to make good figure drawing. This, of course, is NOT what I need to focus my time on! Maybe that is something you recognize in yourself? You have a lot of stuff you want to learn but you fall back into studying "the basics" or stuff you already know well because it enables you to produce stuff whit little effort (Not saying this to be mean, it's simply something I recognize in myself).
This year, I have decided to devote all my time to my personal project "The Secret Valley" to become better in all aspects of Game Art. It has forced me to study a lot of subjects and software that I am not familiar with, and it has been very rewarding to break down this huge project into many, many small tasks that all come together into one solid product.
In your case, you probably need to break down your goal into many small tasks and then tackle them one by one. It's gonna TAKE TIME, but that's just how it is! Nothing comes overnight.
By looking at your reference, I can see that the artist is using a lot of cool techniques in terms of drawing, composition, the use of color, painting techniques, etc ... So maybe your first task is "learn how to draw the figure from hard camera angles". The second is "Read and study comic composition". The third is "learn how to paint those backgrounds and how to properly use a color palette like my reference" and so on ... You need to treat it like a scientific project! What software can you use? What classes or resources do you need? Maybe you need to jump to tutorials constantly on youtube to research stuff? Expect this project to be a long road!
These are my thoughts, I hope they make sense. I wrote it all out in one sitting! :)
Totally get where you're coming from, lots of similarities with my current struggles! Thanks a ton for the input Dennis! A project based approach is definitely the way to go, I've been doing that with the comic I was making, learning the full process and putting it into action (and the new comic that's in pre-production now will keep that side of it going).
The breaking things down and tackling one at a time for the study part... this is what I'm struggling with. I've been doing this approach on and off over the years, but end up being very unsure that the things I chose are right which makes it hard to stay committed since the self-doubt becomes overwhelming. My tasks end up really long and complex (unnecessarily so in my case) and every now and then I'll come across a youtube video or something, where some pro breaks down how to tackle something and I see that they used such simple, obvious set of steps compared to my "Study these 3 books from cover to cover then do this illustration" kind of approach. I totally think it's a great way to approach things, but have no faith in my own ability to break it down into the right set of steps to study. Been through this loop a number of times now.
When I read interviews with comic pro's, obviously they give really concise answers that miss a lot of stuff, but the gist of it always seems to be 'I studied him, and her, and that franchise over there and that's how I ended up with my stuff'. I'm certain they went through more formal studies too (which we all did or are doing anyway), but I think there is a 'work smarter' way of getting the skills up without the need to pull back too much (provided there's a level of understanding of the fundamentals).
Quote:Typhoneus
I'm amateur compared to the rest of you, but I hope my input is okay.
I live with a large family with 10 cats so I really can't plan out any studies, just about anything can go wrong in a day. Since my siblings are either too young or mentally incapable, I'm the go to for most of the chores and problems around the house.
Therefore my plans have to be loose and flexible - for example: today I'd like to get through chapter 2 of "How to Draw" by Scott Robertson, an episode of Dynamic Sketching with Peter Han and some loose gesture drawings of the Croquis cafe models. Unfortunately I know from experience that these will either get very broken up or half assed. Plus I'm booked for tomorrow with a surprise two hour trip and back to help a relative.
In order to combat this most of what I do is at night because all of my chores are done and plus anyone who needs my help is asleep. I don't have a desk, so I clear off my bed and use a wooden board from Lowe's to keep my stuff flat. From there I time myself and when I'm done I like to take a step back and compare what I did to the lesson. I try to study the lines and movements they've made, how they used their pencil. Sometimes I take a picture and that helps me find all the rough spots I need to smooth out.
Most of the artists I like are dead, so I have to use their remaining work to evaluate my own. Though to be honest I have a hard time figuring out what's best to focus on when I look at them. I've found using the artists that inspired them to draw comparisons between them is effective.
Absolutely, your input is welcomed and valuable! I really know how you feel, I don't have such a large family, but had a baby the same year I started learning to draw. No dedicated room to practice in, trying to do it in the kitchen while everyone is bustling in and out, working a fulltime job and dealing with a newborn, then a toddler etc. Man it's hard! Now she's 8, and over the years, bit by bit things got easier, the family started to recognise this isn't just some crazy scheme of mine as I started to get better, I managed to get some dedicated space in the bedroom for my stuff, and now have a spare room which is mine to work from. Earning money from it, even though it's not much, really makes those around recognise that there's value in this (obviously dependant on their expectations, in my case I guess they weren't that high XD).
Basically trying to say that things will change, stick with it, keep struggling, family members will grow and need less support, people may even start to support you in return. Keep at it! Your story will be so much more worthwhile too because of the adversity!