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Hiphopapotamus his [CHAT]ing is bottomless
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ND, I think it might help to approach your thinking of space as more organic than architectural. Perhaps what I love most about this idea, for example, is the fact that you can draw a tree completely from your own imagination and people will believe that it's completely accurate. All it takes is an understanding of how things in nature grow and what shapes they can take. When something is more architectural and geometric, it's more noticeable when something isn't quite perfect. This is why incorporating game controllers/glasses/other man-made objects into a still-life is so much more difficult. You get one detail out of place and people will know instantly that something is off with it.
I've actually found that in drawing trees so damn much, my approach to drawing buildings has adapted some of the same elements of structure. A comic doesn't have to be a technical drawing. Nowadays I'll end up freehanding most of my architecture rather than ruling out all the lines. It comes off looking more organic, but is still certainly recognizable as a house. It sort of unintentionally brings everything together in the backgrounds, and has definitely increased my enjoyment of putting in a higher level of detail to the environments. This is how I think you might have a better time coming up with spaces and elements to include.
Back when I would try ruling out the perspective and making everything as perfectly straight and uniform as possible, I would have such a hard time coming up with objects to flesh out the scenery since I was so preoccupied with making everything look right. It drove me INSANE and I usually would end up avoiding it entirely, torturing myself with the establishing shot and then opting for blank white spaces for the characters to float in for the next few panels ("Eh, the reader knows where they are, I don't have to redraw it every time"). Now even with interior shots, I lose myself in the details. I just can't bear to leave a single background empty. It really does bring a page together.
Edit: A visual example of what I mean. The backgrounds in these panels are all freehand, including the architecture.
-They will print in a shade very diferent from what it should be
-They will not print at all
I just got a color key from my printer and one area I accidentaly toned down a Pantone by lowering the opacity, not the tint. That area was as if it there were no graphics there. Well, live and learn... then make the same mistake a couple of times until you remember forever.
I think you might be miss interpreting me a little, I'm not saying I will draw the same mistake over and over just for the sake of it and don't focus on fixing it, but I know those failures are going to happen. I'm not advocating success by volume, but I've never met an artist that never met a shit sketch is my point.
If you feel like your process works, and you're working on the doubt thing then I guess you are on the right track. Beating yourself up over mistakes just sounds like it would take a lot of the fun out of it, for no good reason, was all I was getting at, and it sounds like you know. I highly suggest working at the anxiety as much as you can though.
Also you need to loosen up with your sketches to create more dynamic compositions. LOOSEN UP.
I throw crap up on the doodle page all the time. You gotta get into to the groove where every piece is not a portfolio piece. That way you'll get more mileage.
And with more mileage comes confidence, which I think you need.
artistjeffc.tumblr.com http://www.etsy.com/shop/artistjeffc
In my mind, when people say "draw for fun" they're telling me "don't worry so much about perfection, or fixing all your mistakes". I don't really know how to do that. If I was doodling something ridiculous on the margins of my notes in a class, I could draw with a pen and make something hideous-looking but have a lot of fun with it. I wouldn't really care.
But even the things I hope will be portfolio pieces are fun pieces to make. The act of drawing/coloring/whatever is fun. The only time it does not become "fun" is when I hit a roadblock that I can't figure out a way around. Little snags happen frequently, and they're usually easy to get around, or easily solved by some reference, at worst. Even if it's not a portfolio piece, and it's "just something I want to draw", I'm going to try to make it as good as I can. This will give me some frustration along the way, but can result in a really good piece, in the end.
I don't really understand when people say "draw for fun", because even when I try to "draw for fun" and not take the drawing too seriously...my striving for perfection in everything means that some pieces I'll be happy with (nothing is ever perfect, of course...but if I think it's well-done, I'm happy with it)...and some pieces will make me feel like I'll never make it...and it won't matter what the drawing's purpose is, or whether it's "for fun or for portfolio". I don't really know how to ignore the fact if I've hit a roadblock I can't get around, and what that means. It means the same thing if I'm drawing for fun or for my portfolio - that as an artist, I lack that skill. Usually it's something I've had trouble with before, and even if I chose to ignore it and "just draw for fun" and "don't worry about it being perfect", in the back of my head it will continually nag at me for not being able to fix it.
I don't think at all that "if I draw more I'll have more confidence". The more skill I have, the more confidence I have. My confidence isn't going to go up if my skills don't. The phrase "drawing for fun", to me, means letting mistakes go if they're not major ones that I am positive I can fix quickly and with minimal effort (because, as I mentioned, I always "draw for fun". But when people tell me I need to "draw for fun" it means something different). I guess my issue with that is that 98% of the time I sit down to draw, either IRL or on the computer, I'm aiming for the best work I can produce...which would mean going back and fixing mistakes and tweaking stuff and concentrating on the mistakes and trying to learn from them. I'm not saying that people who make drawings "just for fun" aren't trying for their best work either, but....for me, all of it seems like a more serious endeavor. I want to be happy with everything I do. I know this isn't possible, and I can accept that. I can accept that I made a piece that I'm 75% happy with. Or that has at least one part that I'm proud of, even if the rest of the image isn't very good. What I can't accept is when I make something I hate after trying over and over again to fix it and can't seem to. I'll run into that whether I'm drawing "for fun" or "for portfolio", it doesn't matter. And, like I said, moving on and continuing with the picture won't help, because the fact that I wasn't able to fix it was the main issue, and that issue will still remain.
On paper, in theory, with words, psychologically, I completely understand where you guys are coming from. I really do. I need to relax and stop taking everything in art so seriously and stop worrying about making mistakes because every artist does, often, and that's what helps them learn. I'm not "bad" because I make mistakes like everybody else does.
The problem is just that I have a hard time believing that it's true for me. I hold myself to a high standard, and I feel like other people do, too. While I understand, from an outside point of view, looking at all of this, where my mentality is screwed up.....I can't tell myself "don't think this way, here are FACTS why you should not". It's like somebody with an eating disorder being told "this isn't good for you", and "you're too thin", when they already know that. But even though they "know" these facts, they may not "believe" them.
This is the only way I can think to explain myself. :\
In any case, if anybody wants to discuss this further, please PM me instead so I'm not filling the Chat thread with elaborate explanations of why I'm I'm artistically/creatively insecure.
Be a real man. Do some LSD and paint with your own feces.*
*This may not be a good idea.
bluhh? I think most people have already seen my shit enough, I haven't updated my site in ages as everything I've worked on in the past year is NDA as fuck
just settle for some OJ
okok
try putting some vinegar on your french fries.
pfff citric and acetic bullshit
want me some hydrochloric fo' dat real twang
GO FOR IT
hehehheeheh
Stupidity confirmed.
edit: My Phi Theta Kappa invitation finally came in the mail. It's a few months late, but hey. I'm excited!
It is astounding that a movie that should be so ridiculously awesome because it contains so many ridiculous and awesome elements manages to be ridiculous, but at the same time, somehow not really awesome. It just lacks something, like that undefinable magic of an 80's-era Joel Silver in the production role.
why's that?
edit: because a careful dose from a clean source and in a controlled environment makes it a very low risk affair
I can neither confirm or deny that I liked mushrooms much better.
But, ya know, hallucinating. I don't think I'd be very comfortable with that. I sliiightly hallucinated only twice in my life (fevers) and one time I was fine with it (even though I thought little shadow-people were dancing around the nightlight, and then walked across the floor and got into my blanket)...and another time where I thought two of my friends on either side of me were growing taller, and that one I freaked out a bit with.
Yeah, but if I were to choose one hallucinogenic again, I would choose the mushroom variety. Felt... more natural?
Damn, shadow people are so much cooler.
painting on lsd is AWESOME and i cannot imagine how rad it would be if i had you guys' talent
painting on mushrooms is cool but not nearly as intense
And I was about to go upstairs to wake up my dad and tell him "there are people downstairs", but I suddenly realized that in saying "people" he'd think you-and-me type of people...and not little shadow figure people. It was on my 13th birthday this happened! Weirdest birthday ever haha.
Safety of course is very important, but it should make it more fun too as they will be able to head off any self destructive thoughts that lead to hallucinations of the scary shit variety.
But I've heard the whole "if you're worried about having a bad trip, you're probably going to have a bad trip". I've never done LSD or mushrooms though, so I don't know. The idea of being caught in a waking nightmare, unable to get out of it for hours, seems kinda horrifying though.
did you feel colors and become one with the Universe?
on another note:
Diatoms are the coolest thing
they are unicellular organisms that encase themselves in silica shells
I've tried pot twice now. First time was fairly underwhelming, extremely uncomfortable, and kicked my self-consciousness into high-gear. The second was all of those, but I also made myself sick eating way too many brownies (just normal brownies).
Er yes :oops:
Its impossible to describe the way I felt but here are some things I saw/etc:
- On onset, patterns and walls shift in seemingly impossible ways. Also there seems to be an almost holographic depth to surfaces.
- Trees alternated between looking like fractals and dancers
- Went into a 'mode' where everything looked like giant stain glass windows showing my place between heaven and hell. Sort of Heironymous Bosch esque ... and a little scary
- I didn't want to draw, I just wanted to look at a lot of art. Good art felt like it 'snapped' into a pattern.
And because mushrooms made me feel very introspective - lots of more personal, less tame stuff I don't feel like sharing