Tehre's art, a headcrab, and custom painted shirts in here!

Tesiacoil

So, I'm going to show what I do, I guess, right? That's what some of us are doing here. Any critique is more then welcome. I know that I have a talent, I'm not obnoxious about it, I'm actually quite shy about in in real life but, some people just look at my stuff and say that they like it, but they don't really LOOK at it and offer what I could improve upon. I would love love love to get more critiques. But, this might not especially be the the place for that, so, I would just like to maybe share what I can do instead because sometimes it's just nice.

I paint on sweaters/shirts too. I'm trying to make some money off of that. Hey, anyone want to order anything? ;D

A crapload of stuff lies beneath.

Unfinished







Someone I know.



One of my best pieces, I think.





Scratch board! My favorite medium.









And old painting. from oh, 5 years ago?



Head crab! I didn't sew it, but I sure did paint it.



First time doing airbrush. I had a little direction from someone.

And my custom painted sweaters/-T-shirts










Anyways, that's all. My big problem lately, is that I'd really like to change my style. I can't do anything without a reference pictures. I'd like to be more abstract, more...comic booklike. I'd like to draw from my head and I envy so many of you that can do that. I'm getting very bored of realism...until I start a new piece, that is. But, all the same, I'm sure many artists can relate with wanting a change.

Tesiacoil

Also, I need to make my art BIGGER. I do it pretty small, but proportions are a bitch. ):

Arden Canelo

That head crab needs to be made into a head crab hat. Its the only way. Other wise than that I really like your pencil works.

Wassermelone

Nice reference stuff. Im glad you want to get away from solely doing reference stuff though

I think the best thing to do would be to go to figure classes or just stuff from life in general. The thing you want to do is start thinking about understand rather than just copying what you see in front of you. Being able to copy what is in front of you is definitely part of it - your skill in reference will help you with this. But as I said, don't JUST copy, think about what stuff is doing what and why. Understanding what you are drawing allows you to build your own reference in your head.

In addition to all that, start trying to draw more comic style stuff. Your creativity is as much something you need to exercise and train as your drawing skill. Don't think about it too hard. You'll get caught up trying to come up with 'the most awesome idea ever' and never actually draw anything. Figure out a project for youself... something simple like drawing a superhero for all the elements or something.

Eventually your figure/life drawing and your more creative work will start to feed off of and inform each other.

crawdaddio

Holy Chuck Close, Batman! Nice photorealism; I take it you work from photos, in which case, what Wasser said; figure studies (especially the quick poses) give you a great opportunity to loosen up, and to look for other elements about the figure than the pure image, like the line, or the form, or the shadows, all of which can be emphasized or subdued to create stylization. Also, find inspiration; is there any artist in particular whose work you admire? Study it, and relate it to whatever drawing you're doing; basically, deconstruct the art to figure out why it works. I think (and emphasize think, because I'm not at the point yet of having a very distinctive style) that styles kind of reveal the ways that artists see things, and by deconstructing those styles, you're learning how to convey that information so that you can share your own view with others, too. Anyway, for what it's worth, I think you've got great skills with which to do that, and I feel like you'll get what you're after in no time.

Tesiacoil

Arden Canelo wrote: »

That head crab needs to be made into a head crab hat. Its the only way. Other wise than that I really like your pencil works.

It has an opening on the bottom, can't really be put on your head. Kind of looks like a vagina with teeth. Kind of terrifying.
Thank you though!

Tesiacoil

Wassermelone wrote: »

Nice reference stuff. Im glad you want to get away from solely doing reference stuff though

I think the best thing to do would be to go to figure classes or just stuff from life in general. The thing you want to do is start thinking about understand rather than just copying what you see in front of you. Being able to copy what is in front of you is definitely part of it - your skill in reference will help you with this. But as I said, don't JUST copy, think about what stuff is doing what and why. Understanding what you are drawing allows you to build your own reference in your head.

In addition to all that, start trying to draw more comic style stuff. Your creativity is as much something you need to exercise and train as your drawing skill. Don't think about it too hard. You'll get caught up trying to come up with 'the most awesome idea ever' and never actually draw anything. Figure out a project for youself... something simple like drawing a superhero for all the elements or something.

Eventually your figure/life drawing and your more creative work will start to feed off of and inform each other.

That's a really great idea; I really never thought of figure classes. Thanks! As for drawing more comic tyle stuff; It's hard for me because I never really want to "copy" from artists. But I see that I'm going to have to start somewhere, right?

I've tried doing stuff from life in general. It just all moves to fast for me and I get impatient, and I really end up hating my drawing. As you can see, I'm very precise with my art, but to see me draw it, I look like I'm drawing very fast and haphazard like. But I want it all to look like a certain thing, so when I'm drawing from something in front of me, I just can't bear to look at the result for long if it just doesn't look like what I'm trying to draw. I'm almost....ashamed of it.


I can draw from my head. But, I have a certain...creepy style and it all ends up looking like those images from those scary storey books I read as a kid. You know... these ones http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scary_Stories That's pretty much my only personal style. Creepy things with rotting lines coming off of them. Just...zombie type stuff. It's easy, y'know? But I'd like to be like "Hey, you ,draw a woman sering coffee and laughing" and then, I'd like to be able to do it, awesomely. And I just can't. So, my art just isn't "art" anymore to me, and I'm glad that you can understand where I'm coming from at least.


You gave some really great suggestions. Thanks a lot. I'm going to stop rambling now. ;D

rts

Yeah I would stop working from close-ups of people's faces. Even if you aren't projecting these, and they feel projected (the first four), they have a weird 'this was originally some photographers artwork but now it is mine' kind of feel to them. That really sucks the life out of a drawing.

What makes a good photo and what makes a good drawing are not necesarily, and in most cases are not the same thing.

Tesiacoil

crawdaddio wrote: »

Holy Chuck Close, Batman! Nice photorealism; I take it you work from photos, in which case, what Wasser said; figure studies (especially the quick poses) give you a great opportunity to loosen up, and to look for other elements about the figure than the pure image, like the line, or the form, or the shadows, all of which can be emphasized or subdued to create stylization. Also, find inspiration; is there any artist in particular whose work you admire? Study it, and relate it to whatever drawing you're doing; basically, deconstruct the art to figure out why it works. I think (and emphasize think, because I'm not at the point yet of having a very distinctive style) that styles kind of reveal the ways that artists see things, and by deconstructing those styles, you're learning how to convey that information so that you can share your own view with others, too. Anyway, for what it's worth, I think you've got great skills with which to do that, and I feel like you'll get what you're after in no time.

Louis Royo. I love his work. He's more realism though. I would love the chance to work with models, and then pose them how I want, and then create ideas around them and then create my art on a whole new level. But, I rarely even have time enough for my art these days anyways.

I always study art like that, I get where you're coming from. I'm at the point where I want my drawings to look so realistic, that if I see another drawing that looks even more realistic, I stare so hard at it to see which kind of pencil strokes they used, how they did the shading, did they use an H, or a B maybe? But It's hard for me to study different styles because, I haven't enveloped myself into anything else really. I always admire how strong and sure peoples lines are when the are drawing comics, or anime, or cartoons. When I try to, I always have at least 5 different pencil strokes in one place, trying to define one place, if you understand what I mean. I'm never so confident at the angles. I think I have to work at that.

Again, your advice is also really helpful as well. I'm really glad I posted here.

Tesiacoil

cakemikz wrote: »

Yeah I would stop working from close-ups of people's faces. Even if you aren't projecting these, and they feel projected (the first four), they have a weird 'this was originally some photographers artwork but now it is mine' kind of feel to them. That really sucks the life out of a drawing.

What makes a good photo and what makes a good drawing are not necesarily, and in most cases are not the same thing.

I agree. The problem is, I see them, and then I think! OH, I really want to draw that, look at the shadows and the lines on the face, that would be so fun to draw. And then, I just do. And It feels fantastic while I draw it. But then, I don't do anything else with it. Maybe if I worked on an intricate background, they might look better, but, there they are. Just faces, looking at you.

I have this one, of a homeless man. I didn't post it earlier because the photo quality is terrible and it does it no justice, the drawing is old and I am not particularly fond of the background; it's all wrong and the proportions are wonky. But, it's different then just faces. [ and, I'm done making excuses ]

SF_Dhalsim

From what i understand you weanna to basically take your realistic drawings and go backwards making them not so realistic, or realistic enough but with craziness strewn about it something like Dhali. One of the big things you have to keep in mind with this process is to never forge how to draw the realitcally. I personally throw in realistic images and then fuck them up subtley (Wall Hand).

Now of course IMO its nowhere on par of the greats, and you for that matter, it just gives a great example of what you want. One of the many things i did to get images like the one above was to draw from a picture stop halfway through and then just draw from memory. If i couldnt remember anything about it i would just start making up some shit up.

Start with something you know intimately though, for me it was hands fer you maybe faces, and just draw them start screwing with them etc. And the cartoon Dhali did for Disney will probably help with this adventure... it's pretty crazy.

Yes I am a Dhali fan.

Loomdun

Great work to the point of where care and time is taken place to create it. Not so much in the meaning of the picture, I'm not sure how long you've been spending doing art but the meaning of the picture lacks in these. You contain the great realism but you don't really expand on it, and if your expectancy for perfection persists, branching out into more interesting pictures will be very limited. One thing you should try to practice is taking what you understand of realism and apply it into imagination.
Using people as a reference to capture every detail is great but the big thing here is, are you going to be able to use those studies and apply it to something completely different? You can keep practicing to perfect photo realism but it wont really help you anymore. If your curious towards making something more abstract, try to perfect realism into imagination and take what is created, Space, creatures, Oprah aging (cough), Space technology, anything of fantasy. But most importantly as you make this, you have to also think of what would make it interesting which goes beyond the part of looking realistic. um I forgot how to talk about the rest of the stuff. f*** it i'm dyslexic LEAVEME ALONEEE

Edit: oh right now I remember, It's something I do whenever I create something I like realism. But I think how can I take these details and make it something interesting to look at. I sometimes over-emphasise on Cracks, or just merely how I apply the detail to the drawing. Sometimes I use reference for a drawing but I stop using it and go from what I think I see and try to apply this realisticly to help teach myself to think on my personal creations without needing to see something 24/7.

Edit again: Usually looking at a drawing and working on it I figure, it's gonna be done either way, if I don't use each project as a experiment then what have I actually even learned by working on this? It's hiding in a shell when you don't experiment in my own personal opinion.