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rainwaterspark "Before you create a masterpiece, you have to draw a lot of crud." That's my newfound mantra that's been getting me through recently. My deviantArt isn't getting updated very much, but I've been drawing every day, practicing, trying to improve myself. I look at artwork now in a different light than I used to; whereas before I simply focused on aesthetic quality and concept, I now look at the shading, brushwork, use of colors, proportions, how certain things were drawn--things that I can apply to my own artwork.
I'm not aiming for art as a profession at this point, but I am interested in improving myself. Why? In order to improve my self-expression in my artwork, as lack of skill can seriously hinder a fledgling idea, and for the enormous sense of satisfaction that comes from completing a piece that I'm content with. Drilling myself in art isn't fun, and often times I begin splitting my eyeballs during the middle of an art piece, but at the end, it's worth it.
I also realized recently that I haven't actually had much formal instruction in art, specifically in drawing people and backgrounds, other than the Honors studio art class I jumped to this past year of school. I've done still lifes, of course (enough to last a lifetime, in my opinion), and I've learned Chinese painting and ceramics and other miscellaneous areas of art, but those are different. Especially Chinese painting, which neither aims for realism nor really encourages creativity (not that I dislike the form).
So...when I look at some deviantArt artists who are hardly older than me but who are much more talented artists, I guess the reason is that I simply haven't had as much practice and instruction earlier on than they had.
I'm not aiming for art as a profession at this point, but I am interested in improving myself. Why? In order to improve my self-expression in my artwork, as lack of skill can seriously hinder a fledgling idea, and for the enormous sense of satisfaction that comes from completing a piece that I'm content with. Drilling myself in art isn't fun, and often times I begin splitting my eyeballs during the middle of an art piece, but at the end, it's worth it.
I also realized recently that I haven't actually had much formal instruction in art, specifically in drawing people and backgrounds, other than the Honors studio art class I jumped to this past year of school. I've done still lifes, of course (enough to last a lifetime, in my opinion), and I've learned Chinese painting and ceramics and other miscellaneous areas of art, but those are different. Especially Chinese painting, which neither aims for realism nor really encourages creativity (not that I dislike the form).
So...when I look at some deviantArt artists who are hardly older than me but who are much more talented artists, I guess the reason is that I simply haven't had as much practice and instruction earlier on than they had.
