If your drawings look flat, check your foundation. This drawing has depth and it couldn't be simpler.

Great shading can't fix a a flat drawing.

Just A Little Tidbit About Contrast

Contrast is more than light and dark.

It's big and small.

It's fuzzy and sharp.

It's detailed and sparse.

And it's all good.

Want to Be Better?

Being better isn't about trying harder. It's about thinking differently. It's about thinking better.

Change the way you think.

Put Away Your Weapons

Artists are very familiar with criticism.

Art students are criticized by their peers and teachers.

Works of art are criticized every time they go out into the world.

Artists criticize everything they see.

Criticism is a huge part of the artistic experience, and that seems like such a shame to me.

I know, I know...criticism is supposed to help us get better.

But is that why we criticize? Do you really criticize things because you're interested in helping other people improve?

We deal with feelings of jealous, incompetence and pride. I haven't performed a scientific study of the motivations behind criticism, but I suspect most of it comes from less than noble emotions.

I'm not really talking about formal critique. I'm thinking of the thoughts you have in your head. I'm talking about the attitude with which you and a friend trash someone's work. I'm talking about the spirit of ruin--the desire to tear down what others have made.

We have a spirit of unhealthy competition instead of a spirit of cooperation.

Why aren't we trying to help each other out? Why don't we want to help others be better? Why do we want to trash something that someone else has created.

I learned a long time ago that it's so much easier to criticize than to create.

Creation is such a gift. Are we harmed when someone makes something? Then why do we hate on others' creations as though they shouldn't even have been made? I hear that attitude all the time, especially about music and movies. Some people think that just because a person's work gets "worse" that they should stop working.

How bizarre...to actually wish that someone would stop creating because you don't like their output.

Creation is messy, and we have a lot less control over the process than we like to admit.

I'm on a quest to become immune to criticism. Not that I don't learn from it, but that I'm not emotionally harmed by it.

At the same time, I wish we artists would embrace creation for its own sake. We don't have to pretend that everything people make is good. That's delusional and unhelpful. But we can applaud the desire to create and encourage it. How do you think people learn to make awesome stuff? By making a looooot of bad stuff.

Making stuff is good.

One Level of Thinking Higher

We each operate on a certain level of thought.

We've grown comfortable with the amount of thinking we bring to situations and activities like fixing the television, getting someone to like you, helping your best friend with a problem and making art.

The revelation is that thought is like a staircase. You can't jump from the bottom of the stairs to the top, but you can easily go up one step.

To go up one step is to think about a problem more clearly and with more intelligence...to approach a problem in a newer, more effective way.

We can apply that principle to anything in life...including art.

Can You See What's Cool?

I'm afflicted, and the affliction is baffling to me.

I just don't have an eye for what looks cool. Hopefully this is something I can learn.

Let me give you an example. I've been working on a video game...trying to make sprites and backgrounds that are stylistically compelling. I've been calibrating myself by looking at other games with compelling art styles; older games, mostly, because I'm making a 2D side-scroller.

So I peek at Sonic the Hedgehog, Ninja Gaiden, Mario Bros., Double Dragon, Kirby, old arcade games etc...and I keep noticing that the individual sprites are often underwhelming or ugly. Look at those trees in Sonic. Look at those backgrounds in Ninja Gaiden.

Look at the weird animations in Strider:

The animation is so strange. The art is weird. But it has style. It's interesting. The overall effect is wonderful. It's the mystery of the Gestalt.

"Gestalt" is a German word we Americans have cribbed. It refers to "wholeness."

I'm thinking that perhaps I'm not able to see the Gestalt by looking at the pieces, and I feel let down because that would be a wonderful ability! To have that kind of vision...

Some lucky few are born with that ability. Others of us have to learn it through practice and experience.

It's not about technical ability. It's about knowing what works.

Salt-n-Pepa Were Right - Just Push It

I talked about impatience last week.

I'm going to talk about impatience this week, too.

When you're working on a drawing, there comes a moment when the inner self says, "That's good enough. Just move on." And you know that voice is wrong.

You can listen to the voice, or you can soldier on.

You know that you should redraw that hand. The folds of the pants need to be a little more defined. That shading is sloppy...

For years I've listened to that inner voice of impatience when it told me to move on when it was too soon.

Don't listen to that voice. Listen to Salt-N-Pepa and Push It.

When you want to stop but you know it's not time...Push It.

When you know you need to redraw something but don't feel like it...Push It.

When the drawing doesn't feel right and you're tempted to settle for "okay"...Push It.

For now just push a little bit. One extra detail...5 more minutes shading...

You just might be amazed with the results.

The Vocabulary of Improvement

If you can describe a problem you can fix it.

Unfortunately, we're often bothered by aspects of our work we don't name.

The name of a problem contains its own solution, so I want to share with you some words you can use to diagnose problems with your art.

TEN.SION  [ten-shuh]
noun
a situation or condition of hostility, suspense, or uneasiness

Whenever 2 or more elements of your piece are too close, or their angles aren't complimentary, we can say there is tension. You'll feel troubled by the relationship between the objects. When you feel tension, rearrange the objects until they are more harmonious.

BUS.Y [biz-ee]
adjective
full of or characterized by activity

Busy work has a lot of stuff in it--so much that you'll have trouble figuring out what's going on. Get rid of unnecessary elements and reorganize your piece if it's too busy. The solution for business is clarity.

WARM [wawrm]
adjective
 suggestive of warmth; inclining toward red or orange rather than toward green or blue.
COOL [kool]
adjective
suggestive of coolness; inclining toward green or blue rather than toward red or orange.

Warm colors and cool colors communicate differently. A painting made with blues and whites feels different than a painting full of reds and yellows. When painting skin, the areas that are the fleshiest and fattest are redder and the areas where the bones are closest to the surface are whiter.

CON.TRAST [kon-trast]
noun
opposition or juxtaposition of different forms, lines, or colors in a work of art to intensify each element's properties and produce a more dynamic expressiveness.

Contrast is big and small, light and dark, square and round, busy and sparse, sharp and fuzzy... If your image seems boring it may lack contrast. Include the darkest darks and the whitest whites. Make some elements large and other small.

TEX.TURE [teks-cher]
noun
the imitation of the tactile quality of represented object.

Many images lack texture. Skin has pores, clothing is made of fibers and metal is shiny. Texture is good. Use it.

Words like these can be used to diagnose and fix issues with your artwork. When something bugs you give it a name. "There is tension here." "There is too much middle grey in this piece. I need more contrast." "This section has too many lines-it's busy."

We'll pick this theme up again.

Good Advice From Copyblogger

I was looking around on Copyblogger and stumbled across an absolute gem:

You can’t drive a car in first gear and reverse at the same time. Likewise, you shouldn’t try to use different types of thinking simultaneously. You’ll strip your mental gears. 

Creating means generating new ideas, visualizing, looking ahead, considering the possibilities. Evaluating means analyzing and judging, picking apart ideas and sorting them into piles of good and bad, useful and useless. 

Most people evaluate too soon and too often, and therefore create less. (emphasis mine) In order to create more and better ideas, you must separate creation from evaluation, coming up with lots of ideas first, then judging their worth later.

Copyblogger is chock full of good information if you're into marketing and blogging:
http://www.copyblogger.com/

1 Great Tip for Becoming a Better Artist

Here is a great habit you should consider picking up if you want to become a professional artist.

Work on projects.

Here's the explanation:

You can spend a lot of time sketching from nature and drawings nudes.  You can draw a thousand little heads on notebook paper.  You can work on your shading and line weight, etc.

Unfortunately, however, good draftsmanship is trumped by good design sense.

You're not going to learn design by sketching and making incomplete drawings.  You learn design by finishing.

This is why working on projects is so important.

You can make up your own if you like.  Maybe you've had this idea for a graphic novel kicking around in your head.  Draw it!  Are you in a band?  Make stickers, fliers, and CD covers.  Make a coffee cup painting for a local coffee shop...free of charge!

Having a project to work on teaches you how to solve relevant problems.  It builds the skills you need to be successful in the marketplace.  You learn how to make compelling work.  You learn how to use space effectively.  You learn how to make your drawings serve your purpose.

Don't just doodle.  Work on projects.

Hemingway on Style

Steven Pressfield has posted George Plimpton’s famous interview of Ernest Hemingway.
Something that Hemingway said really struck a chord with me:

INTERVIEWER

Could you say how much thought-out effort went into the evolvement of your distinctive style?

HEMINGWAY

That is a long-term tiring question and if you spent a couple of days answering it you would be so self-conscious that you could not write. I might say that what amateurs call a style is usually only the unavoidable awkwardnesses in first trying to make something that has not heretofore been made. Almost no new classics resemble other previous classics. At first people can see only the awkwardness. Then they are not so perceptible. When they show so very awkwardly people think these awkwardnesses are the style and many copy them. This is regrettable.

I was reminded of a quote.  I don't remember the source, but it was basically that a person's style is the sum of their deficiencies.

Style should be a choice, not an excuse for bad craft.

Go read the rest of the interview.

How to Stop Being a Frustrated Creative

If you're like me, you have a desire to create things.

If you're like me, you also have a particular nagging problem:

When I'm creating something, I get aggravated because I'm not getting the result I want, and I'm not talking about feeling frustration at the end of a project.  I get frustrated in the middle of the project!


I've always looked to the end of things too quickly.  My 12th grade Calculus teacher told me I messed up math problems because my mind got ahead of itself.

But watching a friend of mine on the computer a month ago helped me realize what I've been doing wrong.

He was designing T-shirts on the computer.  I got to see his process.  He would quickly start with an idea instead of taking a long time to think about what to do.  He would just get started.  Then, once he had a rough draft down, he would correct issues he didn't like one at a time.

That was the clincher for me.

I've always thought about designs in total, and I would try to manipulate too many variables at once.

Instead, my friend would find one thing that irked him and fix that.  Then he would fix something else.  Then something else.  Before too long, he ended up with something he liked.

This change in thinking represents the difference between enjoying the work process and trying to get to the finish line as fast as you can.  Ironically, in trying to finish your work too quickly you slow yourself down with frustration and mistakes.  When you enjoy the process and fix your problems one at a time, your work is completed faster.

This mindset can be applied to anything.  You could be writing a song.  Instead of getting frustrated because the song sucks, fix the problems with it one at a time.  This melody isn't catchy enough...this turnaround is boring...this chorus is too long...etc., etc.  Before too long, you've got a much better song.  More happily, you have a much better completed song.

Don't think about how much you dislike something you've made.  Just fix what you don't like about it one little issue at a time.

From Zero to Hero in 60 Seconds

Success and failure are often a hair's width apart.

A few days ago I was working on a drawing.  I don't even remember what it was, but I recall that my first attempt was horrendous.  I mean, it was so bad that I was ready to quit drawing, sell all of my possessions, and live in a cave.  It was the kind of bad that makes you think you'd lost all the skill you had while you were asleep.

I fumed for a few minutes, but was quickly itching to give this drawing another try.

My second attempt was excellent.  It was more excellent than usual.  I was shocked-shocked that 2 subsequent attempts at the same drawing could be so widely separated in quality.

And I realized that in art, your greatest successes sometimes come after abject failures.


Making a bad drawing doesn't mean you're a cruddy artist.  It means you made a bad drawing.

Bad drawings are just a series of poor choices-of line, shape, composition, etc.  We often make poor choices because we don't have clear information about how something actually looks.  Sometimes we don't know the best way to represent something with the medium we're using.  Sometimes we labor over something that should be drawn quickly, and vice versa.

What we often lack is not ability or skill, but information.

So when a drawing is bad, we can simply ask ourselves:

-Am I clear about the way this object or body part is shaped/put together?
-Is there another way to draw the same object?
-Is the composition boring?
-Am I using enough contrast?
-Is my hand moving the way it should?*

*A note about this question.  I feel like I need to move my hand in a certain way when I'm drawing a comic page, and another when I'm drawing a slick cartoon.  Different hand movements equal different lines.  I can draw wildly different images depending on how much freedom I give my hand to move the way it wants.  My hand movements change the appearance of the lines, and therefore the tone of the entire drawing.

Keep drawing.  You never know when a masterpiece is going to show up.

The Great Aggravation, or, Why Life Isn't Fair

Maybe now isn't the best time to write.  I'm seriously aggravated.

And, I'm listening to music.  Rap, even.  Is it wise to listen to heavily lyrical music while writing?  No.

Do you ever spend a lot of time on a project, you like the results, then you hate the same image 2 hours later?

That just happened to me.

The annoying thing is that simplicity and complexity have nothing to do with the attractiveness of art.   Art is compelling or not regardless of its sophistication.  There is often no discernible difference in artistic quality between good looking art and mediocre art.  It's just that one person's collection of lines is more fun to look at than another's.

So, the only way to make compelling art is to keep drawing bad images over and over and over and over...  The worst kind of trial-and-error.

And some kid comes along who makes all the right kinds of lines.  Not because he's practiced more than you, but because he has a particular way of thinking, moving his hand, and thinking about things that cause him to lay down attractive lines.  He's lucky.

End of rant.

Guess some of us have to learn the hard way.

We Hate Art - We Love Art

Artists are creators.

We make things.  We take pride in our ability to have an idea, and bring that idea into existence in the form of a painting, drawing, website, article, or whatever.  Theoretically, creation and creativity are fun and exciting.  Realistically, creation is frustrating; at least, it is for someone like me.

Maybe you're like me.

Idea generation is a skill.  I'm improving, but, for a long time, I haven't been the sort of fellow that comes up with ideas while I'm living.  So, when I need to generate ideas, for a commissioned work or a personal project, I sometimes have a very difficult time deciding what to do.  I second guess myself.  When I decide on an idea and bring it into the world, I'll get frustrated with my execution.  I often miss fundamental errors until I'm finished with the work.  Does this sound familiar to anyone?

For me, then, the entire process is fraught with frustration and failure.

I've discovered that the reason for my frustration is that I have a 2-bit approach to my work.  I either like it, or I hate it.  Success or failure.  Good or bad.

Instead, we can develop, as I've mentioned before, a healthier attitude of curiosity towards our work.  We learn from both success and failure, and always enjoy the process.  It's a process that's focused on discovery.

Why do we love Art?


Because we have the opportunity to contribute.  It feels good to bring beauty into the world; to spread ideas; to be appreciated and respected.

Why do we hate Art?


Because to create is to be criticized, misunderstood, or ignored.  To make art sometimes means to try your best, and to find out that your best isn't good enough.  It may be someday, but not today.

Hugh Macleod has the best advice about making art:  Ignore Everybody.  Do your own thing in your own way.  He draws cartoons on the back of business cards.  He did that for 10 years, just for fun.  Now, he's selling prints and spreading ideas.  Did he ever think that drawing on business cards would become such an important part of his life?  I doubt it.

We can choose to love art instead of hating the process.  We can learn to contribute to the world in our own ways, without listening to the legions of people who don't really know what they're talking about.

We can enjoy the process.  This is your life.  You might as well like it.