Are You Afraid to be Critiqued?

You need more critique, not less.

If you're not out there, you're not making a dent.

The Real Secret of Drawing

I've been on vacation this week, which is always glorious simply because I do exactly what I want. No responsibilities and no worries.

I didn't touch a pencil for 5 days.

When I picked it back up yesterday I was reminded of one of the greatest drawing lessons you can learn.

To draw well you have to think well.

Your mental approach to drawing is more important than the way you move the pencil. Good art is mainly a series of good decisions. How do you set up the compositions? Where do you put the shadows? How do you most effectively depict a scene or action?

Beyond that, intelligently naming your problems is the key to solving them. Too busy? Awkward posing? Flat drawing?

If your drawings are suffering, begin to explicitly name the problems and apply your best logic to every artistic decision. Begin to make sound artistic choices.

And now, back to the beach.

I'll Tell You What's Stupid

I just want to know that there are people out there who can relate to this.

I drew a picture yesterday and hated it.
I woke up this morning and like it.

sigh

At least I like it now! Better than the alternative.

A Tip for Improving as an Artist

One of the best pieces of advice I ever heard...

If you're not getting the results you want, do something different.

How often do we forget that?

Choosing Lines

Wave after wave of drawing inspired frustration combined with some Paul Pope, Ashley Wood, and Jamie Hewlett has taught me that I don't really understand what lines look good in a drawing.

Time to reset my instincts.

First Principles

The other I was struck by an idea.

It's one of those ideas that a lot of you will probably read and think, "Uh, yeah. That's obvious."

But maybe, just maybe, this particular thought will revolutionize your artistic process.

In every activity there are some very basic, fundamental principles -- First Principles, as I will refer to them.

I was struck by the revelation that I don't consciously follow the First Principles of art.

What I mean is that I create art on a sort of auto-pilot. I can look at an image and know that something irks me, but I usually don't verbalize the specific problem.

And that's a big problem itself.

I realized that unless I name the problem specifically I can't solve it efficiently. Often, to name a problem is to know how to solve it.

My current goal is to make every artistic decision justifiable. That means if you asked me why I made any particular artistic decision I would be able to explain it to you and my argument wouldn't fall apart once it was verbalized. ( I don't know about you, but I sometimes find that the opinions I half-consciously hold to sound much less compelling when I speak them to someone else.)

The takeaway is this: Name your issues. What bothers you about your piece? Is it too busy? Does it lack contrast? Are the strokes messy?

Also, if you're having trouble determining what to do next on a piece, perhaps you should go back to the basic questions. Is this piece balanced? Is there enough contrast (contrast of tone, size, texture,etc.) to make it interesting? Does it lack variety or rhythm? Is the composition weak?

It all comes down to sound thinking and decision making -- i.e. good judgment.

Stumped

What do you do when you're stumped?

Maybe you've been in a situation like one of these:

• You're working on an image for someone but you can't get it right. You've redrawn the same image 3, 5, 10, or even 20 times and it's just not working.
• You're working on something and you reach a point where you don't know what to do next. You know the piece isn't ready, but you don't know how to proceed.
• You're trying to solve some artistic problem, but you can't seem to find a good solution

I've been in all 3 of these situations and more.

What do you do when you're stumped?

When you're stumped, you're butting up against the limit of your knowledge, creativity,
and skill. It's like a bodybuilder trying lift as much weight as possible. It's hard because he's
doing all he can do. A bodybuilder can't lift more by trying harder, he has the muscles
or he doesn't.

The reason is that being stumped is primarily a thought problem. You can't overcome
your current limits until you change the way you think.


So the best thing you can do when you're stumped is to figure out how to adjust
your thinking to get a better result.

Making art is fundamentally about decision making and problem solving. Every line you
place on the paper is a decision. When something doesn't look as good as you'd like,
that means you have room to make more effective artistic decisions.

So how do you fix it?

Try this: Find someone out there who is doing the kind of work you want to do
and read anything they've written or said.

The goal here is to figure out how they approach their art. You want to get inside their
head. Follow their reasoning - discover why they choose one thing over another - figure out
how to adapt their thinking into your own work.

The problem in making art is never simply a lack of skill. It's a lack of proper thinking.

Don't grind away at the same problem over and over hoping to get lucky. Figure out
the weak points in your process and patch them. Get some perspective on your own
artistic problems by seeing how other artists tackle theirs.