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Art rant advice repost

im deciding to post how I do some breakdowns and some art critiques I've done in the past. feel free to reach out to me if you want me to talk about how to understand the subject you're trying to draw I also have a discord server with a bunch of art resources I might also try to start streaming about it if people would be interested in talking about developing art skills with me. This post is otherwise going to be not to the point because I'm sad today and saying things about art tends to make me feel better.

this is a basic breakdown on how to relate a bit of average proportions to anatomy without getting too bogged down in the details. I think most people's place to start is anatomy and overlook the importance the rythym of form (like underlying 3d structure or the balance/weight of a figure), if it isn't anatomy it's often the proportions and learning proportions makes people think there's only one way to properly draw humans when that is very rarely the case. While anatomy isn't the...worst place to start I wouldn't really recommend it when it's seeing the details before the foundation. Like thinking about the interior decorating before the walls of the house have even been erected. Like interior decorating without a house it's especially difficult when you don't know what the space is supposed to be or where anything fits, and the end result isn't gonna come out the way you imagined because the couch you wanted to put in the space can't really fit when you didn't know where the doors or windows were supposed to be when you picked it out. That's like putting all the work into drawing the face and then the rest of the body looks weirdly less detailed or awkward because the face was your sole focus and you ran out of energy to put as much thought into the rest of it. I know it. I can tell when that's the case. It's practically always on the face or the clothes or a torso with arms not properly attached to it. I see it! AND I KNOW YOU'RE DRAWING IT A PART AT A TIME INSTEAD OF SEEING IT HOLISTICALLY!

Breakdowns that give you a sense of volume, ignoring the details like clothes hair and specific facial features can be a really helpful tool to understanding what is actually important to getting a peice to look right without commiting too much effort into it. Also seeing stuff like it's 3d can begin to give you an idea how light behaves on it because it looking at your subject like an object than simply lines on a 2d page.

some extra examples of figure breakdowns it's good to do it on references and it's good to try to imagine it like this so you can pose characters with dimension even if not all the limbs are visible and visually proportionate because of the viewer's relationship to the subject...or in a simpler scarier term the PERSPECTIVE.

understanding perspective is one of the biggest reasons why you can't rely on proportions to inform you on how to make the cool kind of art you wanna make. What I often see with it is that people jump straight into perspective thinking that it's just about making hands or feet really big and the rest of the far away stuff small for no reason while still having a weak understanding of the logic of why "close thing big, far thing small". They wonder why their art looks kind of weird and janky struggling with one of the most obtuse and difficult thing without asking the easier more relevant questions. What do I think is the easier more relevant questions to figure out first? What is the question so many artists starting off fail to answer?

~drumroll~ What are you trying to draw? That's the golden question and so many artists can't fuckin answer it. Hell even I struggle to answer it sometimes and when I do those are the art peices that end up being the biggest pain in the arse. How does one figure out the answer to it? well you draw a lot of trash really quickly and put something together when you find something interesting in the shit sketch bin and then expand on it until you like it AND THEN you move on to really rendering it, this is what a lot of people will call thumbnailing OR you find references and mash it together until you get the vibe of what you're going for. Really good artists will do both. This stage can be super fun but it's not necessarily making the prettiest looking art ever out the gate. It's a stage I'm stuck on a lot.

Because it's the part of art that I can figure out what I wanna say with a piece and really play around with how the viewer looks at it or how to pose a character without getting bogged down on the details.

I'm an artist with commitment issues to rendering I jump from sketch to sketch because I can't stop comming up with neat lil ideas I get enamored with and it's the reason I can't make anything social media worthy and is why I'm a unknown nobody with the art I make. despite that it's probably why I've been pretty decent in my general development as an artist and I maintain the motivation to keep at it because art to me is just a process of getting the idea down and getting better at getting the point across with it. And really that's the only the point of learning through all specific art skills, it's to be more effective at getting the idea across. Not just for drawing hands "correct" as it is to get the point across that what the view is looking at is a hand. Regardless of if it is funny lil animal crossing ball hands or a monsterous pile of limbs.

anyways this is probably a decent spot to conclude this particular artsy rant. Key takeaways -don't get caught up in the details -focus on the point you want to get across than the quality of art -good lessons to learn first is the foundational stuff like 3d forms and gesture (stuff like anatomy, perspective and proportions are hard without a good understanding of those two) - be ok with sketching a lot of shit really fast it's part of the process - I wanna rant about references in another post -I'll probably rant more about perspective and composition in another post -color too that can be a different different different post. -I'm sad and talking about art makes me feel better it hasn't solved my problem but i feel a little less shitty about it now.

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All my writing is depressing I dunno why I wish I was more fun and uplifting as a writer but I just write situations where characters always end up alone with no one to save them and not enough resources to save themselves. I wish I can write a happy ending but I feel like I lack the imagination to really see it.

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Stella Tennant at Claude Montana, Spring 1996

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promptly blacked out after seeing that lucina finally got a scale figure after all these years... i had to draw the updated design immediately T_T

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In America there's not much great about this place other than the friends I have here and the hiking trails I live near. I love those but it feel like the culture here is about isolating you as much as possible with time and money you will never have enough of. I hate how much people want to say that you need to devote your everything into work and never think about anything else and how being friends with people is not for the relationship you have with them as much as it is meant to advance your career. It's so fucking weird and I don't like trying to make friends with people based off that because I need money. What kind of freak way is it to exist without interests or hobbies or passions because you like something and instead having to think of it as an asset for someone else to be able to make use of? hell to base your identity or personality off what you consume instead of what you do or a code of conduct you follow. Is that not weird? Is it not incredibly strange to not be passionate or interested in anything? Why is it considered a mental illness to give a fuck? Why do people think it's cool to discourage any bit of passion in something? Why do people think I'm the asshole for telling people to shove it when they think it's funny to belittle someone for liking things? I hate the grindset mindset artists that think drawing 24/7 is the thing that makes you a good artist and don't actually have any interest in learning art or making something cool with their art. I find the art business people to be creepy when they shill art classes all the time while the people who are actually good at art are happy to point at free resources for free. I hate gutless art people who say they like art and want to do art but are unwilling to pick up a pencil and say anything with their work, and instead compain about how much they suck at art. Like it's noble to be pitiful. I feel like those people are AI bros without the audacity to pull the trigger on how they really feel about making art. I hate the AI art people not because I give a fuck about the technology or the soul of the art or how lazy they are but I'm pissed about the kind of people who only want to consume more more more without a second thought and no appreciation for a simple skill and instead letting an idiot machine do all the effort and thinking for them. I think those people are like gluttonous pigs with no respect or taste for whatever kind of art is put in front of them. I swear any fuckass that ever tells me to ask AI to do anything for me can do more sodomising themselves on a cactus for me than AI anything can. AI making art for me is the most fuckless cuck thing I could ever ask for. I might as well ask it to have sex with my partner and eat my food for me like I'm some shapeless invalid. I feel like the world we've been moving in is only contributing further into this madness and not enough people can pull their head out of the trough to consider that maybe we've either been poisoned or we're being forced to feed into it further to survive and it's wrong. It upsets me that I'm powerless and I don't have enough or the right kind of friends to figure out a better way out or around or away from this nightmare. I need money to have freedom but I need to sell my freedom and probably my friends to have money. Without money I think I'll really be without anything in America.

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Being bummed out that getting a job has been awful and nothing has been working or getting me really close to getting a job. Friends have nice things to say but I still feel really worthless and my skills and knowledge and experiences really amount to nothing if I can't make money. People like my art but it doesn't really feel like it matters...anyways if anyone wants art critique or advice I'm probably good at providing that, it's the only thing that's keeping my mood from completely plummeting.

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This is great for reclassing a character from cleric to warlock. Clerics in my setting are just as much necromancers as they are healers and it doesn't quite apply to my guy, but still a sweet idea nevertheless.

anyways sad cleric

You were the healer—the last light of your party. But now your final ally dies in your arms, and there’s no one left to save. The enemy jeers, calling you useless. You look up, eyes hollow and black. The light is gone. The Void answers. You're no longer a cleric. You're something far worse.

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Adding this to something I could try to copy. I especially dig the snake pattern on the robe of the last saint. If the OG artist sees this mind if I jack your style for a ride a little? I mostly want to try to emulate the composition with the portrait border around the saints.

Unusual Saints To Pray To

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izanami

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I'm writing a fanfiction about Temenos from octopath 2

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I like Jason and Damian being siblings in the league that just support the league's views together. Jason thinks Damian killing is alright and the thing that protects him in a world that will kill him. Damian while in the league is fine with what Jason is and changes his mind as he develops with the batfamily. I like Damian being the one redeemed and becoming a part of the batfamily despite his past, when Jason won't be. I think Damian being conflicted over a double standard for what makes you worth forgiving and what you should give up to be "good" is an interesting narrative. I feel like this is really only worthwhile as long as Jason stays as a villian/antihero that can occasionally show that the league is not always completely wrong in way they see things. I like the idea of them having a good relationship in the league, but Jason, like Damian's whole birthright being just another thing he needs to give up on with Al-ghul to be a good guy with the batfamily. I think Steph and Dick being a part of getting Damian to be good is great, I think Jason should be side of getting him to stick to his old ways and reject the batman way of doing things. Damian should want to be better on his own merits. Jason should reject that because doing things Batman's way got him killed, and no one cared.

Okay I’m gonna drop an unpopular opinion here

I really

Really

Really

Hate the Jason and Damian met in the league and have a close brotherly relationship

I honestly think it detracts from BOTH of their development and makes both the characters a lot more 2D and boring.

And also I think it disrespects my GIRL Stephanie brown. Bc that close personal bickering, anything goes sibling shit? Yeah that’s Damian and Steph all the way.

And yeah I tend to credit Dick Grayson (bc he’s my boy) for a lot of the Growth Damian goes through. But Stephanie brown and him have the funniest sibling relationship in history

And I think to have as interesting of a development as Damian has had you needed characters like Dick and Steph to be his Batman and Batgirl.

Dick who I think we can all agree is objectively the least violent of the bats at a baseline (Richard crash out Grayson moments notwithstanding) as well as Steph. Both have angry moments of doling out justice but BOTH prefer rehabilitation methods and tend to be more mouthy and loud about their thoughts during a battle

Steph CLAWED her way up into her position, she fought for that and held on with an iron grip that left indents. She wasn’t as good as, Dick born acrobat Grayson, Barbara prodigy Gordon and Tim genius Drake. So she worked her ass off and FORCED people to pay attention to her and got good enough that she matches the rest of the bats on the field.

Dick HAS the experience of working with difficult cases. He’s lead teams his age filled with drama, infighting and death successfully, he’s trained kids younger than him successfully on panel.

He’s canonically a very adaptable teacher, who has strength in meeting you where you’re at and getting you to move to where you want to be.

Both these things helped Damian exponentially

Now let me be so clear.

Damian did the work.

Damian put in the blood, sweat and tears into changing his beliefs and perceptions of the world. But that would not have been possible if these two didn’t at least make it known that “hey you can be the kind of person who cares and still have value and not be weak and pathetic”

Damian going vegetarian/vegan bc of his morals, Damian choosing not to kill, Damian choosing to leave Robin, Damian making choices unrelated to mantles, regrets and vengeance. Is due to the fact that he had Dick Grayson and Stephanie brown as examples (now ofc Alfred was also very very very imp but I feel like no one ignores his significance so I don’t feel the need to add him here)

And Jason?

It also imo, FUCK UP JAYS DEVELOPMENT.

Bc if Jason could be this kind, empathic older sibling to Damian? WHAT THE ABSOLUTE FUCK WAS HE DOING WHEN HE FIRST CAME TO GOTHAM? the way he treated the bats and the rogues gallery? Slaughtering all of blackgate to end up in Arkham, making dick watch him fall to his ‘death’.

No absolutely not

This is the ‘pit madness’ nonsense all over again

Jason had to see the world outside of Gotham and work with other people who were anti-heroes who fall into the category.

Bc Jason didn’t start out as an antihero

Jason was a full on villain with a grudge against other villains, he worked for the place he’s in. It’s bc of characters he interacted with, it’s bc of realizations he’s dealt with. It’s because he’s been a little too trigger happy in the wrong place and ended up looking at the grief he caused others and realizing he didn’t want to do that.

It gets rid of Jason realizing HE CAN work with his family.

It gets rid of Jason BECOMING a solid older brother to Tim and erases the Jason who WANTS to have a relationship with his family.

It erases all of the times he’s tried and failed and still got up and tried again

Both of them have grown bc of the people around them and I think if they had each other at that time it would’ve gone 1 of 2 ways

1) a toxic loop re-establishing bad beliefs and practices that damage both of them and leave them more resentful and stuck in their ways

2) they would’ve hated each other and tried to kill each other

In summary

-both these characters didn’t show up nice, they worked for it, don’t erase that

- don’t erase the characters that helped them grow (my girl Steph Brown being left out of conversations she started will kill me)

- Jason can have close relationships with the family im not saying he shouldn’t. I’m just saying that Jay is the cool older brother who very obviously loves you but was at college when you were a kid and now doesn’t really know how to interact with you and it’s awkward but you know you can go to him even if he isn’t your first call in most situations

- Damian was not a good person, he CHOSE to be that’s important to his growth. And with that growth came the ability to form the close connections he now has in canon. Without the growth he undergoes he wouldn’t be able to form the protective loving group of family and friends he has around him

- STOP IGNORING STEPH, I AM LITERALLY A DICK GRAYSON STAN ACCOUNT AND I AM OVERHERE TRYING TO GET CRUMBS OF MY GIRL OHMYGOD

- I would highkey love a short miniseries of Jason and Damian working together and developing a nice relationship both in and out of the masks but until we get that. I’m sticking to awkward brother that loves you but doesn’t get you at all

Also if you disagree/ have more nuanced takes on the Jay Damian sibling arc please leave in the reblogs and comments, I like hearing more nuanced takes and discussing just please don’t be a dick (hehe) about it

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Eat the gun…vegan gun…you can put in your mouth, num nums, just like veggies.

Owning a gun is so vegan. Owning a gun is so vegan.

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