#crappysessions

[crappycrafts-blog]

Session 2: The most important chapter

Beginnings are always the hardest.

Continuing from the last session, I am approaching the most important chapter in the book. Of course, when I started drawing this isn’t the first thing I bothered with. Drawing has always been a part of me ever since I was a kid. I started drawing through imitating other drawings from books, anime, merchandise and etc. I never thought that there would be such technicalities in drawing.

I was very happy and confident with my skills and myself growing up knowing how to draw even without the knowledge of anatomy, composition, color harmony, and stuffs like that. I grew up with people giving me compliments just because I can make an exact copy of another drawing or character. However, after going to college and taking drawing seriously, I knew that my skills weren’t as good as anyone has told me before and so I lost my confidence and believed that I really have no skill. All I did was to copy other people’s work and what’s good about that, right? I did nothing creative at all.

That is why I am starting all over again and I want to make things right. Although I believe that art is free for anyone to use as a way of expression even with or without the knowledge about the technical stuffs BUT since my case is different, I am pursuing this as a career so I had to learn these stuffs to add value to my works. I totally get it and it’s never easy to think that I need to step back and go back to the start and begin all over again.

What’s even worse is whenever I think that “Hey, I am more than 20 years old now. Isn’t it a bit too late to start all over again?” but you know what? It’s just me. It’s mind over matter. It’s never too late to start anew.

Anyway, enough drama and let’s get to the point here. So before the actual start of the drawing part, Loomis have 5 pages of introduction to this chapter explaining the importance of this chapter and all that it contains.

I won’t point out the things I highlighted and summarize them instead. I just had to emphasize these questions because they seem to be very helpful in my case.

· “What is arrogance in terms of light and shadow, form, and color?”

· “What lines give frustration and forlorn hope to people?”

· “What is the gesture in relation to the emotion?”

· “Why is a certain childish face adorable, a certain adult face suspicious and untrustworthy?”

(Figure Drawing For All Its Worth by Andrew Loomis, pg. 21)

As I’ve said already quite a few times, I was once a copycat and not an artist. I thought that by copying another I could excel and get ahead of others. However, it wasn’t that easy and I wasn’t doing it right either. When I realized this, I thought it was over. Loomis also pointed out that improving can’t happen either just by watching another man paint in which another misconception I’m trying to brainwash myself just to skip the necessary step of practicing again and again. Improvement can only be attained by combining hard work, effort, and a great deal of passion. Of course, it is easy to say that. I am not yet a master and I am saying such things even though I find it hard to keep up with this responsibility.

Being an artist isn’t just about technical skills. Anyone can be good at drawing and can draw all kinds of things with great detail but would it matter if that piece did not convey the message it needs to deliver? Most artists I know can deliver messages using only a few lines but it’s powerful enough. Some even have less knowledge on these technical skills but can also convey messages. Hmm then does that mean fundamentals aren’t that important as long as one can deliver a message. Well, not quite. As I’ve said earlier, in my case as someone pursuing this as a career, it is a must for me to know these fundamentals. This gives me a leeway on producing any kind of art by being creative with the fundamentals.

Line is one of the basic elements of a drawing. Pretty much if you think about it, a drawing consists of a lot of lines connected to each other and overlap each other to create a form, dimension, and even depth. Line is also the most powerful tool in drawing. With only a few lines creating 2 circles and one curved or straight line, one already has a face. What more if line was used in detail?

Study the nude. At first this is such an embarrassment to deal with. To be able to study this, one would need to look for a live model or nude pictures somewhere as reference. It’s even harder when one’s workplace is placed where anyone would see the screen of a computer or the table top which, if it isn’t obvious enough, is my situation. I don’t have a room of my own and generally everyone in our family shares everything so there’s really not enough privacy to begin with. I got used to isolating myself for the sake of privacy that I became such an extreme introvert.

There’s nothing to be embarrassed about the nude though. Generally, we all have a body of our own and it’s not even a mystery for us to know the body parts since we study that since elementary, kindergarten even.. right? Anyway, the point is, studying the body is essential for an artist since it’s the most common element we use in an artwork unless one specializes in landscapes and sceneries.

So from what Loomis have stated about lines and the nude, practicing these will greatly help an artist in the most basic way. Practice your strokes and try to create variations with line weight. Also, how one handles the pencil would affect this greatly. I normally have a tight grip with pencils and I usually draw my sketches with dark strokes so whenever I need to erase, things get messy. Being able to draw

sketches with light strokes would really help keeping the artwork clean. It’s not a problem in digital though since one can just layer the sketch and the main linework on another layer.

In the next session, I’ll be doing some line practices and will proceed with the body proportions.

[crappycrafts-blog]

Session 1: Motivational excerpts

I am an artist…

Or so I say…

I am now a working artist in a small indie game company. However, I still think that my skills are not enough to make high quality art hence, the name crappycrafts. I am not saying that my boss was wrong to hire me but it’s just that I want to deliver more.

I am a lazy person. I am ambitious as well. Very contradicting huh? I am aware that I can’t reach my dreams if I stay lazy af but I can’t help it! Sleeping and playing games are just so fun to do!!! Thinking about it though, I have so much passion in playing games to the point that I exert so much effort to finish the story, complete all the missions/quests and get all items/equipments. That is why I don’t understand why I am being lazy to do things for the better of myself, right? I know for sure that if I exert the same effort that I put into games into learning and practicing art then I’ll get to achieve my ultimate goal, my ultimate quest in life and that is to be a professional artist. (my personal definition of professional is “being someone who doesn’t need a diploma or anything but someone who is knowledgeale in his craft and able to produce something that can level the standards of the community and the industry.)

I graduated college with a degree in BSIT with specialization in Digital Arts. It’s not an art school where I studied and as a matter of fact, college sucked. I didn’t learn a single thing in that course that helped me to get where I am now. What it thought me is that I can never learn the fundamentals unless I take interest to it (even without a teacher). So let’s get to the point shall we?

I am starting this blog(?) for the sake of keeping track with my studies. Hopefully I stay motivated. I am very bad at updating stuffs too so I am getting anxious as I am writing this but I have to learn how to negate my lazy self so I can continue forward.

I will be studying the book of Andrew Loomis, “Figure Drawig For All It’s Worth”. Almost all artists I saw online recommends his book and I’ve already read the book before but of course, I didn’t take it seriously. I just read it without grasping things and without applying and practicing those. I already started reading it again and I got some excerpts from it that I think are important to highlight.

All these excerpts can be found in the ‘Opening Chat’ section of the book.

You love to draw. You wish to draw well. If there is any chance, you greatly wish to make a living at it. - pg. 15

Honestly, I never thought that I will pursue art as a career. When I was a kid, I just draw whenever I feel like it. I can’t really say it was a hobby since it’s very rare that I draw although back in high school, I got so much passion in drawing that I draw even though everything I do looks like crap. Well, I still draw crappy art up to this day. I am one of those people who didn’t know what they wanna do in life and I just had to pick a course to take in college and so I said, “yeah well, I draw so maybe do that” I didn’t know I’ll regret that decision so much.

I believe that greater chances of success lie in the mental approach to the work, rather than in sheer technical knowledge - pg. 15

I am lazy… I already said that, right? So even if I get the urge to draw something and be creative, I just shrug the idea and think of it as a bother and that I’ll just exhaust myself. Someone slap me please…

I feel that talent means little unless coupled with an insatiable desire to give an excellent personal demonstration of ability. I feel also that talent must be in company with a capacity for unlimited effort, which provides the power that eventually hurdles the difficulties that would frustrate lukewarm enthusiasm. - pg. 15

Talent, well, I think that there are really gifted people. However, I also believe that talent is worth nothing if it’s not put into practice. It will stay stagnant and will never improve if not taken care of. Like a seed that needs to be watered and exposed to sunlight, talent needs effort to achieve improvement (but exposure isn’t a good deal to take advantage of artists so please stop that nonsense)

…what is of greatest importance and subordinates what must be there is of less importance - pg. 15

I used to get compliments for taking good pictures. So I thought that I have a good sense of composition but that isn’t the case. Taking pictures are a lot easier than drawing a whole scene. In pictures, I just need to position the camera in a nice perfect angle to capture my message but in drawing, I need to think of what things would make up the message I want to convey.

Everything about your pictures is, and should be, a little of you- pg. 16

This is probably the easiest thing I could do in all of these important points Loomis stated. I always put something of me in my art to the point that sometimes, I overshadow the personality of the character I wanted to portray. So far, I have 13 official OCs that I plan to create a comic of and they have varying personalities. I am an introvert and an extreme one so I always find it hard to portray my OC that is an extrovert. I suppose I need to control the amount of me that I put into things.

Good drawing is neither an accident nor the result of an inspired moment when the Muses lend a guiding hand. - pg. 17

THIS HITS HARD because you know what? I always rely on the supernatural being to bless me the motivation and the ability to draw sometimes. And at times when I feel really exhausted, I just thought that maybe the being is not here to bless me. Pretty ridiculous, right? I keep giving excuses not to draw or practice and yet I get frustrated when I can’t achieve what I have in mind.

Use another’s style as a crutch only-until you can walk alone. - pg. 17

There are lots of artists out there nowadays that has a distinct art style e.g, Kawacy, WLOP, Ilya Kuvshinov, Gabriel Picolo, Artgerm, Sakimichan and more that anyone would be able to tell that it’s their artwork without even looking at the watermark. I’ve been seeing other new artists out there that I could tell that they were influenced by some of these masters I mentioned. There’s nothing wrong with that and I am actually awed that they managed to get the technique from another and use it for their own. However, I honestly feel that anyone can have this distinct art style if we keep developing what we gained from others. So far, I have very inconsistent art style since im a crap.

… nurture individuality and not produce imitation. - pg. 17

I started out drawing by merely imitating a photo of a character. From the pose, to the expression, to the colors, and more. Of course, just like most of artists out there, I thought that this is what it means to draw. Apparently, that’s wrong. Drawing as a person can be different as drawing as an artist. An artist adds creativity to the creation and not just imitating what is seen.

Technique is not so important as the young artist is inclined to believe; the living and emotional qualities- the idealization you put into your work- are far more important - pg. 18

Every artist, every person has different experiences in life. These experiences enables us to think differently and have varying opinions. This creates a unique idea and personality within us and we can learn how to turn it into something creative that is new and that will define us.

For the next post, I’ll be tackling the chapter one of the book. I’ll probably take out some excerpts again and anything hat could be helpful to highlight.