Do artists take other artists as students?

[lwflouisa]

Specifically what I mean is, I finally restarted working on graphic novel scripts, after a hiatus to primarily work on writing prose for a while.

My understanding is, it's hard to find an artist that you are not already friends with.

Do artists ever take other artists as students? Most of my trouble seems to be background art, but I can definitely do character art well enough.

In my experience, I can kind of do background art, when I do a layered approach, where I do basic shapes as one layer, line art on one layer, shading on one layer, and inking on the final layer. Although this is genuinely time consuming, and mainly works for detailed illustrations.

( Not that you don't want detail, but I assume that might be a bit ... overkill. )

I figure I might have a better chance overcoming my art weaknesses, than finding an artist. Plus the script I have in mind is pretty long. ( I'm adapting all 9 novelettes. )

Thanks for reading.

[DokiDokiTsuna]

Hopefully I'm understanding the question right...I don't think most artists have time to do 1-on-1 tutoring with people they don't know. I've never even heard of anyone offering to do it for money...someone out there probably would, but I don't think it's 'a thing'.

You're better off looking for tutorial series/videos, which lots of artists have made, and are making all the time. Since so many people have trouble with backgrounds, I'm sure there are resources out there that can help you learn what you need for your project.

[AirisKiahin]

I'd say we are too different to teach personally. I mean unless you're drawing in some specific commercial style, you will be different from others. But if somebody tries to teach you, it is likely you might take their style which will hurt both of you.

I had two "teachers". The first one offered to teach me because I "had a potential". I was very young and was happy to agree. But that turned into her "fix the head and the arms". She was a good artist, she saw my mistakes, but she couldn't explain them, because she didn't know the theoretical base either, just had good feeling of proportions and was experienced. However I did my best and drew the same sketch again, again and again. Two weeks later she blacklisted me, because I was "irritating". Now it's been years and she is still at the same level, while I'm (sorry I'm so shy) more popular and strong

My next teacher appeared years later. He didn't really teach me, I'd say this was more like sharing the experience. I like this more, because I've heard what he said but didn't always listen. He taught me some good things, but we are really different and has absolutely different thougths of art.
I'm kind of more "technical" artist. I can draw everything from my imagination, it took me years to study anatomy, colouring, shading, etc. Of course I still need references and struggle with complex composition
He is more of a "painter". When I first saw him I was stunned how cool his drawings were. But he showed me the process and it appeared he just traces over 3D models and then just adds colors and shadings on the same formula, which works good. And he can't even draw a static pose from his imagination. And we always argue, because he thinks I have no chances to become popular because I use lineart+colors+shading combination while "all the cool artists draw lineless" (c).
I still respect him, but a lot of different views made it impossible for me to take him as a teacher. He is very popular, very cool and does know some good techniques. But I don't want to reformat my mind just because he is sure that's better

Finally, I was kind of teacher myself. Well, it worked great with two kids of my friend. But honestly I didn't like them just copying my style. Maybe that's OK while they're kids, but what if grown ups continue to copy my style? I don't want to have clones and they are most likely to get harassed for copying me.

Another case was not so long ago. A guy e-mailed me because he loved my comics and wanted to ask for advice to start his own. I didn't have time to teach him, but gave some brief tips where to start. He started and came back, worried that his audience doesn't grow. I gave new advice on how to improve his drawings. Also I noticed serious troubles with text bubbles (like using some weird default fonts, not centered text, etc.). I found some good tutorials about that, explained how he could fix that.

A day later he e-mailed me, telling drawing is too hard for him and he is going to drop the comics. I didn't know this guy personally, we weren't friends, and I didn't really want to teach him. But still I've lost my time to read through his comics, analyse it, give constructive feedback, search for tutorials that would help him. Just for him to start whining and drop the comics instead of trying. I ignored that last message of him, because neither I wanted to turn in some kind of psychological support nor I wanted to yell at him.
Few days later he e-mailed me again, because he decided to keep going. I've checked the comics and indeed he keeps going. With the same mistakes, same bad formatted speech bubbles. So all the time I've spent for him was for nothing. And I haven't even agreed to take him as my student. I don't reply him any more, because I'm very disappointed about that

I guess the best thing is not to find some teacher. The best thing is to find some art community. Like on Discord or Facebook artists might have communities with some special critique rooms. That would help better. And of course keep searching and watching proper tutorials

[33rdCenturyCaveman]

Am editors not a thing among visual artists? Honest question.

[Luminosophy]

Not really, not unless you're working in an industry setting like an animation project might have a lead animator, or in film you can have art directors who's job it is to ensure cohesiveness to a specific vision/ outcome. I took a night course at a uni once for comics which was taught by an editor and he did seem to have some oversight in an artist's work. When he critiqued me, he might not have technical knowledge to tell me how to fix things but he definitely knew what to point out. I think it's highly reliant on the kind of work you do, for team projects produced by studios. Absolutely. Indie artists... not so much. The whole point of going indie is to produce works with visions that studios aren't interested in, lol.

To answer the OP though, I /have/ done mentoring in the past but I largely gave it up. I tutored three young people irl, however the problem is that passion can quickly dwindle when something becomes 'work' and it's honestly very difficult to motivate people externally. Even with people online, I found that people were asking me for help and then giving up almost immediately when they found out that I wasn't able to give them One Simple Trick Doctors Hate.

It's just really not worth my time unless the individual themselves has their own drive to learn and it's absolutely what they want to do , not just have fun. The other issue is also what Airis pointed out, at most you can only be guided on fundamentals. I'd be weary of mentees that are highly impressionable and either absorb so much of your style that they end up devoiding themselves of their own identity, or are just otherwise looking for something you can't really give them because it's not what you do. And the worst is mentees developing pure reliance on you. You can't just introduce them to a knew concept and know that they have the resources to go and research it themselves from other sources, they just sorta sit there and expect you to hand everything on a silver platter. Like yes, you're supposed to be there to help, but even if know how to explain a subject it just might not 'click' with the way you explain it and their education is still largely their own responsibility. You're just one small piece of the whole.

Ultimately I agree, discord improvement based groups are the best place to go to find feedback. Unfortunately it can be a bit of a wild west. I got kicked from one for having the nerve to suggest that taking off the line stabilizer is a good way to practice (as well as traditional inking) to avoid tools becoming crutches. One girl ran with that far enough to cry about me saying her lineart was terrible and the mods were... not stable people. I would personally avoid large discord groups because they tend to form extremely small cliques were you have like 5 people who actively engage in conversation and the rest of the other 100 people are just posting work and leaving, lol.

Feel them out before submitting work for critique, a lot of people will say they're critique oriented but throw a fit the second anything that doesn't glower with praise comes their way. Other groups will just tear everything apart in a frenzy and spit about how they have asshole passes because i T ' s C o N s T r U c T i V e

It's near impossible to find a middle ground, but they do exist.

[Swamp]

In general, people like to be helpful, but a mentor relationship is too big a time commitment.

Forums like this can be a good place to ask specific questions. Most art/writing forums have a critique session.

I really recommend portfolio reviews! They give you a chance to show your art to professionals and get advice. A lot of colleges do them for potential students.

[lwflouisa]

So if one wanted to find a discord for that sort of thing mentioned, is there a good place to start?

Without mentioning the specific one, there was one that had been around since ... I think after this other place similar to Tapas shut down. ( Not Webtoon, something else. )

I might see if Webtoon has one. if not that maybe this one.

( Also I can do backgrounds, it just get the impression it's way more detailed than you might need, and takes way to much time. ) I may have to scale back my style a smidgen.

Found one that lists several servers. Awesome.

[Hodge]

Ah some artists have discord groups that are active and you'll get feedback from them. There's one I know where there is a monthly assignment and then he'll do critiques on his twitch stream. Also, some artists have a mentorships you can do privately. It may be on their patreon, Adam Duff (I think??) has his website, and some do it through online programs like Schoolism and Smart school. I feel like a love of learning is important fro artists and luckily there are just sooo many online resources.

Also, I agree with @spudfuzz that even if you have a mentor or teacher, everything is still on you to put in the work and it can be frustrating from the mentor's perspective when you put in time to help someone but the mentee doesn't follow through on their end. I've never done any formal teaching or mentoring, but I've realized that for some its more about fantasizing about making art, pondering about their "style" or abstract barriers, or even going on about business/career stuff waaaay too early rather than just focusing on the craft and creating a body of work. Hence why unless someone can prove they're serious and willing to put in the time, I wouldn't do it.

[claiborneart]

here's a thread on here about comic artist servers: https://forums.tapas.io/t/discord-severs-where-comic-artists-can-unite/40812 - If you're aiming to focus to improving your visual skills, a more art focused community might be a better fit though.

But yeah, gonna echo what other people are saying about mentorships: unless you're willing to offer at least as much time doing something like flatting or copyediting for the mentor artist, that's a big time ask of a stranger. While artist friends can be great sources of inspiration and critique, it's better for all involved if you do most of your practice on your own. Self-motivation and discipline is the key to any success.

Plus many big comic artists will also post videos and/or tutorials of their process, which is a bit like an impersonal free mentor-ship from them. If you google "[Popular artist you like] art tutorial" something will often pop up.

And if you're lost on improving art in general, here's a guide on different fundamentals to practice, along with a list of both online and print resources for learning them: https://www.reddit.com/r/ArtistLounge/comments/c0z38g/a_table_that_shows_you_what_is_the_most_optimal/

Artists in general tend to be pretty friendly and helpful to other artists as well. Even though a mentorship is more than most will want take one, if you make a post on the forums here offering a critique swap or looking for some quick feedback on a piece, people will generally respond.