How Does One Truly Improve There Art?

[jpnakashima]

Oh, badly worded! There was an ''as'' missing! By ''just doing the deed'' I meant ''sitting your butt and writing''. Sorry if it sounded dismissive or something!
I say that as someone who fancies himself an amateur writer. I write scripts for my Tapas comics, can't draw to save my life. I certainly think there are more things involved in writing, I don't think it's simple at all. I do think though that it only amounts to something when you actually sit and put what's in your head in the paper, which was what I mean.
I actually feel the same way for writing as I do for art. You have to write what you're bad at. What makes you nervous and frustrated.

Thank you for pointing this and clarifying your position and I'm sorry if it sounded like I was making less of the writing side!

[sirkbirb]

just sketch everything you see, study how things go and how the anatomy of other stuff is and works and stuff like that -3-

basically study and practice

[sirkbirb]

im sorry i get all wanky n stuff i dont get enough sleep

[VibrantFox]

who does these days??

[xanedis]

Dead people. Hopefully.

[punkarsenic]

people are saying keep drawing and painting and trying new things - keep doing, basically - and thats absolutely, so important.

the other side is keep learning from others. not just classes and youtube tutorials - go to galleries, study artists you like, study artists you hate. watch movies, tv shows, study them. read comics way out of your genre, era, region... you like manga? read some 80s underground american comics. you like marvel? read some classic manga. you like comics in general? explore some fine artists, and some directors. shake it up, keep your reference pool wiiiiiiiiide open. you never know where the next big inspiration is gonna come from, and the route to originality is to extend yourself beyond the popular culture, and beyond your genre & medium.

[Shanny8]

ALL of the above.

Keep drawing practicing stuff that you feel you're not good at. Keep the basics in mind and try to improve...find your flow and try to become consistent.

[xanedis]

Quite. And originality is(in my experience - feel free to dispute this) somewhat overrated. Sure, we all want novel experiences, but we also tend to gravitate towards certain types of stories again, and again, and again. Call it a tendency, call it nostalgia, but we long for something and repeatedly seek that "something" from stories. That's why many people identify as fans of a certain "genre"(fantasy, horror, film noir) - they contain those "somethings" that we look for in a story.

Philosophical tongue-wagging aside, there's much room for originality and novel ideas in modern storytelling, as well. But not everyone desires originality, and there's a place for storytelling that doesn't pursue novelty. Let's use fanfiction as an example: fanfiction is often(not always!) just a rehashing of an old plot, but the way the writer handles their characters provides a new viewpoint into the original story. In the same vein, there's new ways to approach old things, even fairy tales, to bring new life and longevity to long-dead narrative cliches.

I am sorry for a complicated and possibly hard-to-understand post. Summa summarum, please don't seek originality first and foremost - seek to convey your own story the best way you can.

@Punkarsenic Though this post was my reply to you, it became a message to new writers in general. I would be eager to hear what you have to say on the topic(on top of this), though.

[IdiotWithPencil]

How do you really improve your art?

depends, now if you're and idiot like me who was born with no idea of how to draw anything other than a scribble, you will have to go the traditional route, which is draw life and use any and all traditional drawing books for help when you're stuck, if you're a genius who started drawing like Da Vinci at age 16 then you just need to draw what you your petty little heart desires

[punkarsenic]

i think we have different understandings of originality.

of course, nothing can be truly original, and people on search for that often end up creating novelty instead. but when you put a 'new viewpoint,' thats originality. its more about not falling into cliches and bringing a new argument to the table - or building on a preexisting one. fanfiction actually leads to a great deal of originality and innovation due to the mass recycling and evolution of tropes - when people turn a trope on its head, you can get a really great fic, and that is originality.

i agree that a creator shouldnt seek originality first and foremost, largely because theyll just go after empty novelty, but a creator should strive to be widely read to have a wider frame of reference in which to create work. everything we do is referential to our surroundings - when you expand those surroundings, your work has greater potential to be exciting and meaningful, and avoid the cliches of any one genre.

[xanedis]

Well said. And I agree with what you said, even your definition of originality. I wasn't sure if you'd accept the idea of fanfiction possibly being original, so I didn't go that route when I wrote my post. XD

And you raise a good point about studying life. Just like artists, writers need to study life - people, societies, conversations, psychology, arts, school subjects, science... Writers are scholars of the mental side of life, just like the artist is a scholar of what life looks like - the visual side of life, if you will. This goes beyond books and written medias - obviously - but I agree that writers have to be well-read to understand how they should portray different aspects of society in writing.

This is getting kind of meta, and we're getting derailed from the original subject... But I feel like we established some good reasons for why both writers and artists need to study life itself.

[Hodge]

Ehh well people have already given good advice, all I can recommend is take on a project, like a comic, that gives you the drive to improve. The rest will just happen . . . or not, this is just my experience. But it's important to get a mix of building skills by learning the technical stuff/doing studies and also applying what you've learned by creating your own work. Don't be afraid to make big goals and don't ever let your feelings about your skills hold you back.

[xanedis]

waves I certainly second the idea of starting a project. Nothing motivates you like trying to get your big idea down on the paper.

[jpnakashima]

study artists you hate

This. I feel this is so important.
To understand what you don't like about something and even to acknowledge the great in what you dislike is sometimes one of the more productive exercises to me.

[Jenny-Toons]

Everyone really hit the mark with getting out of your comfort zone!

I think that's the biggest thing a artist/writer/creator can do for themselves. Of course, there is that thought of "if I step out of my comfort zone, I'll realize I'm not as good as I thought I was"

That's kinda the point, but without the cynical aspect to it

We all have things that we're not very much good at. But then again, those very things are something we might not have dwell a lot of time in.

The person who's "a whiz a landscaping" probably spent a few good hours learning how to get that city scene just right. That lady who's "a genius at drawing the body" probably went to so many drawing classes and studied anatomy and real life to get there. The gentleman who "is brilliant with making cars and mecha" most likely went with references and asked questions and made notes.

Time and effort to learn new things is what makes us so good at them. It doesn't have a lot to do with natural born talent, though that's not to say it doesn't help. Some people just pick up on things easier and faster than others.

So don't be afraid to step out of your zone -- you're not a bad artist if you don't know how to do something different "amazing" right off the bat. That's completely normal.

You wouldn't expect a beginner cook to know how to make a souffle with ease. The same applies here

[nekhcore]

I had a bit of an extra boost when I started drawing because I discovered Flipnote Studio (an animation program for Nintendo DSi that's now discontinued) so while I was drawing every single day I was also doing my best to improve my art and animations and making a style that's easy to draw an animate with. I studied how other artists I admired did things, and I took elements from their style and added it to mine. I mean, I'm a little handicapped now because of it because my specialty is furries, but human heads are really problematic for me. I also can't draw living things in the same space as things like buildings because it looks weird. But I'll get over that by practicing, taking from other artists, studying art books, etc etc.

[inkythoughts]

I basically agree with everything above, but what I find most essencial in improving your skills is also to understand how things work.

I have seen quite a few people in my studies who can draw well only if they use a reference (not to say that refs are bad, they are crucial to improve) but they never understand the mechanics behind e.g. how arm joints and muscles work, so they can't translate it into how an arm looks stretched out from different angles or only know how to draw relatively buff arms as most refs feature athletic men. Same goes for light/shadow, if you don't understand the physics of light and the materials you're portraying, it just makes it much, much harder than it needs to be.
This can be applied to literally ANYTHING, whether it's panelling your comic, drawing backgrounds, or writing dialogue. If you don't understand what you are doing and how, you don't know how to fix things or can't spot as to why it would need fixing in first place. If you didn't understand it, practice doesn't really help you either unless it finally 'clicks' in your head and you Understood™

And yes, generally speaking, face your demons and practice what you can't draw now. From not practicing you won't improve either.

[aspiderjonny]

I'm sure lots of peeps have already mentioned practicing everyday, and that is the most important part of improvement. But another part that's just has important is drawing from life, especially if you're drawing with a style. My teachers tried to get me to stop drawing with a style in mind and draw realistically. It sucks at first but you really need to know the rules of anatomy before you can start messing with them.

[scythe]

I like to look at amazing artist's work to see how they handled specific things. Say, water pooling on the ground, or thumbs, or bricks (up close and far away). Then I just straight up copy what they do.

The uninitiated artist might be worrying at this point, thinking, your art will just and up looking like someone else's, to which I say, it doesn't work like that. It's neigh on impossible to not infuse your own, unique style to the work you do. It'll never look exactly the same, and if, once you've drawn something once, you go back to reference your own work, it'll become more and more 'yours' with each time you draw it.

[nessiefynn]

Practice, practice, and loads of goddamn practice.
Probably the most important thing imho is to practice things you aren't good at, drawing the same things over and over again won't teach you anything new, you gotta step outside of your comfort zone.
Often younger artists (myself included) look at the more serious elements of art like anatomy, perspective, construction, and dedicated studies as boring, skippable stuff. Surely, one can draw good figures without learning proper anatomy, right? It's not until you start to learn the nitty gritty that you realize how many mistakes you make in your art.
So yeah. I found it helped to draw as much as I can and to try to learn new techniques whenever I could. Hope this is helpful.