How to Improve Art, Really?

[Inspector_Spinda]

As the title says I'm looking for advice on how to improve my art. I've been drawing my comic for over a year, but I feel like I'm not improving enough. Overall I've drawn between frequently for over 7 years now. I look at my friends on instagram and their rate of improvement is much quicker than mine though they're not necessary drawing more.

Does anyone know some good drills and methods of practice that can help me improve my art? I think my main issues are a lack of dimensions. Everything looks a bit flat and sometimes I more a more painted look or to really pop! Here is some of my art.

https://www.deviantart.com/inspector-spinda/gallery

Plastic Teeth | Tapas

What I want my art to look like.

[drcharlotterodricks]

So a bit of advice..I actually like your art okay?
Everyone improves at different paces although there are some people like me who like to keep their art work minimalistic like me so I can focus on my dialogues.

https://tapas.io/series/You--Me

I would suggest watching loads of youtube tutorials and practicing using different media like krita, pen paper, pencils, crayons etc. Ultimately you should find an art style that works for you and brings out the best in terms of your dialogues and characters.

[elyss]

Anatomy is a powerful thing to study and master. If you can better understand what the body can do and how far you can push it, you'll reach a breakthrough in your craft. You might hear this a lot but that's because it's 100% true.

[nathanKmcwilliams]

Well...copying.(don't use it and pass it as your own though!)
Try redrawing the art by artists you like. Don't try to adapt it to your own style...at first. Figure out what they do, how they do it, etc. Then once you have a good idea, try redrawing it in your style.

This concept works the same way as learning a piece of music. First you have to learn the piece the way the composer originally intended, before you can make improvisations as you learn new techniques.

[Inspector_Spinda]

Well...copying.(don't use it and pass it as your own though!)

except i want to learn their shading and texture and coloring mostly. I can't trace that.

[foxnflames]

I’ve found that the airbrush tool does wonders to add depth. Soft brush then smudge it out...instant cheekbones or highlights where you need it. Even on more animated styles, adding a rosy cheek or subtle variances in shadows can make a piece pop

[elyss]

Have looked into if these artists do process videos? Some might even have a Patreon with a tier that gives videos or master files

[nathanKmcwilliams]

Oh okay. I wasn't talking about tracing specifically. More like doing studies where you try and figure out through trial and error how they do their stuff.

It can apply to color too, not just lines. But I tend to do everything through guesswork as it is so maybe it doesn't work for everyone. I don't like tutorials so I don't have any good ones really. Sorry bout that.

[Lunar-Turtle]

Create a folder that will be filled with refferences.I mean drawing tips, refferences, photos of real life things like animals, people, tutorials. Pinterest is full of useful things. Get anatomy books and drawing books overall. I have like two book about comics, it helps. Look at art of other people. It is very good to look at art that really appeals to you personally and try to improve your art in that way. That's what I did. I looked up art that had very appealing style and I tried to get hints. Also, anatomy is like super important. Even if you draw cartoons, anime, it gives your art depth, when you know how things work inside.

To prove this, over a year ago, I realesed my old version of comic.It looked bad. So I stopped and decided to improve. When I learned perspective, anatomy and focus more on proper shading, things started to look better. You can compare it here. In the end, just practice, but be smart. Observe things and think how to implement them to your work. I hope that helped.

Old version

BETA VERSION - Synastry | Tapas

New one

SYNASTRY | Tapas

[Inspector_Spinda]

okay. thanks. sorry if i came off as rude or anything. and yeah it's sort of hard to identify what exactly they're doing especially if you dont have the same program or brushes

[Inspector_Spinda]

To prove this, over a year ago, I realesed my old version of comic.It looked bad. So I stopped and decided to improve. When I learned perspective, anatomy and focus more on proper shading, things started to look better. You can compare it here. In the end, just practice, but be smart. Observe things and think how to implement them to your work. I hope that helped.

okay. I guess I just need to pay more attention to what im doing wrong

[Lunar-Turtle]

Yeah, practically that's what progress is. I noticed that when you improve, you start to see mistakes in your work and suddenly you are like: Why did I draw it lik that? How do I draw it correctly? This very often happens with anatomy. Like for example you noticee there is some small bump, or curve on hand you didin't notice before and then you are like: Omg, I didn't know that. And this happens with like everything in art. So, yeah, practically when you notie you do soemthing bad, it means you are actually improving,so that's good. Just never feel bad about yourself when you make a mistake, it belongs to progress.

[azzy-m]

Look up tutorials. That's how I did it at least.

I used to be super stubborn and insisted that I not use tutorials/use references rarely because, I don't know, it felt like cheating? Thought other people got their styles by themselves instead of watching tutorials by other people.

Don't be like me. The only reason I figured out how masks work and how damn useful vector layers were on CSP was because of a tutorial. There really isn't anything wrong with them, I mean, people make them to help other artists. No shame there.

Look up tutorials if you can. I prefer looking them up on Youtube or Deviantart.

[nathanKmcwilliams]

Nah you're good. I see where you're coming from, it could be a pain just sitting there trying to figure out brushes. That would take forever, and even I would at that point just go look for tutorials.

[SagaHolmgaard]

I believe there's this thing of.... teaching yourself to learn, which sounds kinda weird, but it's something that will help you improve.

So, as @nathanKmcwilliams said, copying the work of your idols for teaching purposes is good! And you need to develop this mindset where you're not just blidly copying, but asking yourself, "why did they draw this thing like this?", "Why did they color this thing like this?" and "What is the thinking behind this design choice?" This doesn't really come naturally. Learning how to do master studies is a skill in itself, really.

Knowing art fundamentals such as anatomy helps too. You dont need to be great at drawing realistic anatomy, but when you know which muscles and bones affect the human form, you'll start to understand how other artists interpret and simplify it, and you'll be more able to apply their knowledge onto your own art!

But how do you get better at these things? Practice, tbh. Gesture drawing (line-of-action.com is a good resource), master studies (choose art you think is really good, and pick one special thing or technique within it that you want to pay extra attention to), anatomy studies (look at muscle/skeleton diagram. Draw them. (Gonna sound a bit old school, but for me it really helps to learn the name of different muscle groups, it helps me remember that they exist and affect what the body looks like)).

And for issues with the flatness you're experiencing... Maybe you want to work on pushing your values and line weight a bit more? I really like your art style btw. But you can start experimenting with making darker backgrounds for lighter characters and lighter backgrounds for darker characters, or similar things. Or, for example, see how the last image you posted has pretty desaturated colors on the character and a VERY bright red background? You could experiment more with saturation like that too!

It maybe seems like that's a lot of stuff to do. Maybe you can dedicate an (or a few) hour(s) a week just for learning. You will learn just by drawing too, but making dedicated study classes for yourself, even if they can't be every day or even regularly, will definitely help. I myself notice a pretty big difference in how fast I improve depending on if I have time to study art or if I'm just drawing.

Ahh, I wrote a lot. I really do think your art is great though. I'm just passionate about improving, lol. Good luck!

[artemficta]

What you linked are all different styles in themselves, so I'm not sure how you can be like all of them at once... XD I personally already like your art and just see it as heavily stylized which makes it easily recognizable as yours.

The ones you linked all take a less stylized approach so maybe draw a touch more anime/realism proportions over more western cartoon. Also, utilize gradient maps and layer blending modes over the entire image to give images more of a unified color tone like the examples have. Using a soft pink/red brush on a layer with low opacity multiply blending mode for things like face blush will give you more of a look like the first two images have as well. The first one also seems to have a light texture over it, which is another way you can unify colors more. Working from a color palette is also another way, as all the images you linked have colors that all compliment each other giving them a more unified look as well.

[IndigoShirtProd]

Have you asked the artists themselves. For the most part, artists are very open about their process. If they have a way to contact them they might be willing to give advice.

Personally, I don't think you should focus to hard on replicating what these artists have done. I've been there where I consume a bunch of artwork from one person and then look at my own artwork and get dejected. At the end of day, your art work won't look exactly like theirs and that's okay.

[rajillustration]

When I think of the times I've improved a lot when I've realized "Oh crap I'm falling behind" I made myself homework assignments. So you've indicated that you want to have more visual depth, so make an assignment to do 3-5 studies a week (or whatever you can fit in) that align with what you're researching. If it's anatomy you want, there's some fabulous recourses online of unique poses, like croquis cafe on Youtube (these are naked so like...be warned this is real figure drawing. It's all very tasteful and with full consent, which is how figured drawing works. I'm assuming you're over 18.) https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAZZ8kXStsAD_SJS9LWNdEQ

I also like pulling references from people who pose for the artist in mind, like senshi-stock (this one is fully clothed) https://www.deviantart.com/senshistock

It also helps if you want to memorize anatomy, to just quiz yourself. Sit down and say "OK, can I draw every part of the upper body without looking at a reference? And then check how well you did.

If it's style that you want to develop, I think it's helpful to emulate styles that you enjoy. So like sit down and do some studies pretending you are that artist--research how they made it (often artists have listed the materials that they used, and have recorded videos or streams of their process on youtube or twitch, and hopefuly it's not a super salty artist that won't tell you their brushes) I do this all the time. Sometimes I try and recreate the steps they used--linework, then paint work, then post production--to create exactly the same image. Other times I'll try and apply their technique to my own characters. I just don't usually post those studies online because I don't want to...come off as "stealing" someones style or whatever--but those style studies are super important. It's what we do with masters like Michealangelo and Van Gogh all the time in art school, but we forget to do it to people that are still alive today.

Overall art is like working out. You kinda have to know your own body, and know what you can handle with how long you can realistically spend doing these studies--but if you set aside even 10-15 minutes a day, you will have improvement. Like working out you don't see the effects for many weeks, but you will improve and other people may notice before you do. I think that's the biggest thing about art improvement is just sticking to the plan and adjusting for whatever your life throws at your schedule.

[Kiweevil]

Grind on it man. You gotta gain those experience points. And you have to force yourself to do the things you haven't done before. Draw every chance you get man. Like it's a fitness routine. That's how you get better, and unless you can find a demon to make a pact with, it's the only way. I've been drawing nonstop this year because my aspirations are to get on the level of artists like Tracy Butler (creator of Lackadaisy). But the only way I can do that is by making myself experienced.

I'm not where I wanna be yet, but I'm sure as hell improving quickly. This was January this year:

This was May:

This is a piece I'm working on now:

Also, for good measure, THESE abominations I wanna say are from around November 2019?:

So uh, yeah. It can be done. But you're gonna wanna draw as much as you can and force yourself to get out of your comfort zone. Study your programs and learn everything you can about techniques, composition, anatomy, everything.

And above all, DO NOT GIVE UP. You WILL improve the more you draw, you just may not realize it because it's a gradual process. So keep your old drawings so you can compare to your older works.

Good luck my dude, I believe in you

[jess]

when it comes to shading try different brushes,
textures, airbrushes etc
will give different results
I find it easiest to do line art then each thing e.g white shirt I would colour, add another layer and add grey where shadows would be then do that with other areas as well, try finding an image you want to replicate and eye drop the colours.
Hope this helps ^^

oh and time, practise often, like someone else said, you may not notice improvements right away but practise enough and differences come quicker than you think.