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unknown_user
Feb '20

I noticed, that by learning how to draw emotions of my characters, I also learned more about emotions in general. I started to understand better, how emotions are expressed though mimics and body language. So, during this process, I learned to recognize subtle emotions of real people better, too.
When I'm looking at portraits and when I'm trying to draw the same character to look the same from different angles and with different emotions, I learn more about things, which make face distinguishable. About what makes my character look like themselves and what helps to distinguish them from other people visually, even aside hair colour or clothes. It helps me to slowly get better in remembering and distinguishing faces of real people, too.
What about you? Did you learn something through art?

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    Feb '20

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    Feb '20
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KelheorRegular
Feb '20

I guess I learned to appreciate the variety of people's appearance and that every body type and every feature matters.
When I began drawing, even though I had characters of different races/height/weight, I couldn't draw their diversity. Like, literally couldn't :sweat_smile: But I guess I didn't really try too. Like, I knew this character is a plump Asian gal, that one is thin and has a bigger nose, but I never showed it in my art.
Maybe it was the anime style that took a toll on me, I am not sure. I think that's why it seems that my characters changed so much over time, even though they haven't changed for me at all.

So the more I looked at people and the more I noticed how really unique they are, I understood that if I don't draw the character as plump/big-nosed as they are, people won't understand how the characters really look like, what are the features that distinguish them from other people. I guess it's a bit of the same as your situation.
I should say that I am definitely not 100% there yet and sometimes I have troubles incorporating things into my art style (like, I had a real hard time drawing overweight Eugene 3 years ago), but I am doing my best to see people how they really are and represent that :slight_smile:

33rdCenturyCaveman
Feb '20

Same. Learned much about emotions and body language from trying to depict it. Also picked up much trivia from things me researched along way.

For example, for much of history childbirth was so dangerous and so necessary that women were not expected to live as long as men, even accounting for things like war. It why men were prioritized when it came to giving out education and positions of authority. It not so much chauvinism as cold logic of scarcity.

Lummy
Feb '20

I think I learned how to put in effort to get something. There are no shortcuts in drawing for me, you actually need to do something (and a lot of it) and practice or you won't get better.
And while some may say there are shortcuts and cheating in drawing, but those shortcuts can only help you to get a piece finished but they won't teach you how to actually draw in my opinion.

Birbmagadon
Feb '20

I learnt there is beauty in ugly features too. Crooked noses, butchered bodies, boney fingers, gravity-attracted wrinkly breasts, older people, toothless smiles, ugly stares, beer bellies, etc. They're not "objectively" beautiful, yet they're so interesting to draw, and the more you work with these, the more you realize having strong features - no matter how "ugly" - really contributes to the beauty of a character and to their ability to stand out and have an aura of their own.

Now when I look at people on the street, I search for the weird little features that might seem ugly but truly hold some real depth and dimension and make someone look unique.

After a while, you realize that the "objectively beautiful" side of characters truly is just a washed out version of smooth face, smooth body, smooth everything, young and generic.

Real beauty appears in rough places, not in smooth objects imo. ^^;

DokiDokiTsuna
Feb '20
Lummy

...Actually, for me it's the opposite. I've learned a ton of new things about drawing ever since I stopped trying to do everything "right" and allowed myself to rush through things, cut corners and cheat.

You can't really draft until you learn how to do that, for one thing...and for another, it really helps with learning new skills, to be able to "zoom out" and see the trees for the forest, if you will.

A new pose can seem daunting when you're focused on all the little details, but when you learn to see it as just a blob with a certain shape, and even to draw it that way and * maybe * fill in the rest later, it's not as intimidating.
Plus, now that you've quickly gotten the gist of this new thing that you've learned (rather than being distracted by hours of painstaking work) it becomes easier to apply it to the next situation, or the next character. It's like learning a basic soup recipe and tweaking it to get different flavors, instead of memorizing a whole book of soup recipes.

I've been able to apply this 'skeleton now, guts later' approach to working and learning in many different areas of my life, and it really cuts down on stress and anxiety...as long as you can convince yourself that 'you got this'. That the fact that you're taking a shortcut doesn't mean you don't know what you're doing; quite the opposite. You can see it as having enough knowledge and experience to know what the essentials are.

Lummy
Feb '20

You are right.
What I meant is something else.
Do you know that moment you need to do an important project and you just don't do it, you procrastinate, then you do it in the last minute without putting effort since you can't? So I do that a lot, and somehow I still succed in those things but with drawing it is different since if I don't practice I won't progress

And by methods of cheating that don't really help you I meant for example if someone decided he needed a beautiful horse but he can't draw it and after thinking he traces a horse. So yes, maybe the horse in his drawings was fabulous but does he know how to draw a horse without tracing? Probably not, so in the end it didn't teach him anything.

(I think what I meant by shortcuts, were sitting and doing nothing but expect to progress)

And I also that method when I break the pose into shapes and Skelton XD

Random_Guy
Feb '20

Glasses are not easy.

Oh, wait, this is a serious thread, sh*t.

Uh... well, I guess I started to learn more about what people thought looked good versus what looked right, apparently there isn't always an overlap.

sushy00
Feb '20

I think I learnt better to express myself with art. Other than that it is mostly superficial stuff like how things look like I guess.

PaulDevers
Feb '20

I think I learned the importance of faces, honestly. I've never been good at remembering faces in real life; everybody looks kind of the same to me, even though that is 1000% not true. But when I started legitimately drawing, I was trying really hard to make sure that problem wouldn't happen in my art. It's not as bad as it was back then.

MK_Wizard
Feb '20

That you can't please everyone and that you're always going to have to be open to improving. Nobody's art is perfect and nobody's comic appeals to everyone. You have to know which audience you're trying to attract and stick with it. Plus, you have to have a substantial amount of humility if you want to know where you can improve. Otherwise, you're always going to be stuck.

GesuGesu
Feb '20

I learned things like physics and anatomy. Physics as in "how would I design this weapon or outfit to work?" Anatomy is a given. I know where the tongue is connected to the throat, and where deltoids go on limbs.

Small things I learned while drawing were details like where the seatbelts comes from in a car front seat, or thr layers that go into a window pane (screen door, sliding pane, and front pane.)

DKCissel
Feb '20

Honestly? I learned to stop telling myself I couldn't draw, just because there are so many people who are better than I am. I also learned that that whole cliche, "You can't please everyone, so just please yourself" really is true. What I'm doing is so far away from the vast majority of webcomics that I was actually afraid to start sharing my art in the first place. But as I've done more and more drawings, whether for the comics or not, I've figured out that as long as I still enjoy it, it's worth it.

I've also had to learn how different alcohol markers are from my usual medium (acrylic paint). Mixing colors, applying the medium, what I'm actually applying it to, etc. My usual tricks just didn't work. It's almost more like playing with watercolors (which I find intimidating).