Let's draw together once again. As usual anyone can come, even if just to hang out and watch others draw, totally fine. I will say I am very sick today, and have a few other things to attend to, so I may not be as present as usual. But still, plenty of time for a few good drawings.
Here's how it all turned out. A lot of people showed up and that made me happy, thank you. The internet issues and sickness did make me tired though. Link to full thing.
Have you thought about joining Tamriel Rebuilt as a concept artist? Their Poison Song update is coming very, very soon.
I have, at one point I was looking at the bounties they have posted up for concepts they needed, and even promised someone I'd join the server (I ended up not doing it). I think it'd be a nice thing to do eventually, that I'd like to do, but right now just doing these drawings of TES for myself are the best compromise between something fun and that doesn't make me feel bound to anything. I have a lot of things in my life that already take up a lot of my mind, and I feel it'd be irresponsible to try and fit more there and deliver something I'd feel is subpar. I'll say again that I don't mind if the things I draw are used as inspiration or drawn from directly for things like Tamriel Rebuilt, or any other mods. I enjoy the idea of a collective project that the Elders Scrolls has sort of had over the years, and I simply wanted to draw what interested me the most. If I manage to get myself in a position where I don't worry so much about life, I'd love to tackle more mundane things that these big projects actually need to get done.
I'm putting my clothes out all folded up on my bedside table so I'm prepared for drawpile tomorrow like its a school field trip
Might want to put the clothes away for a bit longer, because tomorrow may not be the last Friday of this month anon. Take the advice of your equally excited top bunk mate.
Ever since Spamton was introduced all I've cared about is Spamton. But they never made another Spamton. They didn't even reprint the original one. The other reprints all came out fucked up, in brittle paper and faded ink, with the wrong proportions. Spamton is the miserous fiend in which my happiness is built and they stopped and so did my happiness.
Now that the poll is closed, what's your choice? Dents or protrusions?
I am a protruglodyte at heart. I’d have made another drawing if the poll flipped again but it seems dentoids are stone cold in their beliefs. It’d have a shirt saying “I CAN DENTS / JUST WATCH “ and it’s a guy wiggling his body around with a dotted line showing the dents he he produces. But also there wasn’t enough time for another drawing… sad!
hello! i really love your art, and am super inspired by it! i really wanna learn to draw, and just wanna ask, if you were to start over drawing, where would you start? any tips? thank you so much!
That's an interesting way to frame it. I suppose I'd do a lot of basic featureless drawings until I could have the hang at least of some kind of base body figure to play around with, pose and push my knowledge of anatomy with, basically studying the very basics until I could get to that threshold where I can learn it as I draw things that are more fun to me. I think the main downside of this is that your drawings might not be immediately appealing, as opposed to starting by developing a more cartoon or abstract style, but it would mean that down the line you can develop those branches more easily since you have a better grasp of basic anatomy and can simplify into those styles from those principles. I think I'd also go out of my way to try and connect with or at least follow artists that are my contemporaries to understand how they work, what kind of hurdles and habits I should expect or learn. You can study masters all you want and it will surely be beneficial, but we live in the present, and not only that but I extremely unstable present, which is different to compare to times even fifty years ago. As such you have to frame yours works within that, and understand it will inevitably be much different than the highest highs you aspire to get to. The key to improving is balance, knowing when to push yourself without breaking your spirit or desire, and always striving to find the fun in what you are doing. I think a more mechanical approach where you ignore your own fun and desires to favor just raw improvement faster will show better results, but down the line you will draw very well without even understanding your own art. You may end up looking at it as some kind of product to be consumed, instead of a language. Art at its core is communication, which is why we feel compelled to show it to others, and without the expectation that someone one day may look at it and understand something about you through images alone, I feel it's hard to motivate yourself to keep drawing.
Another piece of advice is to let your surroundings inspire and shape your art. Don't feel like you have to fit in and that there is no other way. If there is nothing you relate to in a space, then bring that which you like to it. Communicate with this space through your own experiences. Maybe it'll be clunky at first, but as you get better you'll better understand how to marry your own experiences to these topics you may like, and why your experiences inform how you like them in the first place. It's better to be new and awkward than to suppress a part of yourself because you assume it already has zero value. No matter how many years pass, I am always delighted to find a new take on an old thing. Like a Japanese artist who deeply loves TES games. I feel the clash of those two things creates interesting and valuable art. If we don't have the freedom to clash with things in order to create new elements, what's the point?
And of course never feel bound to any particular style. We develop our own language and our own rules naturally by our own physical restrictions, and your own art language should also come naturally to you over time. So there is no reason not to break things and try something different and strange every once in a while. Don't be afraid to experiment with your art as you learn.
I think it's vague but basically this is what I'd do. I think the world is very big and varied so something that is not vague may not apply to your specific time and place, so it's better to think about it like this. I feel the most important part really is to have fun yourself as you improve. Never sterilize your own fun out of the process. Many amazing artists have done it, but I just feel there has to be a better way. We are paying an invisible price when we do that.