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Tawadi — Your Art Sucks
Published: 2011-09-10 03:37:07 +0000 UTC; Views: 4837; Favourites: 185; Downloads: 54
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"Michelangelo is quoted as saying, 'A man paints with his brains and not with his hands.' This quote really sums it up. You MUST have knowledge in order to create good artwork. It is not just skill. You must also have some sense of understanding of the basic concepts or fundamentals of artmaking in order to become a good artist."Bravo anonymous art teacher. Couldn't have said it better.
Here's why what you've been drawing sucks, and here's what you can SHOULD do about it. Brought to you by...MY ocs! Hopefully I can convince SOMEONE to think before they draw. If even one person uses this to improve their drawing, I will consider it worthwhile.
This is what happens when I have a bad day. I take it out on the general public. At least I try to be informative while doing so though. At some point I might do one involving color and shading, but first things first. NOTE: This "tutorial" is based on the assumption that people already know some basics of drawing/have at least skimmed some sort of How-to-draw book. I didnt want this to just be another "start with a circle, then add eyes, then..." I want people to actually LOOK at their own drawing and realize why it isnt working, then REWORK it so that it does. I believe in doing.
If you are NOT familiar with the basics, dont go away! I have a whole folder of step-by-steps showing my own personal artistic process, you might find it useful.
It killed me a little inside to draw the example pictures, especially the Sonified Syko. I owe her a bag of cookies for that. Also disclaimer, this isnt aimed at any one person in particular, though I did have some people in mind when writing/drawing some of the steps.
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"Well not everyone can be as great as you!"
Why not? First of all, Im not great. Im barely good. Theres no reason why anyone who calls themselves artists shouldnt draw/sculpt/paint as well or better than me. At least half of what I see on DA looks like something I drew when I was 8, and it kills me when I look at someones profile and see "and I hope to go into the gaming/movie/art industry someday!" I pity the art world if this is the new blood going in to it. Stop waiting for someday, start improving NOW!
"But I suck in ____ medium!"
Bullshit. See #1.
"But its my style!"
"Suck" is not a style. Style is NOT something that you decide, its something you develop (more on that later).
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Comments: 403
Well I guess it kinda is, but it's not the one you want to be known for
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Lol, yeah. Just made me laugh the way you worded it. I certainly wouldn't like to be known as the artist responsible for the Suck Revolution. XD
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I believe they called it Cubism.
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Omfg, yes! Thank you!
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Good advice.
Though you might as well be in the middle of an ocean shouting out of a megaphone for rescue.
...I'm the 'chopper that passed by
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3,666 views, 191 favorites. Sadly enough probably the most viewed and liked thing in my gallery. People have seen it. Some of them even said it was good.
I might be a hermit and this might be my island, but no matter how far I go someone's always passing by. Welcome to the parade.
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True, but most that pass by are likely to already know your advice.
The majority of those that don't would probably not take anything to heart and prefer to scream at you instead.
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DA isn't exactly known for acknowledging actual good pieces, advice or otherwise.
Probably why I outright refuse to do fanart...well others fanart. Exceptions, exceptions.
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I fail to see what any of this has to do with fanart.
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Actually it reminds a bit about my advice slash rant about character development.
You must be an ISTP personality. Brutally honest and to the point with a mix of humor and disgust.
I'm glad i'm not the only one that hates mediocrity.
(also saving face here, yeah my crap is amateur hour. Give me some credit I try to do my best with the whole basic rules.).
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this is true, but please be aware that not everyone shares your opinion, and enjoys drawing in their own and most of the time unique way
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If it's truth, it is not an opinion, and therefore not up for debate. Draw how you want, but if you want to actually draw well it takes effort.
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I still suck. Because I'm fucking lazy. Problem number one of every "beginner" artist. But at least I don't look for excuses
Your tutorial is really nice, by the way!
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It's hard to say you "still" suck while calling yourself a beginner. No one starts out a master (except maybe Asians 
I've hit that point too. I want to git gud I just can't be arsed to practice.
Glad you like it, hope it helps!
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I'll always be a beginner because I'm way too lazy to draw 2 hours a day for three years until I can finally achieve some good drawings.... I suck because of my laziness. I have no other excuse. But it still pisses me off when people are like "I can't make good art because I don't have photoshop", or rich kids that can't hold a pen but still ask their parents to buy them Photoshop and a tablet because they think they will make good art just by having the tools... And I'm seeing this a lot.
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As long as you're aware that's the situation, then there's no problem. It's good to understand that you're not just going to magically master something, so many just assume they're not good now, and therefore never will be, or want to just instantly be good without the effort. I know I myself am guilty of wanting to skip to the finish line without running the race 
That's so annoying. Easier coloring makes it looks nicer, so they think it's better when really it's the same mistakes with a different paint job. Git gud!
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The thing about the dragon... So true. It's taken forever for me, a person who pretty much only draws dragons, to get it right, and I'm still working on it! I really like this thing, and it proves some good points.
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Haha, Im glad you found it helpful rather than offensive. Wings are hard, flight is hard, its very easy to fall into the trap of As long as it has wings it can fly. Try thinking about HOW something works, rather than just trying to make it work, you might get more interesting results.
Whatever you do, keep drawing!
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So true! Thanks for sharing this! 
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Exactly, griping about it doesnt make it better, do something or shut up!
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Yep, do something or shut up! XD I hate It when my friends say: "YOUR A LIEK SO GOOD AT MATH!" I tell then: " I wasn't always good with math, I started in the bottom and went up!" It is so annoying, because they don't even PRACTICE!
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I just hate math, so I cant be bothered. I can do enough addition/subtraction/multiplication/division to get me through life, I dont need those fancy mathematics XP
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You hate math? WHY???! Lol, I am just kidding! XD I LOVE MATH!
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You can do my taxes then
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uumm..No thank you! XD Not, unless you pay me to do them!
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Aww I thought you said it was fun
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It is fun, but taxes are an exception! XD
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This is a really blunt but helpful commentary. (And I'm totally an offender when it comes to some of these!)
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Sometimes the only way through is the hard way. Hope you found it helpful!
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This is a very interesting topic! I'm very much intrigued by this!
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Hahaha Im glad youre entertained!
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This is a great idea for a tutorial.
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Thank you! Im glad you like it and I hope it helps inspire you
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I love this so much! I've been seeing so many things here on DA, and elsewhere, that just makes me cringe! Though I'm always too afraid of the way people will react to me critiquing them (especially since my art is in no way the greatest). All I can say is that I hope more people see this and learn a thing or two from it! I know I have!
I will admit, though, that when I first got a tablet, I thought I'd be great with it! I knew I'd have to practice with it first, but I thought it would make things so much easier! Well, it hasn't. To me it is much more difficult because it is something foreign to me. I will still start of with a pencil drawings for some things. Other things, since I started drawing them on a tablet, I'm able to skip the pencil part and start with the tablet. The main thing that I know I'm horrible with is outlines... Outlines are my enemy, my downfall! I've been practicing, pretty much since I got my tablet, but I'm no where near where I had hoped to be. So, for the most part, I do line-less pieces. I still try to outline, but I end up deleting/hiding that layer once done.
Well, enough rambling from me! I just thought I'd say how much I like this and that I plan to refer back to this when working on my art!
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See, the thing is, I dont really care how people are going to react. I give my honest opinion, ESPECIALLY when its requested. Sadly its the people who could learn from this kind of rant that think Im the most full of shit, Ive had a lot of people compliment it but its kind of useless since theyve already learned it. If youre working on paper (or tablet, but tablets dont always get curves right) Id suggest practicing on a ball. Draw a ball, draw a vertical circumference and a horizontal circumference so it forms a + in the centre of the ball, and use those as guides. I sort of go into it in another pseudo tutorial I did by request [link] and a bit again [link] But if you want real direction look online for a cartoonists handbook.
It seems like the tablet makes everything harder! Lines dont curve right, I think my pressure is broken, and my outlines look even LESS professional than on paper. The only thing thats easier is filling space with color, and even that ends up looking like crap half the time :I
Im glad you found it helpful! I have a folder in my favorites of just tutorials and references, you might check it out, theyre pretty good.
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Yeah, I've found that most people will ask for critiques, but will get upset when someone tells them what they're doing wrong... I prefer being told what I'm doing wrong, this way I can *hopefully* work on it and become better. Someone critiqued me on my shading and gave me a few pointers, so now I'll be trying something new with this commission, and I hope it turns out well!
I rarely use the bucket fill. For some reason I can never get its setting just right. So I end up setting the paintbrush to a large size, then switching to a smaller size to get into corners and erasing what goes out of the lines.
I just started looking through them, and they are quite helpful! The circle trick I've used before, along with other shapes (for other animals). It's helped quite a bit with facial feature placements, but I still need to work on it quite a bit. :/ Practice, practice, practice!
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I think when most people ask for a critique, theyre actually looking for boot licking, which isnt what a critique is meant to be. Critiques should be full of constructive criticism that helps the artist learn from mistakes and try new things in the future, and point out things done well that the artist can continue doing. Just saying "Wow its cool!" or "Wow it sucks!" doesnt help anyone.
Im still trying to find the bucket fill in Photoshop. I color on different layers so it would be a problem anyway. Even the brush is a pain to fill with though -.-
I hope you find what youre looking for, I definitely recommend cartoonist handbooks above all other how-to books because cartoonists generally have to be good at just about everything.
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I like your bat. Oh, how much I do!
Also, the broken neck like in your sonic style example is maybe the most popular mistake.
Would be interesting to know how much does me suck, actually.
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He loves you too
Its amazing how many mistakes I see in almost every gallery. Such easy fixes! Your art is nice, I like the watercolor
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Eh, I can honestly say that I suck in certain mediums, not because I don't have a grasp of how stuff should look, but because I've barely used said mediums and would frankly prefer to continue to improve in the mediums that I already have experience in.
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You understand what makes you "not good" in those mediums, so if you chose to you could do some research on how to better use them and put in some practice to fix the problems. That alone makes you better than some.
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