Reviewing my art progress 2023

YRH · February 17, 2024, 11:21pm

Hi, I had a feeling this might be the case, I checked, and yes! It’s been a year since I joined Krita-Artists forum. My first post here was made in February 2023 I guess that’s a good moment to reflect on my art progress and review what I have learnt.

The sentiment I have right now, is that I’m more or less spinning my wheels in the same spot, at least when it comes to some things. I expected to be much more confident in my pose and character drawing, yet it’s as difficult as ever. Am I still bad, or is art just hard? Or did I get better, but my aspirations grew even more than that?

I like to number my drawings, so going off of that, I can tell I have drawn/painted/or at least sketched 160 or more kra files. That means I picked up the stylus at least 44% days of the year. Not too bad, but clearly there’s room for improvement. During that time I did numerous sketches, mostly copying from reference.

Looking at the quality and number of drawings, I was at my best during various challenges or competitions. These two highlights were:

During these, I had to really exert myself, often drawing 4 hours a day (that’s a lot in my schedule), and consistently put out something day after day. It was stressful and the pace was too quick to really learn while at it, but it’s an intensive period of output that you can later look at as some sort of accomplishment. I’m definitely glad I participated.

Throughout the year, I also managed to paint several colored pieces. Only a handful ever became true illustrations (with sufficient level of polish), but the ones I managed to pull off were really big accomplishments to me. BTW, I noticed this quote in my first post:

Well, I was either unconsciously downplaying it, or I really did make quick improvements, because my first attempts were actually pretty good

From this bunch I can call out:

Dan Heng and Fu Xuan - the two true illustrations, with high level of polish (20 hours each).
Racoon Stelle - sadly, I never had the energy to finish it. I spent the insane 30+ hours on it, mostly agonizing over lineart The pic below is a color rough.
Bocchi frame study - I was supper happy with how this one turned out. It really looks close to the original!
School girl (day 30 challenge) - one of rare thick paint pieces (no line art)
and lastly, Krita Artists cake (December challenge), that was fun with rendering and only 6 hours to complete

Almost all stuff I draw is heavily inspired or directly coping from references from Hoyoverse games (Genshin Impact, Honkai Star Rail), and art channels such as Hide Channel.

I’ve been really enjoying my stay here in the KA community, as it helps get inspired, exchange ideas, and have interesting discussions. And Krita of course has been an amazing digital painting application. Although this is mostly about art, I also managed to contribute slightly to Krita development. Let’s throw that here as well for good measure. As forum description states, “your code is your art”

Fixed canvas free rotation “drifting” to the side.
Improved the quality of overview docker on HiDPI displays.
Add brush tip rotation to the hotkeys, UI and scripting.
Improved the performance of assistants, especially at high zoom levels. Fixed the black rectangle bug.
Fixed the animation pacing bug.
(WIP) Gap closing fill.

Sadly, my biggest contribution, the mythical gap closing fill is still in flux and uncertain to make it into the Krita codebase. It’s been a ton of work, but maybe we will somehow figure it out and finally get in

Sigh, and here I created another wall-of-text thread I should really be wrapping up now. But before I close it, I still wanted to review what I learned about learning art and see if I can revisit some of the past statements. I’d love to be able to show you some amazing art pieces to give my words more credibility, but it is what it is So, how to get good at art? (These key points are described in this Oridays video, a great channel BTW).

Learning art is the 1) draw, 2) reflect, 3) learn cycle.
You should paint what you want to get good at.
You should paint what you enjoy.
The progress is not linear and this journey has no end!

As of today, I’m convinced this really is it. 1>2>3 It’s that simple, yet hard to put into practice. I’m definitely guilty of mindlessly doodling and falling into the same bad old habits. Again, reflect!!

What’s interesting, is that this doesn’t conflict with various other sentiments I heard before, even if they seem contradictory on the surface! For example:

Don’t practice, work on finished pieces
Pros: What it really means is that pushing yourself to complete something will make you avoid idle and inefficient practice, force you to look for solutions to mistakes, and have a sense of accomplishment once you finish it.
Cons: It may be too difficult and inefficient to learn this way. You may get discouraged after failing. Targeted and conscious practice may provide better results.
You should practice / study fundamentals
Pros: Yes, this will make your pieces better, but…
Cons: …if you’re sloppy, it will not work, or you will hate it and quit. Draw what you enjoy - have fun in the process, even if it takes more time!
Don’t only draw anime girls!
The haters always say that Or more often, there’s a genuine good intent there, but again, fun comes first. Also, draw what you want to get good at! Studying color theory and composition will not improve your character’s faces. Draw new elements once you need them for your next piece, and go back to study/practice if it’s too hard.
On watching tutorials, reading books, and taking courses
I recommend doing that, but remember that just watching it gives you 5% of the benefit. To verify that you have learned and understood the content, draw it! (As everyone, I’m guilty of just watching a lot of it and I have a big backlog of tutorials to really work through).

Alright, I’m curious if anyone read it all, but as usual, I’m partially writing it for my future self. If you somehow found this post helpful or insightful, do let me know, haha

Here’s to the next year of struggles! Onward to the art greatness!

sooz · February 18, 2024, 12:36am

draw, 2) reflect, 3) learn cycle

This sounds like what I’m working on. I’m trying to focus on revisiting my older stuff to remember what I liked about it and see what I can improve on.

lenovoaxioo · February 18, 2024, 12:57am

that was a lot of things for a single year

Mythmaker · February 18, 2024, 3:07pm

No. Yes.

Well, yes, in the sense that if you paint what you love you’re more likely to feel motivated to do it. But I’ve found through the many contest themes I’ve engaged with that I can enjoy a huge variety of unexpected things once I’m willing to try them. I’ve also learnt a great deal from the process of researching topics and tackling new problems.

I think I commented on this before? Anyway - as an absolute statement I don’t agree with it. But working on more refined pieces and seeing them through to completion is obviously a good thing. But ‘finished’ means different things to different people and if you’re finished work is sloppy/unrefined/riddled with uncorrected errors, then maybe you’re not learning as much as with some focused study sketches.

So basically - I’d say do both, and be thoughtful about what you’re doing in each case - Fewer careful, considered pieces are more valuable than doing lots of sloppy ones.

Anyway - I think you deserve to feel proud of the effort you’ve put in over the past year. Your figure drawing is really nice (I might even be a bit jealous). Your cake logo was also really cool - so maybe try to push yourself out of your comfort zone a bit more often this year?

YRH · February 18, 2024, 4:30pm

Hi, yes, I definitely agree with your points. In that last section I was revisiting the advice I heard before and commenting on it based on the experience from this year.

Probably at the end of the day, it’s all about balance. The enjoyment must be supplemented with hard work, introspection, and a bit of self-criticism. Trying new things is good, because how otherwise you would know what you like, right?

Thank you, I do feel an improvement, but with my artistic awareness leveled up as well, the goal seems to be as distant as before This year I want to work on my current bottleneck, which I believe still is the consistent character drawing (the face features, expressions, hair, for starters).

Mythmaker · February 18, 2024, 11:04pm

Yeah - I did understand it was advice you got/read/heard from others. You seem to have a good attitude and mindset anyway - as long as you continue to think for yourself and put thought into your process and progress you are in a good position.

As long as you have the wish to improve the goalposts will keep moving. I think this is something I’ve made peace with to some degree. I don’t mean to say I don’t experience frustration - quite the opposite. But I see the road of progression as a never ending one - that there will always be new challenges, new things to learn, and even old things that need relearning or improving. That is something I feel glad about because I will always have something to achieve.

YRH · February 18, 2024, 11:17pm

Mhm, yeah, I think frustration is something we must manage as artists…

One other piece of advice I heard is to try to get these “small wins”, or in other words, set realistic goals for yourself, so that you can reach them reasonably quickly and frequently. To give that sweet motivation fuel to keep going.

For me the biggest motivation is drawing something that I end up liking, so balancing the difficulty definitely goes a long way to not fail too spectacularly and get discouraged.

baksi · February 19, 2024, 4:52am

Maybe I’m wrong, other artists will correct me.
I believe that many people misinterpret this expression. We are talking about the direction of your activities, but not about the work process. For example, I like to draw anime girls, I chose this direction, but this does not mean that I will draw them all the time. We must not forget that the brain is designed in the following way: it will force you to do only what you already know how to do in order to spend less energy and will reward you for it (good mood, endorphins, etc.). And as soon as you start doing something difficult or something that you never do, you will get stress, apathy and other fun things. In this regard, our brain tries in every possible way to prevent us from developing and we have to fight this in different ways. This is easy to understand by tracking the biggest mistakes that beginners make. For example, they only draw heads, often hide one eye, outline other people’s work, etc. At first it is very difficult to start doing something that you don’t know how to do, but you need to learn to overcome it.
Another aspect related to this, in a full-time job related to drawing, for example, the gaming industry. There you will very often draw something that you don’t like, you will adapt to different projects, changing your style, sometimes your workflow, etc. And here you need to understand that first of all, general skills will be valued, and not any specific ones.
Another feature. By learning something new, you unknowingly become better at something else. For example, by studying different styles of different artists and trying to emulate them, you become better at your style.
Therefore, you need to approach this issue wisely. For example, 70% of the time you draw anime girls, and another 30% of the time you draw in a different direction.
To summarize, to improve your skills you will have to constantly draw what you don’t like, for example, hands or work on how hair is drawn or study anatomy, etc. Many people do not understand that famous artists did not become so by the snap of a finger, but because of hard work.

Iruhas · February 19, 2024, 6:27am

Congratulations to @YRH for what you achieved in the past year , and I really enjoyed your journey in the process of one year (to make/draw the perfect waifu, me too…).

Here I am like others who wrote replies in this topic, I will just talk about my usual point of view/thought response to good advice, or a suggestion, direction from someone higher, be it a teacher or someone we respect, and tips on success in something we know from the internet. I like to think of all good things as medicine, if used in moderation you will benefit, and if taken in excess. . . (you will know the consequences).

I believe there is no right or wrong in an opinion because each individual point of view has a basis of knowledge, thought, understanding, and experience.

Sounds very generalizing… but again… just think of it as medicine.

YRH · February 19, 2024, 10:11am

Hi @baksi, I get what you mean, yeah. I’m definitely thinking about the direction here, rather than small specifics like the hands.

I would dread painting a still life study if that was the main subject, but if I’m painting an illustration of a favorite anime character, and it incidentally happens to require a background with such elements, it’s a whole different ballgame for me And I agree that studying different styles and painting unfamiliar objects provides some cross-pollination benefits, but if it’s too far from your current goal or bottleneck, it won’t give you as big a benefit as facing that main problem head-on. But the 70/30 split that you mention, or something similar may be a good balance that maximizes the gains.

But yeah, I think you will be fine if you keep drawing what you are passionate about, but at the same time, don’t run away from problems, and try to evaluate your piece objectively. As long as you move from one problem area to the next and try to make them a bit better next time, your skill will improve. And I think if you’re being honest, at some point you will notice that your illustration is held back by an uninteresting background, or the character should be sitting on a motorbike, but it looks terrible, so I guess you need to learn to draw motorbikes next

I have an anecdote here. You may have noticed my Fu Xuan painting has her hands buried in her dress Honest to God! That was an artistic choice, not me dodging the problem of drawing hands! However, the other day I did have a chance to show this picture to a professional artist, and they immediately pointed it out as a telltale sign of a beginner. So although I thought it should be OK, it was a bad choice and I should have drawn the hands.

Ah, and ultimately, I’m not too worried about being able to draw anything, because I don’t need to become a professional. Drawing is my hobby and I only need to achieve good quality in the niche I’m currently focused on. Indeed, looking at it from this angle, having fun with the process should be the top priority

@Iruhas, thanks!

freyalupen · February 19, 2024, 12:55pm

Why? To avoid looking like a beginner? Or because you changed your mind about what would be better for the piece?

Anyway, my more general thoughts are: draw what you enjoy (because why else would you be doing it?), and enjoy what you draw (even when it’s outside your usual thing). And don’t get too caught up in the destination that you forget about the journey- don’t let where you want to be overshadow where you are now.

YRH · February 19, 2024, 1:20pm

Yes, to avoid making it look as something a beginner would do. Probably showing 1/3rd of a hand or something would already be fine just to make it obvious it was not a desperate move to avoid difficulty.

In hindsight, what I should have done was to look for a reference (or take a photo myself) of a person holding their hands between the thighs like this and what it exactly looks like. In this case I totally winged it and sometimes only a subtle difference in shape is what separates “not too bad” from “actually good”

Mythmaker · February 19, 2024, 11:20pm

That shouldn’t be a concern unless you did it deliberately to avoid drawing the hands. Did the artist who made that comment look at your work as a whole or just make assumptions based on a single image?

Honestly, you shouldn’t take such things to heart. Fear of judgement is probably the biggest threat to creative expression.

Besides, that’s one of my favourite images of yours.

activity · March 7, 2024, 9:32pm

Oh god the great wall of text is real, call me the golden horde for I see you tommorow with new forces

YRH · March 7, 2024, 9:45pm

Sorry! That’s my problem, I’m just prone to writing these long winded posts.