I recently had the opportunity to take a look at your work, and where it is now. My brother had brought home the special apocalypse issue of the wisewood paper, and I only had to half-glance at the cover to INSTANTANEOUSLY feel I recognized it as your work. Surely enough, checking the interior credits, it was most certainly done by you. I flipped a bit further into the paper and managed to find this blog.
Now, here's the thing. I really shouldn't be able to immediately recognize your art. Having not seen any of your work since 2001, and still being able to go identify this art as your own is at best, disappointing.
Don't get me wrong! I am THRILLED that you're still even DOING art, since I'm sure 80% of the QuickKids dropped out because doing something creative and sticking to it is definitely a toll. I promise I am in no way out to bash you, or hurt your feelings, and if you're satisfied with your art as it is right now, feel free to ignore this. If, however, you're willing to take the red pill, read on and don't hesitate to ask me for any assistance you may need!
CRITBLAST BEGIN.
I figured it'd be fairest to single out the two newest pieces you have so that hopefully you don't feel I'm digging at old, bad art. What I'm saying will, however, hopefully apply to all windows of what you do.
First off, you need to DROP YOUR STYLE. I'm not saying STOP DRAWING CARTOONY, because fuck that, cartoons are awesome. What I'm saying is, stop feeling confined to drawing eyes a certain way, hands a certain way...don't try FORCING consistency into your art, it will ALWAYS look like you drew it no matter what. You don't need to hinder yourself to find a specific 'look'.
Secondly, and this ties DIRECTLY into "drop your style", you need to start studying and drawing from life. It sounds boring/avoidable, but trust me, once you really understand what lifedrawing IS you realize what can be applied to your cartoony stuff. Right now, you're drawing cartoons from your knowledge of other cartoons, and that really doesn't work. You'll only be able to pull superficial stylistic elements that way, like "sometimes chins are completely pointy" and "eyes can go four times the height of the ears". Jim Davis doesn't do it, sure, but in a GOOD drawing, the top of the eyes shouldn't be taller than the top of your ears.
The idea of lifedrawing applies to everything, not just people, by the way. Buildings, trees, objects- if you need to draw a shower rod or a building or a bus or a hat, always try to find a reference to pull from! Otherwise, you run the risk of drawing 'icons' of things, and not what they actually look like. Example: McDonald's M's as birds, ("oh, people will recognize it as birds" "yeah but that doesn't make them not M's") a house with a door, single circular window and a chimney. Stuff like that. Avoid it when possible.
I don't want to drone on much longer, because I've already given you a LOT to mull over and I'd rather you apply yourself to one thing at a time than get overwhelmed and ultimately change nothing. Really, just start paying close attention. Be careful with your text layout, with your straight lines, with how the human body and world actually works.
Art is no easy journey, and if you're ever finding it easy, that means it's time to try a harder trail. Ideally, you want to be on a very hard road and struggling to get to the harder roads, instead of breezing across easy street. You want to be hiking on a mountain with BEARS and a plastic knife. RAMBO STYLE.
Best of luck Reid, and I hope this helps. Frankly, I just hope I worded it well enough that it's encouraging instead of discouraging. I know you have drive and potential, so let's see if you can really TAP that potential! GO GO GO!
Hey Reid, it's Neil, from QuickKids!
ReplyDeleteI recently had the opportunity to take a look at your work, and where it is now. My brother had brought home the special apocalypse issue of the wisewood paper, and I only had to half-glance at the cover to INSTANTANEOUSLY feel I recognized it as your work. Surely enough, checking the interior credits, it was most certainly done by you. I flipped a bit further into the paper and managed to find this blog.
Now, here's the thing. I really shouldn't be able to immediately recognize your art. Having not seen any of your work since 2001, and still being able to go identify this art as your own is at best, disappointing.
Don't get me wrong! I am THRILLED that you're still even DOING art, since I'm sure 80% of the QuickKids dropped out because doing something creative and sticking to it is definitely a toll. I promise I am in no way out to bash you, or hurt your feelings, and if you're satisfied with your art as it is right now, feel free to ignore this. If, however, you're willing to take the red pill, read on and don't hesitate to ask me for any assistance you may need!
CRITBLAST BEGIN.
I figured it'd be fairest to single out the two newest pieces you have so that hopefully you don't feel I'm digging at old, bad art. What I'm saying will, however, hopefully apply to all windows of what you do.
First off, you need to DROP YOUR STYLE. I'm not saying STOP DRAWING CARTOONY, because fuck that, cartoons are awesome. What I'm saying is, stop feeling confined to drawing eyes a certain way, hands a certain way...don't try FORCING consistency into your art, it will ALWAYS look like you drew it no matter what. You don't need to hinder yourself to find a specific 'look'.
Secondly, and this ties DIRECTLY into "drop your style", you need to start studying and drawing from life. It sounds boring/avoidable, but trust me, once you really understand what lifedrawing IS you realize what can be applied to your cartoony stuff. Right now, you're drawing cartoons from your knowledge of other cartoons, and that really doesn't work. You'll only be able to pull superficial stylistic elements that way, like "sometimes chins are completely pointy" and "eyes can go four times the height of the ears". Jim Davis doesn't do it, sure, but in a GOOD drawing, the top of the eyes shouldn't be taller than the top of your ears.
The idea of lifedrawing applies to everything, not just people, by the way. Buildings, trees, objects- if you need to draw a shower rod or a building or a bus or a hat, always try to find a reference to pull from! Otherwise, you run the risk of drawing 'icons' of things, and not what they actually look like. Example: McDonald's M's as birds, ("oh, people will recognize it as birds" "yeah but that doesn't make them not M's") a house with a door, single circular window and a chimney. Stuff like that. Avoid it when possible.
I don't want to drone on much longer, because I've already given you a LOT to mull over and I'd rather you apply yourself to one thing at a time than get overwhelmed and ultimately change nothing. Really, just start paying close attention. Be careful with your text layout, with your straight lines, with how the human body and world actually works.
Art is no easy journey, and if you're ever finding it easy, that means it's time to try a harder trail. Ideally, you want to be on a very hard road and struggling to get to the harder roads, instead of breezing across easy street. You want to be hiking on a mountain with BEARS and a plastic knife. RAMBO STYLE.
Best of luck Reid, and I hope this helps. Frankly, I just hope I worded it well enough that it's encouraging instead of discouraging. I know you have drive and potential, so let's see if you can really TAP that potential! GO GO GO!