This title has emphasis. You know you love it too. Since there's no general art section (or a section to talk about art itself as a topic) I'm just putting this here for now.
Anyway, how have you guys improved over the years (months, weeks, however long you've been doing art)? Have you seen vast improvements? What more would you like to learn even? What advice would you have to give for aspiring artists, writers, graphic artists, or spriters that might come along later on?
So, also, what I would like to also see kind of is what your artwork/creative activity looked like a while back (or even when you begun) and what your stuff looks like today. This will be fun, guys! We can look back and all say wow, we've all improved quite a bit.
Look at all of those mistakes! I know not a single grammar rule.
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As to HOW I would improve, had I a good memory it would be through repetition. :yes:
It really depends on what specific artistic aspects we're talking about. For example, my anime art style has only evolved, and hasn't even come close to improving.
Ex: Left side was from about 2-3 years ago. The right side was about a week ago.
My realistic style, however, has improved. I don't believe I'm the best, in fact I know I'm not the best, but I just know I've improved. I don't have any past examples with me, but these are more recent examples:
WIP
Misc
My writing has improved, well, I mean, I've never been one to write stories on a whim, not even for fun. I've been saving my writing skills/creativity for my English classes, and it's paid off pretty well. I want to start writing stories, though, even if it's just for fun. I have no pieces at all to share because, like I said, I don't write stories except for inside of the classroom.
I don't do sprites, make videos, sing, or dance; therefore, I have no examples for those.
I've recently taken interest in graphical design, more or less just for fun. Userbars are the easiest for me to make, simply because of how small they are. It's not like I've really improved at all from it, so I guess I just naturally picked up on the skill. Making signature banners is my artistic weak point -- same with painting. I don't have talent nor skill in digital graphic making, like many users on this site do. It's kind of like me in math: I don't get it, but everyone else does. Here's a pretty pathetic comparison:
Not too long ago:
Last week:
As far as advice goes, I would just advise others to keep practicing. They say practice makes perfect, but there's no real definition of perfect. What you believe is perfect is what you should aim for, not what anyone else thinks. I would also recommend tutorials, as those prove to be beneficial under some circumstances.
I'm just not good at it, but I believe I'll get better some day. To conclude this, I want to express my opinion on artists.
Being an artist is one of the most difficult professions in the world. If you think your job's hard, then you've clearly never been in an artist's shoes. People just don't see things the way we do, and it's one of the most frustrating things in the world. We have this undeniable talent and the world just doesn't see it. Unless you find a way to get a famous, or are just truly amazing, chances are that your art is just not going to be profitable. Does this mean you don't have aspiring talent? Does this mean you should give up? Does this mean your art isn't worth anyone's time? Hell no! We're so focused on what other's think, that we don't stop to think:
"What do the other artists think?"
We artists see past the colors, the paints, the animations, the renders, the charcoal -- we see past all of it in order to find a story, a puzzle. All the aspects of your piece are just pieces of the puzzle that piece together a work of art, a masterpiece. That is why I am proud to say that I am an artist, and really nothing is going to change that.
It's easy to tell how I've improved just by looking at my graphics thread. The first signatures I posted, all I knew how to do was render characters and put them on a background and add text. I didn't even have a grasp of how to do transparency properly. Then if you look at the next batch of signatures, you can see that I'd gotten better at rendering and that I'd finally figured out how to do transparency. If you keep looking, you'll see I learned how to use textures. The first page of my graphics thread alone shows a pretty clear growth of my capability over time.
Another good example to use would be my fan fiction, The Hero of Spirits. From the Prologue all the way to the final chapter, Chapter Fifty-Five, my writing ability had improved considerably, and I was able to get a firm grasp on my style of writing. If you were to read the whole thing at once (I'm not asking you to do that right now, that'd take a while lol) you'd be able to see how my sentence structure and detail changed over time. My vocabulary increased as well. I think I made great strides in my writing with that story. It's another good example of how I've improved, just like my graphics thread.
Probably one of the most recent digital drawings I've done. There was more to this drawing, but I cut it off there because not even gonna say why. I know his hair is chunky. I promise I have gotten better at that. ;____;
and here is a kind of recent colored sketch. I know his eyes look funky, I don't know why I drew them like that. ;n;
This is a parody of one of the newer Naruto chapters. I drew them kind of chibi-ish on purpose, just fyi.
To be honest, I haven't seen much improvement. I think I am really too critical on my work, though. I know I at least have some talent because people always tell me I'm good at drawing. I do know that I am nowhere near where I want to be, though. I still have a looooong ways to go...
EDIT: Oh crud, forgot the second part of the reply. Okay, advice... Umm... don't be too harsh on yourself, and if you want to get better, practice, practice, practice! Listen to what other artists tell you because they're probably right. Also, take lots of breaks because sometimes you can get burned out and you'll end up drawing really badly. Most of all, just have fun because that's why we draw, right?
