HOME | DD
blix-it — Art Blocks are Decent Drawings in Disguise
Published: 2012-05-04 18:46:58 +0000 UTC; Views: 9920; Favourites: 182; Downloads: 64
Redirect to original
Description
LOOK AT THE SEDNA FANART RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA:TG page 112 this week.
I've kind of wanted to post a process drawing for a while, but wasn't really sure what to say ............ it's that I've always felt my sketch work is hideous. Full of flaws and bad anatomy and sketchy hard lines. When taking my undergrad, there was a girl who said to me that when she saw my sketches, she had assumed I was an absolutely awful artist with no business taking a degree in art. Later she saw my final product, and she revised her opinion of me to be less awful. err.... I don't know how to take this....
More recently, I was thinking Angry Birds could be some kind of life metaphor. Mainly in that it takes me a million tries to get it right.
I do learn from each try.... but my poor friend who had to suffer through my badness finally asked why I couldn't have just done the right thing in the first few tries? I DON'T KNOW. 8( But drawing is the same way.... I never get anything right on the first try. (When I do get it right, I ruin the drawing by trying to paint it. LOOOOL.)So when I hear other artists tell me they hate their sketches, everything they draw is ugly, they're afraid to post sketch work, my most frequent response is to just silently listen and try to admit as little as possible about how bad my own sketches are while I kick my sketch folder deeper under my bed. Because I feel pressured that everything I draw EVER should be an amazing gift from the art gods and if it's not, I clearly suck and should quit.
BUT IT JUST ISN'T ALL AMAZING AND PERFECT.
NONE OF IT IS.
9 times of 10 my sketches are complete disasters. Most other artists would call this "art block" but whatever. Maybe I art block constantly. I reached a decision during my undergrad that I'm going to draw anyway. No matter how bad it is. Because I fucking want to and every other artist who doodles perfect drawings and poops perfect little round turds has no relation to my personal motivations and deepest desires. (Sometimes I even believe my own lies....)
I make myself draw on lined paper to relieve the pressure of having to produce a perfect drawing on a nice clean perfect piece of paper.
I have an overwhelming terror of sketchbooks, they feel like they have to be perfect, so I almost always draw on loose paper.
When the pressure is on me to produce something quality (not that this is quality ... I mean, not that this is a shining example of artistic success. I mean, not that I'm emotionally connected to this drawing at all, so if you hate it, that's fine, I'm totally not crying over here in this corner) I tend to go through this long, ugly process of sketching badly, correcting in photoshop, light boxing onto good paper, and then completing in color. I tell myself, first you get good, then you get fast. So never mind the speed .... even if everyone else is faster than me and I really need to pick it up if I ever want to, er, be a 'professional' or whatever.... (Am I the only person unwilling to pick a deviantart status? I refuse to define myself as professional, amatuer, or hobbyist. I MAKE ART, I'M AN ARTIST. END OF STATUS.)
I'm posting this progression hoping it might help other artists feel less awful about unsatisfactory sketches. But I'm pretty convinced every other artist has better sketches than I have, so what I'm probably actually looking for are bad sketch groupies that will make me feel artistically acceptable. Oh mind games. :/ I'm not saying my process here is ideal or that others should mime it. Only that it's a process that eventually leads to a result that isn't as completely hopeless as the initial sketch would lead one to believe. >__> Probably most days for me qualify as "art block," but I draw anyway.
All you perfect artists out there, yay you.
Related content
Comments: 37
I like seeing your sketches and process. It definitely inspires me to get my sketchbook out and do some work, even though my sketches often turn out horribly.
Anyway, thanks for sharing this, I found it instructive.
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
Lol the funny thing is I've always loved sketches. In fact I'm more likely to hate a finished product and love the sketch 
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
I wanna pet Sedna's hair...
I share the same fear of showing sketches, and just seeing my own unpolished - and sometimes polished - work makes me cringe sometimes. But artists are always hardest on themselves. It's part of being who we are!
It's a bigger compliment to me when people say nice things about my sketches, hence the reason I started a sketchblog...a place where I can post all my sketches and nothing else. And I hope people who see it can accept my crappy art for what it is (: And that's pretty rad!
Perhaps you should create a sacred place for your sketches, too. Showing it to the world might be a great way to let your guard down.
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
Well your sketches are no where near as bad as some I've seen. (and made...)
My current sketch books are really just a pile of refined works and super terrible sketchy scribbles of boredom. >_> (even the one for the drawing class I just finished taking!)
That's not to say that I'm not afraid of ruining my perfect and beautiful bound sketch books with scribbles; especially the first page! T_T
Probably the worst part about sketches is that once I refine them, they change, they lose something; but in return they gain something too. (...like not being so terrible?)
I hardly ever draw on loose paper anymore (its almost always in a large drawing pad before I tear it out), but I do draw in notebooks a lot. Less because I worry about ruining papers with my horrid art, and more because sometimes I just don't want to find my sketchbooks at the time. XD ...But I do seem to write on loose paper a lot though.
Pen sketches are also really fun, and frustrating. (can't erase lines once drawn! >_< But good practice in learning to love/hate sketchy terrible drawings)
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
Wow I've been going through something like this myself lately! But I totally agree with you, I love all of your work so hearing you go through this thought and artistic process really helps motivate me! I am also terrified of sketchbooks, I feel like I need every page to be beautiful and cohesive with one another. I have loose pages everywhere and compile the sketches I like together in a book with my lightboard because I am neurotic I guess OuO Anyways YOU ARE AWESOME!
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
I have been spending maybe three to five attempts before I get a final product. Even then it's clean up in photoshop before it reaches my watercolor paper. Its taken some time, but I have gotten comfortable with just sketching to sketch and that it may take several attempts to get what I want. There is no reason to settle nor is there any reason to beat myself up if I don't get it the first try. That is what reams of cheap copy paper are for, right?
It's good to remind everyone there is a process and hard work. And study and failure and crumpled wads of paper....you get the idea. Thanks for sharing.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Agreement here. I used to refuse to draw an idea more than once. But since leaving college, and having more time to actually work on an illustration, the quality of my work has improved drastically by doing sometimes 5 - 10 sketches of a thing before deciding on a final composition. Some ideas have actually ranged months between sketches as the idea sits in the back of my mind.
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
- "So when I hear other artists tell me they hate their sketches, everything they draw is ugly, they're afraid to post sketch work, my most frequent response is to just silently listen and try to admit as little as possible about how bad my own sketches are while I kick my sketch folder deeper under my bed. Because I feel pressured that everything I draw EVER should be an amazing gift from the art gods and if it's not, I clearly suck and should quit."
Exactly the same here ;;; I SO want to post sketches (the ones i drew in real paper) but they're not perfect. not at all omg. Just as you said "9 times of 10 my sketches are complete disasters" (I don't think yours are tho >:C) But i spend some time drawing them and also i would like to post them since most of them will never be finished ;;
Even so.. i feel like I could dissapoint every watcher i have by posting them... i didn't mean that i have awesome skills or somethingasjkdl amg i don't know what to do...
- "I have an overwhelming terror of sketchbooks, they feel like they have to be perfect, so I almost always draw on loose paper. "
I want one so badly but i also have some sort of panic ruin a possible "good run" and hum... ;v;
- "(Am I the only person unwilling to pick a deviantart status? I refuse to define myself as professional, amatuer, or hobbyist. I MAKE ART, I'M AN ARTIST. END OF STATUS.) "
I have no deviantart status either lol. I mean... what about if i draw hideous and i'm a "professional" or vice versa .-.? "Status" doesn't rly matter for me.
Dear you're sketches are ok ;v;!!!! Sketches meant to be rough you know that's why they're sketches. Also you don't have anatomic fails as i have <3 be happy they're yay *hugs*
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
I wouldn't call them terrible, just really loose? My sketches look kind of basically like this if I'm not cleaning them up for someone else, too! Haha so maybe I'm just biased...
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
this is neat!
I've avoided sketchbooks up until now for the same reasons. Instead I have these huge boxes full of hundreds of loose leaf pages. Nice to know I'm not the only one out there like that.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
I guess besides the bother of the perfect feeling of sketchbooks, there's also the paper crease that makes them kind of cumbersome in comparison to loose paper. =___=
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
That's true, with loose leaf you can rotate it however you want and actually lay it flat on a table and stuff. It gets a little unorganized sometimes but I find it works really well most of the time.
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
I love seeing processes like this. It's really comforting to know that no one starts out with a perfect line art the instant they touch their pen to the paper.
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
I know how you feel! I don't think it's art block, its just the way you draw.
Heck, my sketches look like crap when I start out. It's so frustrating not getting it right the first time, but I know that in the end it will come out good, even if it took 2 hours to get the sketch stage right (and that makes be feel terribly amateur). I dunno, maybe for me it has to do with perfectionism.
And yeah, it drives me nuts when artists can just get the sketch perfect the first time. I feel artistically disabled sometimes.
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
I actually love your sketches. There is an energy and movement in the gesture of your lines that I love quite a bit. And the best part is that that movement and energy holds through even in the final product. I always feel that my own sketches are very lively and animated, but the minute I ink and color them, they lose something of that and become a bit static. So don't sell yourself short just because one idiot in undergrad told you you were bad. No artist is perfect; we all have something to learn and develop. If we STOP learning new skills, then, I think, we have a problem.
Anyways, that was my two cents. XD I LOVE this drawing.
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
People think too much, problem solved 8D Derp, no, that's what makes us human. Some times I draw silly things or really easy things just to remind myself not to be too serious.
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
it's really interesting to see this.
usually I mess up the first try, but I didn't see it before, I just went for it and believed it was the best I could do. But I learnt this year that actually, that's not how it works, you have to do it once, say "uurgh", do it again, "meh", and again, until you not only say "good", but "AWESOME DID I REALLY MAKE THIS".
well, when you have time, that is, because assignements are long to do and due dates really close !
but that concept of starting with something bad as a normal thing really helps relieve stress and actually helps to become better by accepting failure and rework, I think.
Well that's what I learnt this year anyway !
frankly I first learnt to care again, and then not to care, it's funny actually.
And really, you are not a bad artist. just by saying everything you said in your artist comment, you proved that you were at least intelligent, if not skilled, and the facts are, that you are skilled. Maybe not at everything (who is ?) but you have qualities in your pocket !
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
1. There is no such thing as a perfect artist. For every wonderful drawing that you see there are thousands of fuck ups, things they tried that didn't work, things they're ashamed to admit they once thought good, and even then every piece can be improved. That's how you learn. So no, really, you shouldn't be seeking perfection. You'll never find it. However, you are perfectly capable of stumbling upon something beautiful.
2. You are an interesting artist. I have never seen anyone with a style like yours, and that, my dear, is the hardest thing to do. Of course you struggle and of course it's hard, and yes, most people outside the art community don't understand how much work it takes just to be able to draw a decent human, but you have something unique, something other people do not have. That's what matters.
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
I had so many mixed emotions reading this. I felt inspired and sympathetic. and I wanted to rush in and say that I love your sketch, obviously it has a different feeling from the finished work. but its not bad
I have the opposite problem to you. you may have noticed that in my gallery the sketches out number the coloured work 100/1. this isnt just because i never have the time to refine or colour, i mean some of it is but some of the exhaustion i feel when colouring comes from this deep anxiety that i am going to fuck them up.
For some reason when i Ink or colour my sketches loose all their soul. not always but a lot of the time. I can't tell you how many sketches I have inked, then had to throw my whole picture away because its ruined. either I make mistakes or what stares back at me afterwards is this black emotionless image, with everything that made the sketch great gone.
that is not to say all my sketches are brilliant. and I think i am more relaxed about mistakes in them, since I feel in sketches, expression is the most important thing. but ink scares me. and photoshop just makes things 100X worse.
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
I love seeing the process.
I used to be intimidated by sketchbooks because I didn't want to use up all that pretty paper with my scrawls. I got over it by buying lots of sketchbooks, so I know there's always more pretty paper to play with. (okay, I'm weird, I know.)
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
Thumbs up on the Hide the remaining mistakes under pretty colors
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Or speech bubbles or panel borders, when applicable.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Agrees some times I try to edit in photo shop it always looks wrong to me so I just leave the mistakes in.
Sadly then I decide they are not good enough to show off.
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
I always thought sketching was the first part of an overall process and as such, they shouldn't be perfect. They should be rough and look sucky with the goal of conveying the idea behind the final product. Maybe I'm old fashioned and just haven't realized someone changed the definition of "sketch" since I took art classes.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
I don't know. :/ That's my idea of sketch, too. But some of the sketchbooks I've seen other artists have, not a loose drawing it. I swear they keep decoy sketchbooks. There's the sketchbook they parade in public as being their loose work, and the sketchbook that never leaves their room.
:/ Or maybe some people are actually that good. Maybe I should spend less time scheming and more time aspiring.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
They're decoy sketchbooks. True story.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
It's even funnier that you come and reply to this when my reply wasn't initially to your comment. XD
This is a story that sounds funny.
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
UGH THANK YOU. I always get so discouraged when my sketches turn out crappy, and then I finally turn out a good one and... I'm too scared of ruining it to finish it. I've got so many good sketches that I can't bear to ink because WHAT IF I SCREW IT UP GOD. Asking too much. And then coloring. I like this idea of covering up mistakes with pretty colors. Perhaps it'll be so distracting that nobody will notice that I didn't intend this to be a zombie, I just used green-purple-red shading and WHOOPS turns out those are decay colors...?
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
Quite an impressive description! I'm sure many can relate to that (I certainly can!). And I must say, all this, after seeing all your so perfect it hurts end products, makes you seem, well, more human
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
Thank you so much for posting this, both the look into your process and the discussion of how sketching works for yourself.
I think you capture a lot of motion in your sketches, and I like them a lot! That sense of fluid motion is something I really struggle with in my own art.
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
Oh, I dunno. I was just always under the assumption that sketches were SUPPOSED to look that way. Shaky. Unrefined. Sketches are just ideas and thoughts, and sometimes neither of those are completely clear. (Yay, metaphor! Hurhurhur)
Anyway, I don't think you have anything to worry about as far as the quality of your sketches, especially considering what you manage to evolve them into. That alone is a quality of a great artist; to adapt and change and move and flow with your work. All great drawings start by looking bad, and don't let anyone tell you any different. All my sketches and rough ideas look like I covered the paper in gravy and let my cats go buck wild on it 
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
