Sunday, November 25, 2012

There and Back Again: Days 113-118

Day 113: Having fun with lines, finding gestures and expressions I haven't played with before, and pretty ladies in poofy dresses. Also an eye, because that figure really didn't take that long.

Day 114: Really stretched [read as: incorrect] anatomy - but that push forward, that longing upward, is something I love.

Day 115: Nothing too hard, but a pretty good representation of what I like to draw: sad, quiet, elegant ladies, with the added bonus of bird things. Not shown: flowey hair, flowey fabric, low-chroma cool palettes.

Day 116: This is a Drawing about Hair, which is good because it certainly isn't about that 'horse'. There is a reason I reference so heavily when I'm doing a real drawing (as in, for an illustration), and it is because I actually don't know how to draw anything apart from hair, and faces at a certain angle, and slim/lean female bodies from certain angles. Everything else is guesswork and/or wrong, which is alright for a sketch like this but not even sort of acceptable elsewhere.

Day 117: This just works for me, from the gesture to her expression to that hair.

Day 118: The previous page worked; this one didn't. It should have been a good drawing, and the face started out strong, but I missed the mark on the gesture and spent so long messing around with it that I didn't wind up doing anything with it.

9 comments:

  1. Hey there! Just saw your tumblr blurb about the work of one of my favourite painters... As a fellow artist I suggest that instead of writing you should keep developing your style and technique to the level when other artists will ASK you for your opinion about their art. Keep sketching!

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    1. While I see what you're saying, I don't agree. Much of my writing, critical or not, about others' work or not, is far more about thinking through things for myself than for anything else; almost all of what I touched on in Tammy Moon's painting are things I'm trying to remind myself of in my own art and life.

      Aside from that, I'm followed on Tumblr by several friends who are still in art college or younger, and who for some reason look up to me(?). I feel responsible to them to be open with these lessons I'm groping through, in the hope that they can find something in the rambling that helps them overcome their own roadblocks and struggles.

      Writing goes hand-in-hand with art for me, because art without self-awareness has proved to be akin to shooting blindly for a very far target - and I do not critique others except in the spirit of mutual learning. I learn almost as much from the crits I give as from the crits I get, and I feel that if the only people allowed to give critique were those who have gained mastery, I would have missed out on a lot of improvement in the past years from both ends.

      If Tammy Moon found my post offensive, I would first apologize and secondly take it down - but until then, I do not believe I have done anything wrong. I'll most certainly keep sketching, though (:

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  2. How about using your own work for pointing out mistakes to your young followers, rather than using someone else's work as an example? The very sketches above can easily be used for pointing out mistakes in anatomy and could help you achieve your noble goal of teaching your followers! Why use someone else's work who didn't sign up for any unasked and potentially hurtful criticism, when you are so prolific with your own creations?

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    1. I am honestly sorry that you've been upset by my post, but just as you are entitled to think what I wrote was out of line, I am entitled to disagree.

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  3. Hi Jenna, Tanya directed me here and mainly just to explain my point of view since my work was your target. Firstly, I am not necessarily hurt by your opinion. You are certainly welcome to that, and I agreed with almost everything you said. You have a knack for zeroing in on everything that I struggled with in that painting. What offends me is that another artist chose to do this is a PUBLIC setting. Maybe you don't depend on your art for your livelihood yet and therefore are lacking in empathy, but most professional artists know that this is just not something you do in public. If you were an art teacher and teaching a class and used my painting as an example that would be fine, but by negatively speaking about my work in public where it can be found and read by a potential buyer, that's a whole different ball of wax. When another artist decides to speak negatively about your work when you post it on say Deviantart, we artists call them "trolls". What you did was actually more sneaky because there was the chance I may not have seen it. If you were an empathetic person you might have messaged me first to "teach me" about what I did wrong and maybe asked permission to post your diatribe. Again, you are welcome to your opinion, but it is the fact that another artist would so flippantly speak negatively in public about another artist's work that offends me.

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    1. I apologize. I did not think about the public nature of the post, and did not intend for sneakiness - and while my lack of professional experience is the cause, it was not for lack of empathy. Something came across my dashboard and caught my eye; I wrote about it and posted it, and did not think of the impact.

      I will remove the post.

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  4. Thank you Jenna...you just turned that around and gained my respect. I appreciate your honesty and maturity. I also appreciate the advice you gave me in that post. You did point out some of my laziness that I think no one notices and now I will certainly work a little harder to get it right next time.

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    1. I'm just glad that this got resolved - making mistakes is part of growing, and I'm lucky that this was one easily remedied.

      All best!
      Jenna

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