Wolf Play : Art

I honestly think that art is something that can forever be improved on, no matter the artist, but that it's beautiful and expression-full and a piece of someone that cannot necessarily be put into words.

Fur textures can be really really difficult to mimic in digital art. I have watched so many YouTube videos on digital artists' coloring, and just ugh. It's interesting to see what some art programs can do though to help create that fluffy, 3D-like texture. I also know that some tablets with pen pressure and sensitivity seem to make fur textures easier to accomplish? My personal tablet is a cheapy one that doesn't have pressure sensitivity, so I don't bother with trying to do textures anymore really. :"D

I think if you like how your style and fur textures are going, continue. It's fun to draw frequently and then look back on your pieces a year or so later and see the improvements on certain things you have/had been having difficulty with. I know that I have like 20+ sketch books packed away in my closet and it's cool to see the gradual progression of a particular style or a particular problem area (humanoid noses are my problem spot, hhhh). Your current style, if you are happy with it, could be the style that you build on and look back to see the progression with later. :) I know that I used to get very brutally critiqued on my traditional cartoon sketches, but I kept practicing them anyway and now I'm able to sell them in real life.

Also yeah, cheek floofs are always a 10/10 on any piece. :^)

Hope this was hopeful. Keep making art -- you do a fantastic job<3

Edited at June 29, 2019 03:22 PM by Nox

Art	June 29, 2019 03:23 PM

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Nox said:
Aw, no worries! <3

I honestly think that art is something that can forever be improved on, no matter the artist, but that it's beautiful and expression-full and a piece of someone that cannot necessarily be put into words.

Fur textures can be really really difficult to mimic in digital art. I have watched so many YouTube videos on digital artists' coloring, and just ugh. It's interesting to see what some art programs can do though to help create that fluffy, 3D-like texture. I also know that some tablets with pen pressure and sensitivity seem to make fur textures easier to accomplish? My personal tablet is a cheapy one that doesn't have pressure sensitivity, so I don't bother with trying to do textures anymore really. :"D

I think if you like how your style and fur textures are going, continue. It's fun to draw frequently and then look back on your pieces a year or so later and see the improvements on certain things you have/had been having difficulty with. I know that I have like 20+ sketch books packed away in my closet and it's cool to see the gradual progression of a particular style or a particular problem area (humanoid noses are my problem spot, hhhh). Your current style, if you are happy with it, could be the style that you build on and look back to see the progression with later. :) I know that I used to get very brutally critiqued on my traditional cartoon sketches, but I kept practicing them anyway and now I'm able to sell them in real life.

Also yeah, cheek floofs are always a 10/10 on any piece. :^)

Hope this was hopeful. Keep making art -- you do a fantastic job<3

You somehow write beautiful posts all the time??? Lol

I think I'm just going to start all over again, in some aspects. :') summer has always been the time my art reaches a growth spurt, seeing as I'm off school lmao.

Thanks again <3 same goes for you<3

Art	June 29, 2019 03:31 PM

Nox

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Aw man, thank you!<3

Ah, okay, one last thing before I stop pestering that could maybe be something cool to do for motivation or something?- You could totally make an Art Gallery sort of thread and post daily/weekly/monthly pieces and watch the progression. Or even like a folder on your computer that you can save all of the pieces you do throughout the summer on so that you can easily skim through it later on. I find that it can be really helpful to look back at previous pieces and pick features out that I like or don't like and either incorporate it into the next piece or try and stay away from doing it. :D I also think that it is super helpful to find at least one thing that you like in every piece. I know all too well how easily it is for the artist to immediately focus on the flaws and then not want to doodle for a little while because of it. Finding something in each piece that you create can really help with the psychological affects of making art.

Hope you have a good summer and I hope I helped. Feel free to message anytime if you ever would like specific feedback on pieces or anything like that. I love looking at art!<3

Edited at June 29, 2019 03:32 PM by Nox

Art	June 29, 2019 03:35 PM

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First off, I'd like to say that you've come incredibly far in your art journey. I'll always love your art no matter what what ^^

One thing I can suggest that really helped me is looking at references and then trying to draw them. Study lots of anatomy, and try some realism. Look at the shapes of different animals and how they work. Once you have a basic understanding of wolf/animal anatomy, then you can start developing a style. This will help create a more solid style, as you can still change everything up but still keep it anatomically correct.

Lastly, make sure you're doing what YOU want to do. It only matters that you're happy with your art, not anyone else. If you don't like cheek floofs, don't draw cheek floofs ^^ It takes a lot of time and patience to find the right style, but I know you'll get there very soon! You've got this ^^

Art	June 29, 2019 05:13 PM

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Your cheek floof was your signature, and I'm quite sad that I never got any art with the floof *^*

I only really suggest loads of practice and definitely use reference :3 otherwise, I got nothing to be honest. I adore your style as it's so very unique.

Art	June 29, 2019 10:43 PM

Dash Attacked

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I might be a little brutally honest/blunt here, but please know that I mean absolutely no ill intent. I just want to give you some honest tips and critique to help you out. <3

(Also, apologies if I'm repeating what's already been said by others, I looked through the other posts but I'm probably going to be a little repetitive anyways :') )

I just kind of want to come right out and say it: you're only going to keep burning out if you copy whatever's popular. I've noticed your style change constantly over time, and it always appears to be in light of whatever artistic element is popular on WP. Yes, I do know that style develops by utilizing and combining artistic elements that inspire you (that's how my style came about, anyways), but there's a difference between developing style and hopping on the bandwagon. I'm not saying that your art style isn't unique, I can always tell when a piece is made by you, but sometimes it just feels... uninspired?? Again, I'm not trying to be offensive, it's just how I view these things. Just... draw in a way that makes you happy, not because it's popular. Otherwise, you'll just get burnt out.

To show you an example of what I mean, this is one of my favorite pieces that you've made (I had to dig a bit through your gallery to find it, haha)

https://i.postimg.cc/vH136NMx/1537466232460.png

I dunno, it just looks so... Cun, and I like that. I honestly think you should consider drawing in this kind of style more (as long as it motivates you and keeps you happy of course, haha)

With all that being said, the next thing I wanted to say that might improve your art is to focus a bit more on anatomy. I've sure you've heard this saying before, but try to learn the rules before you break them. That meaning, maybe take some time to study real life canine anatomy, particularly how things like bones, joints, and muzzles work, before stylization. This can be done totally in your free time (one trick I occasionally do to practice this is to take a photo and sketch out the rough anatomy over it, and then redraw those same anatomy lines off to the side without the image underneath. And then from there, build up the sketch until you've got something ^^) Once you've got a good handle on the anatomy stuff, feel free to play around with proportions and whatnot to get a style that you're happy with. I really do feel like your art suffers from some major anatomy problems, especially with the joints in the legs being off, the eyes being too close together, and the muzzle often being at an odd angle. Taking some time to study anatomy will really go a long way. And if you need any help with this, feel free to PM me! ^^

One last note I wanted to make about shading: the painted style just doesn't really jive well with me. If you want to do more painted shading, then go for it, but there are some things you can do to improve in that department. For one, I rarely ever shade in black/greyscale, it just muddies down the image in my opinion. Try to shade with colors that match with the mood of the image (use warm colors to portray a sunny day, for example) or that compliment the character. In addition, the way you do your shading right now doesn't make your characters look like fur, in my opinion. I believe someone else said it looks more like they have a wood texture overtop of them, and I kind of agree with that. I'm still working on how I portray fur myself, so I wish I could help you out more here, but all I can really say is that more smudging does not really equal more three-dimensional. Try to focus on light vs dark areas, and then adding detail from there, instead of focusing on detail in general.

(this can be applied to backgrounds as well! Grass and trees do not have to be a flat green, try to play with color a bit more!)

(I also think you should do more cell shading, like I mentioned above. I dunno, I just think it suits your style well. But that's just my opinion, like I said, do whatever you feel like doing ^^)

I'm so sorry for this longass post, and I really hope I'm not coming off as too blunt. I really want to see you improve, and these are just the things your should work on. You've got a lot of potential, and I can't wait to see what you do in the future. ^^

Edited at June 29, 2019 10:44 PM by Dash Attacked

Art	June 30, 2019 03:46 AM

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Dash Attacked - eeeeh you hit the gold there with that post, and honestly you didn't offend me at all, rather it was a bigass wakeup call for me. xD

I'll definitely do everything you suggested there, and everything everyone else suggested. Thank you all so much for your time to post, it honestly means so much to me <3

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