notice: we are semi-inactive!! i try to answer your asks and we all know i am horrible at being inactive but i really cannot run this blog until we get one or two more admins. if you have questions you want answered, consider spreading the word about needing admins, thanks! there will be times when an artist comes across a problem. many times, even! it's all part of growth and in the end it does help you get somewhere. of course, this does not make problems less of a problem and if there is anything we can help you with, anything at all, send a message! we'll try our best to help you figure it out. what exactly we try to do!
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a list of hotlines | imalive.org disclaimer: i have not followed any sort of art course and any advice given is based on my personal observations, which may be incorrect. i, in no way, give professional advice and i try to keep this in mind!
So you’re ready for art school, and you’ve got your top pick all sorted out; Art Institute looks great, right? WELL it might seem that way. What you don’t know is that there is a lot of really sketchy things going on behind the scenes, things that have escalated to being as serious as being sued for fraud.
This post was created in collaboration with mernolan. As two artists on opposite sides of the spectrum, we put together information from both the perspective of a student looking to apply to an art school(myself), and from the viewpoint of someone who has already graduated and is working in the industry right now (mernolan). We want to inform prospective students of the dangers of picking Art Institute, as well as arm you with the information you will need in order to pick the school and career path that is right for you as an artist.
There is so much information that I am going to leave it below the cut. PLEASE IF YOU ARE LOOKING TO BE AN ART MAJOR, have a look at this. There isn’t just information about AI and their issues, we’ve also included information about how to research schools and find out if a school is right for you! In case you’re not interested in reading, here’s a nice tldr for you; DON’T GO TO AI
So grab a snack and get comfy; you’re in for quite the read.
I decided that I really want to go to art school!! I'm determined! But I'm 20 years old, this week, and I was wondering if its too late for me. already as it is, I'm trying to pay for school myself, and a lot of the scholarships are for high schoolers (something I can't apply for given that I'm in a community college). Do you have any tips, help, or just advice?
i don't think you're ever too old to go to school! i personally haven't been to an art school myself, but i've been to open days and there were people there that were already like 27 and older... even though i'm pretty sure most studies are like 4 years? in any case, you probably won't even be the oldest student.
oh! on that note, i have the feeling we live in different countries, and scholarships and government funding of education is like, really different per country, so i'm afraid i don't have that much to say on that regard. if your community college has something like a careers councilor (or honestly, anyone who has a clue about how the educational system there works), you should see if you can get an appointment to talk about your options with them, particularly financially-wise. or if you already have an idea where you'd like to go in the future, you can probably e-mail them with questions like that too.
other than that, remember to create a nice portfolio for when you apply to one or more schools. i'm guessing they'll take a look at the applicants, their portfolios, and then there might be something like interviews afterwards... in any case, if they're interested in portfolios, now's a good thing to start on one (some tips for that is: diversity is important! put in different things even if they are less good. include some sketches so they can see your progress, possibly something old and redone side-by-side to show improvement, and keep it short and sweet because they'll have lots of them to read. make sure the portfolio itself i.e. the way it is presented looks nice too! so no boring old folder. unless they specifically want boring old folders. some schools are weird)
Hi! I have a question about style. I've heard that style is something that develops by itself over time but it doesn't seem to be the case for me... I tried studying the works of my favourite artists, but because their styles are so diverse I simply can't figure out what kind of style I'd like to settle on! I like cartoony styles but also semi-realism, and I like soft curves just as much as sharp edges! Any help? ;w; Thank you in advance!
if you like both cartoony stuff and semi-realism, and also soft curves and also sharp edges, draw all of it! just draw all the stuff you think looks cool (and then some), it’s okay if it’s not very consistent or if you feel like you’re changing styles by the week. more than likely, there’s already something characteristic about your artwork that sets it apart from others, and your friends are probably able to recognize your work upon seeing it without hints.
this probably isn’t the most helpful comment, but basically, you grow into it. with everything you draw, you learn new things that you like, new shortcuts for drawing things you draw often, and you’ll express all of what you know and love in a way that is unique to you (because your process is unique)! don’t try too forcefully to obtain a style; you already have one and it’s going to develop the more you draw the different things you like.
Do you know how I can draw & shade hair like in the piece of art titled "TV HORSE" on deviantArt? I've been searching everywhere but nothing seems to help.
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is this the piece you mean? for future reference, it may help if you also include the name of the artist. in any case, this is the piece i’ll try to explain to you!
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i can of course, not say this with 100% certainty because i am not this artist in particular, but judging by the amount of greyscale pictures in their gallery, they probably paint in greyscale to make sure they get their values and shadows about right and dynamic looking, like in this picture. after this, they could be using their art program’s options to paint colours into it.
it’s also possibly that that’s not what they do and they painted TV HORSE directly in colours, but to learn from their process it couldn’t hurt to try the greyscale thing, because as you can see in the greyscale picture, they consider the shape of the hair and shade accordingly.
the hair this artist draws has a very detailed texture, something they most likely built up to from blobs with roughly the values and 3d shape they wanted, then gradually overlaying it with thin strokes to give it this texture and its desired highlights (the lighter hair is overlayed on somewhat darker hair because this is below it). here are a few examples of how different artists do this.
lastly, consider brush settings. i’m not that good at ogling artwork to actually figure out their brush settings from looking at the picture, but they appear to be using a hard, blending brush that varies in opacity with pressure sensitivity and one that varies in size, as you can see from the detail i lighted out of TV HORSE. they also went through the effort of underlaying a shadow under a highlighted streak to give a more 3d like effect.
that about covers all i can tell you about this piece! don’t forget that you learn a lot from experimenting with different things and even if you adore the way this artist works, it’s good to also look at how different artists do similar (and totally different!) things to eventually find out what you enjoy doing most. good luck!
I'm sorry if this has been answered before, but I've never had much, if any, success with getting feedback or any sort of audience. I'm in that awkward position where I'm not comfortable sharing my personal stories with people until we're good friends, but at the same time, there's not really any popular fandom stuff I'm interested in that I'd want to draw and be happy about... is there anything else I could try doing?
unfortunately, i think a quick way to become noticed is still to become involved with a fandom (although, any fandom, less popular fandoms will also to some degree secure you a position)
but i think besides desperately trying to create works that will be popular, you should just keep doing what you are doing. get better. interact with others. cross-post your own work on multiple websites (i.e. tumblr, deviantart, facebook, weasyl, furaffinity, anywhere basically you can think of and wouldn’t mind being found). as you grow and grow better as an artist, more people will notice you and you’ll get more feedback. it isn’t only a what-you-are-doing thing, it’s also a time thing! so put yourself out there for long enough while you work hard on improving and you’ll be fine.
of course, feedback is important, and it’s immensely rewarding if people notice you’re making things and respond to it (even negative feedback can be really good for you). you’re working hard it’s way nicer if people are acknowledging that, so whenever you draw something, or think of something new in your creative process, don’t be shy to throw it in your friends’ faces or make a thread about it on a website you’re using or whatever. most people will be very excited to see what you make if you bring it to them, and it will expand from there!
Herooo. I have a lot of ideas for comics but I can never make them look like an actual comic. You know, with the panels all nice and the speech bubbles. Mine just look really weird. Very often when I go to show people the comic they get the joke but never notice its a comic and say, "Nice drawing." Plus the boxes are small or too large sometimes, so the art just look very odd. Any tips? Thanks in advance, you seem very helpful. :-)
hi anon! i myself actually have a lot of trouble with comics so my knowledge is rather limited on the subject, but i’ll share what i know!
if you’re having trouble fitting in the art (and text) nicely, try making a storyboard first (so like, draft out what you want in the comic without all the fancy panel layout stuff), then try to find a layout for the panels that works well with what you want in it (keep in mind, simpler is usually better because it is less distracting! variation with (rectangular) bigger boxes and smaller boxes is less distracting than slanted box plus round box plus suddenly no frame and so on). make drafts of your comic until you find something that works before you start getting into the details of it, it’ll save you a lot of pain! basically: planning
as for the actual content of the frames, it’s also important to use composition and direction for your storytelling, effectively using angles, mugshots, backgrounds and so on, but i can’t help you much there. i would advise you to analyze a buncha comics (like the type of comic you want to do, so don’t spend too much time looking at action comics when you want to make 4 panel jokes or something). look at how different artists fill in (and position) their frames, and it’s especially nice to look at long-running webcomics because they’re usually pretty bad at the beginning and way better later on, so you can analyze how the artist has improved (learn from other people’s mistakes!)
some other tips:* high contrast between the boxes; the art in the boxes stands out more if the background outside the boxes is clearly white, and keeping it clean makes the comic look nice.* learn how to use your art program well! if you can make straight lines and import fonts on it and all that jazz, use it, it really saves you a lot of trouble. know how to use shortcuts.
aaaaand that’s it, i guess! that’s literally everything i know about comics. if you want to study some, i can probably recommend you some webcomics.
I've always had some problems with shading and light sources. Any advice?
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the most basic thing to light sources is to imagine a light source (e.g. the sun, a light bulb, whatever), and then make the darkest shadows where the light is unable to reach because it is overshadowed, whereas the lightest points are where the light is able to directly hit the object. there are plenty of tutorials on understanding this particular concept better, so i suggest you just dig around in a resource blog for a while or google some tutorials. the most important thing is that you understand the shape of the object.
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in any case, what i’m saying is that the lighter the area around the subject (especially if you’re drawing something in a daylight setting), there is reflective light all around the subject and shadows become less harsh because light is reflected into them. unlike the last cat, the edges of this cat’s fur aren’t cast into shadow, but rather basking in light. the only shadows created are the ones where less light can reach the object, e.g. under the flower crown and under the cat’s chin. the inside of the cat’s ears looks light because light is shining through the thin skin.
a last thing i would like to add is the differences in surfaces; cat’s aren’t particularly shiny but their eyes are, hence they often have big shiny highlights in their eyes and not so much anywhere else. consider what sort of surface you are drawing; metal, even when dull, is often shiny, whereas clothes fabric is rarely very glossy and will have less highlights/reflection (although this doesn’t really affect the shadows. metal and fabric will both cast the same intensity of shadow in the same light). so study the texture of what you’re trying to draw carefully!
I really want to get better as an artist, and I know that getting better means you have to practice over and over, but I've been practicing for about seven months now and nothing is changing. I always look up tips and references to improve, but nothing's happening. I'm considering giving up.
hi anon!
to effectively practice getting better at something, you take something that is difficult for you to do or out of your comfort zone, and you do it a bunch of times. say, for example, you want to get better at drawing cats. you have no idea really what cats look like when you start off (just go with it, i know you’ve seen a cat before) and using some references and tutorials, you start to understand their anatomy better and you eventually are able to draw a proportionate cat. yay! but the practice doesn’t end there.
the next part is where you apply what you’ve learned to things you actually enjoy drawing. so maybe super deformed cats are totally your jam, but you want to draw good-looking super deformed cats at that. you use your knowledge to create something new from it, instead of replicating your references. you can exaggerate, tweak, leave out and add features, and you should try a lot of that, in different ways. not only to see what works for you, but also learning from all the things that don’t work for you. (please note that i only put up cartoon cats in here because i am not yet a master at drawing cats and i can only draw so many things inbetween super anime cat and realistic cat. there’s like a shitton of styles).
not only are there like a billion different ways to draw a generic cat, cats have body types and come in so many sizes and shapes and colours and hair lengths and weird ass facial structures (and i haven’t even started about mutations yet, woah) you could basically study cat breeds for the rest of your life. that said, at some point you may get pretty good at cat variety so it might be time to move onto something else.
what you learn about cat body types you can then apply to the way you normally draw a cat, and suddenly all those super deformed cats (or not-so deformed cats) you’ve been drawing will suddenly look a lot more unique and interesting.
and then there’s cat body language, learning about textures so you can draw the glossiest eyes and furriest fur, don’t even get me started on colour theory (seriously, i couldn’t even if i wanted to. even i need to devote myself to the endless study that is colour theory). learning about gravity, movements and motion, drawing wounds and blood, drawing backgrounds and setting, shadows and light, interaction between different objects, learn about drawing birds and wings so you can draw super deformed angel cats, storytelling with pictures. and when you get tired of that, you can try writing about cats (drabbles, poems, an entire novel about cats), or make a video game about cats (and there’s like a billion different types of games and different things you need to learn for that), make music about cats, learn how to make neat ass vector graphics so you can wear a nifty cat design on a shirt (after you devote yourself to the art of cat puns)…
what i’m saying (and what i’m fortunately too lazy to illustrate) is that there is always something new to learn and study, and that you need to do all of those things in as many different ways as you possible can to get good at one thing.
if you practice the same thing over and over, e.g. how to draw the anatomy of a cat or different poses cats naturally assume, you’ll quickly grow tired of it and it’s hard to really advance into it without also polishing up other skills, because in the end it’s your combined knowledge of everything that makes you good at something.
so don’t give up anon! i’m like 99% sure that you’ve never tried making a dating sim or tried your hand at cubism. there are so many things you can do! the most important part of all is that you have fun doing so, though, so focus on things you enjoy doing and do the things you don’t like as much but want to do, in a way that you can enjoy it.
i apparently can't stress this enough, but this blog is inactive!!
basically, this blog's only owner has taken a 6 month break from tumblr dot com for personal reasons, and in this time we've only very sporadically checked back to tumblr when we wanted to use it to upload something, and only hastily replied to quick questions.
we're somewhat more active on tumblr right now since like, a week, but artisteem is a dead project as it is because we simply don't have the time to take a look at your individual problems and analyse them for you thoroughly, which was originally the point of the blog. to give everyone personal advice, fit to them and their problem specifically.
i still reply to quick questions and all that, but things that require redlining, references, etc etc are out of our capabilities at the moment (although i may be able to get back with that at some point, it's Not Now). not to mention a lot of submissions i get have dead images or no images at all in them while they're asking about an opinion on the picture, which really doesn't help your case!
i have been struggling with my style for a long time now and i dont know what to do about it.. like i know theres still a lot of room for improvement but i am not happy with my style itself (i draw lines "too soft" and so whatever i draw always ends up looking "cute") and i dont know how to change this because i dont think its something that can be easily changed ;;
hello!! how easy it is to change is up to how willing you are to step out of your comfort zone! probably the main reason everything ends up looking too soft or cutesy is because you're used to it and having a hard time trying different things.
i'd recommend looking at a few other artist's styles (ones with less cutesy styles, that is), and try copying some aspects of their style, i.e. the colouring, linework, shapes, how they draw bodies and form... and then learn from it! make sure you don't study just one artist though and that you really make it your own thing in the end, i see some people be like "hey i like this artist so im gonna try everything they do" and end up drawing in an almost indistinguishable style and it's not really not so cool B(
in any case, you can do it! instead of telling yourself it is hard to change your style just try a whole bunch of different things you never draw normally and you'll be fine.
Ugh I've hit that point again, that point where you just aren't satisfied with your art anymore and I think I know the problem, my lack of attention to detail, As a kid advice from artists like "draw the form first" really got to me, and now that I'm older I consider it as a curse because I can never get to half of the rendering before I call it quires--as a result my art never seems finished--this is so frustrating :((
detail takes patience, but drawing form and composition first is a really good thing. you should however not get stuck in it! as the shapes are not the final thing, but rather the sketch or guidelines for your piece, you should try to not spend too much time on them and do them quickly and with little refining, then work over those. if you need to, make a rough sketch first and a more refined, detailed sketch over that, or start with solid blocks of colour in the form you’d like and just draw over it and over it until you’ve got the details in there that you’d like. it takes patience, but the more you do it, the more you pick up a speed and flow for it, i promise!
