like I am currently studying illustration at university and I feel like all of my work is stale and lacks. i don't know, motion? movement? I feel like I'm in a funk and I don't know where to go - I ultimately want to be a freelance illustrator myself and I wondered if you had any advice? like i just draw the same poses and junk and I don't know how to breach out. I try and do life drawing from youtube links etc. this is where my stuff is at drawsconstantly under the my-art tag
Hey there, thanks so much for the ask!I have seen a lot of people struggle with this, as I myself have very recently! Especially in the field you want to enter, it takes a lot of hard work to feel like you’re at the top of your game and are some true competition. I want to enter a similar field myself, and I know seeing a lot of other artists around that I feel do my job way better than me can get to do really discouraging. I’m not sure if that’s the case with you personally, but I figure someone else reading might be able to relate. In my personal experience, seeing other artists do what I love better than I can can be a real downer. Why even bother? I don’t feel as if I’ve branched out, grown, moved around, etc in a long while, so I’m in the same boat as you. I’d first off take a look at your inspirations (and if you don’t have any, search around for some) and study their art. Being an artist usually implies that we’re visual learners, so hopefully you’ll be able to pick up a few tidbits of growth just by giving a few of their pieces a study, and picking out a few things that they do that you like. When you next work, keep those things in mind, perhaps try to introduce them in your piece (even with your own twist). Take that further by picking areas of their art out that you can openly accept that they do better than you. Anatomy, color, composition? Take those areas one at a time and dedicate study time to them. What I am going to start doing on my main art blog is take a topic I am uncomfortable with and dedicate a week to studying it, very intentionally pushing myself from my comfort zone. That’s the thing with comfort zones; if we’re not struggling, we’re not really learning much. It has to be a very intentional process. I suggest you compile a list of things you want to improve on, gather resources on how you might go about that, and dedicate your own time to growing in those areas. If you want to work with color, check out some photos you like, research some good books on color and light, etc. It will take some hard work, but we’d better get used to that if we’re going to be successful in our fields! :) As a side note, I went and took a look at your art. Nice gestures! You have a good eye for capturing weight in the figure especially, I really enjoy that.Best of luck to you, and thank you for the question! I hope I helped at all. -Robin