Really terrible art?

[ShiroXIX]

Okay, so maybe I can do backgrounds and I just don't feel like doing backgrounds. This is what it looks like when I apply myself:

[dramspringfeald]

Hey!! Not too shabby.

A Shift of perspective and your golden.

[RunicV]

Terrible art my foot. Your art is gorgeous.

What I'm bad at?

EVERYTHING.

[Koniki]

Feet >.<
Hands are moderately easy for me, but feet!! I HATE feet!!

Fanart of Rin from Katawa Shoujo

That there is the best attempt at feet I've ever done, ever. I just don't understand how toes work >.< It probably has to do with the fact that I have deformity in my feet so I never got cozy with how real feet are supposed to look all my life, since I don't see other peoples' feet often.

[TheGuraGuraMan]

Just look at this : http://tyshea.deviantart.com/art/Tutori ... -252869062

[Evangelica]

Just look at this : http://tyshea.deviantart.com/art/Tutori ... -252869062

I see someone beat me to it

^ Seriously. This tutorial. Is. Godly. After reading through it, I suddenly understand feet a whole lot better. Now it's time to apply that knowledge ;C

On topic: Like all newbie artists, I. Suck. At. Anatomy. Which is like, everything on the human body. Especially hands. Hands.

I haven't attempted doing backgrounds yet, I'm trying to understand the basics first. Yes, I'm waiting for that workshop C:. But in all seriousness, the only things I can actually draw are deformed human beings.

[CherryJellybean]

The most terrible thing I could possibly draw has to be hands and feet.

[Paul Mesken]

Yeah, backgrounds... Started with them a couple of days ago (all I did was draw people before that). Backgrounds turned out much harder than I expected them to be. All kinds of problems crop up that you don't have with drawing people or objects (like cars, guns, whatever).

To me it's the problem of balance I'm struggling with now. How strong can colors be (or contrast with one another) before shadows become swamped and you lose depth? How much detail can be added before the general layout becomes obfuscated? What thickness of lines should be used? Etc.

Here's my first attempt (going for a colored "manga look") :



I have to photoshop it a bit before I'm satisfied with it. I guess it takes a couple of backgrounds of practice before I get it right off the bat.

Having to make about a 100 of em (and only got 9 in pencils right now, it'll take a month to make em all ), I had to cut some corners. This might be of interest to other people making backgrounds.

Creating backgrounds out of imagination takes time. You run into all kinds of problems like : "how do houses look like in Tokyo?", "what about those electricity poles", etc.? Then you have to do the perspective. Perspective on its own isn't that difficult but it's a loooot of work and you can easily run into problems like having vanishing points way off the paper or canvas. Also : when doing this from imagination, it tends to get a bit standard and boring (everything being lined out at straight angles). Same goes for postures : when working from imagination then they get to be a bit "stock posture" like.

So, I've cut those problems out by using the streetview from Google Maps. Yep, major cheat, I know

In the bottom left of the picture is a rough tracing of the screenie of a streetview shot (this is for perspective mostly). The bottom right shows a penciled version of such a tracing with all kinds of details (everything that requires lines) which is then colored and inked as shown in the top. Having such a rough outline from a photo leaves room to modify details although I'm sure people in Tokyo might say "Hey! That's near Tabata station!"

[Jazzy-Chii]

@Paul Mesken
Those backgrounds are beautiful. And I definitely don't consider using references cheating. The important thing about using references is that you study them, know how something looks that way and why it does. Just don't copy them mindlessly. Learn something while using references. I also find that, once copying from reference, the next time I draw the same thing, I know how to do it by memory, because you've drawn it before and you remember what it looked like or what you thought when you drew it at the time.

Back on topic, I find actually designing or planning the composition of the art is hard. I have the perfect image in my head, but when trying to convey that on paper...well, let's just say that it doesn't turn out exactly how I plan it to. Getting that sketch, that solid foundation down, is the hardest bit.
Surprisingly, I am perfectly fine with lineart. Heck, I actually find it pretty fun. And this is the stage where I fix all those problems I find in the sketch. Sometimes I forget to erase little lines, but they aren't much of a hassle to fix up at all.
Colouring is fun~ Though I think the hardest part of it is finding the right colours! Am I the only one having these problems? I actually have never really looked into colour theory, so I think this is a sign to start now.

[SimonLayton]

I guess I'm okay with people. I come across problems with wrinkles and hands and feet sometimes. Except, they end up looking cute. All the time. Even when I try to make them look serious. But background...well, maybe if I put more effort to it, I guess it will be wee passable.

But in short I suck at almost everything waaah

[arachni42]

This is why I am not allowed to make my own BGs...

LOL... I thought the wine bottles were books, and the booths did look like booths except the colors made it seem like it was in some dark basement.

Yeah, I'd say a lot of it is about patience and practice. I think references are important as well.

Personally, I suck at trees. I do not "get" trees. I even have a book about drawing trees, and somehow maple trees look like maple-tree-ish, birch trees look like birches, willow trees are distinct, and so forth... I have trouble drawing *any* tree that looks right, even a dead one. (Especially a dead one; I don't even know if leaves would be that much of a problem if I could get the branches right.) I can't really wrap my mind around their structure. Honestly, I'm best off drawing a trunk then a curly circle to represent leaves on top (you know, the kind of trees you draw next to stick figures).

Colouring is fun~ Though I think the hardest part of it is finding the right colours! Am I the only one having these problems? I actually have never really looked into colour theory, so I think this is a sign to start now.

I'm curious, what about the colors makes finding the right ones hard? Not being able to match the ones in your mind's eye? Or do they not seem to look good on paper?

[Jazzy-Chii]

I'm curious, what about the colors makes finding the right ones hard? Not being able to match the ones in your mind's eye? Or do they not seem to look good on paper?

Well, after reading some things on colour theory, I guess there is some relation between colours that make them stand out and such, like complementary colours and whatnot. I think finding the right colours is hard because the colours I choose are, like you said, not able to the match the ones in my mind. Also, if you don't use a good mix of colours, the result could be a clashing mix of garish colours. In my opinion, colour theory is more important than anatomy. I can forgive anatomy that is slightly off if the colours are contrasting beautifully with each other. The anatomy in an artwork may be, let's say, perfect, but if the colours are clashing with each other, wouldn't that make it hard to look at?

I think I am slightly getting better at picking colours, but in regards to that and everything else, I still have a long way to go. I mean, it may seem like simply picking the right colours doesn't seem like a huge obstacle as, say, anatomy, but colour plays a huge part in an artwork. If it's coloured, that is ^^;;