So after a few of these guest lectures we've been havin' and some words from the 2D lecturers themselves; I've come to some level of understanding about both drawing and me as an artist.
It never really sank in before, about being confident with lines and strokes, no matter how many times it was said. I've always been quite stubborn when it came to drawing and where I wanted it to go. When my tutor at college told me that copying other artists ideas wasn't going to get me anywhere I waved him aside in contempt and carried on; but he didn't stop telling me and finally after months of droning on it, subsequently it sank in.
Now, upon reflection I cannot believe how much of an idiot I was. Copying other artists work? To think that was only a year and a half ago.
Since then I've started to listen more to tutors and any criticism albeit with a pinch of salt. I can still be quite stubborn however due to past iterations I have to remind myself they know exactly what they're talking about. The tutors anyway.
So the sudden epiphany I've had is this: Fuck it.
If my drawings suck; so what? I'm a first year student. If I was drawing flawlessly then why would I be here? All I need to do is simply remind myself that somewhere in the future I WILL be a good artist. Simple.
It's surprisingly freeing to not give a shit about the state of your current drawings; it allows you to focus on simply drawing more and seeing the flaws as more of a learning curve than a hindrance. So many get demotivated by poor drawings, I myself was guilty of this however it just goes to what Warner Brothers animator Phil Dimitriadis said:
“You have to get the bad drawings out before you can get the good ones in.'
Also a quote from Del Walker was helpful for focus:
'Think of someone who does loads of bad drawings; then think of when they starts doing good drawings.'
From this I've come to understand that I should focus more on speed than polishing a piece off. Someone can take eighteen hours to complete an amazing piece of art showing exceptional skill in all aspects of art however they're not going to get employed. They can't use someone who takes that long to do one piece. Alternatively, someone who takes one hour doing speed paints showing an adequate enough level of skill to communicate the idea would be a more lucrative asset to the company. Eighteen ideas against one. Though the other guy isn't nearly as good, they offer more to the company in terms of production.
All of this can be summed up somewhat by what Chris Wright said in an enlightening gab to his cohort about him having to break our minds, then rebuild them. We've grown up in a schooling system that teaches us to deal with things logically and simply. What colour is the sky? Blue. What colour is the grass? Green. We draw things with a big black line around it despite there not being one there.
This is all one big learning experience for me. As a stubborn ass of a student I'm can feel my mind being altered already. I already KNEW to see things in shapes, but I didn't really bother. I already KNEW that there wasn't a black line around anything, but I didn't change that. Only now have I started employing circles to draw things, even if they're square; Why not? Shapes within shapes.
Let's not even get started on how everything can be constructed with reference points: Complete mind fuck.
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