Discussion: Art skill development

[mekare]

Since we are in between challenges atm, I’d be interested in what you are all working on. Do you have a specific skill you are trying to learn? A technique or new medium? A subject matter you haven’t portrayed a lot? Is making time for your art a challenge right now?

What are your personal challenges right now or your successes?

Comments

[goss]

Capturing a likeness is, and has always been, my biggest challenge. Portraits don't come naturally to me, so I have to labour over every feature and spend hours on multiple tweaks and corrections until they look recognizable to me.

I always envy people who have the skill to capture a particular face with just a few, quick strokes of the pen. Witchcraft, I tell you! :b

Successes? Hmm..

I was pleasantly surprised by the results the first time I experimented with watercolours. I love how much room there is for "happy accidents" and I absolutely adore the splashy abstract effects you can achieve with them. They are currently my favourite medium. :)

(Great topic, mekare!)

[mific]

Yes, I struggle with likenesses too - have to stick closely to a reference which maybe reduces spontaneity?

[mekare]

Yes I find that too! I'd love to be more free but often feel I need to copy the ref to egt the likeness....

[goss]

Same here.

Since it doesn't come naturally, for me I figure that in large part it probably comes down to practice, or lack thereof. In early days, I remember getting quite good at certain faces, when I was making art exclusively for one fandom.

I think in the last 10 years or so I keep flitting around from one subject matter to another, and haven't really produced multiple pieces of any one particular face. Maybe I should take time to do that!

[goss]

Yeah, and it kind of takes the wind out of my sails when I'm on a roll and have to slow right down and backtrack and work on technical stuff.

Because I have perfectionist tendencies, this is the part where I can sometimes become discouraged, frustrated and generally speaking it just reduces my confidence levels as I'm creating, which is the opposite of how I like to feel with I'm doing something for fun. :b

[mekare]

He thank you. I figured it'd be a nice bridge until the next challenge.

[yhlee]

What has really helped me work on likenesses is to carry a sketchbook and sketch people at the coffee shop or library or whatever. (I also sketch my husband a lot because he's a friendly, slow-moving target and does not mind when I get his nose completely wrong.) I've been doing a fair bit of travel for work, so I end up sketching random strangers in the airport, at hotel lobbies, etc. This forces me out of my comfort zone in "formulas" for facial proportions and gets me drawing people who look very different.

Watercolors are my favorite too! I love how chaotic they are.