[Talk] What do you struggle with?

What do you think is your weakest aspect as an artist? Is it clean linework, procrastination, coloring, lack of imagination, having the right materials, anatomy, etc? Tell us about what your shortcomings are and maybe some advice to help other artists overcome theirs!

The main thing I struggle with is perspective, while I can see objects it's hard for me to make them look right and I often go over my drawings 2-5 times to make sure it has the right perspective.
I used to struggle with anatomy and posing a lot but I'm getting a better grasp at it.

In order

1. Light and Shadow
Whilst I'm fairly happy with the technique I use for my shading and lighting, I really want to improve on where I place it to make my art more dynamic and visually appealing.

2. Line art
STAY UNIFORM IN THICKNESS GFDI

3. Anatomy
I'm actually decent at this. I'm pretty good at hands for my overall skill level, which a lot of people really struggle with and I have a pretty good understanding of how the body moves from my time dancing. That being said, I still tend to work a lot with models for the sake of efficiency when getting things like head shape and proportions correct. Especially if I'm attempting a more complicated pose. I'm a slow artist and I really don't have the patience to try these things without at the least using a 3d model as a reference or aide.

It's kind of a double-edged sword because I'd like to be able to draw good proportions and poses totally free hand but the efficiency and overall higher quality when I work with models always lures me back to that method to varying extents.

Also I still find the male body way harder to draw than the female. It's a bit odd maybe since I'm male myself, but I've heard from a handful of other artists that this is pretty common.


Edit: Advice for shortcomings too cause why not!

Hands - Hands are simpler than you think. Start with a wedge shape fanning out from the wrist, add lines to guide you for finger positions and then draw around it. Sometimes adding a triangle coming off the side can help with the thumb.

Layers and brushes are your friend - I recently discovered that you can really liven up a digital drawing by layering effects and making use of different brush types for things. In particular layering watercolours and semi-transparent glow dodges into my eyes over a flatter base colour layer has really brightened them up and made them more appealing.

Composition and an increased use of references. I always find myself trying to draw something right from my imagination and end up realizing that my imagination is kinda shady and unclear.

I also tend to draw with pencil and subsequently abuse eraser a lot. To a point where you can still see the last couple pictures I attempted to draw on a sheet of paper. xD

My advice: don't do what I'm doing.

Seliph said:

Composition and an increased use of references. I always find myself trying to draw something right from my imagination and end up realizing that my imagination is kinda shady and unclear.

I also tend to draw with pencil and subsequently abuse eraser a lot. To a point where you can still see the last couple pictures I attempted to draw on a sheet of paper. xD

My advice: don't do what I'm doing.

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Gotta say, this is basically me as well. One of my main weaker aspects is not doing enough proper pre-planning. I would have ideas for drawings that I'm eager to jump into, but then realize I should have thought more about the overall layout and composition. This results in me having to make adjustments to my work later on, and as you mentioned, leads to lots of erasing. But when using a medium like pen or paint, it can be very difficult to remove/cover up original flaws, and it becomes time-consuming to go back and make changes to.


I would also say that I am kind of a perfectionist, where I would initially think a piece is finished, but then I constantly notice little details that I see as flaws. The worse part is that I keep looking back at the piece even after making adjustments, and I would notice another flaw, and another, and another...

One recent example of this is the Zamazenta image I made in my signature. After uploading it on an image-hosting site, I thought that it looked great and that I was completely done with it. But then I just kept looking at it, and then I noticed some uneven lines and curves, which bothered me. I decided to go back and make changes to them, and then re-upload the image. Yet, I did this repeatedly and spent more time than I had expected over the course of a few days and even a week or so later. Granted, I am not the most experienced in terms of digital drawing, so the issues of pixels standing out were something I had kept wondering about and experimenting with. This also has to do with my issue of lacking proper pre-planning, since I falsely believed that I had fully familiarized myself with this Pokémon's detailed shapes and design. Even now, it doesn't seem like I captured some details the most accurately and evenly, but well... I'm gonna let it go now! Lol

I'm very new to making artwork for games. I don't know if I would consider myself an artist as much as a fan who wanted content for his own fan game so he decided to make some himself and share it with everyone else.
But where I do struggle is making stuff from scratch. So I have to use a lot of pictures for reference. Seldom am I able to draw something from my head. I hope that changes soon as I will be making original characters for my game soon.

My number one weakness is definitely patience. I get upset wayy to early that my artwork doesn't look amazing when it's in the ugly wip stage. I really want to do more detailed art, and use more traditional mediums, but it takes a while to make it look good and I don't have much patience. That's why I've done so much simple/cute digital art in the early half of this year, it's super quick because of the versatility and the ability to undo and it's really easy to make it look good. There's almost no ugly phase in cartoony digital art so I don't get unmotivated and lose patience. I'm not saying cartoony digital art is cheap or bad at all, but it's really hindering my progress and it just doesn't feel as rewarding to me.

I think it's because of the limitation of not having enough patience to push through an ambitious artwork that my eyes have developed much faster than my hands that they can't keep up. My hands aren't skilled enough to draw what my brain wants to see and it really gets me down. I've been drawing the same things over and over again, because when I draw new things it looks awful, and I don't have the patience to push through that stage.

Also I can't draw anything from my mind, but I don't necessarily think that's a serious weakness. There's nothing wrong with taking broad inspiration or using references.

Perspective, backgrounds, buildings, lines, probably the fundamentals of light and shadow too.

I just...despise perspective.

Lineart is the bane of my existence because Photoshop doesn't have a decent stabilizer and my hands shake wayyyy too much. It's why I primarily do lineless. Perspective is also something I struggle with a lot though I'm getting better. And hands. Sometimes they come really easy, other times I can't get them right no matter what trick I use. Maybe one day I'll be able to do them consistently.

At this point, ideas! I used to just draw without any ideas and something good would come out (I lack imagination in that I can't "see" what the drawing will be in my head, I may have a vague concept, but no pictures in my mind except VERY rarely and then it's like a point second flash and it's gone, never to return), I draw as if feeling out a shape and something becomes of it or doesn't... mostly doesn't, lately, or just looks off.

I am quite bad at male anatomy, the hips used to give me a lot of grief. Backs/shoulder blades are also difficult.

I used to primarily draw adults until BW! era (since I only primarily cares about the TRio and other Rockets), then I drew mostly kids because I loved the BW! trio, Wishfulshipping, the rivals... at the start, I drew the kids too mature-looking! Now I have trouble drawing mature characters! Everyone looks squishy and round!! ^^;;;

Noblejanobii said:

Lineart is the bane of my existence because Photoshop doesn't have a decent stabilizer and my hands shake wayyyy too much. It's why I primarily do lineless.

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I can really relate, if it wasn't for Procreate's good stabilizer I'd struggle a ton. It's also why I don't do much line art in traditional work. =(
Have you considered doing line art in another program and than colouring it in ps? Krita is free and has a great line stabilizer iirc.

QuietDragon said:

I am quite bad at male anatomy, the hips used to give me a lot of grief.

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I completely forgot about this but yes!! I am absolutely abysmal with male anatomy, it's one of the things I'm most scared of, ahaha.

Azuviin said:

I can really relate, if it wasn't for Procreate's good stabilizer I'd struggle a ton. It's also why I don't do much line art in traditional work. =(
Have you considered doing line art in another program and than colouring it in ps? Krita is free and has a great line stabilizer iirc.

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I considered using Sai but I have a Mac and my Huion tablet wasn't supported. I haven't heard of Krita though so if it's supported that's totally an option. Thanks for the recommendation!