Hi guys! Sooo excited to post on the Cubby! And I've got some interesting findings I'd like to share from my recent adventure of taking drawing requests. (And I promise I'm not trying to brag or something, there's a point I'm trying to make with this.)
I took a drawing request way back in January, claimed by MangaKid, that turned out pretty good. I had fun doing it (come on, it's Link! Who doesn't have fun drawing him?), so I decided to take five more requests. I started taking them January 11th, and almost immediately all spots were claimed.
Ignoring the fact that school decided to be my worst enemy and take up all my time (free and or otherwise) for the majority of the time between then and now, I got the requests done relatively quickly. Now, this is the interesting part.
For a long time, my best at doing traditional artwork (on a good day) would look like "Bicycle For Two Manga Cover."
Not saying that's bad or anything, but I just wasn't satisfied with my skill. So I got some drawing books for Christmas (specifically Basic Anatomy for the Manga Artist) and started practicing.
Now my traditional art looks more like "Goofy Smile."
I was really happy with how much I'd improved in traditional. Then it was time to improve my skills in digital, which, again, on a good day would look like "Azure."
For me, that's pretty good... but I really wanted to improve my skill.
I want to share a secret with you guys... for most of the artwork in my portfolio that was done digitally, it was done in Photoshop. I'm not too swift with Photoshop's many capabilities, so I pretty much had to figure everything out on my own. There are probably as many tutorials as there are Otakus out there, but I learn best by doing.
So as I was messing around with Photoshop while working on "Sea and Sky," I noticed when I started a new project, there was this little box that said "Resolution" with 72 as the value. Out of curiosity, I typed in 100 and just drew a line on the page.
First reaction: WOAH! That looks WAAAY better! What is this magic resolution changer thingy that is now my bffl?!
That was the moment when I discovered the secret of the resolution-image quality relationship.
Being further daring, I closed that sample project and opened a new one... with resolution at 200 this time... and drew a line.
First reaction: OMG!!! That looks EVEN BETTER than at 100!! YAAY!!
Needless to say I'll be doing all my digital artwork at at least 100 pixels/inch forever.
Anyways, later on I was messing around with layer opacity and different brushes (still at the magical 200 pixels/inch) for one of my requests. After a whole lot of experimenting, my end result was "Fiery Spirit."
Overall, an incredible improvement in my skill with digital artwork. Though I can't help wondering... you don't just wake up one day and are a better artist, are you? Because that's what it seemed like... I woke up yesterday, said to myself "Requests will be done TODAY!" and got right to work before I'd even had breakfast.
Obviously I didn't just wake up one day and draw better than I'd ever had; it takes practice, and that's the point I'm going to attempt to make. You guys saw the proof, and there are countless more examples of my less-than-stellar artwork from just a couple years ago I could show you.
I decided to take a chance and take some drawing requests because I knew it would force me out of my comfort zone. I was scared at first, because I wasn't too confident in my artistic ability. But theO is made for artists to share their work, get feedback, learn, and improve in their skills. I took advantage of getting feedback. I also had a tendency to look at really impressive artwork, say to myself "You can draw like that if you TRY!" and set goals for myself like "OK, today I'm gonna get better at drawing hands!"
If you want to improve your skills, I highly suggest taking some requests sometime. Also, practice, practice, practice! Nobody said you have to submit all that practice to theO (I certainly didn't), but practice anyways, because when you DO submit something, it will show all that practice and hard work, and, most importantly, your improvement.
The absolutely most important thing of all, though, is to have fun while doing it. If you're not enjoying drawing, you won't get better, you'll just get worse.
So... go have fun drawing!
