Tips and tricks!

This is a collection of things YOU need to know to be a good artist.
Maybe you know it already. But that's okay--this list will grow as I learn. And it's always good to be reminded. Nothing is really in a particular order. My goal is to put something down every month, at least. Some things are more technical, and some more basic, so just take what you can from it. Maybe you'll come back one day and it'll make even more sense.

I will have Edits as I learn more about certain subjects.

1. October 2006: Take your time.

Take your time on pictures. Space them out. And most of all, don't stress too much. Even if you finish a drawing in one day, don't post it immediately or just say you're finished. Wait another day--you can see the flaws and fix them most easily that way. It's good to get away from things for a while. Your eyes do need rest, and coffee is only so good.

2. October 2006: Don't draw while you're sick.
I know you're home for the day, but get your rest. Sleep, and get it completely out of your system so that you're feeling good and fresh, able to start something and get a project done.

3. October 2006: READ.
Read. There's just no fucking way you can be a good artist if you dread reading and/or can't. Not unless you were born with god's hands. If you want to improve fast and well, you need to read tutorials. Not always following them, but get a fresh look on how to do things. Mix it up and add it to your own techniques. Got a library? Pick up some books. No books on what you need? Pick up a book on origami, or painting. It can surprise you how knowing things about other mediums can make you more creative with another.

On another note: I know some friends who don't really like reading tutorials--they want to do it on their own. They do however, get lots of crits, spend lots of time working, and progress at a slower rate. Knowledge = Good.

4. October 2006: Critique
Something I find missing on Deviantart a lot actually, is good critique.I think I may just write something about it to help out the community.

--You should be able to ask lots of people for Critique. There are groups of people who are devoted to it, clubs on deviantart you can join, paintchat, your friends, your mum, your pop, feck, ask your dog if you have to. Get someone to point out what you need to work on--or you may just never see what everyone else does.


5. October 2006: Colors: Flat and Black

Borders make things look like cartoons.
Changing the borders to colors similar to what they're around makes them look less flat and more realistic.

Edit: This has very much to do with line quality now that I think of it. So keep line quality on your mind. ;D

6: October 2006 Colors: Mix it up.

When you're shading colors, you generally have three things:
A base,
A highlight,
And a shadow.
However! The shadow shouldn't just be a darker bit of the base--add a little of a different color to it. The same goes for highlights.
For example: The base for skin colors are usually somewhere near orange and browns. Highlights in skin tend to have more yellow in them, while shadows have reds, and even blues/purples/greens, because the base is a warm color, and the cool colors smooth things over.

Edit: This is because of the quality of light. As the light bounces around the room it picks up a little color from things that are nearby so that the light becomes sort of 'tinted'. An example is found in the childish trick of picking a certain yellow flower that would be held under the chin. If you saw a yellow glow on their chin, the person liked butter! Yet the flower wasn't giving off light--it was just bouncing it back up at the skin. Shadows can be the same way, as they pick up from whatever is nearest.


7. December 2006: Experiment.
One of the major reasons people fall into art-ruts and art-block is because a person continues to do the same thing, over and over and over and over and over...
Art is like anything else. Repeat it enough, and that song gets boring. Go to your same ol' job every day, you'll get tired of it. Just continue to draw the same view in all your drawings and paintings--they'll all look the same and it will be a bore to do.

There are plenty of art websites and circles of artists you can join in on, to get some cool experiments to play around with. Or, like a previous tip says, read some tutorials. Experiment with the way other people do things, it can widen your perspective of things and give your art that fresh kick you've been looking for.
Good experiments:
New perspectives
New mediums
New subject matter

8. January 2007: Look inside and out.

If you're gonna take art seriously, you've got to know where you're going with it. Setting goals is a good theme for many healthy habits, and it can help you with your artwork too.

Decide first, if you are doing this art just for yourself, or for other people. If you're in art therapy, it's more about getting your feelings out--this can be explosively awesome and other people may like it, but the main concern is the feeling of the picture, and the good calm feeling when you finish it.

Likewise, you could be drawing just for other people. You are more concerned with what others think, and thusly, you may have to conform to some ideals already set. (Example: You draw anime because all your friends think it's cool.)

So, decide who you're doing art for. Decide how far you want to go. Then work towards that. Focus = good.


9. February 2007: Pay attention to your sources.
I know I said to read tutorials like a crazed loon earlier--and you should! But you should always read more than one tutorial to learn how to draw eyes. I always try to read at least three tutorials on a subject before I begin it. This can usually knock out the possibility that one of the tutorials had a major flaw in it, can give me extra ideas for something I should try, and give me a deeper understanding of my subject.

When you really understand how your subject matter works, you'll be able to draw it a lot more easily. Your understanding will show through, instead of the fact that you're generalizing things. And yes darlings, people can tell when you're making things up in your drawings.

And listen to your Literature teacher! Not all sources are good when you're researching. Sure, you can usually learn something from most tutorials, but there are tutorials out there that will lead you down the wrong path. That's why I recommend 3, minimum. It's the magic numba.


10. March 2007: Plan.

When you first start drawing, composition is the last thing you're going to think about. In fact, you're just trying to make your pencil marks look something like a person( or whatever your subject may be) half of the time! Yet when you've finally gotten your things to resemble a human being, you're going to need to work on your composition, and move away from the beginner's move of always sticking your person in the middle of the paper.

A good word of the day? Focal point. This is where the eyes are drawn to -first- in the picture. Then, when you employ composition, the eyes will naturally flow from one shape to the next. This makes viewing more pleasurable, if only on a subconscious level. However, experienced art critics can see this trail that you set from your focus point.

Experiment with putting your focal point in corners or off to the left and right. Don't make the eyes tired when someone looks at your picture and make it bounce from bottom left to top right, be sure to give it a flowing feel.

As a note: This is in particular, a 'general' rule. Experimental artists often break the 'general' rules of composition to extract feelings of chaos, madness, and anger. Breaking rules is and always has been a way for artists to come up with new types of artwork.


11. March 2007: Break Borders!
Another aspect to your composition that most beginners fall to is making everything fit into the picture. Yet you can make your artwork much more interesting if you make something actually go off of the picture. Think about your field of vision. You cant see all objects completely. At the edges of your vision, things get blurry and you no longer see entire objects. You may just catch a glimpse of a corner of something.