So, i'm an artist, and a pretty good one at that, buuuut...
i can't focus on my art. i've always have trouble doing this. Yes, i have AD/HD, but even on my medication, even when i'm doing okay focusing on other things, i can't sit down to draw for very long. i need to get over this, because i want my career to be illustration and drawing comics.
It's not that i dislike drawing - i really love it, but i can't seem to sustain concentration at all. Everything distracts me. The Internet distracts me, the paper distracts me, and even eating draws my attention away. How can i concentrate like this? π,..,π
i don't want to sound like i'm whining, but this problem has dragged on ever since i started drawing a lot at the age of 10 or so. i'm really sick of it, and i'd like it to just stop. What can i do to conquer this problem?
Hey, I feel your pain. I wouldn't dare to call me an artist, though, but whatever.
I've drawn for a long time now, and I need to draw a lot in my everyday's work. I learned some time ago (I'm 22 now) that, with some exceptions maybe, can't draw for extended periods of time.
I learned, too, that I have a really hard time working on a drawing after I've left it, be it for only a couple of minutes/hours. What did I learn from that?
Well, that I had to adapt my style. I learned to draw in a "doodly" way, interested myself in speed-painting, dropped trying to go on the rough/clean/ink/color way, etc. After a while, I developed my style (I now I'm far from finished) and I noticed that my drawings were closer and closer to what I expected them to be (without of course being ever exactly what I expected them to be - wouldn't be fun, would it?). Paradoxally I also noticed that I could spend more and more time on a drawing.
Ok, that's still not 10 hours streak, and I still have hard times getting back to an already started drawing... but still, it's some kind of progress. I managed to output some nice "clean" linearts, which surprised me, but I feel that I naturally tend to want to do quick drawings & paintings.
So, ask yourself: is it a question of concentration, or just that you aren't drawing in a way that really corresponds to you... However much you love "regular" manga or comics, if this isn't your style, it just won't work. Search yourself. Read lots of art books, it can give you new ideas and axis.
By the way, AD/HD is annoying but also quite a helper; in fact it's one of the "troubles" that has one of the most important benefit - decupled inspiration, motivation and creativity. But that's after you've learned how to use the hyperactive side.
Hmm... You've got some interesting points, but i actually think i've already found my personal style, by and large. i'm an obsessive-detail-type artist, which makes all of this worse... No matter how much i try to draw simply, i always end up getting all detailed. :D
It's by no means a mainstream "Ameri-manga" style, something i'm rather proud of. i just wish i could draw more easily. :-/
i agree about AD/HD being a helper! It's one of my greatest creative inpirations.
Thank you for your help!
-The OP
>>3
Semi-Offtopic: Some pics please? I'd like to see that :)
>>4
And thirded.
>>3
How old are you, if you don't mean either?
Also, I was not saying that you have to go to a "simple" way of drawing. More than you could try to have a more "rough" style. You can put details, lots of them, but quickly, and maybe not that precisely. Learn how to "make believe", techniques that are quick to execute yet "look like". That means, when you draw a mecha or a chainmail you don't have to spend countless hours to draw each screw or each mail. Well, I say that, but this could be what you enjoy in drawing... I have a - masochist, if you ask me - friend, who just loves screws, and all these little stuff you barely notice; his art is great, but I know I can't do that, and when I tell him so, he answers that he would love to manage to draw like I do. Which I take as a compliment.
So there it is, different style, different results, but same purpose. If you see you can't create and be productive with the way you work actually, just try it out. Experiment. It can only be positive to you, and you know, even if you think you've found your style, it'll evolve all the time.
I have a hard time drawing too. I tend to be very impatient and prefer to jot out a bunch of gestures than to focus with dedicated studies.
I think in this kind of work though it helps to have music. I've found that at many times I simply CANNOT get started unless I have some kind of musical cue, something not too distracting and rhythmic that can propel me into a steady beat of drawing.
There has to be some way to enjoy the work, and feed off of it as you build. I haven't had much luck in finding it, although every now and then, usually in the middle of the night, I'm able to work continuously with great satisfaction, although it's rather rare; most of the time I find myself struggling, but struggling against what? Relax and just draw. I guess.
Hmmm... Okay. i only have one piece online right now, and it's a bit stereotypical compared to most of my stuff. i made this for my mom, so it's considerably less creepy than my usual work; still, some of the unnerving undertone is there:
http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k64/mirafirefly/cookbook.gif
Music helps when i'm doing energetic, chaotic artwork - watercolor, for example - but not when i'm trying to sit down and concentrate. i really don't want to give up being detailed, buuut... :-/
Thank you so much, everyone, for your help! n_n This may not be hiki or child abuse, but it's a serious and important problem to me, nonetheless.
>>9
This is way more interesting that a 654687th thread about hiki, incest or whatever. To me, that is.
I mean, it's not like there were only these problems to be dealt with.
Nice drawing, by the way. I easily can guess how that can drift into something... a lot more creepy. All that hair is for example something I know I couldn't draw. I'd find a way to have a more instinctive gesture, to somehow reproduce that effect, but I wouldn't be able to achieve that particular result. If this is what you're attached to, I guess you can't really do it...
But again, if it's that part that bores you... How many time did you spend on that piece ?
>>10
i tend to have conflicting urges: on the one hand, i want my characters to be deep, real and worthy of the reader's engagement and empathy. On the other hand, i tend to be heavily symbolic, and i like my characters to feel doll- or mannequin-like. i try to shift between them, depending on what i'm portraying, and like to portray things like kabuki acting because of that. It give me a chance to have my characters be deep and have a symbolic, less literal look at the same time. Sometime i wonder if my comics work could benefit from being a little more symbolic and storytelling-like as a whole...
i tend to get into a nice groove with drawing the detail parts, but after a while it becomes difficult for me to complete the piece. My father says that i will be able to complete pieces with practice and age, and that i shouldn't give up my detail "just because" it's easier to draw simply. Also, being a Buddhist, he tends to advocate simplicity in areas that feel best simple, and complexity in areas that feel best complicated. i tend to agree.
i was able to get a bit done earlier today. i'm going to do some cleaning (surprise surprise, i'm incredibly disorganized), then see if i can't draw some more. Cheer for me, please! n,..,n;;
i'm glad this thread is providing a nice break from hiki threads and whatnot.
Good luck on your cleaning. It's one of the things I hate most.
And as I said before, "not drawing exact details" doesn't mandatory mean drawing simply; and anyway, drawing simply can be reaaaaaaally hard. In fact, it's often harder to get a "finished" and expressive yet simple drawing.
You might also want to try some effects that are nice, as such:
To get the idea, apply what you've done to the hair on the bottom left of the drawing above, but to a whole illustration with a background and such.
Given the style you have, I feel this could look great.
>>12
I'm not sure i grasp what you mean, but here's what i think you mean.
One time when i was at the California Palace of the Legion of Honor, looking at a Rembrandt portrait, i noticed something: while the painting gave the impression of great detail, much of it was actually quite sketchy and simple. It seemed that Rembrandt had spent most of his effort painting in the well-lit areas of the face, neck, and collar decorations of the clothing. This way, he was able to work more quickly, while actually increasing the feeling of realism by focusing the eye on the areas he spent most time on. He was able to arrange things so that one would not generally notice how simple and sketchy the peripheral areas were.
To see this, look at this classic Dutch still life by Willem Claeszoon Heda:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/0/02/Heda_lobster.jpg
It's incredibly realistic, but the eye does not absorb it easily because there is so much to look at. Absolutely everything is rendered for maximal shine and detail.
Now, take a look at Rembrandt's Nightwatch:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/df/RembrandtNightwatch.JPG
See what i mean? Rembrandt's textures are simpler, his shadows are sketchier and darker - but he's able to channel less detail into a feeling of greater liveliness. After all, we don't look at everything in a scene at once. This is why photographers often use focus to blur out peripheral details.
What i've been trying to do recently - i'm not sure if this is what you were suggesting - is to add the ornamental details after i've already drawn out the illustration. Maybe i could take the next step, and apply my detailwork Rembrandt-style. :D Is that what you mean?
Haha, don't feed me Dutch paintings, please. There's a museum filled with them near where I live, and I can spend countless hours there... so much magic.
So, yeah, it's almost what I meant, but hey, you're talking about the Masters, who made a real-size sketch (and that meant a 'rough' painting that was alreading breath-taking) before painting the definitive one...
The basic idea would be to do your lineart, do your detail-style where the focus points are, and rough out the rest.
Not exactly what I meant, but even closer:
http://www.dickensmuseum.com/vtour/firstfloor/study/images/thumb/dickensdream.jpg
Drawing: http://www.victorianweb.org/painting/dgr/drawings/11.jpg
You see, that kind of 'unfinished look' (although the second might need at least some rough shadows & background, maybe, if you wanted a more "complete" illustration).
Ah, okay. i get you now.
i didn't mean to sound like some sort of art critic. :D i was just trying to explain something that had occurred to me in a museum.
I wasn't saying you did, just don't hand me links to Dutch art, I love it so much I'm going to waste couple of hours there, hehe.
Keep us posted if you decide to experiment with anything!
My art involves veces and semen. Wanna see it?
