Art Complaints Theater

You know what we need? An art venting thread.

Accidentally ruin a painting or sketch you've been working on? Frustrated with your art in general? Feel like punching a kitten? Post here and let it all out, and go back to work decompressed. ^^b

I'll get it started: Is there some reason Corel Painter decided to crash about two hours into this watercolor? My personal theory is that Painter is a jerk. And that I need to remember to save more often. >_>

But somehow,◊

My 0.2-point Micron ran out of ink and I lost the cap for my 0.05. D: And that's terrible. And my computer screen's looking rather dirty, making it difficult to see a few details. How does one clean computer screens?

Also, frustrated more by a popular stylistic choice:

Why do so many artists (mainly anime) hate on the noses? I just started working to avert the Only Six Faces trope and I've realized that noses are absurdly fun to draw. D: And they help make the characters so much more recognizable.

edited 6th May '10 7:29:34 PM by NatTheWriter

The problem with noses is that perfectly attractive noses on a human being look lumpy and grotesque when put down on paper, even when the contours are the same. Noses are one of the biggest areas that you've got to learn to lie to tell the truth when arting.

I hate drawing wrinkles and guns and belts. As it's for one of my own character designs, I could just change it to something easier, but tactical holsters look SO BADASS.

Ugh, wrinkles on clothes. So many ways they can move, so many reactions from different materials, so much to think about, so much than can go wrong...

Thanks for the all fish!

Getting the scale of a human body off and the mistake being too large scale to fix properly. Noticing an error but having no idea how to fix it.

the statement above is false

I detest my inability to draw mechanical things. I wanna draw mecha! And cars! And motorcycles!

Tumblr here.

The head, from a worm's eye view.

That deep feeling of apprehension you have when you're about to apply colour to a pencil work. I just know I'll ruin something that took hours...but if I don't, it won't look as good.

edited 7th May '10 7:34:38 PM by Yuanchosaan

"Doctor Who means never having to say you're kidding." - Bocaj

The graphite within Prismacolors.

It breaks too easily.

Seriously, sharpening pencils and just watching the points fall out gets really tedious after some time. D:<

Feels a bit odd posting here when I have been unable to actually share any art (I lack a scanner, I have no tablet, and drawing with the mouse is far more difficult for me so if I want to share I've got to take a digital photo and then clean it up, which is a pain in the ass).

But... hands. I am horrible, horrible, horrible at drawing hands. So I'm one of those people who cheat with hands by having someone holding something large or putting their hands in their pockets/behind their backs or by drawing a bust portrait only so I don't have to worry about the hands.

Stupid doomed timeline...

^ When bored (or on an artistic high), take the opportunity to sketch your own left or right hand. Er, whichever one isn't holding the writing utensil. That's the way I've started practicing with them.

My rant:

I can't bring myself to do digital painting for a long period of time. D: This picture (full rant in the description) has been sitting for so long. I should be tidying up the necklace and the surrounding area, finishing with the lineart, and getting to work on the background. But no. I can't sit at the computer for so long painting. I end up walking away after half an hour or so, usually with nothing done.

And yet I'm eager to work with traditional media for hours on end...>_> I don't get it.

I hate nearly everything about my own work.

I can't seem to get perspective right, even when I work on guidelines. There's always something that looks off.

That goes double for faces. Something will always be skewed unrealistically, or I'll screw up the orientation and have half his head looking up and the other half at rest so his earlobe lines up with the bottom of his nose.

In my first semester, when I started CCM 101 Drawing and Perspective, I looked at the other kids (seriously, they were like eighteen) and I just lost it over how they did photorealism. I was self-taught for over twenty years and I couldn't do anything even remotely as good as these fresh-faced kids.

I can't colour my work in Photoshop. I can put down layers of colour, sure, but it never looks good. I see borderline photorealistic work on deviantART and elsewhere, and then I learn that the artists are kids and amateurs. It makes me want to quit in disgust.

My Blog | My Steam profile

Backgrounds and single point perspective, I HATE YOU SO DAMN MUCH.

Edit: Upon reading my first post in this thread I realize I no longer hate drawing wrinkles, whether it be due to practice or me choosing priority over a greater evil. I'm thinking a mix of both.

edited 9th Jun '10 1:27:03 PM by Leradny

A grumble. Not particularly angry, but slightly annoyed.

At the Cartooning Club, one of the older students was giving a drawing lesson. She's a decent enough artist, IMO. :/ Not incredible, but eh.

She asked for suggestions as to what to teach, and—because I'm trying to learn how to draw them—I suggested profiles. Specifically, "realistic" ones without the Cheeky Mouth. She went with it, and it turned out that she could not draw a profile without falling back on the Cheeky Mouth.

On one hand, I felt guilty because that was probably embarrassing to some degree,  ^*

but on the other hand, I was annoyed that she couldn't teach how to draw it.

edited 19th Jun '10 9:17:26 AM by NatTheWriter

Ozbourne: Don't know if this is what you're looking for or how it relates to your personal style, but I figure this might be helpful. The example style's not my cup of tea either, but you can easily apply your own style to the fundamentals it lays out. It's got some useful tips for basic hand anatomy. I'd use it as a basis to start off of, if anything.

"True story, I came when I read Scrye's story, and so did everyone within five miles." —OOZE

When I'm drawing - longhand or on photoediting - and I get a proportion or shape wrong by making a tiny error.

Now my head looks retarded, literally.

Half-Life: Dual Nature, a crossover story of reasonably sized proportions.

I hate drawing characters who aren't roughly the same height. HATE IT WITH A PASSION.

Coloring in photoshop on your own computer, getting it to look exactly how you want it, and then viewing it on a different computer/monitor to find out it looks like shit to other people thanks to different screen settings.

"True story, I came when I read Scrye's story, and so did everyone within five miles." —OOZE

I HATE SMUDGES

HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAATEEEE

(They're like fucking ink stains on a white shirt!}

If people learned from their mistakes, there wouldn't be this thing called bad habits.

I cannot draw women, if it's not obvious already. I've gone through pages and pages of trying in my sketchbooks, but so far, I just am not good enough to fulfill any of the requests I've got for female characters.

Ce ne pas un post.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACTIIIIIIIIIIOOOOOON POOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSEEEEEEEEEEES!!!!!!!!

I'd also like to mention that I can't handle backgrounds with lots of little architectural details, especially when they stick out at weird angles, exempting them from vanishing point rules.

And finally, front and side are easy enough, but I swear, I want to punch the guy that invented 3/4 view.

edited 21st Aug '10 11:08:11 AM by Wheezy

Project progress: The Adroan (102k words), The Pigeon Witch, (40k). Done but in need of reworking: Yume Hime, (50k)

^ Front is terrible 3/4 all the way.

I'm not taking off my pants for a forum meme. -Nornagest

I have the opposite problem: I can't draw men. They're all muscle and tenseness. Where are the curves? I need curves!

"Doctor Who means never having to say you're kidding." - Bocaj

^ You can get around that by just drawing Bishōnen.

Also, I'm bad at drawing creases.

If people learned from their mistakes, there wouldn't be this thing called bad habits.