Woodmouse's art stuff [random stuff, page 49]

[thespaceinvader]

It's a bit like not learning to write prose because you're scared you won't be able to write poetry. it makes no sense.

Seriously, improving your skills is never harmful.

[Dixie]

Also: you should always aim to improve yourself, even if only for self satisfaction or something. Generally (at least for me), the more you improve in something, the more you understand and enjoy it. And stuff you learn/improve at isn't placed in its little separate drawer in your brain, everything is linked, somehow. Learning something can make you realise stuff or improve at other things you would never have suspected. At the very, very least, it will widen your horizons and better you as a person in general.

Let me try to take you in particular to demonstrate what I mean, based on some stuff I saw and comments from TSI I read earlier. If you worked to better yourself at spriting, you would need to (or invariably end up) working on bettering your sense of anatomy in drawing. Which is a basic, and will serve you in most anything you draw, be it album covers or whatnot, especially if there's something remotely human on it. It will serve you in whatever graphic artistic activity you undertake afterwards.

Improving is not easy, though, it's hard work, but so is anything that's really worth it in this world, or so it seems. And it can sometimes be hard to take criticism (especially mean and non-constructive one, but they will happen), but you have to just take them, learn to digest them or ignore them. If you are gonna be too sensisible to stuff people say, you might as well never get out of home, because there are mean people everywhere.

Anyway, don't give up! Putting oneself back into question from now and then is normal and often salutary.

[Zerovirus]

Yeah, what everyone else said.

Am I nice? I don't think of myself as nice when it comes to art critique anymore.

Perhaps, if you so wish, you should stop making art for the sake of Wesnoth but for your own sake, the sake of having fun and improving as you do so. Maybe you'll relax enough and start spriting again some time later with a new mindset and skillset.

[woodmouse]

I make "art" everyday. I've been drawing a comic book thingy for like 5 years. And the earlier stuff (mostly things done two years ago or more) suck. I plan to put it on internet sometime, but probably not in a loooong time. When I've finished drawing it all... Which's probably in ten years or something, because the plot is HUUUUUUUUGE.

...And about the other things, yeah, I *intend* to do sprites for Wesnoth later, but... Dunno when. Maybe next week, maybe in ten years.

BUT. About improving, yeah, I try to improve always, but I don't TRY to improve. You know, like... if I consciously try to improve, I end up failing, but if I subconsciously try to improve, I might improve. I guess the comments about it being hard to accept criticism are true, but I don't really know about it, as I find constructive criticism more annoying than rude and unconstructive, because if someone comes and says "this sucks, now go and make it better", I just ignore it, but if they say "okay, it's not good but you can make it better if you do this and that", I just can't ignore it, because if I do, other people start saying the same thing about more things I make...

AGH, sorry I'm such a bad human/human-like thing.

[homunculus]

[...]I find constructive criticism more annoying than rude and unconstructive, because if someone comes and says "this sucks, now go and make it better", I just ignore it, but if they say "okay, it's not good but you can make it better if you do this and that", I just can't ignore it, because if I do, other people start saying the same thing about more things I make...[...]

is it correct that the same thing said more bluntly would be:
'unconstructive crits is bad, constructive crits is worse. i want no crits at all.'

lol, at some point i have been thinking: how to get crits? learn from the best, e.g. woodmouse.

[Frogger5]

This is the weirdest case of learning spriting that i've yet come across.

You can't improve your subconsciousness, you may be able to sprite well in your subconsciousness, but no one can look at sprites in your subconsciousness, so improving it is pointless.

Secondly, you can't improve without trying, you can't do anything well without trying, especially art. If you think your improving without trying, your probably not improving. If I want to improve my paintings, I have to try different things, hone skills and do whatever to make the paintings look better, not just keep on painting the way I do now.

I think your just a bit impatient, art is a lifelong journey, lifelong.

[thespaceinvader]

Trying to subconsciously improve will get you nowhere fast. If you want to improve, learn to put your mind in order and consciously recognise the flaws in your work, and consciously improve them. The earlier you can learn this skill (and it IS a skill, not an inborn talent) the better you will be at life in general, not just at art. Life is about learning new skills, and if you think you can't consciously learn them, and you have to be bad at something for a long time before you even start getting good, you will never have the chance to get good, because noone will pay you to be bad at something.

Until you show some intent to listen and learn, expect no further comment from me.

[woodmouse]

Sorry, sorry.

I made a new sprite.



Is it good? Bad? Annoying?

[dipseydoodle]

It's... slightly flat ... NOT ANNOYING! If you want it to look better add some different shades and add a light source...

[Reepurr]

Indeed, you need highlights as well as, er, darklights? Um...shadows! That's it, shadows.

[woodmouse]

Better?

[dipseydoodle]

Here's an example... It's a redraw.

EDIT: Your using pillow shading... It doesn't look terrible but i does make it look more cloudy.

[woodmouse]

EDIT: Your using pillow shading... It doesn't look terrible but i does make it look more cloudy.

I am? I thought I didn't.
...I thought pillow shading was when the light direction was in the front.

[dipseydoodle]

It's when your using multiple light sources... shades are fine but should be more defined as so. The upper left part near the leg is an example. Other then the keep up the work... If you enjoy art continue.... It takes years to get GOOD at art.

[Zerovirus]

PILLOWSHADING IS NOT A SYNONYM FOR BAD ART

Pillowshading is lightsource from the front. It is not multiple lightsources. Multiple lightsources used well is a great bonus to the atmosphere of the piece. People tend to call all misusage of technical tools pillowshading because it's the most common and people don't really know what it means.

This is just faulty application of lights in relation to the 3d form of the work, not pillowshading. Pillowshading is distinct and a subtype of bad shading.