Messages du forum par Remyalyssa

It sounds like, from this thread, that you need to work on learning anatomy. I'm sure you've already spent a lot of time on it, but it seems like you still consider yourself a beginner with it.

Unless I'm missing something, until you have taken as much time as you need to understand anatomy and gesture to a point you want to add more, thats when the "Force" becomes applicable. I had to get to a point where I could draw a skeleton and the muscles attached, and then the fat distribution and additional details of a human, before I could see how the lack of movement and gravity really hindered me. Gestures were more about movement before I had a solid grasp on human anatomy, but I remember in high school gym class, learning all the names of the muscles and I kept all of those worksheets so I could reference them when I was drawing. If I make the mistake of comparing my art to other people's (and taking that personally) I want to cry from frustration lol I don't see many artists, who are INCREDIBLY accurate and aren't also in their 40's and 50's (which means they probably have 30-50 years of experience informing their decision making.) 

I think a book can work for anyone, it just has to be at the right point in your journey for you to connect it to existing principles. Maybe shelf the book and try again after working on some other skills? I find theres always a chance it will click more later down the road :)

I agree with the post above !! to add to the childlike drawing thing, I am a HUGE perfectionist but I've been seeing artists say they start expressive and loose, intending to add structure and 'realism' later (realism is a goal for me but very far away LOL). I liked knowing that the structure and technical fixes could come later, I just dont want to be putting people on a blank canvas, so starting with an abstract mess can still add a lot of depth to whatever is put overtop. I never wanted to be expressive in my art because that isn't what I enjoy looking at, I started being inspired by the D&D player handbook.

I've found success with planning the structure, and then going nuts overtop with experiments. I think having an emotional connection to the art is effective in making yourself feel pride or maybe even just nostalgia to the time I did the art. Trying to include things like my favorite color at the time, or a style I'm into, or even an intention/affirmation I like a lot if I'm feeling emotional lol In my experience, it FEELS so static in the moment, but a year later I'm a whole different person and can remember when I was OBSESSED with pink and used flowers to symbolize how I was feeling lol It applies to sketching too, even writing down ideas and quotes that spark your interest can remind you of where you were at when making it. 

I've found it makes me look back more fondly, especially because I'm so focused on art I rarely journal/take memory photos/etc. Going through old sketchbooks isn't an opportunity for me to critique my old art anymore, it's just me flipping through memory lane :)
Instead of remembering everything I got wrong, I remember the moments that I tried something weird and it gave me an idea, or if something didn't work, well it was worth trying !! That started to build my confidence that I can create things I'm comfortable with, not necessarily proud, because I probably have too much of my value as a person tied to art and my progress lol. This is coming from someone who recently loosened up from the structure and anatomy books I've been pouring over the past few years, mostly by experimenting with WHEN I experiment and let things be in the ugly stage, instead of putting pressure on it working out or looking good. 

I also have found a lot of success trying to focus my energy on allowing my art to start super bad, like comically bad. I'm not sure if you've come across Zezhou Chen before, but the way they show the development of the paintings was SO helpful for my silly, stubborn, recently found to be autistic, brain. If I haven't seen an artist do something, I have a lot of trouble convincing myself it will turn out.

Sometimes when I'm staring at a blank page, I force myself to draw the fastest face I can ((just a lil :) and a circle)) and take a 5 minute break, then when I come back the goal is to fix the bad face, which feels SO much better than just trying to do it right the first time.

I have an ADHD/Autism cocktail going on in my brain so the 'project' approach has always been signing up for failure for me, but treating it like something I'm doing to archive things I enjoy and prioritize what my eyeballs like, has made it a little more exciting for me I think. Worst case I dont like it halfway through and just go nutty with colors to see if it sparks anything, if not, that's ok, practice is practice, wisdom is gained by trying and failing IMO so if it's hard to stay confident, keep trying!!

Subreddits go sour so fast, from my experience. Some artists and creators do critique groups on discord which would be a lot more active, so maybe try that? Theres also a bunch of art critique subreddits already being moderated.

A way to show our images on the site, even just embedded, would be helpful though. Every time I see an imgur link I hesitate lol not because it's a bad site, I think it's just an extra step that can deter me. I've been using this site forever and it's nice that it's consistent and easy to navigate, but the forum is something I only check once in a while.