I think my personal work is regressing.

Uh, advance warning for anime art. I've been struggling especially hard with faces for over a year now, I tried a ton of studies and exercises, and I feel like I've only gotten worse in some aspects.

I don't want to be defensive but if there's a head-drawing method or practice out there, I've probably tried it. Loomis, Asaro, Michael Hampton, Anatomy for Sculptors, Drawing the Human Head, drawing skulls, bounding boxes, using this very website, 3D models, you name it. I even studied the stylistic choices of artists I like. And yes, I'm flipping the canvas, and I have done Draw A Box / gone back and studied fundamentals!

I did go through a phase of wanting to "re-anime" my art as opposed to going more realistic, but I feel like I haven't succeeded at making it convincing. A lot of my inspirations (pako, Range Murata, Shigenori Soejima, Yusuke Kozaki) tend to depict a range of different features as opposed to what we typically think of as anime, and I feel like I've gotten worse at that, too.

In a way, I feel like I keep going in circles, rather than actually improving.

In chronological order - these are from four years ago, two years ago, a few months later (also two years ago), two days ago, and yesterday. I'm getting really frustrated.

• Icouldntthinkofaname edited this post on August 19, 2024 5:04pm.
• Icouldntthinkofaname edited this post on August 19, 2024 5:06pm.

i actually think i definitely see improvements! i like your later works better. sure there's no shading or colours, but i find them more structurally sound. like, they appear to make more sense? and you're also adding dynamism and expression to the characters. do you find you're stagnating now? maybe you could try refining your lines over the sketches, and starting to add some shading (and eventually colour) in your works again, if that's the way you like the end result to look (just ideas off the top of my head, maybe that's not the direction you want to take). in my opinion, the earlier works look like amateur finished pieces, and the later ones like unfinished sketches from someone who has a lot more experience. i think the improvement is real!:-)

@Cafeaulait I appreciate that !

there's no shading or colors because they actually aren't finished, though! I feel like the structure and angles / anatomy have declined - these are actually the 'refined' sketches (there'd usually be more cleanup or a third pass, but I was frustrated; the last is actually facing a totally different direction than the rough but I'm not sure why that happened). It's also is is become harder to do things, not easier (I think this is more stress, but I can't seem to get out of that).

I'd already had years of experience with the first one, though :| I was in school studying illustration when I drew that (innocent mistake but it does bother me; I keep getting called "amateur" or "intermediate" but I've been trying to get into the industry).

As has already been pointed out, this isn't a totally fair comparison since the first images are clearly more finished and likely had more time invested in them. It might be interesting to look at the initial sketches for your earlier work if you still have them. Nevertheless, while I wouldn't go so far as to call it a regression, I agree that it doesn't reflect solid, linear improvement either.

More importantly, my first impression of the recent images wasn't that they're worse; rather, they seem so unfinished that it's hard to tell if there's anything wrong with them.

This is problematic for two reasons.
First, they aren't accomplishing the primary purpose of a sketch: to solve visual problems. How can you judge whether the hair shapes are well designed when the sketch doesn't clearly indicate where the hair even ends?

Second, the fact that you chose to use these unfinished sketches as examples of your current work suggests you don't have any recent, finished pieces to show. (Correct me if I'm wrong, but if your personal work were going well, you probably wouldn't be so concerned about the quality of some unfinished sketches). Not doing the thing you're supposedly practicing so hard for is not only a quick way to burn yourself out, but it also makes your practice less efficient. You can only measure your progress by the work you actually care about. If you're studying Loomis to improve your stylized heads, it doesn't matter if you know all the steps of the method by heart or can copy his illustrations masterfully. Only when you return to your own work and see if it has improved can you truly assess the value of that study. Personally, I don't believe everything you learn about drawing automatically makes your art better; that's just the sunk cost fallacy.

By now, you've probably noticed that not every piece of art advice is helpful, even if it's well-intentioned. Moreover, even good advice can be contradictory — like starting a figure drawing with gesture versus constructing from boxes — or it might not be a good fit for what you're trying to achieve. For example, anime faces generally don't benefit from indicating the planes of the face. So, it doesn't surprise me that knowing every head drawing method under the sun didn't turn you into a masterful draftsperson. It might actually indicate that you're lacking direction in your art journey and haven't focused on the aspects that truly apply to you (assuming you're properly practicing all of this, of course; if not, then that's the first thing to fix. Theoretical knowledge isn't the same as skill). It's easy to get caught up in all the amazing resources available today and become a collector of art advice rather than an artist. You need to create actual pieces that matter to you, so you know which advice to ignore and which techniques work for you. The quality of your finished pieces is what counts, not the skill level you think you should have based on your knowledge or how well your studies turn out.

If you're having trouble finishing personal work, practicing fundamentals even more probably won't help. After all, our lack of skill didn't stop us from completing pieces when we were just starting out. In my experience, doing only studies puts a lot of pressure on your next piece. After all that time and effort practicing, this next piece better be good! But, since it's been a while since you've simultaneously used all the different skills that go into a drawing, creating a finished piece feels awkward. You might quit partway through, or the result is subpar. Instead of recognizing that studies don't always translate directly into finished art — or that working on a single piece for multiple hours is a separate skill that needs practice — most people think they need to go back to studying fundamentals, and the cycle continues. Fundamentals are great, but you can't live in a foundation; you need a house.

Since I feel like I have been already rambling on for way too long (you're post did not include a question after all), here's some more concrete advice, based on the style of the artists you mentioned and my subjective taste.

First, make finishing personal work a priority. Second, focus on 2D shapes and silhouette. Clearly indicate where the outer edge of the hair is. It might be a good idea to erase extra lines during cleanup and close any gaps between lines. Having clear shapes will make it easier to correct your proportions since you can more easily judge where everything is in relation to each other. If you're struggling with line quality, consider painting the silhouette in a flat color as an intermediate step before doing final lines on top.
Since you're going for an anime look, your hair shapes would benefit from better design. Ensure you have a hierarchy of large, medium, and small shapes, as well as a balance between curves and straights, and areas of high detail versus areas with no detail.
While I haven't seen any full work, I suspect composition might be one of your weaker areas. Working on that would arguably have a more significant impact on your art than fixing proportional issues.

I also did paintovers for the two recent sketches to demonstrate my points (and so you can decide for yourself if I'm qualified to give advice). Since you didn't ask for this, feel free to ignore this part if you feel like someone drawing over your work only makes you feel worse.

For the first sketch, I quickly adjusted it using only the eraser and the move tool — no new lines were added. Only then, I made a few additional marks on top. It's not perfect, but I think it clearly shows how you stopped too early. When your brain told you it wasn't worth putting more effort into this drawing and you should stop, it was wrong! A bit more work, and it looks just fine. Key takeaways are the mouth placement and the cheek line. Filling in the silhouette helps a lot in making the image look more presentable. If you load these into your painting program and flip back and forth, you should be able to see how little I actually changed.

For the second sketch, while I tried to stick to the lines already present, I ended up making more significant changes, so it looks quite different. This one might be less helpful. Again, mouth placement was the biggest issue proportion-wise. The eyes are too large for my taste. Hopefully, my sketch serves as an example of how you can apply more deliberate design to the hair while keeping it sketchy. For example, the left side of the hair's silhouette is a simple straight line, the top is a curve, the right side has all the detail, and the hair piece between the eyes is divided into unequal shapes, etc. I know this was just an unfinished sketch, but applying a bit of composition (rectangular framing versus triangular shoulder region versus circular head, right diagonal of the hand versus left diagonal of the face centerline, asymmetry, contrasting the face with solid blacks, etc.) is what makes the largest difference between a doodle and those picture-perfect sketches you see on Instagram all the time.

I appreciate the in-depth response, but please don't paint over my work without permission. It's incredibly rude. You're right about the work not being finished, but I don't have access to the sketch of the older piece anymore. I see stronger features, but weaker head anatomy and structure.

The reason I "stopped early" was because I had already redrawn it several times at that point. Composition is actually one of my strong points, but I want to focus on anatomy and things like that, which is more useful for making character concepts and references.

I really do appreciate a lot of the insight, but I'm not sure what to do anymore. Thank you.

(Edit: images finally loaded. These do look good, you're right, but please ask first! I've tried the silhouette thing but have had trouble with it).

• Icouldntthinkofaname edited this post on August 22, 2024 6:23pm.
• Icouldntthinkofaname edited this post on August 22, 2024 6:27pm.
• Icouldntthinkofaname edited this post on August 22, 2024 6:30pm.
• Icouldntthinkofaname edited this post on August 22, 2024 6:30pm.
• Icouldntthinkofaname edited this post on August 22, 2024 6:34pm.

Hi there! Here with my mod hat on - just wanted to point out that the general cultural assumption of this forum is that when you ask for feedback, advice and critique on how your work is going, you are providing implied permission for people to offer said feedback including visual aids like red lining or paint overs for the purpose of critique. The mods view doing this as generally an over-and-above form of providing help to people who ask for it, and a pretty standard part of arts academia - especially in the digital realm where it is non-destructive to the original work. I can see that there are some conflicting assumptions and styles here, and you're more than welcome to say that you would prefer people do not provide feedback in this form for you. But we don't want board members to see this and think they should stop doing this for others in the future. For most, it's a hugely valuable experience.

i feel your frustration! you mentioned re-animeifying your work, did u experiment with other styles as well? i found once i moved away from anime completely that my growth became a lot more exponential as it just wasnt the style for me. you may need to just find your style of specific anime, and that could end up being far from your inspo. from looking at ur inspo tho, it looks asthough those artists err on the side of realism rather than the stereotypical anime, so referencing photos of real faces when drawing anime could help with that if u dont do that already. one big thing that helped me find a personal style was drawing only for myself and my enjoyment rather than forcing myself to aim to 'improve' or make the piece look good in its rendering stages. That helped with both anatomical and style freedom. In ur later pieces u do have the technical skill, bit of a bitter pill to swallow but it simply may take time to develop something youre routinely happy with. if its getting really dire, a bad little thing i did was to just straight up copy a piece from another artist i liked and in the process i ended up personalising it just through the act of drawing it myself and accidentally generated a style very different to what i was copying by repeating that a few times. Religiously sticking to one colour palette (not the curated ones from pinterest or the front page of coolrs but one randomly generated or generated from a work u like, i use procreates create palette from image function) will also help with consistancy even if u feel ur style isnt there yet. once u feel ur more developed deviation will be possible(happens naturally) and youll see your style shining through regardless of palette :D

• 0606060606000 edited this post on August 26, 2024 12:42pm.

I am also studying those artists, but the anime warning is more because common advice tends to be "learn realism first" - which is all I've been doing. I've even done master copies! None of those things have really helped, though they are good practices. Despite my frustrations I do think the other person's insights were good, though I'm still struggling to finish pieces.

I do appreciate the advice but I'm a little confused!

• Icouldntthinkofaname edited this post on August 26, 2024 5:46pm.

welp, define struggling for drawing faces. I think it is just a problem of opinion. what ever method you tried actually works here. I do not see problems in the structure or the facial expressions. That's literally the least motivated expression of self doubt I've ever seen! Is it because it isn't on the same level as those "people" you were talking about? Don't ever try to be like others, do not compare yourself to other people that are better than you. Hell, it is already hard for me, a random nobody that can't even simplify a person into a mannequin to begin with to not get dragged into this negative shithole everytime someone ever nails something I try to wrap my head around for years. If there was ever an actual solution, somewhere that would make you improve as an artist I really wish I could see it. There is no solution for improving, just draw because you don't want to do the bad stuff that makes you waste your life as a meaningless cog of society or just wait for when even the computer can do better drawings on its own so there will not be any other person to feel inferior to. You got me?

• Idon'tknow edited this post on August 27, 2024 9:39pm.
• Idon'tknow edited this post on August 27, 2024 10:28pm.

I appreciate the intent and the compliment, but I'm not sure I totally understand what you're trying to say here. The people I mentioned are strictly inspirations, they're all long-running industry pros!

But I'm struggling to do it "easily" when it should be simple for the level of experience I have, and I've noticed similar issues in my other work - if I drew the heads too big previously, I end up drawing them too small to compensate, and that becomes a problem.

I don't do well with motivational advice like this personally, but I hope you're giving yourself the same grace; I've seen your posts around.

about the size of the head you just adjust it with the digital tools from wich you drew those illustrations in the first place. your only problem is just doing it fast enough from what I can tell, do not consider it like a speedrun. You are just hyper aware of any sort of downgrade even when the technique itself didn't suffer. Your solution is that there isn't a problem to begin with. Nobody is going to kill you if you didn't make the head at the right size in the first try including the pros you try to emulate.

I genuinely don't know what this means re: doing it "fast enough", but I still appreciate it. But professionals are expected to work faster than I do currently (which isn't very fast at all), and there's some time crunch to build a portfolio and develop a bigger social media presence and network.

Want to clarify that my example was an example - it's longer-term than just adjusting it in the moment, and I sometimes only notice it later. And again, the pros are inspiration, separate from being a point of comparison.

I just made an account to reply and say how useful this comment was for me! I'm having a very similar problem as op, I've spent months going back and studying findamentals of anatomy and perspective after being unsatisfied with my work - and I think I've wound myself up and put so much pressure onmy upcoming pieces that they're never going to be able to live up to my expectations. I've definitely improved my knowledge and understanding, and really I can see that, but I've lost a sense of love for what I'm making and definitely need to spend some time just getting lost in drawing again.

My heart goes out to you op, I wish you the best with your journey too!

I'm glad it was helpful for you, but I think it misunderstands my problem a bit -

It's not just mindset but a pattern I've observed, even if the technical differences aren't quite as severe as they are for me. Motivational advice isn't really helpful or practical for me personally; as much as I wasn't happy about my work being redlined and don't agree with all of the observations provided, I think that person's insights are likely more the kind of help I need here. Best of luck to you both!