Female Character WIP - Potential Exotique 3 Entry

[Imagus]

Two days, no response... wow.

It's either a lot better or a lot worse than I (thought) it (was).

[CGriffin]

Uh, okay, I'll respond. Have you ever seen the work in Exotique? It's VERY realism-heavy. I think this piece might be too stylized for their tastes. And I'm not sure the anatomy is believable. You must understand anatomy well, before you can stylize it. It's kinda like a musician must know the basics before they can jam. Hope this makes sense!

[Imagus]

Uh, okay, I'll respond. Have you ever seen the work in Exotique? It's VERY realism-heavy. I think this piece might be too stylized for their tastes. And I'm not sure the anatomy is believable. You must understand anatomy well, before you can stylize it. It's kinda like a musician must know the basics before they can jam. Hope this makes sense!Makes perfect sense... I'm a musician myself.

I'd been getting the sense that I was very, VERY far behind where I thought I was recently, so this really isn't a surprise. My ambition and self-opinion more often than not tends to far outweigh my ability... reality checks always hurt, but are definitely necessary.

I'll kill this thread before it gets any additional responses. Thanks for the honest feedback - it really is appreciated.

[CGriffin]

Aw, shoot, don't be so hard on yourself! Sometimes you gotta bite off more than you can chew....it gets the juices flowing. And if you never try, you never get anywhere. Perfection is boring anyway... ;)

[Imagus]

Aw, shoot, don't be so hard on yourself! Sometimes you gotta bite off more than you can chew....it gets the juices flowing. And if you never try, you never get anywhere. Perfection is boring anyway... ;)True, that. And yet, we continuously strive for it... we humans are oddball creatures, aren't we? :)

There were actually a bunch of things that all came together at once, hitting me in a very short period of time and causing me to re-evaluate and realize where I truly was artistically. I really did have a higher opinion of my work than was warranted, and it's always a tough pill to swallow. It's happened to me at least a couple of times in the past as well.

You're absolutely right... anatomy is definitely not my strong suit. To (attempt to) fix this, I actually signed up for a two-part anatomy drawing course at the end of last year. Part one was skeleton, part two muscles. Learned a TON in the first part... then the teacher left the school after 6 years of teaching the course, leaving returning students with an ill-prepared replacement. So I got half a course. At least I got a refund when I dropped the second part. :p

If I repost the pic, It'll most likely be a true WIP, where I update it regularly. The trick is, I really don't have any idea where to take it from where it is now, so I may just write it off and start a new piece, or even the same piece, from scratch instead. In addition to anatomy, I still have a lot to learn about Painter and painting in general.

And, for what it's worth, I really did mean what I said about the honest critique... I get very few of those, which may have a lot to do with why I often have trouble analyzing my own work's level.

[RicoD]

When you do decide to get ready for some heavy critique, just leave it open and post updates. And make comments at other peoples' work. I found it very helpful. Sooner or later people start recognising you more and are more likely to comment then. At one point I even thought of leaving these forums (I kind of did for 4 years, but that was due to different reasons including having hardly drawn and not painted at all during that period). Now, I'm glas I came back here. I've met some very talented people here, nice ones and less nice ones but just surfing through the threads here are very helpful I think. I got real lazy at one point. My art teacher said there was nothing he could teach me. I misunderstood that for 'there's nothing more to learn'. There's always something to learn and always someone better at what you're good at. That's good, because it gives you something to aim for.

Oh, I tend to critique quite heavily, but mean well. Sometimes I'm just too tired to even browse through the threads and just take a quick peek at threads I'm subscribed to though. Patience is a virtue. Hey look, I'm critiquing already!

[Imagus]

I got real lazy at one point. My art teacher said there was nothing he could teach me. I misunderstood that for 'there's nothing more to learn'. There's always something to learn and always someone better at what you're good at. That's good, because it gives you something to aim for.Ouch... that must've been tough. I never had an art teacher tell me that, but most of my foundational classes were taught by teaching assistants and/or grad students, so it really isn't that surprising.

And I agree - there's always someone better out there, and always something new to learn/improve on. Saying that there isn't is kind of like saying that everything's already been invented... it may seem that way sometimes but, realistically, it's not true.

Oh, I tend to critique quite heavily, but mean well. Sometimes I'm just too tired to even browse through the threads and just take a quick peek at threads I'm subscribed to though. Patience is a virtue. Hey look, I'm critiquing already!Sweet! So, do you think the "[post removed]" eminates the kind of feminine beauty that makes this piece shine? ;)

Hey, heavy critique is something that I could definitely use more of. Part of the reason I become complacent so easily is the fact that I have very few acquaintances that are either artists or knowledgeable about the intricasies of art. That's why I feel this forum will come in very handy in the future.

Thanks for the thoughts, RicoD. Much appreciated.

P.S. - Point of curiosity... what is "ke ke ke" a reference to? I'm currently muddling my way through FF9, and therefore all I can think of is a Chocobo call. :p

[RicoD]

No problem! Not everybody seems to like critique, whereas I really want them, preferably more detailed than 'somethings not right', but perhaps that's asking for much. Everybody is busy and all that. I used to be a lot on a Flash forum and really miss that place. Everybody wanted to help each other out and in general there was this great sense of community. Alas, I had to make a choice and drawing is my biggest passion.

I think chocobo's say 'kwe'. ;) "ke" is the onomatopoic word the Japanese use for the sound of an evil laugh. Kind of like "Muhahaha", but not quite so bombastic. More like a sneeky chuckle. My avatar is a 1 minute chibi of the girl from Ring. Sayoko or something, I don't really remember.

[Imagus]

No problem! Not everybody seems to like critique, whereas I really want them, preferably more detailed than 'somethings not right', but perhaps that's asking for much. Everybody is busy and all that. I used to be a lot on a Flash forum and really miss that place. Everybody wanted to help each other out and in general there was this great sense of community. Alas, I had to make a choice and drawing is my biggest passion.

I think chocobo's say 'kwe'. ;) "ke" is the onomatopoic word the Japanese use for the sound of an evil laugh. Kind of like "Muhahaha", but not quite so bombastic. More like a sneeky chuckle. My avatar is a 1 minute chibi of the girl from Ring. Sayoko or something, I don't really remember.Ah, that explains it... knew I'd heard it somewhere before. I'm an anime/manga fan myself, and have learned quite a bit of Japanese... hence the Final Fantasy association. You're right on the Chocobos... "Kwee!", "Kweh.", "Kweeh?", "Kweeeeh?!", "KWEEEEEEEEE!!!", etc.

Japanese Laugh: ケーケケケケ～…

RE: critique, I've been considering re-linking the image up top... but I wish I could change the subject of the thread. At this point, I'm not really thinking "Exotique Entry", more "Help Me Fix This".

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