. Then, recognising my failure "as an artist" I began to doubt myself and consider if I should try something else (maybe my job isn't that bad after all? I actually really enjoy it, maybe I don't want to draw for a living?).
)Anyway I realised that he has done way more work that is fully composed and has few anatomy issues. Basically; the art he is creating now is better than mine overall.
I had to really think why he was progressing so much faster than me. And in the end, what I think it is, is that doing whole paintings has a lot of benefits:
- It trains you holistically, you are forced to learn all the fundamentals at once (composition, lighting, colour etc.)
- It forces you to deal with your biggest problems early on
- It's more fun (lol)
- It's very challenging (and every book I ever read on learning said that doing challenging things is the most important key to learning rapidly)
- And most importantly it gives you practice finishing paintings, which I personally find very difficult.
I think I was hiding behind my studies, as a way to avoid facing my problem areas.
There are disadvantages too, for example it can be overwhelming and cause artist block, and also if you "study from the head" instead of using lots of references and guides, I think you would also hit plateaus....
One of the hardest parts of being a self-taught artist is not making the same errors over and over in your art (it's the same with any craft/sport! that's why teachers and mentors are so important!!!).
I have watched a lot of artists over time, and I see some who even now struggle with the fundamentals when they have been drawing for many many years, and even though their work looks amazing I think it lacks that extra "something" to push it to the professional level, that something imho is fundamentals, which is why I think balance in study is required.
What I decided, is that now I want to find a balance. Instead of dedicating my whole day to studies, I am going to split it up. I still want to finish my courses and books because I consider them my "teachers", they are where I can learn new things and realise errors in my work I might otherwise not notice or know how to fix.
However I am going to start doing full paintings. I will try to balance it maybe 50/50 at least initially, and figure out what is giving me the most benefits.
(PS~ I am trying to setup my DeviantArt now and make things look good. I am experimenting a bit, and also setting up pages that might be useful in the future, which might end up with some random journals for things like links)
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