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fallout161 β How Far Ive Come
Published: 2004-08-13 23:27:58 +0000 UTC; Views: 11568; Favourites: 75; Downloads: 4977
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I could use some serious advice about my work. Why is it going nowhere?here are some areas that I haven't improved on (and in some cases, gotten worse at) in the past few years:
1) imaginitive poses
2) different, dynamic angles
3) drawing full-body characters (most of the time I just draw torsos with no feet)
4) inking
5) scenes that depict action
6) scenes that include backgrounds
7) designing my own characters
8) drawing objects other than the human body
9) drawing/designing clothing, wrinkles
10) drawing the human body, esp. hands and legs
11) using my imagination
12) drawing hair that actually looks like hair (and not spikes or hay)
13) productivity, prolificity
14) speed
15) number collaborations or trades or gift arts for other artists
16) number of commissions
17) number of prints created/sold
18) using a variety of media
19) using/adapting new styles
20) completing bigger, more ambitious pictures
21) pushing artwork to further and further points of "finished," resulting in better quality of a final product
Here are some things I *have* improved upon:
1) CGing techniques
2) Drawing anime eyes
...I'm not feeling too good about myself now.
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Comments: 252
Reading your comments made me rethink alot of my own works nowdays, i only seem to draw fan art or the female body lately.
I think maybe you should get yourself out of it by setting rules for a while, like you cannot draw an already made character, or you cannot draw with your usual materials for a while or human bodies for a bit.
Also you could set yourself little projects , like you might get at college /uni /work that always seem to get you out of a drawing rut. like setting projects on hands /legs or showing action/speed, or working on strange angles or possitions. Structuring a starting point rather than just sitting down and drawing straight away ending up doing what you ussually end up doing.
But youve deffinately improved on the female torso and clothes creases and the whole picture has more reality to it which i like.
Wow i helped myself too! not that i know what im talking about 
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There's a series of books called "How to Draw Manga" that I absolutely love. They have a ton of different subjects, like "Bodies and Anatomy", "Illustrating Battle Poses", "Clothing Encylopedia" etc. I would suggest going to the closest library (if you don't want to buy the books) and checking them out. They have really helped me in coming up with original clothing designs and with drawing feet (my most troublesome area). Good luck!
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i buy fashion magazines and flip through them to come up with ideas or just use the ones shown when I'm at a loss for what do to...then my mind just sorta manipulates those ideas into it's own style or whatever. I also like to look at full portraits of people to study and learn how to draw the anatomy more accurately..I don't know if this is of any use to you. I can certainly say your art is very unique in it's own way and as others have mentioned, the second picture isn't the best example to compare with the old because you've definitely improved in our eyes Oo
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Want a simple advice? Take a break from art for some time. I'll help you get some inspiration without wasting everything on hundreds of pics.
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surely you don't think it's going nowhere?
as far as i know, i think all artists are constantly changing and progressing....it might seem like that we're staying in the same place or running around in circles, but we're not and you shouldn't let it bother you. you're a PHENOMENAL artist, and in the rare case that you might be stuck or feeling as if you've just hit a barrier, you should just chill and let the drawing come to you. if you want realism, take a picture....you can make anything look how you want it, and change it to make yourself or someone else happy. it's a lovely feeling
well, that's just what i think. but who am i to say? it's you and your drawings, and so i wish you good luck, and keep drawing
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From what I can see... there is a big improvement in the way you draw. They have come pretty far. And If I can see the difference, there is a huge improvement.
~VarenNeoRaven
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Take it one step at a time Matt. You're doing fine as you are now.
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I think that you have completely improved in facial structure. You should at least add that to the second list.
But the first list.. That is a long one, isn't it? You say that you don't use your imagination enough... Well, that's probably the biggest issue. If you use your imagination more, you would definitely see more of 1, 2, 5, 6, 7, 14, and maybe even 20 coming along. All I can say is.. try to think of more of a story, more character to your characters. And if not, just draw things that hardly make any sense. Something completely random. Like a totally new character jumping off of a speeding train. Yeah, kind of lame and cliche, but it would get you off of your tail to draw a train, which is definitely an object that isn't the human body, and interesting pose, and speed. It would also make you design a new character. And, mayhaps, with a bit if discipline, you could finish the piece? That was just an example, but it's definitely something that would help you practice on a couple of fields that you say you want to improve upon. I can't really give you good advice to become an amazing artist, because I am -obviously- not one myself, but I can tell you that practice is the biggest portion of becoming better. I know it's stating the obvious, but it's true.
And when it comes to new styles... Yes, I must agree that you tend to stick to the same one. When it comes to that, all I can say is to experiment and try new things! Keep in mind that you're probably not going to be the best at a new style when you try it, so don't worry about having to post something if it's in a new style you're not comfortable with. If you're using totally new techniques, it may take you a few shots to get used to it, but eventually any style is attainable, especially for an artist with your calibur. I would be interested in seeing you with a less sketchy style more often. Although I LOVE your regular style, I just think it'd be interesting to see a sketchless, fully-inked, richly-colored image from you more often.
I apologize for the shoddy comments or not even leaving a comment most of the time, but more than likely I don't have enough time to write a novel. Just enough to let you know that I enjoyed a piece. From now on, I will do my best to make a more in-depth comment on your pictures.
Best of luck in your endeavors-- just try to push yourself, I know you can come up with something even better than what you do now.
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If you are willing to do yourself a favor, go here: [link]
its a real art site that has constructive criticism beyond, "OMFG YOU RULE! I love your art sooooo much!" and "That is soooo cute! Kawaii!!! ^_^"
You deserve better for the time you've invested into your skill
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Yeah, it's pretty common for an artist to get stuck in one pattern, and that makes ith hard to develop and broaden one's skill. My latest drawings have been very varied, even though I only upload a few, but I base them on something quite common, and easy to find; love. I like to draw things that you can just look upon, to see that someone loved it very much. That's why I prefer stuffed animals. I'm on my way to getting stuck on this though, but I draw other things aswell, so I'm still in the clear
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I can see the improvement. It's always hard to see the differences in your own artwork. I can see improvements in your anatomy for one thing. I know how you feel though, cuz sometimes I sit around and draw nothing but crap. But then there will be times where I draw something I totally love.
It's so much easier to critisize your own work. Let others do that job for you
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I think that you have improved a lot. You're figures have loosened, they look more alive and have mass. This, inturn, has made the poses you draw all the more exciting. They have a dynamic subtlty. They have a lot of engery. This engery somes from how well the figures are drawn and waiting for the figure to move.
The areas you want to improve on. All I can say is to practice. Practice drawing from life. Just sit down a draw a room and all the furtinture and object in the room. Go somewhere with a lot of people and quickly gesture draw them. It takes a lot of work to improve and just comparing these two drawins you have improved a lot in the past 2 years. But never lose that willingness to want to improve yourself.
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I'd say that character has more erm... volume/depth (can't think of a better word 
But I wouldn't get too hung up on improvement (while it is very nice to look back and see improvement)... as long as you still enjoy what you do
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Jesus Christ, I'd kill to be able to draw that well. .-.
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you have more detail in your recent picture.....you've improved alittle but its more or less that the improvments are not able to be seen by yourself but others can see it......
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You have gotten better wether you see it or not. My best advice would be not to give up on it, you're an excellent artist [one of my favorites] Second best advice would probably go somewhere where people are always moveing 'dynamicly', like an ice rink or a dance hall and sketch them while they're moveing. Life drawing classes are also a big plus. This should help 1,2,3,9, maybe 10,13, and defitaly 14. Another good thing is to draw as many portraits as you can, not only of people, but stuff too, like get a coffee maker and draw it realisticly as you can. As far as creativity goes, your *very* creative, still if you're feeling down about that maybe you should try writing more?
That's the best I can offer, love your work as always, and keep at it. 
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Perhaps it's getting better, and you're not seeing it. You're your own toughest critic, after all. And I think your art is wonderful! Note your watchableness.
I wish I could give you some helpful hints, but the things you named are pretty much what I'm bad at. Then again, I'm just bad at drawing, methinks.
Perhaps the lack of evolvement of your art in the way you mean is because you've gotten stuck in a particular style? I'm just throwing things out here, mind you, but try drawing with a different approach one day. If that's possible. If I'm making any sense at all. Okay, time to end this before I really start sounding crazy...
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I doubt you'll see this in the onslaught of comments you have recieved thus far. The main thing I think you need to work on is your poses. Lately that are all cold, they are just standing there stagnent. If you just put more emotion into your poses and it will improve ten-fold ^___^
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a couple things that you may not see like we do :
1. your sketch quality has improved, especially in the anatomy dept..the lines around the new drawings tummy is just excellent
2. you are also working towards a less anime oriented feel
but if you feel that you have not advanced in those other areas, just sit down, shut the computer off, and draw. dont expect anything to come out of it, just draw and draw until you cant anymore. and you'll probably see a progression in the sketches that you did in that period of time.
ive been a long time fan of your art... your style is phenomenal. good luck
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well, even if you dont improve (ok, you do improve..
kedd the sw33t stuff coming
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There will be more thought on the questions you wish answered, but all in all you have improved. It'd be nice if you could help Me on creativity of a sort. (You are another other than my sister [ ] who draws her own style of clothes... it's Coool)
But I think you Have improved. And as for how to? That all depends on where you want to Go, you know what I mean?
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Don't feel bad about it. You have a really great style that some would kill to be able to do... *shifty eyes*
Anyways, if you really want to improve then I guess you just need to experiment a bit. Possibly instead of drawing whoel characters just draw the parts you want to improve. You might already do that, but I don't know.
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d00d, youre like one of the most popular people here! stop complaining! lol
seriously though, youre good in the first place. You do what you do well, and you do stuff that appeals to the masses.
I can see big improvement in the solidness and form of drawing characters - your recent stomach looks properly solid, and the chest particularly. yes, and the face is a massive improvement.
I can honestly say i dont know you, or the way you choose to draw well enough to actually pass a decent comment on what would be a good thing or a bad thing to do. I mean ... besides that, your stuff is amazing anyway XD
i dont know what you want to improve in anyway ... i mean, you should be happy with your style anyway. People really like it.
I recently did a similar thing to this. Wierd actually, that since i did one ... everyone else seems to be doing one. but thats aside the point! here : [link]
I mean, ive improved a massive amount in a year because ... i wasnt that good to start with XD
i do have a little things, to say, that ive picked up along the way. If youre having job with composition (ie, you said you often draw only to the top of the legs etc) then you should get an area of paper (HTK for example, always draws his pics in A4) and then plan the entire thing within that area, rather than what sometimes happens you just start drawing and see what happens, etc. If you think of an interesting composition to fill the page, the pose often comes to fit in with that composition. If that makes sense. Like if you want a sleek fast composition, you might have a streak across the page, leading top to bottom or left to right, then you fit the character to that composition rather than the other way round.
Also, as for poses. Check out comics and graphic novels etc - blade of the immortal especially. Now, if you take away the background etc, you will 90% of the time notice that the pose by itself is actually quite plain. Its the background and so on that make the pose SEEM interesting. Or at least, more interesting
Anyway, these things might work for you, they might not. Just some stuff to think about all the same. I can assure you, though, that from the viewpoint of me, and everyone else here, you're doing bloody ace and you realy dont have anything to worry about 
and also, if you want to get better, theres no two ways about it - you just have to keep slugging away. I've drawn every single day since september, without fail. 50% of the time i really dont want to and i MAKE myself do it. And ... it seems to be working! Also, you should always want to do stuff that little bit better. Always try and improve. Its a long hard road but ya know ... its gotta be taken
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well, I haven't impoved too.. and the only change is that I make less abstract things.... yep, I had the same thoughts as you.. and I still hope it's gonna come...... your poses are awesome sometimes. I don't think that two you gave us now are the good example, but I know some you did that had awesome details in poses, screwed angle which was really good cause it catched your eye.. nice grimase in the face.. try going back in your portfolio, find 'em and try more and more alike it........ that's gonna help, cause if you make 5 similar things with weird angles there won't be any problem making a better angle the sixth time
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It'll come, keep drawing.
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my advice would be to go out on a limb and try stuff you've never even dreamed of trying before... by sticking with the same kind of subjects and angels you're not pushing yourself - you're a very tallented artist but you'll find when you put your brain in unfamiliar territory, it can react in the most wonderful ways, then when you come back to drawing anime figures you'll see the improvment there too.. you could try some really exteme perspective works for example... or see how far you can bend your figures before they just look rediculous... - also, [link] .. I just reccomended this book to someone else here on DA, it's a wonderful little number by a lady called betty edwards, it's aimed at people who can't draw at all, and so comes accross as being a little patronising at times, and yet the advice it contains is really really useful. - it's improved my drawing ability loads, but more importantly it's improved my ability to look and "see" things properly. once you imrpove your ability to observe, it goes without sayng you become a better artist.
lastly fall out, let me reitterate, you're a wonderful artist with heaps of tallent.. - I have respect for you and I enjoy your works. - we all go through downer patchers every now and then, and I find it's usually right before a big improving spree... - you just need to find the right chanel for your work that's all. 
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In my opinion you do have imrpoved. You only have to take a look at these two pictures from 2002 and 2004. the face and the torso are much better (in 2004), so are the hands.
the artist always seems to be the worst critic, but don't try to only see what has not improved- you are a great artist and a lot of people think so. of course there are always things that need improvement, but don't focus on those. you like to draw and that's the most important thing *smiles*
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Maybe you are at the same point i am...where you feel kinda stuck. You want to improve your skills, but you can't seem to move on to that next artistic level, whether it be creativity or more realism or anything not within your artistic norm.
You just may need ta broaden your subject matter. *^_^* And i think the areas that have improved, have been the areas you have been focusing on. ( CGI, Human Body porportions etc).
Good luck to ye sir.
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A lot of good points have already been made, and so I feel no need to repeat them. So uhh...on the subject of dynamics angles and action poses, I know it's a bit clichΓ©, but, maybe try drawing pictures of breakdancers, acrobats, martial artists, skaters, sports persons etc etc Dunno if that helps at all, but hey, I tried. : D
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One thing I try doing when i cant seem to draw at all, which happens often for me cuz i suck asss, is to really acctually think while you draw about what you are drawing. Think and understand why you put your pencil down on the paper. Think about the line that comes from your mind. Sometimes just letting things flow out doesnt help you. Art is also a form of problem solving. Sometimes you just have to think it out. So sit and look at everything you believe you have a problem with that needs improvement and then think of what you could do to make it better. If you feel that you have trouble lets say with cloth deformation on human form then well draw draw draw. There is one thing I learned from my Shao-Lin Kung Fu training, and that is to practice till you cant get any better. In other words, you will never stop practicing forever. A monk will train 10 years and achieve a level of 'black belt' but that is just the beginning of his training. As a martial artist or drawing artist or musical artist you must take the Shao-lin school of thought. The word 'Kung Fu' comes from the meaning of 'Mastery through time and effort'. Talent can take you only so far. Skill is but the residue of diligent practice.
Now I need to go take some of my own advice and draw.
~Hasen
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taboojao says: Those who work only when the Muse strikes them make little progress.
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One of the things that really helped me improve my art very fast is simply to draw things you don't normally draw.
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im sorry not neilara but FALLOUT!!! got the name fixed with another. but i was think of ur fallout comic, i simpley got the title confused
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i agree. your work is now more detailed and amazing. so u MAY not be able to pull off an action shot. but ur drawings have such emoitan in them. when i was ready ur comic u posted (Neilara i think) it had such sypmathy and emotion in it. your artwork is great. speed and commisions arnt a big deal. i can draw my character Tack in a quick 30 minutes, it took me 2 hours to do a drawin of Neo Exodus. it all depends on how well you know the character by heart and the amount of detail to the character. i think you artwork is great. it need NO improvement. if u would prefer, read thru a few action comics and watch a few action movies, get a feel for how they convey the action sequences.
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It might not help your self esteem much, but I think the older picture is much better. It has more artistic flair. the sharp angles and straight lines give it a more impressionistic flair. the character's pose exudes more movement and emotion. You aren't comparing equal pics, tho. I have been checking your art since your gallery on VCL. You have improved a lot! You have done work that makes that doodle of Sasha look like the scribblings of an epileptic monkey.
Maybe you're just feeling down and looking for things to nitpick? Art is not easy. it takes dedication and discipline. I have the worst time sitting down and getting to work when my N64 is right there, next to the computer. (stupid Perfect Dark!) But, it must be done. If you want to make something of your talent, you have to accept putting out serious effort to reach the hights you are looking up at.
If you want inspiration for imagination and motion, why don't you try poking through fashion magazines? Comics are great, but fantasy photography captures clothing design, imagination AND has real models with real lighting. Try some of the artsy mags, like Elle, or Zink. Cosmopolitan is for the weak! There are stranger ones, like Black Book, or Surface, but those aren't strictly fashion. Still, they have very beautiful photography and fascinating clothing designs, and the photographers can whip out some mind blowing compositions. Maybe some skate mags, too? They have some awesome covers, but I have never opened one...
I hope that helps. Keep at it, man. You have done some gorgeous stuff. Don't doubt yourself.
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to tell you the truth, i didn't read your whole schpeel, and i only read the first 1) thing cuz i'm on a bit of a time slot-shortage, so yeah....i think it would be awesome if you drew somebody swimming...i dont know..i just like the concept...fun fun..yeas..a nice inderwater scene would be a bit of a change, and possibly a challenge...so i dont know...it doesn't really matter..as long as you have fun with it.....any pose with a lot of twisting is pleasing ot the eye, not that your drawings aren't, because they are, and yes, you did inprove a bit....keep it up...awesome awesome
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you know, i'm having the same problems about my art too -_- it's like no matter what i draw they all look the same. but the difference between us is that you've got the wicked CG skills to make up for all your problems. i still suck with CG! T_T but good luck in trying to improve yourself though n.n
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Don't get discouraged, there comes a time in everyone's life when things change whether good or bad. I used to be really great at writing, but for some reason, I stopped a few months back.
I'm really upset about it, but I guess I burnt myself out. And I advise you, take a little break or just keep things at a slow pace, cause it would be horrible if you burned yourself out.
When you get burnt out, you kind of don't realize it 'till it's too late. I have similar symptons to you, writing wise though xP Getting out chapters is slow. I can't seem to finish what I start. Quality of writing has lackened due to uninterest or just half-ass-ism. And my imagination is giving me a hard time, as well. Altogether, I find writing to be a thing I 'have' to do now for my fans. I don't enjoy it like I used to so much. It's a bummer.
So yeah, hopefully that wasn't a big ramble. Key point here though: Take it easy every now and then and I'm sure all the things that you think you've been bad on will improve.
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I agree with digitalsushi, in that perhaps you're not improving on those categories because you don't tend to *use* them. Force yourself into drawing new things, new poses, new angles, new actions..They may suck, but the only way to stop sucking at something is to keep fighting until you beat its ass down.
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DONT ink!!!! i like the sketchyness of matt page works!!!! and under the sky so blue sorta contradicts more than half of what you beleive you havent made any progress on artistically!!!! you rock man! while the difference is awesomes it sometimes seems like it was overnight....you were awesome from the first time i saw your work bout a year ago...
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...
you know what YOU should REALLY do? step away from the pressures of public for awhile. Dont worry whether or not what your drawing will be liked by the audience. Just do it. Worry about whether you you like it. Of course, it looks like your doing that allready(allready have, now reaching out for help?), but go deeper. Its just you, and the movements of your hand with the pencil. Plus, possibly print out pictures that you admire, and study how they did what they did. Though, that may be weird, because your try to be too much like that picture and get frustrated.
and this may seem like an empty statement, but think this: If you dont strive for perfection, maybe it'll come easier.
makes sense to me now~~
and good luck Mista Matt
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It could be that you're pushing yourself too hard to create. I feel that way quite often lately, that there's such a great need to improve but the progress is so slow it's frustrating. Maybe you could try to just work on one issue at a time, like poses or action or whatever strikes your fancy, just keep it simple and see what happens. Even if the rest of the pic is really simple or rough. Not all pics have to be masterpieces of finished work, some times sketching something random can give you great inspiration (this helps with thinking up original characters too, at least in my experience) Relax and enjoy your work, too much stress will only make things worse.
Well, that's my two cents, but honestly, I think your work is very good.
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13 favorites. That's what I see when I'm looking at this. 13 dumbasses have added this to their favorites. This number will probably get bigger, too.
Well, they have the right to push the "I'm a brainless lamer attention whore, too lazy to write a good comment, yet will still inundate your inbox with the notification that I've added your latest scan of your toilet paper to my fav's" button. I would say that if there's one thing you forgot to mention in your initial comment, it would be "22) My audience isn't pushing me hard enough." I have made it my mission on this website to not be another asskisser. I'm not going to conform with these attention-seeking wanabe's who think that they can somehow sway you with awful two-word comments, expecting you to comment on their mainpage so they can adorn it like a trophy. "Omg u guys, nobody say anything on my main page, Matt Page left me a comment and I want it to stay there." Yeah. In their dreams.
Who cares if your work is near perfection? I know what kind of a person you are. You don't want near perfection, you want to know what will reduce the margin between where you are now, and where the true masters lie. I can see it already. People are telling you "aww don't take it so hard on yourself, you're better than I'll ever be." "Come on, Matt, snap out of it, you are the best artist I know." "wtf ur art is t3h s3cks!" Useless. They don't answer your question at all.
However, I'm going to do something new. I don't address this to you, Matt. I'm addressing this to all of you guys reading this. What I have to say to the people who look at Matt's work, drop notes on it, glance at it for two seconds before leaping on the +fav button...what I have to say is something you should seriously read. Your comments suck. All of you. Go through Matt's gallery, read every single comment you wrote, and copy them all (hell, include your dumb signature too, with your eight links to your gallery and stupid livejournal). Now paste it into MS-Word, and go Tools: Wordcount. Do you even break three digits? Do you? Do you even have the motivation to do that much work? Because the quality of your input is telling me a hearty "I don't think so." Do you think that your unconstructive, blatant asskissery is either beneficial to you, the artist, or the community? Think about it. Why do you comment? If you have nothing that the artist can take to heart...why say anything at all? I don't blame him for seeing zero improvement in his style. He's getting absolutely no constructive feedback from the 4300 attention-mongers watching him. Yes. 4300 people watching him.
Do you know how many people that is? 4300 police officers can defend a city. 4300 teachers can educate a county. 4300 united scientists, inventors, mathematicians, engineers, doctors, and physicists can put a man on the moon. Yet 4300 watchers can't even help a single man; a man with talent, drive, and skill...they as a collective can't even help him become a better drawer.
What can I say... We failed you, Matt. I won't neglect to mention the few of us that tried, the true artists who found ways to give pointers, the handful of individuals who managed to stand out amidst a sea of dribble as guiding beacons. I even think about my own words of the past, and wonder if even I was going too lightly. But imagine that. If everybody followed my own personal requirement for commenting, fifty words or more, three hundred minimum if you're going to fav it...with all that input and feedback, how much better would you see yourself as? No good artist made it on their own. Even Leonardo DiVinci, with his genius unparalelled, had tutors assisting him on his way up. Bear in mind these tutors knew all well that they could never be as good as him, but when it comes to reading life-like qualities in an image, they've been surrounded by life all their years; they knew when something was unproportional, when lighting wasn't consistent, and despite being lower on the ladder of talent, they still had the capability to be constructive.
It's rather strange how that works. I'll say it, you're better than me, Matt. You're better than I'll ever be. But that never stopped me from thinking that I still had the ability to help. I've studied human figures since birth, I've been surrounded by humans, I know what the body looks like without even having to open a single anatomy book. We all have a trained eye, we can all give our input, every one of your 4300 watchers is intelligent enough to know the proper proportions of a human figure. We're all able to give pointers. Why so many people pass up the opportunity to do so...it baffles me.
I consider myself lucky. When people comment on my work, they mostly know who I am and follow my example. I am blessed with the best damn commenters behind me, and I owe my development over the last six months entirely to them. I have teachers who aren't afraid to kick my ass when a draw a crappy picture. I don't have thousands of small immature children saturating my work with mundane feedback. I approached my current watchers before they even knew the look of my rotating icon, dedicated a good half hour to giving them the greatest comment they'll ever receive, and keep the critiques coming as they continue submitting. It's a phenomenon that has truly blessed me, setting an example that only returns to me in greater favor than what I give. If only people can realize just how much an artist loves it when one person will look at their work, convince them that they truly absorbed the image, and give them words that the artist can actually use to build themself...if only people knew the return for one solid critique as opposed to 100 worthless mumblings...if only. If only...
I may be making mountains out of molehills. I'm not in your mind, so there's no way for me to know what you're thinking. However, if you think it's your fault that there's no improvement, you're wrong. It's not your fault. It's ours'.
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vest, your response totally hit the nail on the head. - whilst I wouldn't go as far as to say that fall out's fan base is to blame for his lack of improvement, his reply echos the sentiment perfectly; "it's harder to try once you've already proved yourself" ... and matt, I think the thing you gotta kick now, it's any anatomy problem, or proportion issues, but those negative vibes you bring upon yourself when you go about other people's gallerys and see their wonderful works. - you really don't have to be made angry when you see a piece that you think it better than yours.. - think about it, that doesn't achieve anything and it just makes you feel bad. \:] - it's really much more beneficial to you to sit down and study the picture, WHY is it so good, what have they done that I'm not doing?.. how can I learn from this.. and at the end of the day, be inspired... don't get mad. - I notice in myself that as soon as I start one of those downward spirals (yep, another NIN fan) it's really really hard to kick.. and almost impossible to see a way out of. I find that when I'm in a bad mood, or depressed, that totally comes through in my artwork.. whenever I look back on that picture (no matter how tenically good or bad it might be) it makes me unhappy and I'm no pleased with it.. - if I can produce a picture when I'm in a happy and content mood I'm twice more likely to still enjoy it in years to come... - I don't know if this is the case for you or anyone else but it might be something to concider?
finally, I don't agree that the fan base is to blame as ultimately matt, like everyone else, does these works for himself... - not for anyone else on his devwatch... but it can be hard to keep that fact in sight sometimes... sometimes it's just too easy to rely on a formular to churn out sucessful pictures.. it's easier to not push yourself... - when really, that expansion is the only thing that's gonna keep you going in the long run. anyway, I've souted enough, I hope you can kick it matt, and if there's anyway we can help let us know. - again, all the best, and chin up.
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I wouldn't go so far as to say that it's my fan base's fault... though having fans and being "popular" has definitely made me into some kind of little bitch. You don't try as hard after you've succeeded once, and that's a fact. Why do you think Meteora isn't as good as Hybrid Theory? or why none of the NIN albums are as good as The Downward Spiral? or why M. Night Shyamalan's best film was his first big hit (The 6th Sense)? It's hard to prove yourself to others if you don't *have* to prove yourself. But that still doesn't excuse me...
I like making art. What I don't like is making a piece of art that I'm super-proud of, then uploading it, then noticing thousands of pictures that are better than mine. It kills me. It makes me think my art sucks, so I avoid doing it. Less practice = no improvement and very infrequent uploads or drawings in general. And that makes me angrier, so that when I do try to draw, I'm in an impatient mood which basically kills any chance of making art altogether. And that's my cycle.
Getting a well-thought out comment on one of my deviations always makes an upload worth it. Critiques and criticism help a lot, but in the end they really don't break my cycle. I'm constantly comparing myself with other artists, too, and while other artists inspire me, it also adds to my anger and self-loathing. It's all psychological, and in my mind, the value (or lack thereof) of the comments I receive only accounts a percentage of my motivation; not the whole. And if anyone shouldn't blame himself, it's you. You give the best comments, hands down. Honestly, I need to give YOU more comments c_c
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you are acting l kid if i may say, i have seen your art, its good and logically its not the best, there will be lots of people that will draw way better than you, but you know why you have "fans", as you said, its because you might inspire them to do better, or they see something in your pics that they like, i remember the first pic i like about you, it was one that had fire, and i love it, after that i try my best to do a realistic fire on photoshop and i kinda had the chance to do it, also you dont improve because you dont want to.
Why did i say it like that? well its easy, i dont recive any critics at my gallery, and i have improve, why?? because i see others people art and i get inspired to do better, you can see a pic of my anthros one year and 1/2 ago, and now. and the diference its huge! and how did i improve?? seeing your art its one of them, trying to draw more detailed, trying to make more CGs ( in specially that you inspired me to try, since when i first came here i did not know how to use Photoshop, after seeing some of your pics i got inspired and i wanted to try photoshop, and i kinda handle it better ), see? maybe you havent improve a lot, but people still like your art, and that is a complement, but that don't mean that you are "popular", and if ya feel superiour to several people that might be problem, because you dont feel confortable to having lots of replies.
Anyways i sugest that you do as i do " draw stuff, if you dont feel happy draw it more, do new stuff, feel like a rookie ", you remember when you saw cartoons and you wanted to draw like that?? and you try your best to draw like that or better?? well thats the feeling of a rookie, so do it! that might help.
And about this pic... maybe the popularity has gone to your head, because the pic you did 2 years ago is better, so keep practicing!
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