An "Advanced" board has been added to the oekaki!

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Re: An "Advanced" board has been added to the oekaki!

Postby angel23456 » Sun Aug 11, 2013 5:49 pm

Atwood wrote:
Kiwi In A Bottle wrote:
Cherry wrote:Advanced art is to make a place for art that tends to outshine the real intermediate art, so now you can see the real 'middle artists'!
Outshines? That just makes it look like it's way better, albeit it could be, but that just seems like another reason why you buy a photo rather than a Picasso because it is realistic, because it's a photo.

Cherry wrote:think of this as your chance! A big break! you are a real artist. (Yes, beginners, that includes you. [Please note I'm a beginner as well.])
And every single real artist deserves in there too. It only takes time.
even if it's a scribble someone's a real artist. However by the advanced boards standards not every real artist will make it in there without drawing things that look like photos, which is all i've been seeing in the advanced board from what i've looked at.

I just went through the first few pages of the Advanced board, and about one quarter of the art there right now is not realism and does not look like a photo. ;3

The following isn't directed at anyone in particular - it's more just a general thing in regards to a lot of the comments I'm seeing about what defines 'good' art and 'real' artists:

'Real' artists are those who keep working, who keep developing their skills and who realise that they will always have something more to learn. No one is an expert when they start out, and it takes time and practice to get better, real practice in which you challenge yourself to do something new or better every time, not just drawing the same old things the same old way and complaining about not getting better. Comparing your work negatively to others is only harming your abilities unless you take that as inspiration to get better. The only person whose work you should be comparing yours to is yourself - instead of thinking, "Aww, I'll never be in Advanced" or "I'll never draw like _______", look at your past work and think "Wow, I'm really getting better" or "Hmm, I'm still having problems with this aspect of art. TUTORIAL-HUNTING TIME! 8D"

Those who are great at drawing are that way because they've practiced hard (and believe me, it is hard work - there's no magic wand for insta-expert art). They've studied how others achieve various effects, asked for mentoring from others, maybe taken classes in art, and almost certainly scoured the Internet and art books for tutorials. They've likely spent hours and hours over the span of years studying anatomy, accurate lighting, creating balanced backgrounds, colour theory, how to 'push' poses to make them both dramatic and eye-pleasing, how to draw in perspective, and so on. None of these things are specific to realism, by the way - for art in any style to look 'great', these are the basics you need to know, and anyone can learn them. ;3 While they're studying these things, they're also practicing them. Pages upon pages of hand sketches, followed by pages upon pages of arm sketches, followed by pages upon pages of fur practice, and on it goes. Hard? Yep. Fun? Not always. Worth it? Oh, yes. I've personally got an entire binder filled with nothing but gesture drawings of poses, with about 100 gestures per page, and when I was practicing poses I'd be doing about five to ten pages per night. So... about 500-1000 sketches each day, purely for poses. And I'm still just beginning. ^^

You don't want to be grouped in with the experts when you've got vastly more to learn than they do. Your art will not look good beside theirs. It won't get attention beside theirs, or at least not anything positive. It doesn't matter if the art is grouped by 'type' - as someone mentioned earlier, if you're a beginner at realism and your realism drawing is sitting next to Oofay's, it's going to look pretty bad and you're not going to get noticed and likely won't get many positive comments. However, if your beginner's attempt at realism is sitting next to a few other beginners' attempts at realism, it'll probably look okay. It might even catch people's eye as having some special quality, like the way you've used a particular colour, or how you've managed a nice water splash effect, and they'll look at it, comment on it, like it, and so on. You might even get a feature, because your art stands out within your skill bracket.

The only one who can make your skill bracket go up is you, and the only way to do that is to practice and to learn. No magic wand, remember? It doesn't matter what your style is - all styles benefit from understanding how art works and how the eye perceives things. If you don't have those basics, your art won't be as good as it could be. Learn those basics, practice them, practice some more, and look at every piece as an opportunity to improve. Not all of them will be improvements - some of them will be burn-your-eyes-out catastrophes, and that's okay. Everyone has them sometimes, maybe even most times, and all you can do is learn what you can from it and move on to your next opportunity. :3 That's the mark of a real artist.

So far as the mods go, we place art where it has the best chance of getting positive attention without diminishing those around it. If you're a beginner, your art has its best chance in Beginners, not stuffed in with all the other art done by far more experienced artists. If your art is expertly done, it's going to be better off in a slower board where people have time to see and appreciate it, and it's also better for the beginners to not have it in their area, stealing all their thunder. The Advanced board is a way to give the top pieces a place where they can get the recognition they deserve while also not allowing that art to overshadow everyone else's work, so everyone has a chance at being seen, acknowledged and admired for what they've achieved.

And I know: no one's actually going to read this whole thing through. :b

Best description of Oekaki ever. Just this comment deserves a feature omg
and yes I read the whole thing
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Re: An "Advanced" board has been added to the oekaki!

Postby Teeze » Sun Aug 11, 2013 6:21 pm

angel23456 wrote:Best description of Oekaki ever. Just this comment deserves a feature omg
and yes I read the whole thing

I read the whole thing too, and I agree that it was really well written. It would be nice if there was a way to "sticky" particular posts in a thread to the top of each page of that thread so it doesn't get buried and everyone can read it no matter what page they are on while still being able to read the other posts and make their own because that post was great.
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Re: An "Advanced" board has been added to the oekaki!

Postby Linsang » Sun Aug 11, 2013 6:33 pm

A lot of people seem to be implying that those against the change don't want to work hard, or are denying that it takes effort to make good art. I'm not entirely sure where you're getting that idea, because it's not the point at all.
I know that skilled artists put very much time into their work, and that we all start somewhere. I'm pretty sure that most of the other people who disliked the idea of the advanced board also know that.

All anybody is trying to say is that being categorized by skill level doesn't really help anyone's self esteem, and in the end relies so much on divisions that are far from solid, and really subjective. And I don't mean this in the sense that some people might consider a child's scribble "art" and others will not, but rather that with blurred guidelines like these a piece that seems like it should belong in advanced to one mod might simply seem intermediate to another, and at that point it just comes down to where it ends up. I've heard of people having pieces moved to one category only to be moved back to the other for these very reasons. With something like art, it's not possible to have definitive guidelines on what's advanced and what isn't, and that makes this system a bit chaotic.

And it doesn't help people's self esteem, either. Even though I realize that the system doesn't exist to demean people's art and that it's supposed to maintain order in the oekaki boards (On which note I should say I find the idea of sorting by subject matter interesting but it sounds very difficult to put into place.) Thing is, for beginning artists, it doesn't really help to be almost put into a situation where you can't help but compare yourself to others. Should artists focus on improving their own art rather than going "I'll never be advanced!" or "This person is so much better!"? Absolutely. But that doesn't mean they aren't going to find themselves doing it regardless when they're basically told "That's the advanced board and it's where the big kids play- you can't post there until you've improved." Because in the end, the system is basically doing the comparing for them, which puts them in that position.
It's not a matter of whining because people are better than you or you were told you weren't advanced. In the end it's really just the fact that a lot of budding artists, whether they recognize their flaws and are trying to improve or not, feel a lot worse about it when their art is compared to others' and whether this system is trying to do that or not, it's what it's doing.

Pardon me if my post is a little rambly, it's late and I'm not great at getting my thoughts into words.
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Re: An "Advanced" board has been added to the oekaki!

Postby chescab » Sun Aug 11, 2013 6:38 pm

I also read the whole thing and am on the same page.

I spent a year of tutorials in a much similar way as Atwood did, if you need a good site I have one I always go to with all levels of tutorial from easy 5 year old could do to how did you ever draw it that's amazeing! Tutorials. Now I wouldn't recomend this site to young kids since some tutorials are not exactly what I'd call child friendly but it has some tutorials that will blow your mind! I won't link it since as I said above some tutorials could be more child friendly, and by that I mean more covered up or less zombies and stuff along those lines. But ya if your highschool and up or are allowed to be on a site where one or 2 things aren't nice just pm me for link.

I also have checked out one or 2 othersites with child based art/tutorials, so if your younger/don't want to see the other one pm me or post on any of my drawings and I will show you a link.

Plus like I said earlier things will settle in once people discover what form to post their art in with the new set up. Also the fact that some users think magic poofy dust was used to get drawing skills kinda offends me. I am way better at traditional art than digital and I will be the first to tell you that but I spent years drawing, some of my earliest memories are of drawing as little 3 year old chescab. Sure looking back at my okd drawings I have no clue what they were exactly...but I improved as 3 year old artist and by 4 I can look back and reconize 1 out of 20 drawings! I think...I still don't know what most of tham are...but that isn't the moral of the story. I tried with all my heart since I was a baby to be a good artist and now I am one!

And if you get laughed at do some reserch on Leonardo da Vinci. Even he got told his art was horrible! Haters gonna hate.

I think we need things side by side of vastly different quality for people to pick apart...like advanced vs starter...and people can get a taste of what it would be like if they could post in advanced.

tomorrow I will try my theory by posting a picture of 2 drawings side by side, both people, in a similar stance, infront of buildings, by the same artist. Then you can tell me which on was noticed first and if it was in a good way or a bad way and see for yourself how if you post with advanced artists as a new artist what would happen. Be as harsh as you like with these drawings and if you feel your comment is to harsh pm me. I am fine with it.
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Re: An "Advanced" board has been added to the oekaki!

Postby Teeze » Mon Aug 12, 2013 7:38 am

The way I see it there is always going to be a separation between beginners' art and advanced art even if it is all posted in the same board, so saying that the skill levels shouldn't be separated because it isn't fair to categorize them is kind of futile since they will be categorized by the viewers anyway. I personally like being able to post my art with other art that it at my skill level, it gives me a chance to get noticed for the things I am good at instead of what I am having trouble with. I also like being able to look at what other artists at my level are doing so I can learn how they go about drawing things that I struggle with while still knowing that it isn't going to be beyond my abilities and I like being able to go to the next board up to see art that is clearly better than mine too. It's true that it makes my art look a lot worse when I compare it to art that is more advanced but that gives me a way to easily see what I can improve on and allows me to set visible goals for myself. I am not a beginner but I am not nearly ready to post in the advanced board yet either; I am glad they added it though because now I have some extra motivation to challenge myself with and the guidelines listed for the boards are not perfect as others have pointed out but they do give me things to focus on while I practice.

I do have to add (to no one in particular) that I see nothing in the guidelines for any of the boards that says the art has to be a certain style, and the advanced guidelines certainly do not say that cartoony art is not allowed or that it has to be realistic. It says that the drawing needs to be detailed and intricate with shading, highlights, and a background all of which a cartoony drawing can have. It also says that the artist needs a great understanding of anatomy but that does not mean that the anatomy has to be realistic. It just means that the artist needs to understand how to make the anatomy look believable as well as what would make the person or creature look broken, after all even fantasy anatomy needs to look believable and that goes for cartoony art too. If you look at any classic Disney cartoon (Lion King is a great example) it is clear that the artists understand anatomy even though the style isn't even close to being realistic.

(Still at no one in particular) Saying that you don't like the advanced board because you will never be able to post there because you can't draw realistically will really hold you back. Instead what you should do is focus on continuing with what you are good at while also picking out things that you have trouble with and practicing to improve in those areas. If you never shade your drawings than try adding shading from now on, don't worry about it being realistic just practice getting it on there in a way that looks believable for your style and improve from there (this is one of the things I need more practice on). If you never draw backgrounds than try adding one to your drawings, it doesn't have to be really detailed when you first start out. Practice with simple backgrounds first and then as you get better add more details to them. If you are struggling with anatomy than try looking at photos and other drawings and try improving your anatomy slowly one piece at a time. I've found that changing the way I draw some small lines can improve the way my drawings look. Take a look at the front legs of this deer I drew quite a while ago, they look like sticks that the body is sitting on. Now look at this deer I did two years ago. Just by changing the shape of the top of the leg and adding a bump for the shoulder I made the legs look more believable. I made that change after seeing the way more talented artists on DA and here on ChickenSmoothie drew the front legs on their animals and I'm still seeing a lot of things that other artists are doing that remind me that I need to continue working on improving my anatomy skills.

I'm not saying that those who are discouraged by the advanced board aren't already working on these things, but I am saying that they should turn their focus away from not being as good as the really great photo realistic artists and focus more on improving their own style and eventually they will get to that point where they too are capable of making their art look realistic if they want to. I know I'm still quite a ways away from being able to draw photo realistically and I'm ok with that mostly because I know how much I have improved already and what I want to improve on in the near future. My main focus right now is getting my shading and lighting to look better. Better not realistic.
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Re: An "Advanced" board has been added to the oekaki!

Postby Oρнeℓια » Mon Aug 12, 2013 1:27 pm

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Re: An "Advanced" board has been added to the oekaki!

Postby ANE » Tue Aug 13, 2013 1:41 pm

Heart Of Ashes wrote:I'm not particularly sure where to go. For a while I've been really inactive on the oekaki, but recently I've done a few things. My fan art of the Nightmare Dog has some of the most detailed digital shading I've ever done, and I often practise on programs other than the oekaki, and I always take at least half an hour. However I'm still not sure what I do qualifies for Intermediate.

Examples

Nightmare Dog
(with this piece I know that the neck became a bit too long and the shoulder blade is too high, and I also need to perfect the back of wolf/dog legs, which is the purpose of posting this)
(I'm not sure what I was thinking when I did this, but I was experimenting with the airbrush)
(an exception to the more than half an hour rule, it was a base for a contest and I know that the horns could do with improvement but its far better than previous attempts at dragons)
(actually this was a while ago, I had an RP I wanted to use this for, and I'm rather pleased with the style. The highlights and shading came out good huh? It's quite basic though)
(Marble dragon adopts were created a while ago and the design is no where near my current standard but the lines and shading are pretty good)
(Pooka Cats were quite a hit for a while, and I've always been pleased with the quality of this)

So if anyone can tell me which board I now fit into that'd be great :)


I hope I'm not overstepping here in responding--and if someone disagrees, please correct me.
Looking at your gallery, I can see you've certainly been improving. The shading on your newest drawing is definitely a step towards intermediate, but I would suggest beginners for now. Take a look at the example images for each category in the first post. As Atwood said, the boards are organized to showcase artists among others of a similar skill level. I think your art, right now, would do best in beginners. You'll be able to stand out a little more and get the constructive comments that help artists improve.

(On an unrelated note, I really need to use Oekaki more. The newest art in my gallery is almost three years old!)
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Re: An "Advanced" board has been added to the oekaki!

Postby Datfox07 » Wed Aug 14, 2013 9:51 am

ANE wrote:
Heart Of Ashes wrote:I'm not particularly sure where to go. For a while I've been really inactive on the oekaki, but recently I've done a few things. My fan art of the Nightmare Dog has some of the most detailed digital shading I've ever done, and I often practise on programs other than the oekaki, and I always take at least half an hour. However I'm still not sure what I do qualifies for Intermediate.

Examples

Nightmare Dog
(with this piece I know that the neck became a bit too long and the shoulder blade is too high, and I also need to perfect the back of wolf/dog legs, which is the purpose of posting this)
(I'm not sure what I was thinking when I did this, but I was experimenting with the airbrush)
(an exception to the more than half an hour rule, it was a base for a contest and I know that the horns could do with improvement but its far better than previous attempts at dragons)
(actually this was a while ago, I had an RP I wanted to use this for, and I'm rather pleased with the style. The highlights and shading came out good huh? It's quite basic though)
(Marble dragon adopts were created a while ago and the design is no where near my current standard but the lines and shading are pretty good)
(Pooka Cats were quite a hit for a while, and I've always been pleased with the quality of this)

So if anyone can tell me which board I now fit into that'd be great :)


I hope I'm not overstepping here in responding--and if someone disagrees, please correct me.
Looking at your gallery, I can see you've certainly been improving. The shading on your newest drawing is definitely a step towards intermediate, but I would suggest beginners for now. Take a look at the example images for each category in the first post. As Atwood said, the boards are organized to showcase artists among others of a similar skill level. I think your art, right now, would do best in beginners. You'll be able to stand out a little more and get the constructive comments that help artists improve.

(On an unrelated note, I really need to use Oekaki more. The newest art in my gallery is almost three years old!)

I think it's quite good but yes start at the beginner stage and then keep improving
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Re: An "Advanced" board has been added to the oekaki!

Postby Oρнeℓια » Wed Aug 14, 2013 6:35 pm

Thanks both of you.
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Re: An "Advanced" board has been added to the oekaki!

Postby . : cry : . » Fri Aug 16, 2013 9:55 am

This change has made me quite confused now...

Tess wrote:Art which is intentionally "messy" or fuzzy/rough/soft/sketchy in style may not meet some of these criteria but can still be considered intermediate when done well


My style can be a bit sketchy at times, and I like to use different opacity to 'paint' things. I think for color wise some of my stuff is at least worth intermediate, but the lines hold it back. :\


Not sure, should I post my art in Beginner's or Intermediate?

Ex:
http://www.chickensmoothie.com/Forum/viewtopic.php?t=1880704
http://www.chickensmoothie.com/Forum/viewtopic.php?t=1882089
http://www.chickensmoothie.com/Forum/viewtopic.php?t=1883063
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