ok guys im a newfag and i see everyone talking about a "lack of appeal" despite like knowing fundamentals? can someone post an example so ik what u guys r on about? i thought whatever appeal is meant to mean would come naturally through learning fundamentals bc colour theory and composition is included in those and correct anatomy is pleasing to look at bc it makes sense??
One of the first examples that comes to mind is how you almost never see completely realistic looking noses in cartoons/anime, usually just enough to show that the bottom plane exists and maybe some brow connection depending on the angle of the head. There's other examples like big eyes and heads where artists intentionally skew proportions or simplify anatomy to make something look cuter or more appealing even if it "breaks the rules" so to speak.
>>7866521ohh ok so is appeal literally just knowing how to stylise?
>>7866533Stylizing and/or just injecting some of your own personality and creativity to a piece. Drawing what you see and studying fundamentals is super important for learning obviously, but if you're always focused on hyper realism and reproducing your reference to a T, you run the risk of becoming a human copying machine, which while technically impressive, might not evoke much emotion.
>>7866488There's a lot of ways you could put it, but an understanding of beauty is a simple way to understand it. A good example commonly mentioned is how cartoons typically use more baby-like proportions and youthful features to make their characters more appealing. Of course it's not that simple, because a drawing of a wrinkly old man or a grungy old building can be appealing if the artist captures the details in... the right way? It's difficult to word, but have you ever just walked into a place and said/thought "wow!"? It's like that. Additionally, interesting and refreshing ideas can also carry something a long way even if the style isn't quite all that. There's a lot of dimensions you could explore with your art, but the biggest thing I would say personally is to not simply make "good" art, but to make art with a purpose.
>>7866521These are great examples. There's another one that comes to my mind and that's drawing the hand. From a lot of angles and poses if you were to draw the hand exactly how it looks it would be a strange blob or very awkward looking. It's more of a design problem to make the hand actually look appealing, so its often best to deviate a bit from some hand references. You see it a lot where artists always have the middle and ring finger together and the rest spread apart because that's a traditionally appealing hand shape.
