So before I discovered /ic/. I discovered drawabox. Which is the worst thing that I've ever encountered in art journey, But before getting my toes into drawabox. I wanted to see if it's actually trusted. So I checked reddit and youtube then I fell for it.After doing the 250 box challenge; I discovered /ic/. To my horror, I just learned that drawabox is a fucking scam and that a lot of fucking other things are better. I have invested so much time into that scam, all just for nothing. Drawabox is like a fucking politician. It manipulates people thinking they are the greatest person that ever exists. Manipulated the common people in a lot of area except for a few ones.But also discovering /ic/ is the best thing that's ever happened to me. It's like discovering an underground elite library of elite knowledge that the common masses lack.After discovering /ic/, it dawned on me. Art improvement content is kind of like self improvement content in a way. In fact all improvement content of different fields like art follow the same categories that self improvement content does.1. Obvious SlopThis is the type of content you can obviously see that it's absolutely dog shit from a mile away.2. Subtle slopThis is the type of content that disguises itself as not slop but is actually slop like drawabox. It is often the most dangerous one.3. Actual treasureObviously in the title.I started to become a bit more paranoid, and started to filter out 10 minute videos and replace them with pages of a book in order to avoid wasting my time in slop.Now, It's not enough for me to be cautious. I need a sytemical, logical and methodical way of thinking and evaluating. I don't really trust anyone else anymore apart from myself, but I don't want to limit myself either. So, I want you guys to give me some answers. So that I could form my own answer.
>>7927449Unfortunately, I think being able to discern such things comes from experience and gaining some skill, which is annoyingly paradoxical, but it is what it is.
not reading all that shit, just draw
>>7927449Hi OP! Obligatory PYW but knowing that you'll probably never do that here's a text wall instead.The journey and problems you describe are pretty standard and are a good sign of you getting better and on the part to actual self betterment with art. Problem is, your brain will play tricks on you and you won't really understand what you need unless you reach a certain level of awareness. The only real surefire way to do this is to have a mentor who's actually working in the industry you're going for and doing similar style as you. They can point out things you don't know as well as recommend things you would have never considered or overlooked. The feeling you have with ic is the exact way I felt 10 years ago, except I quickly realized the people who could consistently help me had all graduated from this place and it was up to me to seek them out privately and pay them to teach me. Nothing truly valuable in this world is ever free.
>>7927449I think creating a concrete objective of what you'd like to do on your artist's journey and filtering advice based on what is applicable to you is your best bet. It can be hard to discern what that means, especially if you're not sure on what you want to do, so take everything that might be helpful and use it to an extent that you can safely keep or discard it. In my case, I do portraiture of animals and veterinary surgery based off of photographs I take, so something like constructive anatomy isn't necessarily relevant to me. If I wanted to draw animals from headspace however, I would need to master it. Another example is that if I wanted to animate, I'd have to learn the fundamentals of animation and invest more time into dynamic figure drawing to grasp the motions of the subject. >>7927482Not OP, but what does PYW mean? I keep seeing this everywhere here now.
>>7927482Guess, it all leads back up to me to figure it out I suppose. Since, I don't really have any money to do that. I guess I have to pirate some shit. But pirating could only take you so far. I have decided to include analyzing every corner of the internet including archives of the old internet to run and gain as much info as I can. So that I could put them all together as if they were pieces of a puzzle that I need to assemble. From old DeviantArt content, old 4chan content, old blogs, and etc. I am more interested in getting info from the old internet ngl. Because the quality of the advice seems so better in some way that I can't seem to verbalize.
>>7927449Its not really that hard just learn from proven professionals. Start with James Gurney. Credentials credentials credentials. Look up videos from lightbox. Aaron Blaise and Jim Lee have lots of free content on youtube to learn from as well.
>>7927514Years ago when I lived in New York I'd actually gotten to meet James Gurney while he was doing a plein air painting at Bear Mountain.I asked for his advice on studying from life and he told me to focus on capturing the essence of the subject without pigeonholing into perfectly mimicking it. If you focus too hard on the latter it removes any takeaways from the study itself.
>>7927449Yeah, you look at the teachers work and their resume if applicable. Are they good? Yeah? Then follow them. Do they suck? Yeah? Then stay away.Do they only teach and not actually do shit with their powers? Also stay away. Have they worked in the industry 20 years ago and since then only teach? Stay away.
you need to develop a foundation in which you can compare new information against
>>7927489>what does PYW mean?Post Your Work.
>>7927449U should be slopmaxxing nigga
>>7927449oh boo hoo you have to spend a weekend testing out if a method is worthwhilemaybe you should just draw instead
>>7927659How the hell, would you figure that something is bullshit by testing it out, especially on a single day. A lot of art scams or just scams in general usually conceal their true nature by mixing in some good nuggets in it.
>>7927659Usually it takes days to figure it out. Unless if you have info from others who actually tried before then you wouldn't figure it out.
i'm interested in hearing your thought process about why one set of unsubstantiated claims (/ic/ saying drawabox is bad) over another set of unsubstantiated claims (reddit saying drawabox is good), especially after having done the 250 box challenge yourself. what do YOU think? what did YOU get out of it?other people's opinions are ultimately entirely meaningless, you have no way of determining if they know what they're talking about or if they're just following conventional "wisdom" to fit in with the most prevalent opinions of their in group. first-hand experience is all that really matters in this kind of self-exploration
>>7927506I'll give you my two cents again then.Focus on observational drawing for the entirety of your career. No matter how advanced you are, real life still has many things it can teach you. When doing the studies to always think about the overall big picture shapes, forms and the perspective ( horizon line , vanishing points of the scene, etc). A simple drawing with good foundational principles will be always appear far more appealing and detailed than ornate pieces with tons of foundational flaws.Secondly, figure out ways to immediately apply what you were actually doing to actual projects you care about. That way you can still have fun and have something to show for it to post and get feedback.This solves the two major things usually plague beginners and intermediates:1) Actually remembering things you learned in long term memory and using it in your work2) You'll always be motivated to learn more and draw more because you'll be enjoying the process of making things you like.After you make hundreds of paintings and thousands of sketches over the years, parts of your process will become much more automatic without need for reference, but the difference between a good artist and the great ones is they still pull up multiple references or ask for feedback to double check their work anyways.The final tip I can tell you is that people who give you wishy washy answers on why someone good ( "soul", " talent, Asian genes, etc) can safely be ignored as bullshit. If somebody is better than you, it always boils down to them having better fundamentals and design principles than you. Learn those two and you'll succeed.
>>7927449Not saying that Drawabox is that but it is based on Dynami Sketching which is good , "slop" , you guys over complicate everything and like to feel miserable , just draw .also do yourself a favor and stop using subhuman lingo like "slop" and "peak"
