The Forum's Art Museum

[Lallicat]

That looks really good Keep Looking!

[Mirasol]

Thank you all for the comments!

I'm so glad you all liked it, the nice messages seriously made my day! I'm happy it looks useful too and would love to hear about your own tricks and methods.


@Mirasol A3? That must have taken some time! I really like the texture of the clouds, and went all when spotted the dragon.

I didn't know this comic before but I'm checking it out and loving the humor. Thanks for the binging material!

And I hope the skull thing helps you in the exam instead of making things more confusing.
<snip>

Hehe, glad to be of service. :'D

The skull-drawing did turn out to be useful in the sense of, we had the option to paint a skull in the exam (I didn´t end up taking that option though... ^^" In hindsight I maybe kind of regret that...), but knowing that I practiced drawing skulls/humans on the evening before made me feel so much better prepared and calmer than I would have been before the exam. So that´s definitly a plus.

And once again, thank you so much for the advice you´re sharing, it´s really useful!

I also really like the "fishy" sketchbook-page! Not only do all the things on it look awesome, the little speech-bubbles make them infinitly funnier! :'D

Keep Looking, that painting looks gorgeous (yes, the ferns too)! I wholeheartedly agree on the "it sucks to paint ferns"-thing though. They´re super nice to draw, but painting them is a nightmare. My dragon-painting had originally several ferns in the sketch as well, but after I painted one of them, I decided... the others weren´t needed.

[Vulpes]

 So many lovely things keep appearing here, I can't keep up.

My dragon-painting had originally several ferns in the sketch as well, but after I painted one of them, I decided... the others weren´t needed.

That brought back memories - of, ah, grade 1? I was what, 6 or so? I drew a highly detailed barn, right down to all the nails - and I mean ALL the nails - holding it together. Then they gave us paint, I suppose it was cheap tempera or something, utterly opaque. So I painted my barn red (because all barns in my limited experience were red), which covered all the little circles indicating nail-heads. I looked at it, and decided, as you did with the ferns, the nails weren't needed. I went back to our regular classroom. About 5 minutes later another student came in and said the teacher wanted to see me back in the art room. She told me the nails were nice and I should put them back. I deeply resented sitting there for however many ages it took, painting little black dots... so feel fortunate that nobody told you to put your ferns back! 

[Keep Looking]

Thank you everyone for the compliments on the painting! I have spent far too many hours working on it.

Keep Looking, I really like your Painting. And my wife says it is very beautiful.

We both say, when painting ferns Asplenium scolopendrium may be the clever choice.

I'm glad you guys like the painting! I looked up the Asplenium ferns and you're right, they do look a lot easier to paint! I think we actually have some of those ferns in the hanging baskets on our patio.

So many lovely things keep appearing here, I can't keep up.

That brought back memories - of, ah, grade 1? I was what, 6 or so? I drew a highly detailed barn, right down to all the nails - and I mean ALL the nails - holding it together. Then they gave us paint, I suppose it was cheap tempera or something, utterly opaque. So I painted my barn red (because all barns in my limited experience were red), which covered all the little circles indicating nail-heads. I looked at it, and decided, as you did with the ferns, the nails weren't needed. I went back to our regular classroom. About 5 minutes later another student came in and said the teacher wanted to see me back in the art room. She told me the nails were nice and I should put them back. I deeply resented sitting there for however many ages it took, painting little black dots... so feel fortunate that nobody told you to put your ferns back! 

Oh, man, this reminds me of when I was about 8 or so and we were studying the Romans for history, so we had to make mosaics (out of paper). I spent so long tearing and glueing those tiny little bits of paper, it was so painstaking! I actually still have the mosaic (it's this round geometric-pattern kinda thing) - I stuck it on the outside of my bedroom door, because I thought it'd look good.

[wavewright62]

You go, Keep Looking!  I've been following your progress on Discord, too, and I think it's coming along beautifully. 
I am the reigning queen of foliage being either absent completely or an abstract squiggle.  But in my defense, a uni drawing class sent us outside to do some sketching, and I just laid in blocks of shading squiggles up a whole avenue of trees. The professor praised it highly, to demonstrate that attempting to capture every detail was not always necessary.  So there.

[moredhel]

I had a conversation about chinese astrology. And the Idea of this element animal combination is too tempting not to draw one. So here is sort of a fire snake.

[Vulpes]

Oooh, moredhel, I like the fire snake! It looks really glow-y, and of course as a biologist I appreciate the anatomical details.

[Keep Looking]

Ooh, I love the colours on the fire snake!

[Tarnagh]

Oh wow! That is a gorgeous fire snake!

[MollyVampiric]

Nice fire snake, moredhel! I like the glowy look of the red.

On another note, I've been doing my own art a lot lately and it's decent and all, but do y'all know any good ways I could further improve? Other than the basics, like finding youtube videos on lighting or books on anatomy, etc. I don't really know where to go...?

Spoiler: a lot of images • show

Here's some small sketches (as in, no lineart or clean coloring):


Here's something I did recently and didn't really like:

Spoiler: blood warning i guess, it doesnt even look good though • show

Here's something I liked (also on the ssss art museum):

And finally, something from May 2020 for reference:

[wavewright62]

The fire snakes scales are something else!  This is a prime snake.

And, I got here just in time to see MollyVampiric's dump as well, and glad I am of it!    Great stuff.

[moredhel]

MollyVampiric I like the images you posted.

I am sorry that I don't know any helpful answers for your question.

[Tarnagh]

This isn't my own work, obviously, but this art installation has just gone up in a nearby town and I thought it fit nicely with all the bears and things people have been posting.

https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=10157874568448038&set=a.395845588037

I'm sorry I don't have a site I can post images. And if there's a way to embed the image directly, I haven't figured that out yet. It's a pretty neat sculpture, I thought.

[moredhel]

wavewright62 Throwing out old art? Check!
I had two brief brushes with formal art education in university. Unfortunately they weren't very enlightening. I've recently thrown away nearly everything produced at the time—the drawings of my own volition made before that time, those I kept.

If my wife heard this. She is totally against throwing away anything. I used to recycle everything I made, but now we have sort of a growing archive.

[Mirasol]

That firesnake indeed looks real nice and glowy, moredhel! Great choice of colors!

MollyVampiric, these look awesome as well!
On the topic of improving, what often helps me is this: try taking the artstyle of maybe an animated show you like, or a comic, and try to draw something in that artstyle instead of your own. I don´t mean necessarily trace a scene, just try applying their technique to things. The point isn´t to learn how to draw in that artstyle, rather to see what techniques they´re using for, say, lineart, or making clothes look more realistic. I often find it difficult to realize what aspects of it make me think an artstyle works well or does things right unless I try it out myself. And while you´re doing that, you may get a new perspective on your own drawings and realize aspects you could still improve. Of course you may also discover techniques that work better for you than the ones you usually use in the process.