Inadequacy.

Hullo All,

When I wrote about how Dreams are Hard, one of the things I failed to mention was my fear of inadequacy. 

Sometimes when I hop around the internet looking for inspiration, the most common thought I have in my head is: "Oh, I don't know how to do that. My skill level is way below par."

Most recently, I was scrolling through the blog of Brittney Lee, Griselda Sastrawinata and Mall Lucidine. I love their art styles so much and one trait of their art styles that I have always loved is the texture they have in their work. 

Mermaid Lagoon by Brittney Lee

White Floties by Griselda Sastrawinata

Merrily, Merrily by Mall Licudine

Now, I know for a fact that they (at least, Brittney and Griselda) do this on Photoshop. Yet, for the life of me, I can't figure out how they are able to flawlessly remove outlines from their work--or even what brush they're using to achieve that texture. 

Whenever I see artwork and technique that stumps me, I end up Googling everything-- "How to achieve sketchy look in Photoshop" or whatever ridiculous keywords I think will help me find the answer. And when after hours of searching I still end up with nothing, I slump my head on my keyboard and think, "I am inadequate. I have no talent."

I realize that I beat myself up this way. I try to think so much and so frequently about why artists are able to do things that I can't. I grumble whenever I take four hours to do a piece that seems like it should only take thirty minutes to do. 

This tendency to compare and impatience is a major flaw in my fight for my dreams. 

And now I believe more than ever--and this was obvious to me in the beginning but I refused to believe that there wasn't any shortcuts--that I just have to suck it up and learn it slowly. Maybe I'll stumble into the answers I'm searching for, and develop the skills that I have been dying to attain. 

In the meantime, I am doing Vlogtober on my YouTube channel! Vlogtober is an annual thing that I do where I make videos for every day in October. Most artists are doing Inktober though. 

Anyway, wish me luck,

Mishie

Caught in the Middle

Hullo All!

This is the challenge I chose to face today:

Challenge #21: Make an illustration influenced by your favorite illustrator.

Miss Edith Crawley from Downton Abbey, one of my favorite shows that just cannot come back on air soon enough! Sadly, Edith is one of my least favorite characters. But even though I feel sympathy for her the least, I feel bad that she's just so unlikeable. People are just now making fun of her on Tumblr. I feel awful because she's being cyber bullied, and she isn't even a real person!

I feel that it might be because she's a middle child. Or maybe it's because her attitude about getting what she wants is not to my liking?

Now onto my artspiration.

Truth be told, I have a lot of artspirations! But one of the first that I truly admired is Victoria Ying, who works at Disney Animation, my dream job destination! She did really amazing (understatement) work in Tangled and I could tear my eyes away from her blog when I first found it!

Now, she has many amazing art pieces, but these are probably my favorites. One is an original piece and one is, obviously, tribute art to The Little Mermaid. 

I have no formal training in art whatsoever, but I like how both "stiff" and "flowy" her works are. You can pretty much break the elements down into abstract shapes that flow, but the lines are bordering on being pointed or jagged. I don't know why that makes me like it so much, but I do. 

Case in point, instead of having Ariel's tail as a flowy "S" shape that most mermaid illustrations have (including my own), Victoria makes it like an upside-down L, and or a stiff looking "S." I don't know, by the dynamic is really exciting. It makes the illustration strong, but the subject matter of her drawings make them soft again!

And her coloring is very blocked. Although the colors blend and complement each other, you can still very clearly tell where one color ends and another begins. So her shadows are very clear and crisp. For me, I find that very educational because I learn a lot about lighting just by looking at her work as reference because obviously (as you can tell from my attempt above), I don't do stark shadows very well. I feel very off about it. But that's why looking at these works help. :) 

So, I honestly don't know if I was able to capture the look and feel of Victoria's work, but I was (and always am) surely inspired by her!

Tuttah,

Mishie