[SFW] Artist's Group Chat

Ciaran
ラ・ゼッタ - For supporting the site
Silly Pony - Celebrated the 13th anniversary of MLP:FIM, and 40 years of MLP!
Shimmering Smile - Celebrated the 10th anniversary of Equestria Girls!
Lunar Guardian - Earned a place among the ranks of the most loyal New Lunar Republic soldiers (April Fools 2023).
Crystal Roseluck - Had their OC in the 2023 Derpibooru Collab.
Flower Trio - Helped others get their OC into the 2023 Derpibooru Collab.
A Lovely Nightmare Night - Celebrated the 12th anniversary of MLP:FIM!
Princess of Love - Extra special version for those who participated in the Canterlot Wedding 10th anniversary event by contributing art.
Tree of Harmony - Drew someone's OC for the 2022 Community Collab
Elements of Harmony - Had an OC in the 2022 Community Collab

Senior Moderator
友情は魔法だ
@Gameplay The Pony  
Assuming you are referring to this
 
Do you have any questions? Or are you just asking for a general critique?
 
If you just want a general critique, I’d say you aren’t done. Draw it 10 more times.
 
Do it over and over and over. Not tracing, but just put them in front of you on a table and keep drawing it. Try sketching, try drawing ovals and squares and then try drawing it as a bunch of cylinders and cubes, then do it as a gesture sketch, keep drawing it until you have 10 of them and your hand is aching.
 
Then look at all of the different drawings you did of the same thing, and find the 3 that you think are the worse and throw them away. Ignore them.
 
Then look at the 7 that remain and find the 3 that you think are the best - even if it’s just a sketch.
 
Ask yourself what makes them “best”? Is it the energy? The easy pose? The fire in the eyes?
 
Then draw it one more time, using those three as your reference. This is the time for tracing, light tables, transparencies … get a “finished pencil”.
 
Then ink it.
 
Then erase the pencil lines.
 
Now … how does it look?
 
If you look at the sketch books of mangakas and people who professionally draw, you’ll see that they almost always have some point in the drawing that looks like what you’ve drawn. Because they’re still figuring it out. But they don’t stop there.
 
So … don’t stop there. Keep going. See what happens.
Ciaran
ラ・ゼッタ - For supporting the site
Silly Pony - Celebrated the 13th anniversary of MLP:FIM, and 40 years of MLP!
Shimmering Smile - Celebrated the 10th anniversary of Equestria Girls!
Lunar Guardian - Earned a place among the ranks of the most loyal New Lunar Republic soldiers (April Fools 2023).
Crystal Roseluck - Had their OC in the 2023 Derpibooru Collab.
Flower Trio - Helped others get their OC into the 2023 Derpibooru Collab.
A Lovely Nightmare Night - Celebrated the 12th anniversary of MLP:FIM!
Princess of Love - Extra special version for those who participated in the Canterlot Wedding 10th anniversary event by contributing art.
Tree of Harmony - Drew someone's OC for the 2022 Community Collab
Elements of Harmony - Had an OC in the 2022 Community Collab

Senior Moderator
友情は魔法だ
On that thought, one of my favorite manga artists is Kosuke Fujishima.
 
If you look through their sketchbooks you can see them trying faces, working on eyes and expressions and trying things over and over and over.
 
full
 
And even still today, after decades of working as a professional fashion designer and manga artist, with dozens of titles to his name, he still has to work a piece over and over and over to “get the legs right”, like in this drawing:
 
full
 
or draw a character a dozen different ways until it “pops”:
 
full
 
Where he ends up always seems perfect. But he doesn’t draw a perfect image the first time. Very few people do.
 
But if you keep drawing, and keep working that image until you figure out all the parts, then you can really do amazing things - even when your first attempts drive you insane with how bad they look.
 
full
 
I think for a lot of starting artists, the real trick is to just keep working the piece until you figure out what you are trying to say with it.
 
Because there are gosh darned few people who can draw what they wanted to draw from the first line to the last line.
 
And fewer still who can preserve the energy and vibrant lines of that first inspirational sketch all the way to the finished product.
 
So, keep drawing that same drawing until it says what you wanted to say :)
tehwatever
Shimmering Smile - Celebrated the 10th anniversary of Equestria Girls!
Lunar Supporter - Helped forge New Lunar Republic's freedom in the face of the Solar Empire's oppressive tyrannical regime (April Fools 2023).
Non-Fungible Trixie -
Twinkling Balloon - Took part in the 2021 community collab.
Artist -
Ten years of changes - Celebrated the 10th anniversary of MLP:FiM!
Friendship, Art, and Magic (2020) - Took part in the 2020 Community Collab
Wallet After Summer Sale -
Friendship, Art, and Magic (2019) - Celebrated Derpibooru's seventh year anniversary with friends.

@Ciaran  
This is accurate. Currently I’m drawing the same damn thing almost everyday (and scrap them later by the end of the day) because of the advice I heard from a youtube artists I respect (and also from veteran artist on artstation).
 
For beginners, the one thing they should do is to NOT STOP. Draw what they can, get a momentum going. Sure they gonna errthing gona be bad but the habit of DOING carries over to learning.
 
Thanks Ciarran for the excellent insight.
Badumsquish
Generic Messy Hair Anime Anon - Seen and done more than you can imagine
Kalianne - Derpi Supporter
Silly Pony - Celebrated the 13th anniversary of MLP:FIM, and 40 years of MLP!
Shimmering Smile - Celebrated the 10th anniversary of Equestria Girls!
Lunar Supporter - Helped forge New Lunar Republic's freedom in the face of the Solar Empire's oppressive tyrannical regime (April Fools 2023).
Flower Trio - Helped others get their OC into the 2023 Derpibooru Collab.
Roseluck - Had their OC in the 2023 Derpibooru Collab.
King Sombra - Celebrated the 12th anniversary of MLP:FIM!
A Lovely Nightmare Night - Celebrated the 12th anniversary of MLP:FIM!
Princess of Love - Extra special version for those who participated in the Canterlot Wedding 10th anniversary event by contributing art.

ᗡ: 📶 📡
@tehwatever  
I find you have to do a good balance of stuff you often do and new stuff. If you only do stuff you’re comfortable with you won’t develop new skills, but if you only do new stuff you won’t hone the skills you have :D
tehwatever
Shimmering Smile - Celebrated the 10th anniversary of Equestria Girls!
Lunar Supporter - Helped forge New Lunar Republic's freedom in the face of the Solar Empire's oppressive tyrannical regime (April Fools 2023).
Non-Fungible Trixie -
Twinkling Balloon - Took part in the 2021 community collab.
Artist -
Ten years of changes - Celebrated the 10th anniversary of MLP:FiM!
Friendship, Art, and Magic (2020) - Took part in the 2020 Community Collab
Wallet After Summer Sale -
Friendship, Art, and Magic (2019) - Celebrated Derpibooru's seventh year anniversary with friends.

@Badumsquish  
Actually, I find that an artists immediately does a new stuff the moment they are not doing the exact piece they did before.
 
For example: if yesterday I drew a character standing, if today I drew the same character sitting, that’s ALREADY a new stuff, and it’s a good thing because then you have enough familiarity to be comfortable, but enough challenge to be exciting.
 
I find that to be the most fun way to develop skill.
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