Sometimes I Hate My Own Art (and You Should, Too)

I told my youngest son the title of this post and he said it sounds like EVERYONE should hate MY art but that is not at all what I'm going for. Sometimes, I hate my own art and sometimes, you should hate your own art, too. 

Most of my creative life, I've been a solo act. Artist and critic, all rolled into one. Thankfully, I have creative people in my life now who help me work through my challenges but that drive to be my own worst critic never goes away. And it shouldn't. Being able to critique your own work is really important. 

I posted in January and most of February about a book I'm working on and I'm really struggling with the dolls. I have all of my reference material ready to go. I have a working title. The concept is totally ready for take-off. The dolls are not.

First, I tried drawing them. They were ok but stiff and lacking something, but I don't know what....

Then, I experimented with tracing so that I could learn about poses. And I learned a lot! But not quite enough....   

 

This has been languishing on my iPad for a couple of weeks. I thought maybe the head was too small so I modified it (that's the image on the right). It's a little better but it still feels odd.

Maybe it's fine. Maybe I'm too critical. There are things I like: the arms are both great. I worked really hard on the feet, the overall pose is fine. But it feels too long, too lanky, and just not right. I really noticed it after I did another drawing.

Here's the rough sketch from my little sketchbook - it's 8.5 inches by 5.5 inches.

I then traced my rough sketch using a light table with the idea that I might paint this one traditionally. Spoiler: I didn't.

Here's the line drawing from Procreate. It's going in the next issue of Paperdoll Review - the theme is Tea Party. You'll have to wait and see what I cooked up! 

The point is, I LOVE this little tea gal! It feels like me, like I'm not trying to hard. It just came together and I'm happy with it. I feel like maybe I'm trying to force a breakthrough or try to be something that I'm just not yet. So it's back to the drawing board, again, and I really think the third time will be the charm!  

Tracing and Creating Paper Dolls: Refining

I'm continuing on my tracing journey this week, although that's not quite accurate. At this stage, I'm sketching on paper then refining digitally.

For this, I'm using the tools I have - a color printer, tape, ruler, and a sketchbook. I printed one of the dolls with the heads measurement scale and added it to one side of my sketchbook. Using a ruler, I drew lines in the sketchbooks so that I could draw the doll with better accuracy.  

 Here's the drawing of my doll using the traced image on the left. 

 

I can already see that there are some issues. The tilt of the arm on the left and the tilt of the whole torso is a bit off.  The legs and feet are a bit odd. I'm not really worried about the face at such a small scale. 

At this stage, I'll scan it, tinker with it in Photoshop, and then draw it in Procreate. Is it a lot of steps? Yes. I really need to draw more. Some of this is because I've gotten a little rusty! 

 It's a little tough to see, but the image above has my trace (blue lines) with my transferred drawing (black pencil) over it. My stupid scanner keeps cutting the bottom of my drawings off!! You can see in this overlay that the proportions are ok but some of the angles are off. I could leave it like this and it would probably be fine. But let's go that extra bit and see what happens.

On the left, my adjusted sketch and on the right, the traced image. Now, it's ready for Procreate. I didn't spend long in Photoshop - maybe 15 minutes - but I think it'll make a difference in the doll.

 Here's the image from Procreate. I took the adjusted sketch and drew over it in purple. Why purple? I don't know. I just like it and it's an easy way to tell my sketch layer from my line layer. I kept the negative spaces between the arms a little bit larger than in the trace layer so that they better accommodate tabs. Her face needs some work! I really like drawing, taking a picture or scan, and then walking away and coming back. I see things differently. Once I sort out the face, I'll line this and work on the second doll, which will be the same process.

Feel free to drop me a note! Love it? Hate it? Wanna see more?? 

 

Tracing and Creating Paper Dolls

Last week, I posted a behind-the-scenes image of a book I'm working on. The more I looked at those paper doll sketches, the more I disliked them. They're stiff and awkward and I just feel like I can do better. I've had a bit of art block for quite a while so I've been drawing less - right now, it REALLY shows! To boost my inspiration and skills, I decided to trace some dress pattern cover illustrations that I found online.

Trace?! 

Yes, trace. Or, as I choose think of it, analyzing with line. 

I've been reading up on tracing. It's not something I usually do. I'm a bit of a purist and I think the best way to improve is through observation. Go to a figure drawing class, draw a 3D doll, set up a still-life...doesn't matter which, they all help! But sometimes, I need something more tailored, more specific. This is where tracing comes in. 

Let's first take a detour about tracing. 

Some say it's cheating. Some say it isn't. The truth, for me, is somewhere in the middle. I read a phrase that really summed it up for me - tracing is cheating if you're setting out to deceive. Are you learning? Trace away! Tracing your own art? Go for it! Using public domain or some other rights managed image that you legally have the right to use? Again, go for it! Is tracing a shortcut to a selling someone else's work as your own? Nope. 

So why tracing?

My drawings feel off lately. There's something missing and I'm not quite sure what it is. I don't feel like I'm growing or improving. I'd like to have a more vintage fashion illustration aesthetic and I've been collecting images for inspiration for a while. My eclipse paper doll is adapted from a vintage fashion illustration. Sure, I can sketch from reference all day long but I want to gather information a bit faster. That's where the idea of analyzing with line comes it...

First, I gathered a bunch of images I liked. Second, I opened Photoshop and created a sizing template. The images I found were different sizes and different resolutions and I wanted them all to be roughly the same size for ease of comparison.

I settled on an 8 head height. Typically, an adult is about 7 1/2 to 8 heads high and fashion figures are often drawn at 9 heads, with longer legs. I adjusted each image to be about 8 heads which looked good and felt right for these illustrations.

Once I had the figures all arranged, I imported them into Procreate. I didn't end up tracing every image, just a few until I tired of it! 

 

I focused on vintage pattern cover illustrations, mostly 60s and 70s. 

 

When searching for illustrations, I focused on bathing suit sewing patterns. They felt like the closest analog to a traditional paper doll.

I picked a variety of poses, sometimes similar poses and sometimes quirky poses.

When I like details, such as hair or face, I traced more of that. Some of the faces are great! 

 

Here's one pose and tracing isolated together. Feel free to download any of these images to see a larger version.

 

So what was the point? What did I learn?

 

A few things! Some of these faces are great and could really help me get over my "same face" issues. Breaking the poses down into simple lines also helped clarify the poses. I can see these as a jumping off point for more exploration, too, maybe combining part into new poses. I also think feet and hands are challenging for most of us!!  Maybe these will spark some new inspiration for my top secret book....