It’s more likely that your art isn’t growing poorer, rather that your ability to discern mistakes is growing, which is a great progress that a lot of artists don’t notice. Now is the perfect time to do some fun practices, like draw a portrait of someone you think is awesome, or do some color studies, or go to a park and draw some scenery, or whatever. Drawing from real life examples is the best thing you can do for art bar none. Even just dumb stuff you got lying around the house.
Have you seen that graphic that shows artistic progress in like waves of perceived ability? Your art continues to grow but so does your ability to view that art. Thus you have the mistaken impression that you’re getting worse, but you’re actually just gaining skills.
I mean, I go through the same stuff. A stage of hating my art followed by a stage of progress and happiness, followed by a lull, followed by that stage of gross hatred. It’s a circle, and it’s ok. :D
“Have you seen that graphic that shows artistic progress in like waves of perceived ability? Your art continues to grow but so does your ability to view that art. Thus you have the mistaken impression that you’re getting worse, but you’re actually just gaining skills.”
Do you have a copy of that? Your post is really what I needed to hear, and I think seeing it will help hit the point home harder.
Long time reader (since Doc was in prison, I believe), first time commenter. This comic just comes along in leaps and bounds, I especially like how you’ve been doing the shading recently. This thing totally makes my week/month/whatever.
That happy, open, mischievous smile in the last panel is brilliant. “Not recently.”
Opa Schtein is fast becoming one of my Top 3 favorite comics characters ever. Certainly No.1 in this comic. And not just because I have a weakness for mycology and men with muttonchops.
And you may find yourself
In apocalyptic climes
And you may find yourself
In a nasty part of the world
And you may find yourself
Among a horde of shambling, decaying shells
And you may ask yourself
Well, how did I get here?
Letting the days go by
Getting plasma’d in the face…
There’s something very organic about your art that I enjoy immensely. It’s amazing how you get the biggest amount of personality and expression through just a minimal amount of lines. It reminds me a lot of the line art for DC’s Hitman, In both cases I think it takes a lot of skill to get an authentic, life-like character expression; this is probably because characters look less than stellar –human, if you want to throw that word around– in the process. I wonder if there was a point where you were afraid to ruin a drawing because you wanted to take chances with expressions.
Nevertheless, the fact that you held fast to this asset of your art while improving your style speaks a ton about all the practice you’ve put into your craft. It’s positively insane, almost.
I think a lot of artists always create and maintain that comfort zone where emotions are masks you can swap, like you’re playing with an action figure. Maybe they’re afraid of thinking about the face as what it really is, a bunch of independent muscles capable of conveying a number of states of being. Maybe they’d rather convey emotion through dialogue instead? I don’t know. String Theory seems to thrive on the notion of “show, don’t tell”.
Let me bring up a panel from one of the more recent pages, specifically the one where Schtein gets to enjoy a smoke. You see joy there, but it’s not the exultant kind. It’s the kind of quiet, brief, possibly subdued happiness you see in people every day. I wouldn’t be surprised if you studied faces a lot –maybe yours?– to get it right.
Everything about String Theory up to this point just screams hard work and perseverance, and I’ll bet you real, hard cash that it’ll be true for as long as its run lasts. You deserve to know your readers, your fans, appreciate it. You’ve worked hard and it never stopped showing.
Aw… and here we thought Opa would be his new best buddy…
Please proceed, marionette master Opa. x>
why does every bit of your art get prettier and prettier whilst my own only grows poorer and poorer? are genes involved? lovely page =]
Naw I’m the only artist in my family, I think.
It’s more likely that your art isn’t growing poorer, rather that your ability to discern mistakes is growing, which is a great progress that a lot of artists don’t notice. Now is the perfect time to do some fun practices, like draw a portrait of someone you think is awesome, or do some color studies, or go to a park and draw some scenery, or whatever. Drawing from real life examples is the best thing you can do for art bar none. Even just dumb stuff you got lying around the house.
Have you seen that graphic that shows artistic progress in like waves of perceived ability? Your art continues to grow but so does your ability to view that art. Thus you have the mistaken impression that you’re getting worse, but you’re actually just gaining skills.
I mean, I go through the same stuff. A stage of hating my art followed by a stage of progress and happiness, followed by a lull, followed by that stage of gross hatred. It’s a circle, and it’s ok. :D
thank you so much for this response. Despite, y’know. my not asking the original question. It’s a great response.
Tis!
“Have you seen that graphic that shows artistic progress in like waves of perceived ability? Your art continues to grow but so does your ability to view that art. Thus you have the mistaken impression that you’re getting worse, but you’re actually just gaining skills.”
Do you have a copy of that? Your post is really what I needed to hear, and I think seeing it will help hit the point home harder.
“Not recently.” Well, there’s a comforting thought.
Learned behavior. “obey the doctor”
Long time reader (since Doc was in prison, I believe), first time commenter. This comic just comes along in leaps and bounds, I especially like how you’ve been doing the shading recently. This thing totally makes my week/month/whatever.
Huh, his Opa seems less green today.
Just wait till he starts saying “Would you kindly”
Come with me, and you’ll see, a world, of pure imagination…
Fungal blooms will provide perturbation!
OMG.
“I know him. He… he has a way with words, let’s just say. I don’t think I can trust myself around him”
http://www.stringtheorycomic.com/comics/chapter-six/chp6-page-03/
Oh my gosh, that’s a good catch.
New page! *does happy dance*
That happy, open, mischievous smile in the last panel is brilliant. “Not recently.”
Opa Schtein is fast becoming one of my Top 3 favorite comics characters ever. Certainly No.1 in this comic. And not just because I have a weakness for mycology and men with muttonchops.
Oh, this was forshadowed in previous strips. Nice.
Hah, he listens to Kraftwerk, because he’s German. I’m just imagining Opa dancing to Kraftwerk now, what a silly character.
he also really likes the talking heads. Way to grow up in the 1980s/1990s, Orville.
And you may find yourself
In apocalyptic climes
And you may find yourself
In a nasty part of the world
And you may find yourself
Among a horde of shambling, decaying shells
And you may ask yourself
Well, how did I get here?
Letting the days go by
Getting plasma’d in the face…
Opa certainly brushes and flosses three times a day. But he probably owns the only toothbrush in the little zombie commune.
Opa just became my favorite character. What a sublime sense of humor.
There’s something very organic about your art that I enjoy immensely. It’s amazing how you get the biggest amount of personality and expression through just a minimal amount of lines. It reminds me a lot of the line art for DC’s Hitman, In both cases I think it takes a lot of skill to get an authentic, life-like character expression; this is probably because characters look less than stellar –human, if you want to throw that word around– in the process. I wonder if there was a point where you were afraid to ruin a drawing because you wanted to take chances with expressions.
Nevertheless, the fact that you held fast to this asset of your art while improving your style speaks a ton about all the practice you’ve put into your craft. It’s positively insane, almost.
I think a lot of artists always create and maintain that comfort zone where emotions are masks you can swap, like you’re playing with an action figure. Maybe they’re afraid of thinking about the face as what it really is, a bunch of independent muscles capable of conveying a number of states of being. Maybe they’d rather convey emotion through dialogue instead? I don’t know. String Theory seems to thrive on the notion of “show, don’t tell”.
Let me bring up a panel from one of the more recent pages, specifically the one where Schtein gets to enjoy a smoke. You see joy there, but it’s not the exultant kind. It’s the kind of quiet, brief, possibly subdued happiness you see in people every day. I wouldn’t be surprised if you studied faces a lot –maybe yours?– to get it right.
Everything about String Theory up to this point just screams hard work and perseverance, and I’ll bet you real, hard cash that it’ll be true for as long as its run lasts. You deserve to know your readers, your fans, appreciate it. You’ve worked hard and it never stopped showing.