I Hate My Art

I'm unhappy with my art, so here's what I'm doing to fix that.
★♥★♥★♥★♥★
★♥★♥★♥★♥★
★♥★♥★♥★♥★
MATERIALS:
-Some regular ol' sketchbook
★♥★♥★♥★♥★
★♥★♥★♥★♥★

[liekkivalas]

i understand that all the people in the comments saying they love your art and don't know what you're talking about are certainly well-meaning, but they also miss the point. i've definitely also experienced this feeling that i just know more than i'm able to physically execute, if that makes sense, and other people's praise doesn't really factor into it at all, because it's all about the frustration of knowing what's wrong with your art but not yet having the skills to fix it

anyway all this to say, i know the feel, and i admire you for being able to see this feeling for what it is, temporary, and for taking a proactive stance and trying to work through it :) it always ends up getting easier at some point!

[Dormychan]

Maybe do some sketchbook storytime videos? I’d love to hear some stories while watching you practice. ☺️

[LavenderGothic]

Honestly, I would love to see more artists on YouTube just doing studies. I love the challenges and the contests and the silliness, but I want to see more practice, more simple drawing times.

[pinkCAKE]

Baylee! I took several classes with a professional Scientific/Natural History Illustrator. I basically learned how to draw from doing objective drawing of animals. I was EXTREMELY depressed over my art before I finally buckled down and drew animals from life, something about them is very cohesive to learning how to draw planes/drawing in general.

Draw more shapes that you see INSIDE the image. I don’t mean eye/nose shapes, those are SYMBOLS. Focus on the ABSTRACT shapes created from shadows/highlights, changes in planes etc. By drawing in these shapes you will start to be able to visualize/draw the 3D planes that exist in a dynamic drawing.
DON’T focus so much on the outline (at first at least). This flattens the image a lot.
Start by drawing the thing that is closest to you (usually the nose). SLOWLY CRAWL your way through the image, drawing those abstract shapes that create visual planes. You do this LOOSELY. Once you have a loose and accurate representation of the image, you can go in and define the planes you want to keep, and which you can erase.
Also importantly while drawing this way, you need to be able to MEASURE the distances between these abstract shapes in order to get an accurate drawing. You can do this by comparing horizontal and vertical lines on the image, or picking important points (like the eye, or a very distinct shadow) and measuring how many of those shapes are across/vertical etc.

Also, it’s VERY helpful to draw from life ESPECIALLY if you are trying to improve dynamism in your work. Do you have a natural history museum with stuffed animals? See if you can draw from those. If not, try finding a very high def image that you can spend A LONG time with. Don’t focus TOO much on small studies. Find time to work on one image for at least 5+ hours on. Working and reworking that same image.

I’m still learning a ton and definitely not satisfied with my work quite yet (especially my digital stuff... my IG is consuis if you want to see some of my drawings.)

Hope you get to read this, good luck!

[HM-epfe]

I really understand you at the moment baylee since a lot of people tell me my art work is good and great but to myself I am very unhappy with how it is and so you've inspired me to make a list of things I will and can do to improve and make not only my art work better but make me feel better . you've really helped me a lot :)

[snoopabop]

your sketching style seems very outline/contour based. i think something that might be helpful is to first focus heavily on the overall, very basic 3D shapes, gesture, and anatomy and then move on to the solid lines and details. <3

[SophiejuDrawing]

Unfortunately for artists, art is a long, never-ending, tough process ...




But don't give up !! Think that other people see your art with a different eye, and think that art can be very rewarding too ! Look at your old art and see how much you've improved, take into account the incredible power of creation you have in your hand ! I believe in you, and I believe in every artist, you can do it !

[natschbatsch]

Honestly I always wanna give critique but YT just seems like the place where you shouldn't do it... ppl always get so defensive or the fanbase gets defensive for the yt-er. I'm gonna be honest (please don't lynch mob me) : You are one of my favorite YTers but you are not my favorite artist! I think when it comes to art I always felt a little bit like I don't learn that much from your drawing techniques because I have been drawing for so many years already myself... I actually love watching you for different reasons then just your art: I enjoy watching your vlogs & the behind the scene stuff! I'm always looking forward to watching the vlogs & art videos right when you upload them! Hearing you talk while I'm drawing myself is so entertaining/realxing to me! You talking about conventions, your shop & pins is not only fun but also really helpful!
However I do understand that you wanna get better as an artist & I totally get the frustration because I feel every artist goes through this from time to time.
I think if you would ONLY focus on improving your art and nothing else (which you obviously can't because there is a lot more to it, as you already mentioned) you could improve IMMENSELY within a couple of weeks!
I'm happy to see that you are not beating yourself up over this but are willing to make some positive changes for yourself to improve your art, learn more & enjoy your own art more again!

I'm so excited for future videos and what you come up with! <3
Much love!

Also: BUNNIES! Even when you are unhappy buns make everything better <3

[JordanPersegati]

I think it's really cool that you're actively taking steps to improve your art, I really need to do the same!
Best of luck to you Baylee, I look forward to seeing your progress :)

[NeroTMAnimations]

I've been watching you since ZkittyZ, I was super young back then, just getting into drawing, and next year I will graduate from Art Academy.

You went to animation, I went to super academic university.
I think that you are slow at drawing and you are not happy with your finished work is bassed on stiff slow sketching. Everytime I see you sketch, you focus a lot on either copying the refrence object as it is or you just get stuck on polishing details way too soon.
You end up with composition, form of object that you are not happy with so no matter how much you polish your stuff it will never satisfy you.

I feel that since your whole life is bassed on art you could take some art classes to take your art to the next lvl. It's time! But in your place I would search for a true academic pro. The one who would teach you how to see things with an eye of a master. That way loose, efective sketching will be easy. No more stiff, dull boring sketches!
You are good at stylizing stuff but both- drawing and painting(coloring) could use upgrading. Pro teacher can give you that!
I was stuck just like you, but now as I have my teacher next to me, I mix my own passion for animation and their tips and damn, I have never improved faster!

[erin]

One thing that I think you could add to your improving series is trying and potentially failing at more ambitious projects - they'd be really helpful for you and more entertaining for viewers, I think. So, studies are great, but there's also something to be said for allowing youtself to try new things and take risks and experiment. *That's* how you improve beyond the fundamentals. You'll find things that dont work, but you'll also stumble upon things that really do. With your regular videos, there's not a lot of room to fail or be risky or push the envelope because you're trying to end up in a predictable place. But if you give yourself permission to not make "good" art or a "good" video, and just *try* things (even though theres a good chance they'll end in disaster), you can really learn a ton - far more than you could learn through creating 10 safer projects. Plus, people will definitely click on "I tried x and failed spectacularly". But it will take a *LOT* of courage to post failures.

Just a thought. Side note, I find it really admirable that youre committing to improving your art even though you know better art won't necessarily further your career. After all, the subtle improvements won't always show in the crazier videos - your knowledge of, like, atmospheric perspective won't really show in "self portrait in hardboiled eggs" or whatever. Lol.

[Merbuggy]

It’s honestly refreshing and humbling to know that the artists I look up to go through the same struggles that I have

[dianaahakim]

It's ok Baylee! We're here for you!

[okleigh]

I appreciate this video. It definitely has a lot of truth. But I kind of want to touch on something? You talk about drawing in the evening but you just want to relax. I wouldn't feel had about that. I currently work part time for as many hours as I legally can and then I also am working on a project and then I'm also doing school full time. And to top it all off I do Sunday school once a week. Those hours in the evening where I don't do anything productive are what keep me sane. Like you said, YouTube is so much more than drawing. And you do so much in a day, I'm sure. I love that you are trying to work on your art and you are absolutely right about incorporating into your videos. Idk I guess I'm just worried that you'll try to over work yourself and I've been there and you feel so dead and it's not worth it. I'm sure you've got this! Looking forward to all the things you do!!

[saffronstiegmann]

I completely agree with those feelings. I'm glad you can see what makes you unhappy about your art and try to fix it. This really made me want to get back to get into art and try to not get completely discouraged.

[WillTerrell]

Have you thought of maybe taking some online courses? There are so many great classes now from working professionals. SVSlearn is great, Schoolism has some good stuff. Taught by a Pro. Lots of great ways to expand your skillset. You could even do a "watch me learn" series where people can follow along with you. Or a weekly study group stream, where everyone studies the same thing and posts it to the same hashtag. I honestly wish more art youtubers did that sort of thing. Demonstrating what it takes to learn and grow and how much work is involved in that.

[IlyasArt]

*Baylee "in every single art video"* : I'm actually so proud of this drawing

*Also Baylee* : I hate my art

[MagicalStarChan]

I find it extremely admirable that you want to level up. It’s great for younger artists to see someone they admire wanting to improve I’m sure you’ll inspire lots of ppl by doing this and I’m excited to see what’s to come 💕

[AzjatyckiCukier]

The issues of drawing too slow can be fixed by getting rid of the habit of doing little short lines and applying them next to each other. That was the first thing my teacher taught me - don't do "sketchy sketchy", draw a single line and guide it with your eye by looking back and forth where you want it to go. This makes you draw faster but also improve in abstraction.

[lily]

One thing that helps with making lineart loose is colouring first (with like watercolour or something) and then doing lineart. It creates a nice, expressive effect!