Upgrade! Don't leave your comfort zone!

For the longest time, I thought I was a shit artist,  because I couldn't do all the things a commercial artist can--but, the thing is, and I discovered this only very recently, the reason they can do those things is because they can draw much faster than I can in general; and the reason why is because of mileage; and how do you get mileage?

 By staying in your comfort zone!

 I finished my most recent pin up in 4 days. That includes the time spent puzzling out the structure of the reference so I could break it down and make a mask. Factoring structure, last year probably took me two weeks to do, plus coloring.  You tell me which is better:

Last Year

This Year:

The difference is night and day. I didn't even bother with coloring this year's pin up, partly because I did it for the sake of mileage, but mostly because it was already better without it! The line's were simple, the gesture more intimate and suggestive; there was more control and much more clarity; no needless detail distracting from what I was trying to emphasize. Instead of focusing on color and lighting, both of which I barely know, and thus suck at doing, I concentrated on clarifying my lines; so what took days only took hours for a far superior result.

And I'm not saying all this just to blow torch my babies. I'm proud of even the most cringe-inducing of miscarriages. I'm just scrutinizing my techniques then versus now, with no hate directed to my drawings; just frustration at their creator making obvious mistakes he should have/could have spotted a year ago.

 Probably the biggest difference is just how more feminine the face this year is: for the same character! I can't even tell her facial reference is Asian in the colored drawing, and that's the most embarrassing detail. I wasted hours and hours slaving away over color masks and gradients--throwing them all out and coloring the entire pin up from scratch--and the character doesn't even resemble her model's race; or, and it pains me to say, even her sex. Her line art was awful, and no amount of color theory was going to rescue her from that critical mistake. It doesn't matter that her eyes are reflective and shiny, if they're bug-eyed and don't line up; it doesn't matter if there's a bounce light on her face, if her face doesn't even have an Asian woman's skin tone. Let alone an Asian woman's face, or even a woman's face.

Good colors will not save bad line art, that's what I'm getting at; so, instead of scowling at color tutorials and slaving over my tablet, I just did what I'm (somewhat) competent, and thus confident, enough to do:

 I stayed in my comfort zone; and, because I did, I was able to pour over my lines and ask myself 'What do I need to say what I want to say?' Doing that, I realized little things, like making the eyes smaller made them more feminine; giving her more eyelashes made them sexier. Omitting lines, which represent shadow, accented the cleavage of her breasts, representing points of contact where the skin was so close together there would barely be a shadow. Plus I realized I could order the pin up so it capitalized on one of the oldest tricks in visual art, by using the hips, arms and hair to emphasize her face with the "golden ratio". * Just little things like that, little touches, just stacked up to make a much prettier picture.

Mileage does not equal distance, but honing my process allowed me to blaze through the steps, and that made pushing the limits of my comfort zone, by trying new little tips and tricks--tiny, modest little pushes for more lights and shades and textures--much less frustrating, and much more fun.

*For anyone who doesn't know what that is:

https://i.pinimg.com/736x/de/ec/7e/deec7ee3e1f05026b3cf7a5062099e80.jpg