bad art advice

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I remember someone here long ago who said that Sharpies are just as good as Copics or Microns. Whoever you are, you're retarded. As far as markers go, Copics are worth the hype and not because they're Japanese. I found one I haven't used it over ten years and it still works. Granted, there are cheaper alternatives if you want to budget like Prismacolor, which aren't refillable but are definitely good for practice.
EDIT: If you only want to do lines, Copic liners are great and Mars brand is also good. Just ffs, don't use Sharpie permanent markers; they bleed into the paper.
 
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The always use reference thing is kinda shit.

Reference helps you improve your art, until it doesn't.
Aiming for autistic levels of realism is also a crutch, not even "realistic art" is really realistic when you really pay attention.

I remember someone saying that style is based on mistakes you do trying to do something accurately. This is a shit logic that dismisses the deliberate use of design to get diffrent effects but i somewhat like the idea of style as "mistakes" as you'd probably develop it more when you allow yourself to have happy accidents and not having to stick to real life accuracy all the time.

You'll always use reference in some capacity, i mean more like completely depending on it even after you have your mileage.
 
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"Try to get rid of every weird thing that is off about your picture."

By doing that nobody will remember it.

You wonder why people to this day still talk about this picture over 10 years later.
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And that nobody today references the well drawn landscape traditionalist photos from conservative painters.
 
"Don't incorporate your genitals into your art."
This has been my terrible advice because working at an art center back in the day, I didn't like seeing or handling the genital art, but it always stirred up a lot of attention so these weird hippies/grifters were probably smart not to listen to me.

I still resent mediating a bidding war on Tyler's testicles impression on canvas.
 
UnsufficentBoobage said:
Good old "references are cheating" (multiple times, from diffirent people, so I actually was afraid to use them untill I was like 19), "you won't get anywhere doing this as an adult, so stop" and also "you probably saw this [design] somewhere and just think you made it yourself" (not an advice, but instilled a long-living phobia).

Then again, I don't think I can draw properly - I can make designs, but poses, anatomy etc. just elude me. But I sure enjoy* doing it.

*with certain exceptions
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Tanti-Fanti said:
Shit, I hate this advice too. People took the concept of "don't trace someone's work and if you do credit them" and totally convoluted it into "EVERY ARTIST IS SACRED" and if you don't ask every single moment of your life for forgiveness for using their art you're a terrible person. Or you have the kind that think two characters sharing a slightly similar pose is "tracing" when in reality, the human body has a set of limited movements we can make. HOW we show them is what makes them unique. For example, The same body templates/movements seen in Bleach will not be the same as in Jojo's Bizarre adventure because the styles are so distinct. And how do you develop those styles? From studying from life.

:powerlevel:I remember getting gift art when I younger on da:powerlevel: and people literally asked me before giving me a gift if they could draw one of my characters, like...it's a gift? A gift is by all means supposed to be somewhat surprising. But now thanks to the internet people are so afraid of being called a "tracer" that they can't even put out fanart without feeling shamed for it.

Leading to the next "advice" I heard from a very horrible video on YT was that bases were good for practice as references when that is never the case. Bases suck because they are made from other people who can't draw and when you use them they give you bad results because you're restricted to bad art. Bases actively destroy your potential because you are limited to a certain style. I don't know where this idea came from that da and tumblr bases are good, but they aren't. You're better looking up an actual tutorial and doing all the work for yourself.
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I've always wondered about this because I have never heard artists say references are bad to use considering they do it all the time (fruit bowls as exercises come to mind). I have this theory this meme came about because some dipshit got caught tracing someone else's work and tried to blubber their way out by saying "I was referencing!" and continues to have that persecution complex.
 
"You need to do that [minor thing] accurate or your art won't be good"
"not using references and depending on imagination is bad"

No artist is flawless, you don't have to make hyper realism to be a better artist.
 
lolcow yoghurt said:
"You need to do that [minor thing] accurate or your art won't be good"
"not using references and depending on imagination is bad"

No artist is flawless, you don't have to make hyper realism to be a better artist.
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counterpoint: i never used references for my art and it looked like dogshit. if you're doing semi-realistic anatomy or any dynamic perspective it's a must
 
Neurotypical Mantis said:
counterpoint: i never used references for my art and it looked like dogshit. if you're doing semi-realistic anatomy or any dynamic perspective it's a must
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This really depends on the artist. Some artists can work with minimal reference and other can use more references, this is why art advices don't work for everyone.
 
"Just practice."

When I was first getting into art, I was told by many people, almost everyone actually. To just practice. No one told me what "practicing" entailed, just that I had to do it. My guess was they were too lazy and/or too stupid to come up with actual advice. Or maybe I just hung out with a bunch of socially inept retards that didn't want to have actual discussions with people. Either way, I'd have to say this is the worst piece of advice you can give someone on it's own.

Because yes, technically you get better with practice, as you do with every other skill. But tell that to someone who wants to get into playing...let's say the piano, they wanna play the piano. If you tell them, "Just practice" with no other context. What do they do? What should they do? Because by definition, mindlessly dinging the keys is practice.

By this brilliant logic, in a few years time they should become masters at the piano because they dinged keys a whole fucking lot.

No knowledge on musical notation, or what keys play what note, what those levers near their feet are, or what chords are.

But they practiced right?

Of course I'm being hyperbolic, but I see this advice everywhere. To "just practice." When truthfully it should be "Practice what you've learned and what you know. Focus on what you're bad at and try to fix it."

You need to first know shit about drawing before you can practice.

I know this sounds ridiculous and condescending, after all it should be obvious that telling someone to "just practice" is stupid advice. But apparently artfags need to "just practice" giving advice.
 
Retard Jotaro said:
"Just practice."

When I was first getting into art, I was told by many people, almost everyone actually. To just practice. No one told me what "practicing" entailed, just that I had to do it. My guess was they were too lazy and/or too stupid to come up with actual advice. Or maybe I just hung out with a bunch of socially inept retards that didn't want to have actual discussions with people. Either way, I'd have to say this is the worst piece of advice you can give someone on it's own.

Because yes, technically you get better with practice, as you do with every other skill. But tell that to someone who wants to get into playing...let's say the piano, they wanna play the piano. If you tell them, "Just practice" with no other context. What do they do? What should they do? Because by definition, mindlessly dinging the keys is practice.

By this brilliant logic, in a few years time they should become masters at the piano because they dinged keys a whole fucking lot.

No knowledge on musical notation, or what keys play what note, what those levers near their feet are, or what chords are.

But they practiced right?

Of course I'm being hyperbolic, but I see this advice everywhere. To "just practice." When truthfully it should be "Practice what you've learned and what you know. Focus on what you're bad at and try to fix it."

You need to first know shit about drawing before you can practice.

I know this sounds ridiculous and condescending, after all it should be obvious that telling someone to "just practice" is stupid advice. But apparently artfags need to "just practice" giving advice.
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I struggled with this a lot.... I am one of those speds that always was drawing something instead of making friends or socializing as a kid. Que the 'im gonna be an artist when I grow up!' As the only plausible path for me. Everyone said so too. Then comes emotional damage from a hellscape home and I just...stopped drawing. Tried to draw again but life made my hands too heavy and I couldnt use my imagination for shit. Drawing was a means to the end for me, which was a career, and hearing the practice practice practice while staring at a blank page over and over again really messed with me.

I will offer this though- take it or leave it as different things makes sense to different people. This year I didnt buy a sketchbook. I got 3k pages of printer paper and a hole punch. Started doodling lines and shapes over and over with a stencil cuz that takes zero thought. Realized once SOMETHING was down on paper it usually looked like something else. ( ex. These overlapping circles look like a weird pair of glasses). And it clicked because I did in fact need to draw all the fucking time, but not with any intent. I found that if I throw shit on a paper and try to recognize a pattern in it, then morph it into that thing, my drawings became numerous and interesting. And if it didnt then just move to the next sheet of cheap paper, no stupid pages in my sketchbook since it is loose leaf. Kept all in a binder. No blank pages made me feel accomplished. I write tidbits of convos or podcasts I hear over my doodles too. Idk it finally clicked for me that drawing was literally about lines on a paper every waking moment, but the skill came with the pattern recognition or seeing something more interesting and forcing that new idea through instead.
The 'practice practice practice!' advicr imo isnt wrong, but it is missing a huge component.
 
I had a middle school art teacher say that straight lines had no place in art, and would flip her shit if anyone used a ruler to draw straight.

Some jackass once claimed that if a person drew a copy of someone's photograph, the owner of the photo could sue for copyright. I was like, okay, bring it. I draw for fun and if I get sued I will consider it a compliment.
 
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