Forums » Art Critique

• Anna Hudzik

  

  • 72 posts
   

  May 28, 2012 10:57 AM PDT

  go to the art gallery tab> Add new art. Your parakeet drawings don't look awful, they just look a little stiff. Try letting your wrist loosen up a little. Try drawing with pen so you can't correct anything. Keep drawing.

• Josh Swallow

  

  • 154 posts
   

  May 29, 2012 8:34 AM PDT

  Your drawings aren't even that bad for a beginner. You should stop putting all your life plans solely on CalArts, I think. That's not even saying "You have no shot" but mainly that you're putting so much pressure on yourself to draw like these well known artists or CalArts students and hopefuls. It's really unfortunate, but it just doesn't work that way. It takes a lot of time. Oddly, I had the benefit of not even being into art that much when I first started life drawing so I didn't have this reference point to where I knew my drawings were horrible. I live literally two miles away from CalArts and had no idea what CalArts even was at the time, too.

   

  I think the main problem with not going to life drawing classes is that you have no one to tell you how to think and what to do. You don't get the feedback you actually need to grow by asking for advice on random forums. So, yeah, it's very very important that you actually find some life drawing classes, whether by Googling "Life drawing classes in [location]" or calling up some art teachers at a nearby college and asking if it's okay to sit in on their class.

   

  Also if you have no access to life drawing classes because you're underage, that's even more reason to be positive.

• hannah n

  

  • 68 posts
   

  May 29, 2012 4:50 PM PDT

  i think a good exercise for you would be to draw figures and focus on the line and form of a figure. maybe do some drawings with a marker or pen where you don't let the tip leave the paper. try an exercise where you draw the negative space around an object.
• Josh Swallow

  

  • 154 posts
   

  June 2, 2012 6:59 AM PDT

  One more thing... Stop being so hard on yourself.

   

  I just looked through your sketchbook pictures again, and was kinda depressed that you actually write notes to yourself, some of them pretty negative. Your attitude about drawing goes a long way. It's okay to know your insecurities, but you need to have a positive attitude about your drawings. Like, even this thread title shows your attitude towards your work and it will only hinder you, not help, because you're stuck in your head.

   

  I also just read your first post again and there was something very telling. "I'm new at drawing and need to get really good in three months." I know I said it before, but it seriously is impossible. The reality is that you'll never go from beginner's level to CalArts student from May to December 2012. You have not even be there in December 2013. I know it's very hard to hear, but that's just the reality of it. Every great artist has had their beginner's period, and they will all say that it's taken them an incredibly long time to get where they are. It doesn't hapeen overnight. Sorry. You should still apply though, because it'll be a positive experience and there's not many draw backs but your time, stress level, and the application fee. It's good to get in the habit of making the portfolio.

   

  (And actual life drawing.)