1. Observe.
2. Create.
3. Just Do It!
4. Plug Those Ears!
5. Positive!

Observe! The artist eye is probably one of the most crucial elements to drawing. Literally, you need to look at things in many angles, views, and perspectives. By doing so, you will at least record a image of what you have seen. And when you are drawing a similar scene to what you have seen, you can recall to your old memories and draw that scene with some ease.

Create! Yes. Be creative! Just make things as you go. People will catch on. The more you create the better you speak in your drawings, or whatever creative process you are going through. It is true what they say, “Practice makes Perfect”, but all that is for naught if you do not have the confidence to communicate. Remember art is a communication device, use it to communicate!

Also, not only does creating help your communicative abilities. It also allows you to experiment and find new ideas and techniques that you may use for future references.

“JUST DO IT”.
There are two ways to look at this: the learning perspective and, the feeling perspective. Simply: are you doing it to learn or base on how you feel?

Most people who are doing it to learn, resort to finding the shortest route, or a short cut to get the job done. “All to save time”. However, life does not work that way. You can’t go barging on a forum asking like a million other people, “HOW DO I DRAW?”, “HOW DO I PHOTOSHOP?”, “HOW DO I ANIMATE?”

The answer: There is NO Short Route.

Tutorials and guides may help or motivate you into “doing” your creative work, but by learning and experimenting, you gain a better sense in knowledge of what you are doing. Tutorials can help, but they shouldn’t be taken as your language. They are, of course, a part of your language that you may learn.

Of course. I haven’t forget the people who do the do base on what they feel. If you feel pretty cruddy doing your work, why do it when you can do something that makes you feel great? So switch gears to happy mode. Nothing is better than being paid happy rather than being paid sad.

Them: “You Suck!”
Me: “I can’t hear you! La La la la la!”.

I have been through this so many times. Do not tell me your opinion unless I asked for it. Do not tell me what I need to fix or what I need to do to make you happy. Because ONE, you or me, the priority is to make yourself happy.

My work is to make me happy, if it doesn’t make you happy, bug off. If it does, Great for both of us.

Some people can not comprehend some ideas, and so they become irritated and retort in an free expression that is heard, loud and clear. Although, they usually do not keep their frustration to themselves, and thus they try to import the “negative” into you, so your skills may be affected.

That’s when a pair of headphones comes in handy. Keep your happiness high above on cloud 9. Don’t let “them” drag you down with their words.

Being Happy is #1!

“Whatever you do, do it positively”.
Whether you are sad, mad, or happy. Stay Positive! Life has its ups and downs. Its a roller coaster ride, and it’s a experience. Negative energy is one of the worst things to be in, but there are some people who take joy in that, however, to me I see them converting it to positive energy. As long as you stay positive, putting that energy into anything brighten life that much.

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5 Tips for the Artists

The key to making a page is organizing the concepts and their elements:
First. Write out the story. “What’s happening?”
Next. Box up the story. “What is important?”
Lastly. Draw the story. “What’s happening again?”

Once I finish the page. I go to my test subjects whom go through hell from reading my page, and normally the conversation are logged as followed:

Me: “Finish reading?”
Reader: “Yup”

Now, I must interrupt this position of the conversation because, we must ask the right question to improve. I will now set the wrong example:

Me: “What do you think?”
Reader: “I think the tree you have in this picture doesn’t look like a tree. The arm on the person is too small. The head is too big…”

STOP!
As you see, the reader is giving a personal opinion towards the art. What happen to the story? Time to do this correctly! But before we do, we must prepare ourselves the goal and point of the page. Initially the page I have:

“A person is running in panel one. In panel two, this person sees someone and questions in hope whether it’s a friend or foe. Panel three, the person take the risk and run towards the person.”

Me: “So what happened, what do you see here?”
Reader: “I see someone running, and that the person is running towards someone to see if that person is a friend or not…”

Message achieved? You bet! Again, the idea here is to get your message across by asking the right question.

However, if the subject answers incorrectly…

Reader: “I see her running, and I am not sure what she is running towards at…”

That means, the presentation needs to be adjusted to correspond with the message. Thus, go back to working on the page, specifically the part where the reader did not understand what is happening. Rework that area, represent the page to the reader, ask the right questions, rinse, repeat, and then PROFIT.

Also sometimes, the reader would go off topic.

Reader: I don’t like this tree right here…

Put that reader in his or her place! You did not ask about the art; you want his initial thoughts on the story; the point of what’s happening?!

Me: I did not ask you about the art. I said the story. THE STORY!!! *Throws tantrum*

When I look at Storyboarding, I look at it as a custom language. These pictures are sentences in a book. And combine with words, I present a story. It takes practice to have a message in a picture with no words. That is the language of art. And the main point here is to talk in pictures that will affect a person with just mere pictures which to me is stronger than words.

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Storyboarding: Asking the Right Question