# Epiphanies You've Had



## Chikun11 (Jul 4, 2017)

What sort of epiphanies have you had that have made your art better?

It can be anything from personal style to realizations about the human form. I'm curious!


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## ChapterAquila92 (Jul 4, 2017)

There's no merit in installing an armoured door if it ends up being easier to just go through the wall right next to it. Applicable to both games and IRL.


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## PrettyKitty13 (Jul 7, 2017)

Being scared to execute artwork is pointless.
 It's time to just accept things will be finished, not perfect.
It's okay if I don't create a masterpiece every time I draw.
There is a such thing as do-overs.

 I elaborate a little more on my illustration blog.


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## Casey Fluffbat (Jul 7, 2017)

That instead of scribbling in shading and easing off the pencil, I can just smear graphite with my fingers. It has cut my time drawing in half.


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## PlusThirtyOne (Jul 7, 2017)

Learning how to properly use and order layers in Photoshop. Also, layer effects and learning the ins and outs of the selection border tools. That alone changed everything for me.


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## narutogod123 (Jul 8, 2017)

Learning about perspective grids and making it simple with the XYZ plane method. Also I figured how to make simple lighting which was a big help.


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## WolfNightV4X1 (Jul 8, 2017)

One of the few moments I can describe as an "ephiphany", was when I was around 8-12 and I was observing my dog in the bathtub.

I used to draw dogs from a sideview with the legs next to each other, as if they had the two legs and the others are blocked from view, but when I looked at my dog it was an "oh" moment, legs aren't always pulled close to each other, if you're looking at your dog you can see it's fourth rear leg on the other side of your vision, not directly behind the other rear leg closest to you, but behind it a little to the left, under it's belly. So you can actually see all four legs most the time, the legs further from your vision are not "hidden" by the frontmost two legs, they are actually visible depending on the placement of their stance.














It is silly, but a little observation actually seeing, versus going by what you think you see, goes a long way.


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## MissNook (Jul 8, 2017)

Well I've got more than one I think.

One of the latest is that I have re-thinked my way of considering my unfinished pieces. It's not that bad to not finish something. It's bad to not begin something. You'll have learned a lot of things during the process and that's what matters ^^


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## PlusThirtyOne (Jul 9, 2017)

i also learned that sometimes it's okay to leave some drawings "unfinished". You don't need to "complete" every drawing. Sometimes a sketch should just remain a sketch, a line drawing should just stay black and white, a doodle doesn't always need an inked outline, not all illustrations need color and very few character drawings really need a background.

That goes double for practice sheets and experiments.


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## fallout19980 (Jul 9, 2017)

-AlphaLupi said:


> As a writer? Make it real.
> 
> People don't want perfect action heros. They want nitty gritty down and dirty reality.


Yup


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## raaky-draws (Jul 10, 2017)

If I spend two minutes doing a "warm up" sketch before starting a new picture, then my picture is way better than it would've been.

I used to just think "I wanna draw a dragon dude", sit down, start drawing, and then halfway through think "dang, this looks nothing like I wanted, why can't I draw better than this?". And I'd power through anyway and sometimes it would look okay, but only because I erased half of it 3 times to fix all the mistakes.

Now I think, "I'm gonna draw a dragon dude and he's gonna look something like this...", and I try to sketch out the form as fast as I can. Obviously I make some mistakes, but this time I notice them right away and realize "yeah, that pose is not gonna work because xyz". Then I start over on a new sheet, the second picture is way better than the first, and I saved a bunch of time because I fixed all the construction mistakes in the warm-up sketch.

Obviously I still make lots of mistakes in my drawings, but spending a few minutes "warming up" before drawing a big picture has helped me a ton. At the very least, I learn a lot from it and it helps me improve faster than I would've otherwise.


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## Iovic (Aug 11, 2017)

raaky-draws said:


> If I spend two minutes doing a "warm up" sketch before starting a new picture, then my picture is way better than it would've been.
> 
> I used to just think "I wanna draw a dragon dude", sit down, start drawing, and then halfway through think "dang, this looks nothing like I wanted, why can't I draw better than this?". And I'd power through anyway and sometimes it would look okay, but only because I erased half of it 3 times to fix all the mistakes.
> 
> ...


^ This.

Also, it doesn't need to be perfect, it just needs to be "good enough", and everyone's version of "good enough" is different.


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## Pipistrele (Aug 12, 2017)

Welp, you know what? With all the talk about self-improvement, style, fursonas, trades, commissions, in the long run majority of us are just a bunch of amateurish dweebs, and any guy with an actual art degree will pretty much demolish us in terms of skill and preparation when it comes to artwork. So, instead of obsessing over technical proficiency, we may as well have some fun, as well as create or explore some alternatives and new ways to enchance the drawings. I never was partcularly good at art (though I' still learning, we'll see), but I have a degree in IT, so aside of just drawing stuff, I decided to incorporate some programming into my artwork - from creating fancy patterns (example below) to just making interactive flash cartoons/refs.

That's two epiphanies in one, really:
- accepting there's always somebody significantly better or worse than me, so I should both respect myself and avoid getting on my high horse
- learning how to use one skill to boost or compensate the other


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## Tigers-on-Unicycles (Aug 12, 2017)

I had the epiphany that stopping to look at a reference of something I am struggling with doesn't break up the flow of the creative process or slow me down -it speeds me up and reduces stress by, like, a lot. This seems incredibly obvious when I type it out, and I keep beating myself for it, but listen -I am extremely stubborn, and not very bright, and I will sit and redraw the same detail incorrectly 8,000 times while internally screaming before I can move on.

But I discovered the reference windows in the art programs I use and everything immediately got better.

Use references, guys.


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## Simo (Aug 12, 2017)

As a writer? That it's really hard to write, without a cigarette even if its just burning away in the ashtray, and how good it feels when things are going so smoothly that I forget its even there, and it burns down to the end, on its own. Then, I'm really happy.


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## teacupdolly (Aug 13, 2017)

I've improved more drawing what I enjoy then constantly trying please others.


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