Never Give Up

1/5/2019

l am finally back with a post! I try to be regular with these things but l am not good at it at all! However, p have something l really want to share with you. I know l have discussed many times about not giving up on drawings, but here l have learned a little more!
l drew the Betta Fish below a few months ago, the fish you see on your left as you look at the photo. It took me around 80 hours, and whatever l did l could not make it look interesting. I exaggerated the colors l could see in the reference photo, l added more contrast. Yet every time l looked at it my heart sank. It was just boring to my eyes. Same, same, same mid tones that l didn’t even like in combination!
l have actually become very good at completing things and sure enough l made myself finish this piece, but l hated it!

Picture of a Betta Fish that l drew using l Faber Castell Polychromos and Caran D’ache Luminance and Pablo’s and Holbeins that l didn’t like when l drew it and the after picture when l played with color.

So all that work went behind the cupboard of no return! Only this time something returned! I looked at it again over the holidays and at all the work l had put into it. I decided that whatever l did to it, l couldn’t like it less than l already did! So l took out my pencils and began having fun with color.
Now you obviously l was limited to some extent because this is pencil. You can’t make it lighter, you can’t change blue to yellow. But allowing for those limits l was free to play. I added greens and purples and pinks and just kept adding. I increased the contrast for more depth and sharpened everything up.
lt was really fun just throwing the reference photo out of the window and doing whatever l felt like. The end piece might not be very realistic but at least it isn’t boring! And l have saved a piece l spent a very long time on!
Lesson - don’t be too quick to give up on a piece, a little more time and a bit of creativity can take something you don’t like into something totally different.

How to draw fish fins

3 Comments

Jennifer Rose Phillip link

1/7/2019 04:16:14 pm

a big improvement! much more vibrant and interesting :)

Sallyann

1/19/2019 08:13:34 am

Thank you so much my friend. I felt it made a real difference and at least rescued a piece l felt like shredding before!

Hugh R. Francis link

10/14/2019 02:59:16 am

An exciting piece starts with good composition. Doing this always includes making the subject interesting in some way. Sometimes this breaks down to finding an exciting detail on it to focus on,and sometimes, as seen in fashion sketches, it's about finding the right pose to set things off.
Thumbnail prototyping is extremely helpful in running through layoutt and pose possibilities. To make things fun, you might even add some whimsy to your piece.

In your fish drawing, your second piece seems to have been made better using darker colors and variety (thick blocks of fin ribs and thin line ribs).

To help you know when to move on from a piece, I'd suggest devising a short checklist of must haves that you apply to prototypes to know when you have reached "good enough."
Ideally, using this tool will help you produce the best you can at the moment CONSISTENTLY.
Here's an example checklist:
- it's generally accurate in form
- has as least 1 interesting thing in it
- takes at most 8 hrs to complete
- has a clear message and subjects
Regardless of what you add to this list, it's always a good idea to add a time limit for completing things in order to keep moving forward.

Hope this helps.

Ps. If you're reaaaally stuck for inspiration, try drawing like a kid again (or draw something playfully) for a while.

Never Give Up

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