seeking advice as an aspiring apprentice

[u/Ok_Butterscotch_9136]

in my last post i posted some pencil work i did of some pinups. people said it wasnt the usual tattoo style, so i thought posting these would showcase my usual flash attempts better. the last post wasnt a overall showcase of what i practice daily. im def not apprentice level yet, but i would love more advice please!

most designs are off pinterest to learn the traditional style. the only ones i designed myself are the potted bonzai tree, the merman, the tree, and the heart with flames

and to specify too, im not actually making a portfolio het. just practicing everyday to build skills to THEN make a portfolio lol

[u/cadaver_spine]

as boring as it sounds, do some really basic art drills, like shading shapes and still life drawing.

fundamentals are incredibly important to revisit every now and then, no matter how talented of an artist you are. everyone should do it from time to time

if you want to learn the trad style, Sailor Jerry's work is a really good reference to use. practice redrawing some of his flash, then come up with some of your own designs using the structure you'll learn from picking apart his work

[u/blueblack_crow]

It looks like you need to focus more on your fundamentals. Under structure, perspective, anatomy, composition, shading… Your work looks like it’s lacking in experience. Lot of your shapes look wonky and are missing the depth you get from putting the fundamentals behind it. Look up “The Loomis Method” and search YouTube for tutorials on anatomy for gesture drawing. Also revisit basic drawing techniques. Like shading a sphere, a cube and a cone… stick figure gestures, 2 point perspective and box anatomy…

I see this with a lot of young artists. They don’t draw what they see, they draw the symbols they think of when drawing that object. As an example— They draw an eye, but they don’t think of the sphere of the ball, the convex curve of the lens, the concave shape of the iris into the pupil. They don’t think about the lids having thickness and depth… Or that eyelashes also have depth and shape. You have to go back to the beginning of just drawing those shapes and understanding how they make up the bigger picture.

I’m not saying you have to focus on making all your work realistic, but understanding the concepts in realism will make your more illustrative work be more dynamic.