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[Dim_Yimma_H]

May it be music, pixel art, art, 3D Modeling.... name it, I tried it.

Maybe "tried" is the issue? Hard training, instead of trying, can often overcome the difficulties that I think anyone experiences when beginning with a new practice.

The way I see it 3D modeling doesn't have much to do with art since 3D modeling is so technology supported. And drawing art is more about graphical imagination, quite different from music. Some random people just happened to put that stuff under the same label "art".

Here are some options:
- Retro style: Draw everything 1/4 size and scale up.
- Abstract style: Don't bother to change from programmer art.
- Limited Palette style: only use 2 or 3 colours to make things simpler.
- B-game style: Just draw shit, but laugh at yourself for it. MSPaints highly recommended.

That's very good advice. An iconic style can't be wrong, just bold. And that can turn out as a cool feature.

Since the best one can do is to create the piece that you imagined in the first place, it's also possible to be convinced that the final piece is exactly that. Like taking advantage of its flaws and turning them into features.

[increpare]

While you do make some important distinctions D_Y_H, I do feel that it's a bit brutal to insist that the only real art is visual art.      'Art' can legitimately be used to refer to the products of any creative endeavour: visual arts don't get priority here, literature, poetry, music, computer games can all (and are on a regular basis) be counted as art.

I would certainly think of 3D modelling to be as much a visual art as sculpture or painting.  It requires a certain different set of skills, but many are transferrable (anatomy, for instance), and I don't see that it's inherently any more or less complicated to learn, given the tools, than painting or sculpture.  It might require a slightly different sort of graphical imagination, but I don't see that you can say that 3d-modelling is less about graphical imagination than, say, sculpture is, or lithography (And, of course, a lot of people back up their 3D modelling work with a lot of preliminary sketches/plans).

That's very good advice. An iconic style can't be wrong, just bold. And that can turn out as a cool feature.

Exactly.  And it certainly doesn't count as cheating to go for one of these styles.  It just happens that it doesn't take quite as much training for people to be able to work comfortably at an artistic level with these styles than with more developed graphical styles.

Since the best one can do is to create the piece that you imagined in the first place, it's also possible to be convinced that the final piece is exactly that.   Like taking advantage of its flaws and turning them into features.

True words!  :D :D :D

[Hideous]

I also need to get a tablet. I get way better at drawing with a tablet

[Seth]

Pixelation is the best. I can't access the site lately though. Do you know if the forum is down or if it's my corrupt requiem that are obstructing yet another art movement? 

Yeah apparently it was down, it's back up now, though.

Maybe "tried" is the issue? Hard training, instead of trying, can often overcome the difficulties that I think anyone experiences when beginning with a new practice.

This is a very good point, I think.  Even though I've been drawing and pixelling for 8 years (rather noncommittally) it's only recently that I've started to gain any real sort of comfort with the whole thing. 

Also don't just try new types of art, or new styles, but new processes.  I used to try to draw everything by line in a small sketchbook, trying to get every mark perfect the first time, but lately I've done some 48" by 24" or so drawings with charcoal or pastel, trying to 'sculpt' on paper rather than draw and I find it much  more fun and freeing.  And translating that sculpting process to a pen and sketchbook also works for me (also I want to second the suggestion working with pen and just pounding out drawings--experimenting more than perfecting.  Remember, if none of your experiments are failures, you're doing it wrong.)

[joshg]

I fall under the weird category of "artist who can't draw well yet".

While I have massive huge respect for all of you awesome people with mad drawing skills, I totally think it's important to recognize that one can be good at art without being great at drawing.  Growing up, I didn't have a great hand for accurate drawing - still don't - and because I fixated on cartooning and sketches being the "first step" I thought that meant I was a writeoff as far as being an artist was concerned.

Since then I've found that I'm capable of putting together meaningful and beautiful stuff using technical media (photography, video, sound art, code).  What's more, I realized that the precise hand required for drawing gets largely thrown out the window once you're dealing with large strokes of paint on a canvas.

That said, I totally believe that all that stands between me now and me being a reasonably skilled sketch artist is a bucketload of practice.  I've had my easy-mode gifted learning in other areas so I can't really complain about having to learn something the hard way.

All that is hopefully to say, while drawing is awesome (and an artist with drawing skills is mandatory for most game projects), if there's anyone else out there like me I want to encourage you not to limit yourself as "not an artist" because there's one creative technique that you find more challenging than other artists.

Not to mention, there are lessons I've learned in other media that I can totally apply to drawing when I do build up the nerve to tackle it - composition and color and all that good stuff.  Right now I "sketch" with cheap digital photography.

[Dim_Yimma_H]

While you do make some important distinctions D_Y_H, I do feel that it's a bit brutal to insist that the only real art is visual art.      'Art' can legitimately be used to refer to the products of any creative endeavour: visual arts don't get priority here, literature, poetry, music, computer games can all (and are on a regular basis) be counted as art.

You're probably right about me making it sound "brutal".

I'm not very good at nuance in the English language, but would say I am in programming languages, and that's kind of what I mean, that you can be good in one category of art even if not good in another.

Nobody should have to say "I'm not good in art", because there's probably a category of art in which they excel.

[Don Andy]

Just wanted to thank everyone here who gave advice again. I think I finally found my own personal style. I always strived to have the skills of other people, but never actually quite looked into my own skills. As per advice from you guys I just started doodling around and eventually stumbled upon a style that I can do, that I like, and that has a certain neatness about it.

If I ever do a game, I'm going to include each and everyone of you in the credits
(And as it happens, I've already started on a simple platformer :3)

[Border]

your quite lucky in some way... even if you can do "art" you can at least at famous  Programmer art AND your game will work, it might not be as pretty as you imagine but it will work.
On the other side, it hard to do it the other way, artist-programming don't usually give you good game, in fact its more no-game-at-all because os some loussy C!**$% bug .
yes.. i try to do code.. and i fail. But like someone already mentioned, everyone have is own specialty.

[Don Andy]

your quite lucky in some way... even if you can do "art" you can at least at famous  Programmer art AND your game will work, it might not be as pretty as you imagine but it will work.
On the other side, it hard to do it the other way, artist-programming don't usually give you good game, in fact its more no-game-at-all because os some loussy C!**$% bug .
yes.. i try to do code.. and i fail. But like someone already mentioned, everyone have is own specialty.

Heh, I always thought that the artists were more lucky because they don't necessarily need to code. Game Maker, Construct, MMF and stuff. Sure the games with these things are better if you CAN code and you have to pass on cross-platform compatibility, but there's no program that does the art of a game for you :D

I think Samorost might be a good example, as it probably wasn't all that hard to code. The most it does is give a reaction on clicked items, and the solution to a screen is clicking the right "buttons" in the right order, maybe with timing sometimes. Yet everbody loves Samorost.

[medieval]

I think why we think we can't do art, even though some say it's okay or even good what we make (like they do with me), is because we tend to compare ourselves with other artists that seem to have every pixel perfect on their pixel art, or whatever type of art.

Maybe just doing it would be good. Just do it. Even if you think it doesn't look good. As long as you are dedicated to making and finishing everything you need in a game, no matter if you think it's crap, it might (might) turn out pretty nice.

I think I should try this.

[Shambrook]

Alot of people say you shouldn't copy others art but thats crap.
Find an artist you like,a  picture you like, and try and reproduce it. Try and figure out how they drew it. If you do that for long enough you will start to figure it out and how to apply it to your own pictures.

That and practice, I know saying practice is like one of the most unhelpfull things you can say but its the simple truth.

[Hideous]

Good artists copy, great artists steal.
              ~Pablo Picasso

[Al King]

Good artists copy, great artists steal.
              ~Pablo Picasso

Immature poets imitate; mature poets steal.
              ~T.S. Eliot


Immature artists imitate; mature artists steal.
              ~Lionel Trilling


A good composer does not imitate; he steals.
              ~Igor Stravinsky

Well, at least they're internally consistent :D

[Don Andy]

Which makes you wonder who the poor guy was they all stole their stuff from.

[Inane]

Which makes you wonder who the poor guy was they all stole their stuff from.

God

[Bree]

Which makes you wonder who the poor guy was they all stole their stuff from.

Tim Schafer

[Oddball]

Which makes you wonder who the poor guy was they all stole their stuff from.

Squidi?

Sorry, I couldn't resist.

[moi]

Which makes you wonder who the poor guy was they all stole their stuff from.