Neko's Failtastic Art Thread

[Neo Emolga]

I really love this artwork! It's colorful, cool, and it's got an epically awesome style to it.

There's just one little issue that keeps popping up time and time again...

WHY

DO

YOU

KEEP

BERATING

YOURSELF

OVER

AND

OVER

AND

OVER

AND

OVER

AGAIN!?!?!?!?!?!


You have great skills and it's easy to see how much you've poured your passion into this! But please, quit the self-bashing. It's really not good for you, it won't ever help you improve, and the rest of us don't enjoy seeing it either. It's okay to have a bad day once in a while and you feel like you can't do much about anything (I get those from time to time and on those days, everything feels like dry blah), but why so much? It's one thing to humble yourself and not try to push people around with an ego, such as saying "hey, here's my art, please let me know what you think of it and if you see any areas for improvement." But saying "OMG, I'm here to make your eyes bleed and your face cringe at my terrible art!" *Posts awesome art.* "OMG, it's just soooooo baaaaaaaad!!!!11."

Come on! You're awesome at this stuff and everyone agrees! So no more silly self-bashing. Or else I'm going to edit your posts to include pictures of baby puppies, kittens, and bunnies. You have been warned. >:3

[Nekomata]

@Speed-X
Thank you! I used to hate doing backgrounds in my comic- and I still sorta do (because by the time I'm done with lines/flats I'm tired of the page)- but doing a few landscapes in the last few months has made them grow on me a bit. They're still a bit tough though. I had a lot of fun working on that one digital painting assignment- it's not often where I can just go all out and detail things like crazy. (Class is a good reason to do so!) The mountains are stone, but it doesn't really matter. xD I had

I'm sorta back. Still a bit meh on my activity here, but we'll see. I'm drowning in stress and anxiety these days. It should get better after the 5th with one less deadline staring me in the face though.

@Suicune's Fire
I'm pretty sure I did these by selling my soul to some artistic demon that possesses me randomly. I swear some days I can't do anything nice and other days I'm just "How did I do this?!" xD I do love messing with leaves- found a nice brush for doing them recently.

And the tonal study was using a photo reference- but yeah. I told my professor that I would refuse to do photo-realism for the rest of the semester. Spent 16 hours on that. X_x And it was only the first assignment of the semester.

And my holidays were alright. Brothers decided to bring up politics, one threw a fit, said something to make my mom cry, etc. etc. - but up to that point it went well. Then I got hit by a bad case of hypotension yesterday. (I'm fine though! Just tired!)

@Caite-chan
Thank you! I enjoyed the speed paints- had to do them for class. I swear I'm the only one who can be 3 weeks late on a speed paint. xD Only took me an hour or two most on those. I formatted two of them for 1920x1080 if you want to use them as wallpapers- had to scale/crop a little bit to get them to fit right, but it's not too noticeable. I couldn't scale the mountains one cause it was portrait though- it didn't look good scaled or cropped. xD

Spoiler:

@Neo Emolga
There was no self-bashing in my previous posts? The whole eye-burning thing was more a jab at how dead the thread was because I had triple posted at that point (no feedback whatsoever on art) and the "I give up" was me being tired of double/triple posting. I don't like to double/triple post. It feels spammy. I don't deny getting frustrated after 3 back-to-back posts of art with no feedback. Especially when it's art I'm actually happy with (Phayla). It's discouraging at best. Not your fault or the fault of anyone here- it's just how I am. Sometimes I find it easier to stop posting entirely so I don't get any hopes/expectations of feedback. As a whole, I've been relatively happy with my work (I mean, as happy as I ever get over it) as of late- especially my digital painting nonsense and Inktober nonsense (though, no one cares about the Inktober stuff since it's nerdy fan-art, but I'm okay with that cause I wanted to do nerdy fan-art).

---

Anyway, have some videos of my scribbles. xD

Spoiler:

[Suicune's Fire]

@Suicune's Fire
I'm pretty sure I did these by selling my soul to some artistic demon that possesses me randomly. I swear some days I can't do anything nice and other days I'm just "How did I do this?!" xD I do love messing with leaves- found a nice brush for doing them recently.

And the tonal study was using a photo reference- but yeah. I told my professor that I would refuse to do photo-realism for the rest of the semester. Spent 16 hours on that. X_x And it was only the first assignment of the semester.

And my holidays were alright. Brothers decided to bring up politics, one threw a fit, said something to make my mom cry, etc. etc. - but up to that point it went well. Then I got hit by a bad case of hypotension yesterday. (I'm fine though! Just tired!)

Or you're just good at art. xD But I getcha; sometimes my stuff is horrid and other times it turns out really well. I suppose it can be a combination of luck, a good day, and practice! Yeah, the leaves look awesome. :D

Yeah, of course. XD Dude, I use a reference for literally everything I do. Not to do so would be nuts. Yeah, that's why it's awesome! So much effort and detail.

Oh dear. Sounds awkward. =/ Hope you're okay.

There was no self-bashing in my previous posts? The whole eye-burning thing was more a jab at how dead the thread was because I had triple posted at that point (no feedback whatsoever on art) and the "I give up" was me being tired of double/triple posting. I don't like to double/triple post. It feels spammy. I don't deny getting frustrated after 3 back-to-back posts of art with no feedback. Especially when it's art I'm actually happy with (Phayla). It's discouraging at best. Not your fault or the fault of anyone here- it's just how I am. Sometimes I find it easier to stop posting entirely so I don't get any hopes/expectations of feedback. As a whole, I've been relatively happy with my work (I mean, as happy as I ever get over it) as of late- especially my digital painting nonsense and Inktober nonsense (though, no one cares about the Inktober stuff since it's nerdy fan-art, but I'm okay with that cause I wanted to do nerdy fan-art).

Maybe there was none in one post, but it happens far too often and I do have to agree with Neo. xD Nobody likes to read about you berating yourself. It's depressing, unnecessary and completely untrue! Neo's coming from a place of support; he's not having a go at you. But truly, you do it far too often. The thing is, EVERYONE has to double or triple post sometimes. I've gone tens of posts between chapters in stories. In fact, most people don't get feedback on their stories. It's far less likely that someone reads one of the stories here than looks at the art, so compared to most of our writers, you get tonnes of comments. xD This community in general is small, and it doesn't take much to miss a post. You not getting comments is in no way related to the quality of your art. It's got to do with the small number of active members.

Moving on, I love the videos! O: I didn't know you could do straight lines with the brush tool... xD Is it by holding shift? I'm sure I've tried but it never works. It's really awesome to see how you do everything. :D You use so many layers! That must contribute to everything looking so awesome. I use barely any layers because I guess I don't understand the long-term value of them, or how to use them properly. x: Thanks for sharing. All the transformers are awesome. :3c

[Nekomata]

@Suicune's Fire

Or you're just good at art. xD But I getcha; sometimes my stuff is horrid and other times it turns out really well. I suppose it can be a combination of luck, a good day, and practice! Yeah, the leaves look awesome. :D

Yeah, of course. XD Dude, I use a reference for literally everything I do. Not to do so would be nuts. Yeah, that's why it's awesome! So much effort and detail.

Oh dear. Sounds awkward. =/ Hope you're okay.

Sometimes I just need to slow down and take my time- I've still got some old stuff that's turned out better than new stuff. xD Good days and bad days!

And I'm fine. A bit stressed over my brother being a jerk and worn out from the health nonsense. The latter hasn't happened in over 2 years. Was hoping I was done with the hypotension attacks. Thankfully I was home when it happened- had people around to help me get to bed, take medicines, etc. The worst part of it is the dizziness is crippling- I've hit walls and desks on the way down, so I don't like to get up when it happens. Always comes with bad pain/cramps too. Thankfully it all happens in about an hour, so after that it's just sleeping the exhaustion off.

Maybe there was none in one post, but it happens far too often and I do have to agree with Neo. xD Nobody likes to read about you berating yourself. It's depressing, unnecessary and completely untrue! Neo's coming from a place of support; he's not having a go at you. But truly, you do it far too often. The thing is, EVERYONE has to double or triple post sometimes. I've gone tens of posts between chapters in stories. In fact, most people don't get feedback on their stories. It's far less likely that someone reads one of the stories here than looks at the art, so compared to most of our writers, you get tonnes of comments. xD This community in general is small, and it doesn't take much to miss a post. You not getting comments is in no way related to the quality of your art. It's got to do with the small number of active members.

Yes, but you'll notice that any of those posts are -months- old. MONTHS. Even some of the more recent old posts didn't have any of the self-berating. I've been better about that lately- or try to. I still don't think my art is -amazing-, but I'm happy with the progress I've made. I decided to start posting again since I've been feeling a bit more positive lately (relative to my usual negativity, anyway). And it does indeed feel like Neo was having a go at me- not even back for a few hours and I'm getting lectured over things from months ago. And I was wondering why I was staying away from PXR for a while... >.>

And when it comes to double posting- it's more personal thing. It's ingrained in me that double posting is spamm-ish and I hate spamming. I prefer to only post when I've got new stuff to post in art threads- but when I post too many times without comments it still feels like I'm spamming- so I don't. I usually wait for posts/comments between posts- usually. This also lets me put more into a single post. If it's been long enough I'll allow an exception. But after two or three times, I sometimes just decide to stop posting entirely unless it's a comic/story thread. I mean, this is just an art thread- stopping new art posts isn't really as bad as halting updates on PRS (which I did for different reasons- hiatus happened and I just forgot to resume here on PXR when it ended).

And while the lack of posts may not be related to the quality of art, it's hard not to feel a little disappointed when you post something you're really proud of and all you hear are the crickets. </3

Moving on, I love the videos! O: I didn't know you could do straight lines with the brush tool... xD Is it by holding shift? I'm sure I've tried but it never works. It's really awesome to see how you do everything. :D You use so many layers! That must contribute to everything looking so awesome. I use barely any layers because I guess I don't understand the long-term value of them, or how to use them properly. x: Thanks for sharing. All the transformers are awesome. :3c

You can! The shift trick works for horizontal/vertical lines- I can't seem to get it to work for diagonals even though it IS possible. I'll have to mess with it more later on.

And you've seen nothing when it comes to layers. That Digital Painting Final (or the sink with dishes tonal) are in the HUNDREDS of layers. 8D Most of my things don't get past a few dozen depending on the subject. Comic pages get quite a few more layers, but that's how I structure the pages more than anything- I'm sure I can cut down the layers if I tried. xD

And I maintain: MTMTE is a comic worth reading even for people who aren't fans of Transformers. It's got such wonderful writing and the main artist is amazing (though, it seems his time working on it is done </3)- I've never felt so emotionally attached to cars/robots before. </3 There was a lot of screaming at the end of season 2 on my end. The Lost Light Fest / Inktober nonsense was to celebrate the end of MTMTE and the beginning of Lost Light (essentially MTMTE season 3 just with a different name.) It's won the best sci-fi comic award this year- best ongoing serial comic and best writer in 2015 too!

Edit: Reading through many of my posts in this thread, I've been far more positive on my work than I remember. My joke about people not posting cause burned eyes was the closest thing I could find to self-berating? I'm so confused.

[Neo Emolga]

And it does indeed feel like Neo was having a go at me- not even back for a few hours and I'm getting lectured over things from months ago. And I was wondering why I was staying away from PXR for a while... >.>

I'm not sure what you mean by you saying it feels like I'm having a go at you, but I can definitely tell you feel something I'm doing is negative to you. That's definitely not what I'm trying to do, but I'm not sure what exactly I said feels wrong to you. If you could explain, it would help, because I was only trying to help you see the bright side of things in a casual, light-hearted, and somewhat whimsical way.

Neko, we're all friends here. No one is trying to push you away or encourage you to leave. No one is trying to offend you. I just feel the negativity isn't necessary and only hurts in the end.

[Nekomata]

@Neo Emolga
I don't know, the fact I come back, post new art for the first time in -months- without saying any negative about the art and I start getting lectured about self-berating? If it's the "Let's see how long before the thread dies" comment, that's a jab at how I'm incapable of keeping threads alive- typically of my own lack of updating/business. That was in no way a negative comment- my threads die a lot. It happens. Sure, I prefer not to have them die- but it's typically because I get too busy than anything. I wasn't in any way feeling negative yesterday. If I were, I wouldn't have dared attempted to return to activity around here.

Reading through my thread in general, I've been positive in this thread. I know I can be self-critical of my work, but I've been better about that in the last several months. I don't know where you're getting the self-berating. Especially in my first post here after months. If it's for past stuff, which I know I can be a bit 'meh' about my work in chats at times, that was -ages- ago and I see no reason for it to have been brought up.

Mostly, I'm just confused where this came up from? If there's any negativity I'm feeling around PXR, it's about things in the past completely unrelated to my art that initially caused my long hiatus- things I shouldn't be upset over but still am because I took things badly when I probably shouldn't have.

[Neo Emolga]

@Neo Emolga
I don't know, the fact I come back, post new art for the first time in -months- without saying any negative about the art and I start getting lectured about self-berating? If it's the "Let's see how long before the thread dies" comment, that's a jab at how I'm incapable of keeping threads alive- typically of my own lack of updating/business. That was in no way a negative comment- my threads die a lot. It happens. Sure, I prefer not to have them die- but it's typically because I get too busy than anything. I wasn't in any way feeling negative yesterday. If I were, I wouldn't have dared attempted to return to activity around here.

Reading through my thread in general, I've been positive in this thread. I know I can be self-critical of my work, but I've been better about that in the last several months. I don't know where you're getting the self-berating. Especially in my first post here after months. If it's for past stuff, which I know I can be a bit 'meh' about my work in chats at times, that was -ages- ago and I see no reason for it to have been brought up.

Mostly, I'm just confused where this came up from? If there's any negativity I'm feeling around PXR, it's about things in the past completely unrelated to my art that initially caused my long hiatus- things I shouldn't be upset over but still am because I took things badly when I probably shouldn't have.

That is true, you have gotten better about not being so hard on yourself lately as opposed to things that were said months ago. I still wish you'd change the thread's title, though. I think a few people have brought that up, and yet it still hasn't changed...

As far as the lack of comments and feedback goes, well, that's normal. Sometimes people miss an update or they don't check your gallery out every day, especially if you've been on hiatus for a while. If you really want more feedback, you could specifically ask people in a VM or PM saying "hey, I posted some new art. If you could check it out and let me know what you think, I would appreciate that!" When Liokora posts a new update in Pokémon Alpha, she mentions all the people that are following it and has a kind of "subscriber's list" going. That might be a good solution for you to consider as well. Look at people who have given you feedback before, ask if they want to be placed on such a list to be notified when new updates occur, mention them when you post an update, and see if that helps. I'll admit, if Liokora didn't do this, I might have missed a few updates simply because I get busy and involved with other stuff going on. I may not check the thread every day, but I definitely check mentions.

It might also help if you check out other people's art threads and give feedback for their art, also. Or writing. Sometimes getting feedback involves a little sowing and reaping and reciprocity in a "if I review yours, will you review mine?" kind of way.

Also, it helps to be more generally involved with the community as well. Every little bit you do to participate, even if it's just small, silly stuff, still helps. Like Secret Santa, chat threads, or even just the casual stuff. It helps people get to know you better, build rapport, and as a result, they become more interested in all the stuff you do.

[Nekomata]

That is true, you have gotten better about not being so hard on yourself lately as opposed to things that were said months ago. I still wish you'd change the thread's title, though. I think a few people have brought that up, and yet it still hasn't changed...

The title wasn't meant to be self-berating, just silly. If I was going for self-berating, I'd put "Neko's crappy art." or something like that. Failtastic is a silly word in my book and therefore is used in a silly way.

As far as the lack of comments and feedback goes, well, that's normal. Sometimes people miss an update or they don't check your gallery out every day, especially if you've been on hiatus for a while. If you really want more feedback, you could specifically ask people in a VM or PM saying "hey, I posted some new art. If you could check it out and let me know what you think, I would appreciate that!" When Liokora posts a new update in Pokémon Alpha, she mentions all the people that are following it and has a kind of "subscriber's list" going. That might be a good solution for you to consider as well. Look at people who have given you feedback before, ask if they want to be placed on such a list to be notified when new updates occur, mention them when you post an update, and see if that helps. I'll admit, if Liokora didn't do this, I might have missed a few updates simply because I get busy and involved with other stuff going on. I may not check the thread every day, but I definitely check mentions.

It's normal, I know that. I'm not one who likes to bother people with VMs/PMs. I always worry about coming off pushy that way. I do use mentions whenever I respond to posts- but I try to minimize the number of mentions I send between posts. That's why I can be slow to respond in this thread- I typically try to make sure I've got new art to post with the mentions. I do have a mention list for PRS stuff, but I forget to use it a lot. And again, I don't want to ping/mention people 5 times in a row and spam their inboxes. My fault there. Either way, I'm well aware activity is low. That's why I don't expect this thread to stay active for extended periods of time. I'm fine with that. I'll just take breaks and come back as I've always done.

It might also help if you check out other people's art threads and give feedback for their art, also. Or writing. Sometimes getting feedback involves a little sowing and reaping and reciprocity in a "if I review yours, will you review mine?" kind of way.

I'm very guilty of being a lurker. I admit that. Half of it is because I don't know what to say, the other half is I'm afraid to say the wrong thing and upset people. And I'm not one to post "If I review yours, will you review mine" type stuff. Again, I don't want to a bother in that regard. I do need to be better about not lurking.

Also, it helps to be more generally involved with the community as well. Every little bit you do to participate, even if it's just small, silly stuff, still helps. Like Secret Santa, chat threads, or even just the casual stuff. It helps people get to know you better, build rapport, and as a result, they become more interested in all the stuff you do.

I've been around for what... years? I'm not well known because of my lurker status and I'm sorta okay with that. Sometimes I wish I'd be more involved with the -planning- of stuff since I far more enjoy making things for people to enjoy than being the one enjoying it (if that makes sense?) but the senior staff don't seem to require any assistance on things, and that's fine. Anyway, the last time I got involved with a community thing it backfired in my face and is why I took a long break. Personal issue more than anything, but I'm still a bit hurt/upset over it. I'm going to be taking it -very- slow about trying to get back into the community as a result- that's why I started with my art thread and PRS. Not that it's been a great start >.> I'm not a very sociable person by nature, though I do like to be social. I just find it very difficult at times and can get a bit discouraged.

[SassySnivy]

I get where Neo is coming from. I think he has good intentions but is coming off as a tad pushy.

However, self-deprecating humor IS a thing and despite Neko having a history of berating herself often...like she said, she has been INFINITELY better about it lately. But yeah, I personally see nothing wrong with the title myself, either. It's meant to be silly in a self-deprecating way.

Just wanted to drop by to say my piece! :o But yeah in terms of PXR, we ALL just to remember that not getting any feedback at all, even after posting a piece you're really proud of, isn't something unheard of around here. I guess most people here just like to look and admire without really saying much. PXR is sadly not very art-centric, so it's no real surprise that the art boards don't get a lot of attention. Of course if you've been here for a while, chances are you already knew that. :p Sometimes we all just need a reminder because even as I say this, I STILL get irritated every now and then at a lack of much feedback on my art. That's one reason as to why I like to try and leave comments. The only problem with that is--and I think a lot of other people can relate--I tend to not say anything if I just can't think of anything constructive to say. If I can't think of something relatively constructive, then I feel as if I'm wasting the other person's time.

Neo is definitely right about one thing: just putting yourself out there more really does make a HUGE difference.

[Chibi Altaria]

Damn. I wish I could draw backgrounds that good. Or at all. XD I absolutely adoooooore the way you do lighting, and it's really quite magnificent. Your mountains are especially well drawn, like Speedy said. I also love the Pumpkaboo one for Halloween, and I may be partial to the Alola Ninetales cause it's one of my new favourites. xP

I've always wanted to learn how to draw proper clouds, to be honest. I can only seem to do cartoon styled ones. xD I'd like to see a tutorial or something from you sometime!


And yush, Neko, no one likes to see you berating yourself or your art. </3 I know you probably don't mean it this way but, to me, it makes all the hard work and effort you put into it seem like it means nothing at all. Not only are you belittling yourself and your work, but also a lot of other artists who strive really hard to reach the kind of level you're at. Just think, for a moment, how they feel when they see you saying such awful things about your great work and they may not even come close. They might think to themselves "well if she thinks she's no good then obviously I'll never get there". And even if you're joking, not everyone else knows that.

That's just one viewpoint, but I'd like you to understand. Like Neo said, it's okay to be humble and have off days but please recognise your skill level and take pride in your work -- even if it may not live up to the standards you yourself may want. As a perfectionist my artwork will never seem perfect to me, but that doesn't mean I'm not pleased with how it turned out. You should be happy with all your artwork, no matter how it turns out. As an artist what you do should make you smile and be happy. If you're not happy in the first place then why draw? You learn from everything you do, no matter how it turns out in your eyes. I know it's always hard when you you don't get feedback, because you feel as though your work isn't important or that no one loves it. But that's not true! A lot of people may see it and just not give feedback. More importantly, if what you do matters to yourself then it's never a wasted effort. C: