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heres a rant from another forum

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DJ Elly

Posted: Sep 10 2009, 10:46 PM

Take off every 'Zan'
[*]

Group: Members
Posts: 23364
Member No.: 1675
Joined: 28-November 05

Status: (0d) [--]

QUOTE

This was to be filed under the Debate and Rants board, but yeah. If you don't care for rants, eh.

Mostly targeted at what I see on LLF and NK, although dA is guilty of a lot of what I think too.

If anyone isn't familiar with what I do, I'm an on-again-off-again graphic designer. I make sigs, avatars, wallpapers, posters, buttons, banners, and all sorts of doohickeys. It's one of the few fields of art I seem the least bit competent in. Actually, I pride myself in being pretty damn versatile and savvy with the GIMP, a free image-editor. I tackle most of my serious works with an artist-like mentality. I have a solid grasp on composition (thank you Communications Technology) and I know how to look at art in a constructive manner.

And it seems to me that savvy has become largely useless. Half the time I go out of my way to constructively critique a piece –– which is to say, I'm not insulting, and I try hard to be friendly –– it falls on deaf ears. Either I get flat-out ignored, or the artist seems obligated to defend his/her work as "doodles", that they weren't trying their best. In the worst of scenarios, I literally get singled out in an awkward scenario. Especially if the artist in question is emotional. So much for attempting to give a constructive damn if I get told off for it.

Then again, the art in question seems to be mostly just that. On too many boards I go to (see: LLF, NK64), the norm is MS Paint doodle topics. And they're simply everywhere. Much as I'm for board entertainment, this practice seems asinine to me. It opened the way to the commonly and irritating practice of requests. I'm not saying that I pin the blame for requests on these sorts of topics, but their nature certainly encouraged the practice.

I hate doing requests. I loathe doing requests. I like the end result that I helped someone, but as a sigger, a lot of requests just violate the way I make sigs. I have received truly asinine requests, dealing with characters, in horrible poses, or in horrible quality. I have received requests for characters who have no business in a decent signature, or my most hated and common request of all, double focals. Double focals are the bane of siggers, and incorporating multiple characters is a massive no-no. The problem is, that's what everyone wants.

"Take Steve Downie from the Philadelphia Flyers and Luigi, and put my name on it when you're done!"
...I don't make this rocket ship up. This was an actual request.
That's probably not Steve Downie. But you get the point.

As far as LLF and NK has been concerned, I've been in a bit of a minority. Graphic designers are far more rare, as opposed to traditional artists or digital artists. The part I hate about it is that doing requested signatures is a far less appreciable art form, it seems, as opposed to traditional art. I'm not expecting praise for anything I do, don't get the wrong idea. I am reasonably confident, however, that few people who have requested me for a signature really understand how time-consuming and skillful the process is. But everyone clearly understands how long it takes to draw art. In my experience, people can be far more lenient and appreciative of the main art people, to the point where they ascend to a higher plane of existence. Of course, this is probably all in my head. That's probably not the reason people can be so lenient with traditional artists...

A lot of the artists I know are pretty skilled. So it's rarely a matter of skill that makes one more popular than the other. It seems to me the most popular artists are sniveling little wimps with no self esteem, even if they are consistently able to produce high-quality work, and continue to X at their blood-stained wrists because of a perceived idea of inferiority, despite any praise or comments to the contrary.

All of you know someone like this. Every last one of you. I know several. Half the time they are stewing in their own lack of self esteem to actually give a damn of the comments being made on their art, mostly positive at that.

Respect in the art world, it seems as of late, revolves around popularity. It can be applied a numerical value based sheerly off of how many pages of comments there are, how many pages the topic has marched on. This is a poor representation of respect or skill, but the fact that so many aspire to achieve this –– and in the process, lose themselves and go emo when they can't –– disappoints me on many levels.

It's for reasons like these that I remain a 'on-again-off-again' graphic designer, but I get bursts of inspiration when I can.

This was a rant, so I don't have much to say that could inspire people, but I do have one thing. Artists, please please please please please... take some goddamn pride in your art. No, don't be a bigot, but if you took the time to spill your blood and guts into making a masterpiece that people seem to enjoy, by all means, enjoy the ride, find some inspiration, and get back at it. If someone comments, for God's sakes, listen. Very rarely is someone outright attacking work anymore. Enjoy the praise, and accept the criticism. Get out of your shell of self-pity and go make something out of yourself.

I mean, damn. Really, the art scene should be so much better then this.

This post has been edited by DJ Elly on Sep 10 2009, 10:47 PM

--------------------

Hey

Littlink	Posted: Sep 10 2009, 10:50 PM
hip 2b square Group: Members Posts: 5146 Member No.: 2010 Joined: 11-April 06 Status: (0d)	Mm, good rant! I concur with many of the statements and enjoyed a good read. -------------------- [████████░░] 80%

Private Investigator Drei	Posted: Sep 10 2009, 11:08 PM
OO Qan[T], eliminating the target! Group: Members Posts: 659 Member No.: 5145 Joined: 6-April 08 Status: (0d)	I tell bad artists off. Especially if it isn't fan art or is with a theme. Art should be about a message, whether it be you like something or you are appalled by a common action. So many of them don't get this and instead go to the style copying route. See here for what I think about bad art though. I didn't make it but it is amazing. Also great rant Elly, if I could I'd give you a +1 smart for that post. This post has been edited by Private Investigator Drei on Sep 10 2009, 11:09 PM -------------------- My ref. - By: Paji, fujiko(Spy Outfit) SEE, DO, BREAK, TOUCH, YOU JUST GOTTA ROW ROW, FIGHT THE POWER … EVERYTHING CAN BE UNDONE BY PURE LOVE, AND YOUR WILL… THERE IS NO SUBSTITUTION FOR GREAT DAZE, AND THERE NEVER WILL BE …

DJ Elly	Posted: Sep 11 2009, 12:12 AM
Take off every 'Zan' Group: Members Posts: 23364 Member No.: 1675 Joined: 28-November 05 Status: (0d)	Oh no I did not write it. -------------------- Hey

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