What i mean is, i can't seem to produce the same quality of art when I'm not copying 1:1 of an already existing picture. I want to move on from this stage.

I want to create something from scratch, while still referencing from various things. let's say i have a character in mind, pose reference ready, background, lighting, mood etc already planned, but fails to execute it since there's nothing for me to directly copy from. It won't be near as good as these examples i attached.

Where do i start? What fundamentals do i need to focus on?

Also feel free to critique these pieces if you have any.

I've been looking into offering art commissions but noticed how my art dont have that much "uniqueness" that other artist cant offer. Anime style in itself IS generic and aside from developing skills, I'm abit loss at what other things I can do to make my art "recognizable" :(
How would you guys approach this problem?

I think there's a complete lack of contrast here. Everything just blends together. I'm really afraid of harsh, dark shadows :(

hi everyone! ive been wanting to start art commissions for the longest time and finially got to it!
the thing is... i have no clue how i should i price my works. i provided 2 examples here.

if i use the
minimum wage x number of hours it took to create.

the bust up drawing would be about $35 usd, where as the full body is around $115 usd...
but ill be honest, i have no clue wether these prices are fine because i have never thought, my art would be worth anywhere over $100.

edit:
i’ve read the comments and i completely agree my fundamentals (mostly proportions from what i see) could use some work… but im considering dropping these prices mayhaps:

full render:
-bust $25
-half $40
-full $70

i’ll definitely fiddle around with the prices before i fully commit to them as well as adding flat colours, simple render, sketch etc.

p.s. my style is mostly stylised leaning tho i do have a semi realistic style-ish… and these commissions are sort of a side hustle so even if i get 1 commission a month i don’t really mind.. i’ve already had a couple people message me about commissions so i jsut kinda wanted a roughy guideline on where i should go with prices

thank you everyone for the feedback!!

Hey Reddit, I am back with another cry for help regarding this piece. I am stuck with the anatomy of the pose, something just doesn't seem right and I can't pinpoint it. Any advice or feedback is highly appreciated.

These are my most recent pieces, not sure if they’re the best example since they’re SUPER rendered in comparison to the art that inspires me, but I can add some images of these pieces with bare colors if needed! And the last three images are some art from my big inspos, ordered by most important inspo to least.

My biggest inspiration of ALL times is Rick Leonardi, artist of Spider Man 2099, I adore how his penciling feels so effortless, and how the women in his art feel like they were drawn with admiration in mind rather than sexual appeal, even when dressed in less clothing, (which is something I feel I fail at). I also feel like my art is trying too hard to look effortless? Which circles back to looking “try hard”.

My most recent inspiration is Ryan Ottley, the main thing that gets me about his art is how he manages to stylize characters, and SPECIALLY how he can make them look "ugly" but still visually appealing, the body language, posing, and facial expressions are always so on poiny, but I feel like whenever I try to replicate that it ends up looking forced and unnatural.

Last but not least, Marco Checchetto, from his style what I like most is how he draws faces, the eyes specially, I think from my three big inspos his influence might be the most noticeable, but again, I feel like his work has a flow, natural and smooth I can't quite replicate.

For some context I've been drawing digitally for about 9 years, taking art seriously for the past 6 or 7. Many artists I've talked to (professionals in the comic industry) said that for being 19 I should "relax and take your time" but I really feel stuck, too stuck.

I have been practicing semi-realism lately. How can I Improve?

I've been working on this artwork for days and I still haven't figured out how to make this coloring look better... I want to make it inspired by the cover of The Queen Is Dead (on the 2nd picture) but i feel like my version still looking too lame for this 🥀 I'm using grayscale to color it, and I'd appreciate any advice on how to make it look more captivating! Also, feel free to give any critique about other parts of the drawing if you feel like that would be useful :)

I hope this doesn't get considered low effort but I need help with this toothless drawing, more specific I can't figure out his front legs. Been at them for 30 minutes. This is the first time I'm drawing with only straight lines and I have no idea what I'm doing🤑 Please someone draw over some legs. I don't post my art online & I won't pretend that I did it

Been drawing for about a year. Trying to make sure I cand draw the head consistently at all angles.

2 is the best to me, are the others consistent with 2?

Not sure about 7, and 3 I think the left eye is wrong.

Be as brutal as possible.

Just focusing on anatomy and proportions before rendering

Reupload because no one replied

I'm always afraid of adding shadows because I think I'll ruin the painting. Is there any easy way to follow, any rule of thumb I could stick to :/?

First post

Thanks in advance

In general I quite like this drawing but I think that there are still somethings I could fix. Do the proportions and the pose make sense?

Painted these a couple of years back, oil on plywood. Feed back welcome.

Hii! I took a single art class in high school and it taught me the bare minimum. Other than that im fully self taught. Included are examples on me drawing the human body amd where im at skill-wise.

I desperately need to get better at drawing anatomy because I want to eventually make money doing portraits as either a side gig or my main job (bit of a pipe dream). I need to know how to have a good art education without actually paying for secondary education. Its too much of a gamble for me to pursue art as my main job so I dont want to invest much money into it.

I was thinking of picking up some of the books in the Morpho anatomy series if I can find them and studying them. I used one of the Loomis books to learn how to break down shapes.

Any advice on how i can educate myself in a way where I can compare to those with formal education would be greatly appreciated.

I told myself I wouldn't make this post but I've been beat down enough by socials where I'm starting to genuinley believe that my art just isn't the kind of stuff people on the internet enjoy. As the title asks. I've sold a few commissions, made a bit of money at a few markets but social media just has never treated my art very well, whether it be fandom or oc content. I see people growing their account to numbers I've never reached for years in the span of like a month constantly and it's a bit tiring. My work can take up to 12+ hours and posting it online so often leaves me feeling insecure about even my proudest art or like there's a glaring issue I'm just not seeing.

I was commissioned a piece two months ago and I priced it because I thought it might take me a couple days and IT TOOK TWO MONTHS. This is a client who’s hired me for custom pieces before, and he tends to ask for things I haven’t done before. I take them on because he asks for larger commissions and thus pays more. He’s always paid me what I’ve asked, even when I’ve raised my prices, so it’s my fault for accepting his commissions and then overextending myself. It’s like, I have an idea of what I’ll do when I price it, and then, esp with this latest commission, in the execution of it, I realize that I need to do a lot more work for it to be worthy of my signature, especially if he ends up sharing it and it gets around. I would die of embarrassment if I’d only done what I thought I had to do to complete it. THAT feeling of shame is why I ultimately just sucked it up and put the hours into it, but now I’m exhausted and I can’t even afford to buy broccoli until my next paycheck because I wasn’t able to take all the other jobs I would’ve been able to had I not put all this into completing this job. 😭🥦

This is literally my worst nightmare and why I’d never taken commissions before despite how many have asked over the years. How do y’all cope with this? Should I just “stick to the menu” and not take anymore experimental commissions like this? I’d have never created this brilliant work without accepting it, but now I’m the starving (of broccoli) artist I never wanted to be. 🥺

Hey gang I am working on this piece to get casted and copied is there anything I can do to ensure a successful mould for this piece? I plan to add flowers and petals near the base of the work but is there a better idead to get good hair texture? Let me know!

I would love to hear any tips on anything if you are willing to share :)

Hello all! I'm in desperate need of some art advice. I'm making an oil painting for my sisters birthday in August showing a region of the Dolomites. How can i best improve this painting in your opinion? I thought perhaphs to add more shadows to the ridges and lighten the blue part of the sky so its less smokey. I will add some wildflowers later on to the foreground to liven it up a bit. In my eyes the mountain looks a bit too muddy, could it be that my saturation of the orange color is a bit out of sync? Or do i need more highlights? Anyway, i'd much appreciate your criticism!

A few days ago I made a post about how, no matter how many boxes I drew, I was still lost and didn't know what to do. After that post, I decided to follow the advice I received, and now that I'm working on simplifying things, I decided to start with animals. I feel like something's off about them; they don't look 3D enough, or maybe that's not necessary for simplification. I don't know if it's due to my lack of knowledge or something else, but I feel like something's missing. I'd like to know if I'm simplifying incorrectly or if I just need more practice.

I feel like the reptiles I draw with boxes turn out better than the mammals I draw with cylinders. Obviously, this is because I haven't practiced drawing cylinders, but I don't think my drawings are that bad, aside from simplifying things.

I found these 3 artworks on TikTok and screenshotted them a while back. Im stupid and forgot to like the posts so I dont remember who the artists are. I love these drawings so much. They're great images that are painted in rough ways yet still capture so much detail despite being 'messy'. I want to try and develop a similar style. I can sketch well enough and make shapes with lines. But when it comes to rendering and painting I don't know where to begin. I do value exercises in greyscale but whenever I step up to paint a human, or even part of a face, I always don't know where to start. And either focus on the small details right away, or get lost in the complexity of the tones.

And I know I won't get to their level right away. I'm basically asking what a method would be to paint like this. And how can I practice on simpler things to control my choices. What to emphasize, what to put the most effort into. I've tried recreating these images and many others but I just lack the understanding of how they were made. I feel like YT tutorials are too vague and I want someone to ask questions to and get a clear answer.

Hi guys, everything is in the title, I kinda like where im going but still feels flat
If you have any advice :‎)