Art Help It Be Not Shit

i tried putting an hour or so toward art for the first time in years and gave birth to these two abominations. this is the only place i have, criticise them i beg you

also apparently i now need an imgur account to get proper forum links for these and i'm too lazy to do that so bear with me and take this garbage instead of organized pictures

 

Well, you said it, so I can safely say that it is indeed shit. I'll try to explain why:

In the first image, the focus isn't that clear. Even though it's nighttime, all the colours are still very saturated. The lantern and the woodblock (I assume that's what it is) have thick lines, but the moon and hills do not. The fire has a strange bowtie-shaped glow, but you said so yourself already.
To use some technical terms: the picture uses colours schematically instead of symbolically, which I think would have fit better. Children's paintings often use colours like that, where a brown line represents a tree's base and a green blob its leaves. Fire is a warm and comforting thing, but the painting doesn't convey that. I would change the colour of the hills to something almost grey, and the woodblock to something more in-tune to the fire's colour.
I don't know whether you intend the painting to be realistic, but if you do, I've got some more tips: add perspective so it's clearer the camera is above the the woodblock. The lantern itself is missing a knob and a fuel source (the fire seems to be sitting on the floor of the lantern, but fire always comes from a point, then goes outward and upward). You could also say the fire shouldn't be visible at all, as a lot of lanterns have semi-transparent glass to make the light softer. Lastly, the flowers on the hills are abnormally big.
Some positive feedback: the moon looks really nice. Nice colours, nice shape, nice foggy details. You could perhaps make it stand out a little more by removing the stars close to it, as the light of the (full) moon would render them invisible, similarly to how the sun does that during the day. The shape of the hills keeps the eyes of the viewer on the painting and directs them towards the lantern. The colour of the light of the fire is really good: it's easy to make them too golden or too dull, but you got it just right.

The second picture is leagues better. It's simple, has a clear focus, the background elements aren't jarring, and the colours are pleasant to look at. The shapes of the rock and the guy are perfect, and the minuscule white dot instantly shows what the object he uses is. There's still some stuff to criticise, of course. The drop shadow of the rock is very, very small. It's a sunset, which means the sun is almost perpendicular to everything, so the shadow should be many times longer than the object itself. The rock's own shadow is completely dark and envelops the entire thing, but I'm guessing that's an artistic choice, which is entirely fine. The sun's reflection on the water has a weird shape: realistically, it should be a straight line as wide as the lowest visible part of the sun extending towards the camera, getting slightly wider the closer to the camera it gets. The reflection you drew has a conic shape as well, but it's inverted, and it starts too low and ends too high. The waves don't have a consistent shape. There's no light or foam, they're quite flat, and they only have one colour. The birds look nice, but it looks a bit like there's a cloud around them, which is odd. Lastly the sky has a gradient that goes from orange to brown, while realistically it would go from red to orange to blue.

One last thing: you said your art was shit, and honestly, yes it is, but that doesn't mean it stays shit. There are plenty of people out there who 'tried art', got dissatisfied with their results and never tried ever again. It's shit now, your art will always be shit in the beginning, but the more art you make the less shit it will be. If you want to become better, if that's a genuine wish of yours, all you have to do is practise. Perhaps with a proper drawing tablet and Clip Studio Paint though, if you've got the money.

Anyway, that's my essay of a response, I should go to bed

 

Don't beat yourself up about the drawings. Everybody starts somewhere. Your concepts are interesting and have some substance to them. It's good that you've incorporated environments as your pieces since that gives context to the entire composition but they still need more clarification for them to come across clearer. The main things I would suggest is practice, carrying a sketchbook with you at all times, and looking at references.

Practice is self-explanatory. In order to improve, you need to learn and review previous works to develop further. If you truly want to improve, I would suggest drawing multiple quick sketches a day. They don't have to be masterpieces or even good for that matter. What does matter, is that you're experimenting and adjusting accordingly. Seeing what can be changed or improved is just one step of the process. Identify what works well and what doesn't. Branch off from that and create more pieces until you've made progress.

You can also carry around a sketchbook. Many artists will have one on them at all times since the world provides infinite inspiration. I for one have 3 I try to use daily (It's hard to commit and get motivated to. I know this from experience) and 4 others for larger scale stuff. Not everything you make has to be a finished piece. You can always go back and make changes where you see fit. If you see something in nature or during your daily routine, just start sketching. It can be for a few seconds or an hour. Look for whatever inspires you to create. Not every artist can draw anything they want to the standards they desire. Many take years of practice and sketching to master their mediums.

Lastly, utilizing reference is a given for anyone trying to improve at art. Don't know how to draw landscapes? Look at some landscapes. Don't know how to draw people? Look at figures, models, or anatomy. There are many things that go into landscapes which not everyone pays attention to. Learn about light sources, figure-ground, perspective, color theory, warm vs cool colors, etc. There is plenty to learn. Look for tutorials if you need to. There are a plethora of media that show you how to improve. You can simply search on Youtube on how to do specific things in art. Learning from others can go a long way. If you're confused about something just watch videos of people who know the solution to your problems. Even just looking at photographs on google can help you improve. Online photographs aren't the best method in improving your craft but they are a good start. Landscape photographs are often altered with editing so looking at nature face to face is the better method. But it's understandable to use stuff online since not everyone has access to good landscapes.

Continuing on the topic of reference is dealing with inspiring yourself to create and getting inspiration from others. Whatever inspires you to create should be utilized. It could be the environment, materials, concepts, references, etc. Find what works for you and go from there. On the other hand, gaining inspiration from others is a great means of improving. Find the types of art you enjoy to look at and go from there; however, you should not blatantly copy others. Tracing is a big no. Mimicking others for practice or to improve is fine since you can pick up techniques and methods they utilize to help further your understanding of the mediums. Sometimes you will find a medium that you never thought that you would enjoy. But remember, when you create something, make sure it's your own work and not a direct copy. Making something in someone's style is fine and is commonly done since it shows appreciation of the original artist. But try to develop your own. Show what you can create with your own talents.

All in all, just keep practicing, learn from others, learn new techniques, discover new mediums. It's incredibly rare for someone to create a masterpiece their first try. Most artists don't succeed on their first try. Just keep practicing, stay motivated, dedicated, and you will improve in no time. Good luck with the art!

Some artists I would suggest looking at:
'KevinOilPainting' on YouTube (Oil Painter)
'Porfirio Jimenez Art' on Youtube (Spray Painter)
'LethalChris Drawing' on Youtube (Illustrator)
'markcrilley' on YouTube (Illustrator and Author)
'Peter Draws' on Youtube (Illustrator)

 

not gonna claim to be an expert on the topic, but i got a few individual ideas on how things could be slightly "improved", or rather, how i'd personally do them. Take for example the sunset one

Spoiler: The sky

Probably the biggest thing about the drawing, at least area wise, is the sky. Color wise it looks quite mustardy, since as the gradient goes upwards, the brightness drops while nothing happens to saturation and color hue. So, let's change those two! What I'd recommend is...

-Increase saturation on colors depending on how dark they are. It's not really a written rule about coloring, nor is it realistic, but it generally makes things a lot more pleasant to look at.

-Use multiple colors. In this case, we can directly pick the order from the light spectrum, since that's what the sky's color is based on after all. So, yellow from sun, transitioning to red through orange, transitioning to space-y blue through purple. Though, even when coloring a single colored object, using its neighboring colors can really give it some oomph value. Want something blue? Consider mixing in a bit of its adjacent colors purple and green.

Spoiler: The water

Not much to say about the water; A blue mass is what people expect to see when talking about oceans, and a blue mass is what you have. Though, water is reflective, and the color is based entirely on reflections, so you could always mirror your sky onto the water and color tweak it to meet the expectations. However, with the palette of a sunset, it might end up looking a bit odd. Though, since it is the second largest portion of the image after all, and large areas of monotonous colour can be a bit jarring on the eye, you could adapt the sky's colors into the water's luminosity or just add contrast for details.

Spoiler: Reflections

Since we're on the topic of water and reflections, let's talk about the sun's reflection. Since it's far off in the horizon, its reflection sits over the entire body of water. Over that area, there are thousands of deformations to the water caused by waves, all of which slightly bend and spread the reflection to another direction. All of those squish into a small portion of the image, which often ends up looking more like mere lines than a uniform cone. Also, uh, the shine isn't separate from the horizon :)

Spoiler: The shadow

Typically when you have a single light source, such as the sun, there are no shadows next to an object, only behind it. Fixing it is as simple as wiping off the excess from the sides. Yes, I'm making a bold assumption that you weren't 500iq while drawing and think about how the water'd refract the object's base with the blob-ish look.

Another minor detail that often makes shadows look nicer and more realistic, is contact hardening shadows. Aka, the closer a shadow's edge is to it's starting point, the sharper it'll be. This is because no light typically emits from a single point, hence, shadows blur up with distance.


And another thing that looks off is the intensity discrepancy of the shadows. If the lack of light is enough to leave the other side of an object pitch black, you'd expect the shadow of said object to also be nearly as dark. Another thing about the lighting is, that since we're not directly behind the object, we should see the sun light up at least a small portion of it. It kills the artistic black matte vibe, sure, but lighting wise it makes sense.

Spoiler: The clouds

Compositionally, having all visible objects entirely within frame, especially if they're just background elements such as clouds, looks strange. It looks artificial, like someone purposefully placed them there. Hence, having clouds bleed off the image's edges makes them look more natural.


Clouds also have some interesting properties when it comes to lighting; Light passes through them, but gets weaker with depth. Since clouds are typically convex, the edges get lit up just fine while the middle is dark when viewed from behind.

Spoiler: The stars

Just a very minor touch, but bright objects such as stars in the sky look a tad nicer with bloom around them. Also, stars are generally less uniform and more sparse.

Spoiler: The horizon

Another very minor touch up, but the atmosphere has stuff in it. Stuff that when there's enough of it, it starts catching light, which can often be seen in the distance. Hence, atmospheric fog. It could be used as a nice excuse to mask the harsh transition between sky and water.

Spoiler: And that's about all I can think of

 

this is far more detailed help than i could have possibly imagined, thanks loads to everyone. maybe one day i'll come back to this and make it decent, who knows. if i can't find motivation i'll just remember i kind of need to get better so i can disown these