Feedback and critique please

[TAZUTRA]

Looking for some feedback on my video

[PhLo]

I have zero negative or “constructive criticism” stuff to say. Seems like a perfectly well-crafted video. It tells a nice story. I appreciate seeing your inspiration and hearing how you make decisions along the way. Often it can be a bit boring to watch artists draw because it takes forever. I have some live streaming artist friends who are very talented, but I don’t usually watch them at length because it’s a slow process. I usually check in every hour or something to see how the drawing is going. Keeping it succinct and telling a story along the way keeps the interest going, as you did.

I think your camera angle and lighting, and the use of time lapse are all good. And I think your audio is fine too. Subtle music track, clear voice, etc.

Regarding the drawing, the only thing(s) that stood out to me in the way of constructive criticism is that the lower edge of the dress is straight across. My brain tells me it should be rounded to show perspective. But I suppose it could be straight across if the camera was exactly at the level as the bottom of the dress. But this is minor and unimportant since it was a quick sketch. And I guess the proportions of the arms could be considered, as they appear maybe different lengths, or possibly too short for normal human proportions. I’m guessing though you were trying to show foreshortening on the left arm (right in the image). That’s something I always struggled with when I used to draw. Foreshortening, that is. Your quick sketch that you superimposed shows the dress dipping down on the side opposite of her raised/rotated hip, which makes sense. But in the final sketch, you forgot to do this same dip, so the dress looks longer on her butt side, since the hip is raised, but it’s at the same position on the straight across bottom… if that makes sense at all. Ha, but all this is massive nitpicking, only cuz you asked for critique. Otherwise I’d just say, “good job, looks great.” And you were probably more concerned about editing suggestions, of which I have none

[TAZUTRA]

Thanks. Yea I was looking for editing critiques but the art ctritique is correct and appreciated. I always forget about perspective even though it’s fundamental to bringing a drawing together. I’m not particular too happy with the drawing for other reasons and I’m thinking about doing a re-draw later on but I’ll cross that bridge when I get there

[shotcut]

I too found the audio to be quite good. But what does “Message #” in the subject line mean? How curious!

[TAZUTRA]

I honestly don’t know lol I’ll just remove it

[PhLo]

It’s obvious you already understand concepts of perspective. For example, you drew the curved guideline for the face, which offset the nose more toward one eye, indicating the head is slightly turned. The challenge is applying that same principle to each and every shape to create realism. Honestly though, it’s not the most important thing ever unless you are going for realism. I mean, these are cartoons, right? I was never all that good at anatomy because I never took art classes or studied that stuff in depth. I choose to draw goofy cartoons that don’t “have to” obey anatomy rules because they are basic or imaginary. So if you look at any of my drawings, you’d have every reason to justifiably critique my proportions and technique!

I don’t really draw anymore. Most of the drawings I did were back in my teens and twenties, decades ago. I tend to draw nonsensical, random, bizarre stuff. On super rare occasion I might still doodle, but it’s been years since I did even that. Here are a couple old samples just for fun.

Maybe some more “pro” people in the forum/community might have better critique of your editing. I seriously don’t see anything wrong with it. Seems great to me.

[jonray]

Hi @TAZUTRA - Great video - no criticism from me - audio is good and the soft background music is perfect (doesn’t intrude). Interesting too (eg the Norman Rockwell reference with photos). Your art skills are awesome - wish I could draw like that!
One question - from 1:27 onwards did you just speed up the normal video or did you do any selecting of frames (maybe cutting out sections of the video manually)? If it was just speeded up, by what percentage? Thank you. Good job.

[TAZUTRA]

Thanks. Yea the speed changes at certain parts throughout the video. Mainly to be in line with the length of the voiceover

[TAZUTRA]

Hey these are pretty good! Why’d you stop drawing? I used to draw as a kid as well and then picked it back up as an adult. I don’t want to do realism but I’d like to stick to the fundamentals (line, form, lighting, perspective etc)

[PhLo]

Thanks. Long story short, I lost all my creativity and inspiration. I worked as a web designer/developer in marketing for many years, and doing that sort of robbed most of my desire to be creative. Working as a creative in a day-to-day job that cares nothing about true creativity is really hard on the brain, at least it was in my case. Pumping out meaningless graphics to bolster the money intake of a corporation can be soul-killing. Once I realized it is next to impossible for my artistic skills to translate into a profession that paid any more than minimum wage divided by about 10 to 30 (so pennies per hour), life starved out creativity due to needing to pursue something that made enough money to keep me alive. Sounds depressing - and it is - but this is the reality of many creatives. It’s why there is the expression “starving artist.”

I still do creative ventures as hobbies, if they are fun. But I let the practice of creative things lapse for so many years, nowadays I feel like a complete noob. Like I’d have to start over from scratch. It’s like a kid who learned karate or gymnastics trying to do flips and spinning air kicks after 30 years of no practice, sitting in a spine compressing office chair. Atrophy.

I still support dreamers and try not to discourage them though. Anyone who pushes through all the challenges and finds a career or hobby that brings them joy - it’s a great story to hear. Mine just isn’t one of those stories.

I do live streaming with semi-creative stuff like bookbinding. It can never be a career because each book takes too long to make and can’t sell at a high enough price to make it worthwhile. But it’s worthwhile because I enjoy it. So I guess that’s a mild “success story” - but not the $$$ type of success.