I haven't posted here in a long time but I figure it might be a good time to post another WIP.

Any feedback welcome, although I must admit that I'm probably not making any significant changes to the composition at this point, unless they're easy to fix. Maybe.



Cheers! 

Well, it's a bit quiet around here so I'll just keep posting. 



Of course I'm open to all crits, but I'm mostly concerned about the robe, the tree and the lighting. Which is to say that I haven't found a good reference for either. I'm trying to recreate some kind of flaky, chunky oak trunk, when it looks kind of like dinosaur skin. But I'm still experimenting with different ways of recreating that with pixel clusters.

Anyway, open to criticism. This will be my next project for the coming weeks. 

I've been taking a break from pixel art to improve my skills with a pencil and knowledge of anatomy. But I'm... not quite sure how to go about it. I feel like a new guy at a gym, just picking up different weights and trying out different machines without a clear idea of how to train the body properly. Specifically, I'm not sure how much time I should be spending just drawing skeletons, muscles, different parts of the body as opposed to the whole body... how much time should I be meticulously imitating references and how much time should I just be just drawing stuff from scratch? How much time should I spend refining each piece, meticulously adding shadows and texture and how much time should I be spending just doing lots of speed sketches?

Or is there no right answer to any of those things, unlike when you're learning a new sport? Should motivation be my only guide, and should I just do whatever I feel like doing?

I have a question and before I start, I would like to point out that this subject could easily turn into something negative. My main goal is to just share my view and hopefully have other people share their views, without necessarily fighting about who's right. And certainly, I hope to avoid ad hominem insults like "Who are you to talk?" or "Do u even dither, brah?"

With that said, here's the premise:

As a competitive person, I have a tendency to look at everything in terms of winning and losing. Even art. Of course, it's also about the personal journey and the joy of learning, but ultimately I still maintain a competitive mindset. I can see why some artists stay away from DeviantArt and PixelJoint, because there's something insidious and tantalising about counting the number of 'favourites' and comments each time you upload something. If you get a lot of faves, you count it as a victory. If your latest work is ignored, you count it as a defeat. You assign each piece of work a numerical value to indicate its actual value, to measure its success.

Every time I produce something that doesn't get good feedback, it really burns at me. Sometimes, the negative emotion is my primary source of motivation, as I hate the feeling of defeat when something doesn't get the recognition I feel it deserves. To put it mildly, I am very puzzled when I see other artists who keep making art for years and years without any sort of public recognition and no one to compliment them on their progress. In my competitive mindset, I don't understand why they go on. I don't understand what drives them to keep sharing work without getting real recognition, when their work is sometimes ignored completely.

Do any of you guys understand what I'm saying? Do you ever look at other people's art as competition and get annoyed if they get more recognition than you? Or is it as I fear - are you all much more mature, calm and confident than me? Is your artistic mindset unsullied by childish competitiveness?

I'm interested in your honest views. Let it all out.