Animation Source Forums

^ I for one, am quite tired of seeing THIS horrid excuse. I dont think it's your 'style' to have a wolf's ear jutting out of it's neck or a should just wedged in the breast. That's weird. Your 'style' (which judging by half the site, is based loosely, or in some cases, intirely on Balto) is not an excuse for having hideous anatomy. If you haven't studied it, then just admit it.

Also, I hate to break it to you kiddies, but tracing other styles of art that don't have proper muscle and bone builds, isn't going to prove your point. If a wolf looks like it freakin' huge, it's probably...freakin' huge. Learn to idenitify proper body shapes.

I understand that mastering anatomy takes a long time, and even years in some cases (It took my roughly a year to get basic canine anatomy down, and almost two to understand a human's) but that's no excuse to not make a blind shot. And it's certainly not okay to blame it simply on the way you draw. Cut the act. 98% of the people that say this are utter liars, and anyone with half a brain knows. Congradulations on fooling no one.

If I can attempt to draw properly with some success, I'm sure you can to.

Does this even classify as a rant? This is more less picking on people who aren't artistic, and that's just rude. Not to mention that bad art isn't a problem or hurting anyone.

Look, not everyone is an artist, it's not everyone's strength, but that doesn't mean they don't have the right to draw. So there IS an excuse (it isn't like grammar), and it doesn't matter if they can draw well or not. Plus, some of those people may be kids, like 10-year-olds, you can't expect perfectness out of them, or anyone for that matter. Unless you really know your stuff.

If you don't like the way someone draws, DEAL WITH IT, at least they tried.

I can only agree on one point though. Copying the anatomy of Balto will get you nowhere IF you intend to be a good artist. Otherwise let it go. No big deal. I used to do that years ago when I was like 12. I eventually stopped doing that. They will get their eventually, otherwise you're expecting people to climb up the latter backwards.

This. ^

It seems quite rude the way you worded this. Although I can see where you may come from about others defending themselves and saying "well it's just my style!", you can't really blame them for things like that due to the fact they probably wouldn't have said it in the first place had they not been criticized.

^ That. If I were in their shoes, I would be pretty upset if someone approached me to nag about how awful my art is. A response like that is bound to happen.

If you see art that could use improvement, ASK them if they want some pointers. If they don't, then leave them alone, there is no foul in that. I had little to no critiques on my work over the years, and my art improved without it. Is it perfect? No, it could still have room for improvements, and I would certainly be open for some suggestions.

Not every drawing has to be entirely (more importantly anatomically) accurate. Just look at my early stuff, it was horrid. XD But I was just getting used to drawing things. It was my style back then and styles change. Now I have a new style that I'm happy with, even if the body structure is a little off.

And even so, I want to try and be a cartoonist some day. And in most comics you see in newspapers, no one is anatomically structured. And I like that goofy, weird style of animal and human characters. So my style might go toward that.

But I'm guessing you're talking about people who actually WANT to be anatomically structured with their drawings. Well, all they need is practice. Like you said, it can take years to perfect the skill. Which is so true. And I do agree with you to an extent. For people who claim to have good anatomy with their characters, but really don't, that's just dumb. But if their style involves not having good anatomy, and they admit they haven't studied it, then ok. There should not be a problem with that.

Even if, like it was said, not everyone is artistic/is a good artist, you can usually clearly see if any anatomy changes were intented or if it was just a fail and lack of knowledge. And I agree that saying "this is my style" is not an excuse to lay off any advices and anatomy practice.

Lemme show you. This is art style:


This is not:

I really rather like this. lol

I agree with Sakujo--you can usually tell.

So you're not that great at art? Fine. That's perfectly cool. But no matter how good or bad you are at art, when someone politely gives you a constructive critism, you should NOT freak out and go "NO it's my style shut up!" That really IS just annoying and even shows closed-mindedness on your behalf. (Not saying that anyone that's posted in this thread has done that, because as far as I know, you all don't, but some people do.)

Now, if the commenter is just being rude, that's another matter altogether. But "it's my style" is still, honestly, a rather lame excuse.

Understand please that I am not trying to diss anyone's style here...but really, all a "style" is is the way an artist puts their subject on the paper. It's something that can change and evolve--my style two years ago looks totally different from today's. You don't have to stick rigidly to one particular eye shape or ear placement or tail pose just because that's your style. Just PARCTICE and let your pencil flow the way it dose. Be open to cities and allow yourself to improve.

Ok, so maybe you aren't the greatest artist in the world. That is perfectly ok. And yes, it takes time to learn anatomy. But really, blaming "mistakes", per say, on your style really is only limiting yourself.

Jokes aside, I agree with Natti on this one. I'm not an aspiring artist, nor do I really wish to become one, I draw whenever I feel like and whatever I feel like. That being said I usually try to stay true to the actual object that I'm drawing, my current mini-goal I set for myself would be cat anatomy.

I had someone critique a work of mine once. I welcomed it, if it helps me get better then good. Though I do usually feel like extensive critiques are more of a help to a person that aspires to be an artist versus someone who just does for fun like me. But they are the most helpful to the people who take criticism/correction politely and respectfully, mark of maturity right there; same goes for a lot of things in life.

I think most of you get this topic wrong. It's not a rant about people not knowing the anatomy. It's a hard thing to learn and what some people said it's perfectly okay if people aren't the best at it, but you can tell if anatomy "changes" are a mistake or intented operation to make style/characters unique. AND this rant is about people who make those mistakes and are attacking you for any critique try, telling you "it's their style", which obviously is just artist fail.

It's not a rant about bad artists. It's a rant about artists who can't take a hint.


I should post another one about people who can't do character's markings right, even Balto's markings... Maybe later...

^This.

Frankly, I don't care how good or bad you are at art; "it's my style" is NEVER an excuse for poor anatomy. You don't know much about anatomy yet? Ok, that's fine. You could say that you're just practicing and still working to get the hang of it. You don't want to learn anatomy? That's fine, too--it's your choice. But in either if these scenarios, it's not your "style" that is to blame--it's YOU. You can change a style if you put some work into it. You can either improve or not--the choice is yours. But I promise you, if you do want to improve, blaming mistakes on your "style" isn't going to get you anywhere.