Sampson here. Another little break from short stories to dispense stuff rolling around in my creaky skull.

It’s been about five weeks since I left my job and although it was nice to have a break in Hawaii, the reality of not having a regular income is starting to settle in. I’ve had a couple of interviews and I have enough to pay rent and such for the next few months, so all is not gloomy. I suppose I am now a full-time furry artist, though. A few commissions have helped ease my way through November and I am eternally grateful for those!

I’ve been spending a LOT of time drawing and it’s rewarding to see some improvement this fall. I feast upon feedback and try to work on the things I need to refine. One guiding principle that floats through my brain is ‘don’t get between you and your drawing.’ Let whatever you’re creating come through and don’t filter it through your own perceptions and assumptions. These artistic assumptions come in many forms, but one that stands out for me is the ‘stereotype/icon’ perception. I don’t know if that’s a thing, but let me explain.

Ask anyone to draw an eye from memory and you’ll see what I mean. You’ll get lots of circles and maybe a few ovals. Basically, people are operating from a set of pre-set shapes and icons for everyday objects. Google Quick, Draw! reminded me of this recently. The neural net they’re developing learns from basic shapes and identifies drawn objects based on a set of shared assumptions about that object.

How this applies to me as an artist works very similarly. I want to depict a bicep, so I pull from memory what a bicep ‘should’ look like, based on what I know and past experiences drawing a bicep. Repeat through a dozen or so drawings and I end up with pretty similar results. Unfortunately, this results in a sameness that ends up looking a bit…boring. I admit that I’ve fallen into this trap numerous times.

How does one break free? Take another look with fresh eyes by not inserting your own preconceptions about what a particular body part ‘should’ look like. Study more references. Stand in front of a mirror and pose. Watch MMA, wrestling or any other sport with semi-naked men and see how the muscles work and change with movement. It’s easy (and kinda lazy) to go look at body parts and then assume that no more study is needed. To improve, you always need to go out and learn more.

Which brings me to this beefy beast I drew.

Firstly, I’ve kinda stopped using references for full bodies/poses. The last time I used a photo reference for a piece, it ended up looking static and dull. I didn’t even post it here. What I haven’t stopped using references for is for bits and pieces of the body. I might look at several photos or previous life drawing sketches for how particular muscles are put together – it’s all part of achieving a refined understanding of this marvelous creation we call the body. For this guy I drew, I know I’ve made a fair number of pieces with the arms up/bicep flex. Instead of using my brain to go back and re-draw that based on assumptions, I tried to use what I understood about how the muscles are attached and again, looked at a bunch of references.

One example from this piece I am proud of is the connection between his right leg and right buttock. I could have just gone ahead and drawn it how I normally do, but instead went and studied how those two parts of the body actually fit together. Turns out, they are pretty much the same shape and so I reduced the distinction between the outer thigh and muttcheek and I’m happy with the results. Yes, you can see that the muscle exists, but I brought the line of the leg in synch with what his ass is doing.

One common experience artists have is not liking something after they’ve finished a piece. I’m no different. We are our own worst critics, really. I look back and assess constantly, identifying things I like and things I think I screwed up on. It’s good to do this to an extent, but dwelling on the ‘mistakes’ is only good if it spurs me on to investigate and research how to do it better. Already I see places where I could have done better. His left leg is bothering me.

I hope this isn’t too esoteric and that if you are a creative critter I’d love to hear what you do to learn and grow and develop as an artist. You can look at all the references in the world, but it’s dialogue that helps everyone improve!