There’s an illness that has been spreading through the maeiusophilia/gravidophila artist for a long time. No I don’t mean a bad case of the suck, that’s a disease.
I mean 3/4 itis. It strikes everyone without mercy. Regardless of skill, how long you’ve been in the community, or how many fans you have. It can and will effect everyone.
“But KB,” you say, “They’re pregnant. How much can they do?”
Come on guys. How many of us stick to a natural size? How many of us draw women that should be on bed rest or just couldn’t exist at all. Drawing something other than standing or sitting at a 3/4 with their hands on the bellies or backs isn’t a stretch. If they can hold up their own 12 baby weight with a smile they can do something other than stand occasionally.
I’m not saying 3/4itis is fatal. It’s not bad if you do it. But step back and look at your gallery once in a while. Is it all the same thing? No, changing her direction from left to right doesn’t count. If you want to grow as an artist try something different.
Now here we have Jane the the pregnant “Slightly better than a stick figure.” Who is she? What does she do? Nothing. It’s boring. I mean other than the fact that she has no clothes or face. She’s a mannequin, stiff and lifeless.
And here is Jane’s sister Jenny. What is she? She seems to have stuck her pancake to the ceiling right? It’s still 3/4 but it’s dynamic. It makes people want to tell a story about how she really wanted that pancake. She made her husband find the only store open at 3 am just to get the ready made batter because she’s really not a cook. She put chocolate chips in it and everything.
Drawing a Jane is an easy way to get page views and compliments. It’s fast and simple. It takes no imagination. It’s good for a “First look at..” portrait. Most of us shit Janes. We should strive to produce more Jennys.
Of course this whole post assumes you care about being an artist and not about pleasing yourself first. If you only want to ‘get it up’ with ‘big bellies’ then by all means continue your path of mediocrity.
P.S. I really want pancakes.
P.P.S. If you can’t draw hands quit trying to hide them. PRACTICE.
October 9th, 2008 at 1:15 am
In five years when someone says “Why does everyone keep calling my pictures ‘Janes’? What does that mean?”, we’ll have this post as a historical document. The day those words were coined will be a minor holiday when all the artists do their own Janes and Jennies, all the Janes as alike as possible, all the Jennies as unique as possible.
God, I love this blog already.
October 9th, 2008 at 10:31 pm
As a watcher and non artist I’m not sure I should even pipe up on the matter. I gotta admit to the validity of the point in this blog. Many of the artists in the ever expanding community online seem to stick with one style of art (if some can even claim that) and never try to change or improve at all.
On the other hand, I look at some artists and see them change little by little, eventually making great pieces. Unfortunately it’s very rare. On Deviantart it’s getting harder to find any decent new artists, and the immature masses gobble up anything that comes up sometimes promoting the artists we really don’t want around. I watch quite a few people on DA, and I tell you I’m not seeing any improvement in the general masses.
One in particular was an early cut. Kazuv, a guy who cranks out a new pregnant piece at least once or twice a week. I watched him for a long time. Unfortunately I never saw any real change to his art. Every piece he did came out with the same face, same body, and generic background number 12. It got old real quick and he was one of the first artists I actually took off my watch list. There are worst artists out there too and they grow in number by the day. People if you read this blog, please listen to KB she knows what she’s saying.
Being a total hypocrite for the moment however, I do like a few of those up there on her wall of shame.
October 9th, 2008 at 11:34 pm
This spurred me on to look over my gallery, and while I expected to find 90% of it to be 3/4 shots, I was pleasantly surprised to find my estimation to be drastically off.
I mean, the boring 3/4s are in there, of course, but there’s a few rare ‘dynamic’ ones, and quite a few non-3/4′s at all! I’m actually kinda shocked. Still, I’m a master at making any angle boring, so, back to the drawing board, so to speak.
October 9th, 2008 at 11:52 pm
Not really a wall of shame as much as it is a “HEY LOOK IT’S THE SAME POSE OVER AND OVER AND OVER!”
October 10th, 2008 at 4:39 pm
Why not have art depicting pregnancies in which the babies were concieved through parthenothegenesis the babies would be female and a carboncopy of their mothers.
October 10th, 2008 at 6:13 pm
AI: Because how would you know that until the pregnancy was over?
Also, how is this relevant to repetitive poses…?
December 12th, 2008 at 6:41 pm
Man, and I thought I was the only one that noticed. So many artist, so little flare. Not only poses, but I say backgrounds as well. So many are just a colored wall. Just becuase it’s belly art dosn’t mean effort can’t be put into it. (I’m not saying every one does this, but I still consider it another problem.)