How do we grow as artists?

MujtabaYousuf

I am using this picture just for so u guys could understand what i am saying. My every sculpt looks good upto this point where I cannot go forward. I feel like something is missing from this.There is a mental block that is stopping me. I want to grow as an artist so my quesiton is in the topic.
How did u guys grow as an artist? What does it take? And any tips that will  help me really get past this mental block that i have been facing every day would be great. 
Thanks everyone.

Alex_J

Find somebody better than you. Figure out what is making their work superior. 

Repeat until you have to ask the same question again.

Brian "Panda" Choi

Learn how to paint.

As in take classes.

Learn your fine art fundamentals so you have some basic tools to move forward with.

carvuliero

Ok you have your idea block out you have something to work with so you could :

-  take a screenshot like this one open your favorite drawing software and start painting over -> visually brainstorm  adding smaller details or changing design drastically[2d fast and easy ] for example you could add scales, plating, hair or fishtank for the brain

- collect real world references like brain, eyes, hydraulic leg, spider legs and so on anything that could help you refine your initial idea

- try different variation of your original idea like more legs, less legs, bigger front legs, big/small brain, different type of legs

- break your design in to logical part and start refining

JordanN

Render your models.

If all you think about is sculpting, then you're going to run into diminishing returns fast. But then what about hand painting and customizing actual materials for it? That takes time but the result is vastly superior to looking at a boring grey object with no lighting.

sprunghunt

Observation is the biggest skill you can learn as an artist. Learn to look at things and see the details and proportions and compare them to what you've got. A solid grasp of how real things look is important for being able to make art. 

Drawing from life is something that helps observation. 

There's a bunch of smaller details that are missing from your model that would help. Even just the hardness of the edges on some of the surfaces. I would even suggest going to your local market and buying a real crab and looking at all the small details on the legs.

PixelMasher

JordanN said:

Render your models.

If all you think about is sculpting, then you're going to run into diminishing returns fast. But then what about hand painting and customizing actual materials for it? That takes time but the result is vastly superior to looking at a boring grey object with no lighting.

rendering a half done model is a waste of time. Its still a blank grey work in progress, trying to hide that with lighting and GI is a huge waste of time and ties up your PC while you could be doing actual work towards having a finished model. It's also irrelevant to a game art portfolio. It gives the illusion of taking action while actually accomplishing nothing towards the end goal, especially in this stage of a model The amount of time I spent doing "test renders" back in high school is one of my biggest regrets.

in this guys case I would recommend working from an established concept or create a reference board of images of animals you want to incorporate into the design, like crabs and insects by the looks of it. If creating your own designs is a weak point work from some badass concept artists work. trying to design everything yourself when you are starting out is a common mistake junior artists make. Use reference and concepts to help you get the final details in place.

right now your model looks like a block out, there needs to be proper fine details and everything looks like it needs to be more defined and sharpened up. Look at some creature artists tutorials on gnomon or gumroad and that should give you some ideas of how to get to the finish line. from there, some proper textures and well defined materials will help it be a strong portfolio piece.

here's some resources that could help you out:
https://www.thegnomonworkshop.com/tutorials/creature-modeling-for-production
https://www.thegnomonworkshop.com/tutorials/3d-creature-design
https://www.thegnomonworkshop.com/tutorials/building-creatures-in-zbrush