The importance of practice and perseverance to an artist’s improvement are again highlighted superbly by the now popular annual progress charts, showing once again that practice makes perfect.
The 2000-2012 template for any artist here interested in making their own:
See also the previous post for more such encouraging examples of artistic progress.
this is inspiring, i too should be practicing more. ^_^
Even more reasons the to make me think how talentless I am. These progress charts discourages me to improve the little drawing ability I have.. or maybe it’s just because I’m not japanese.
These are really inspiring, but I feel some of these are a bit bad examples, because the choice of some drawings vary too much.
For example the artists who draw normal-style colored anime, but suddenly you see a gag-style doodle at the end…
A pity the artists’ names weren’t added with the images… very much a case of NEED MOAR!
All of the first arts look better than anything I’ve ever made.
It took them 10 years to get good! That’s too long.
I don’t want to wait 10 years until I can draw something presentable.
for a second i thought Sankaku is under attack from Pivix. now that i think about it..they improve so much! been wondering what i have being doing with life..i could have end up like them.. sigh
The most fascinating sequences are when they start out very childlike & then progress almost to the level of an illustrator. They’re clearly starting as children of 5 or so & by age 15 look like committed art students. That’s a clear example of someone with raw talent. Average people don’t progress nearly as far. It would be interesting to see another 15 yrs. of development as 30 somethings.
Most of the charts make as strong a case for Talent as for Practice. Good in 2003 = better in 2012, but sucked in 2003 = just sucks less in 2012. 😉
Best post I’ve seen on Sankaku Complex in many many months. ^_^ Thanks.
Practice makes perfect… except some of these people have been consistently proficient, and some of these people seem to make magical leaps in skill. Granted there are a lot showing steady progress through the years. Just a few I have a problem with.
Re: Pic #52…
Wow! How old was that person 12 years ago?? lol!
Is it bad I don’t recognize 90% of the characters/series in there?
People don’t realize that the great artist are the ones who don’t stop drawing AND studying. You can draw all the time but if your not learning anything new while you draw then you’ve been doing jack shit that whole time.
Since last August, when I found the previous article about this, I also tried. You can see how I progress since. I’ve never drawn before that time.
h ttp://bit.ly/H5EFge
Was surprise about the results :p will be uploading Progress 5 soon (I lacked motivation so it was on hold for a time)
So give a try! (need feedback on my sucky drawing skill)
one prime example of this is Masakazu Katsura of Zetman fame and Ogure Itoh(Air Gear).
Anime crap. No improvement. They should stay away from it and study from life instead of anatomically hideous anime and manga shit.
These are hardly a recent phenomena.
Be better than yesterday (yesteryear)
this is nice “Progress in Art” i never preserve my drawing
just re make and then throw them away
may be that`s the reason i can`t think of any new character design…hmm
lately i have been drawing female characters…guess the are easier to make designs that s nice to look at…
oh…this is a awesome post…
It is always interesting to see these charts and compare where I would be. It’s staggering to think about much time you have to spend drawing to get to even the middle picture of most of the charts.
Picture 14 wins my heart with that Rohan Kishibe.
soo
they took classes or trainned alone?
Following the previous article on this, I started drawing and was surprise to what I could do but never imagine!
I started late August 2011 and you can check my progress after been inspired by Sancom post here :
http://ikelepte.deviantart.com/gallery/
I lost plenty of motivation at the beginning of the new year and try to draw again more often. I’ll soon update Progress 5 (tomorrow or monday).
PS: I never drawn in my life before what I posted on DeviantArt. So go ahead and try also.
PS2: Need feeback :p => better motivation
What’s discouraging is that these people have more talent than me when they barely started drawing.
I will never be good at drawing ;_;
Perfection = Priceless prize for artists who shoved their middle fingers to the entity called “Pessimism” that would leaded them to giving up after a few days of holding the pencil, and instead choose to hug and embrace the thing named “Effort”.
some ppl didnt really improve
004 actually drew better in the early 2000s than he does now.
Glad I’m not the only one who noticed that.
Take a closer look, the artist didn’t degrade. It’s just a change in style. From realistic to gag-styled manga.
it’s not just their drawing have improved but also their style especially the form of the artwork.
This just makes me depressed that i didn’t start practicing earlier on in my life when I had time.
Yeah me too…. my hobby as a kid was drawing then as I grew up I ended up losing interest in it. Then I discovered anime, then I suddenly wanted to draw again but then I could only draw grotesque things, depressing… =<
that’s the amazing thing about art; it’s never too late to just pick up a pencil (or digitizer pen) and start practicing. It’s not like athletics, where getting into it too late means you’ve missed out on your prime and will probably never go professional; an artist of any age can do just as well as any other, if they only have the creativity and the dedication.
That’s… nonsense really.. the thing is if your growing up you tend to do, no make it required to do many things just to LIVE aka JOB.
Work, work, work… and even more work. By the time you get your day-offs, you’re just too stressed out to do anything at all.
I guess one can start dabbling into art once they reach retirement age, maybe around 60+ but by that time, they’re ought to die in a few more years because of heart attack or some random cancer..
Life is just so depressing for people without talent.
does anybody know the third artist presented here?
theres quite a few “practice makes no difference” examples up there. 🙁
In some pictures, they reached the max level already so they stop evolving
Just like everything else in life, practice makes perfect.
so the lesson here is just draw one pic a year and in ten years you will be drawing to the highest standard????
You DO realize these charts don’t show ALL the pictures these artists drew over the years, right?
…or was that just a clumsy attempt to be funny?
I’ll tell you what you don’t realize. Sarcasm.
You DO realise your sense of humour sucks?
LOL…..haha
U SUCK TOO. U CANT DRAW SHIT FOR BALLZ TITTITSTISTISTTTITTTTTSS
Oh Damn the SICK BURNZ NEVAR END
stfu u just suck
Oh, I’m sorry. I guess four question marks should have tipped me off that this was ROFL LOLZBURGERS instead of poorly delivered “sarcasm”.
I recently talked with an art professor about improving in drawing anatomy, and he recommended visiting an art nude course.
Guess I’ll do that.
sigh……. I used to think like you anons, until I actually got the nude course. we pretty much got models (male/female) that will give you a counter-boner.
A boner is counter-productive in figure drawing. Trust me. You always wanna stop half way & rub one out. Then you get lazy & just want a sandwich and a nap.
@ madao
what are you 13? its basic human anatomy. Do you close your eyes when you piss so you don’t see a penis or lack there of.
i second that!!
Such a rare and inspirational post.
Need to share this with my artistic frewns.
Pic #30: last two pics and the author is still in 2nd grade middle school?!? After graduation he/she’ll be a GOD!
Also I like pic #51, so fast progress and last pic of Aya is LOVELY.
You can really see how these people have changed together with their drawings. Like the one who started by drawing pokemon in gradeschool and turned to moe characters by late elementary/early middle school.
OH!!!
My beautiful anime how far you have come!!!
I would argue that these may be as much “better reference for imitation makes perfect” — but that would sound to much like an harsh accusation for what is the usual way things go for artists of all kinds. (＾ω＾)
‘practice makes perfect’?
no, it makes u better
so uhm… where are the hentai practice through the years versions ?
@01:21 The pages are all sticking together.
Is it possible to fap to this?
I have a folder full of bad anatomy hentai accumulated over the years. And of course a stash of “anatomy practice~”
Damn it I want to be a mangaka every time I see it!
you can…you dont need to know how to draw for that…..you can do the story and find someone who suck with stories but are really good at drawing….which is why so many talents just draw for fun characters without making it a manga
All you need to do is make a promise with a girl that you will marry her if your manga turns into anime. That’s how real life works right?
Bakuman is a inspirational anime…
that gives hope and despair to me…
People that downrated this obviously did not get the Bakuman reference.
Say what you want about the ‘hobbyists’ of today, for they may be the very ones powering the anime industry of tomorrow.
ahhh… that’s nice, even hobbyist have an industry to look forward to. in my country animation/comics/etc are practically dead. So not just hobbyists but even us in art schools who are trying to make it into a profession won’t have an industry to look forward too. So all the students just take film/video as their major, cuz indie films are the fad these days. and the cycle goes on and on. so yeah everyone ends up being free lance and doing indie comics etc
so everyone becomes a madao
animation/character design will turn you into a madao
everyone is now a madao
madao madao madao madao madao madao madao
madao madao madao madao madao madao madao
But, If you wan’t to be a man !! be a MADAO !!!
Very true. People who are driven by passion should be in charge, not bean-counters. Everywhere.
You’d be surprised. A lot of those bean counters WERE people with passion. In the end, making money supersedes the things you’re passionate about…
People who have both skill and passion would rather not waste on a management job, even is the pay is higher.
Don’t make it sound so evil to do that. Shit happens, babies, marriages, bills, etc. Not everyone can pursue their dream, and no one dreams about doing the jobs society needs to function. At the end of the day we could probably do without artists for at least a while and survive, but with no bean counters we wouldn’t have much of an economy to speak of.
As far as this goes, some of these changes are very dramatic. This would be a great thing to show to aspiring artists–hell, when I was in middle school I was in the art track, but when I moved I dropped it so my drawing never improved that much. Maybe if I’d stuck with it I’d be as good as these guys are today. I certainly started out better than some of them lol.
And so, the circle of life continues….
its great to see how every artists’ style differs and the history to it.