“Having an art style” has always sort of baffled me, because I never realised that the way people draw is intentional most of the time. I have been asked “how do I gain an art style” and my only response has been “just draw naturally?” Because my art style comes from how I naturally draw. I don’t think about the unique stylistic features I have in my art style. And when they’re pointed out to me, it’s shocking to me because I never realised or considered that it was a unique choice, it’s just how I draw.
I went from stylized to realism back to stylized and I think personally, stylized is harder at the higher levels. Anyone can draw cartoon characters like Snoopy fairly easy, but designing and developing the style for Peanuts? That takes a master.
Another point to add: the anime style was specifically created so that less skilled in-between artists could pump out lots of cels with a high degree of consistency, quality, and speed. However, over the decades, still-image artists innovated ways to polish up the style into something much more elaborate, yet also much more time consuming.
people have trouble drawing different things which can be affected by their thought process, how they draw, n other things. so a person might find it more difficult drawing cartoons compared to realism
when I was a kid I found stylization easier because frankly I didn't know the fundamentals and kinda just did whatever lmao. But as I got older and understood art more, I found making still life and realistic drawings a tad bit more easy cause you're basically just copying what you see. With stylization, sure you can use a reference, but your imagination is doing most of the heavy lifting. In my opinion 🥲
For me, I'm somewhere in the middle cause there have been instances where drawing realistically is easier than drawing stylized art and the opposite is true at the same time. I draw in a way that's both realistic and stylized at the same time
What is clearly easier with a realistic drawing approach, is that it's WAY more accepted. I found that when ppl see my usual comicy, anime style, they often find it a cute little hobby of mine. But when I try realism (and I say try because I am NOT good at it 😂) then they are suddenly way more impressed. I personally don't get why everyone think realism is THE THING! Because tbh....I find it really boring 🤷♂️
It’s really a cultural thing. In Western Europe we highly value the old masters works as the PEAK oftentimes, its why we call them the masters, only in later years did modern more surreal artists get some recognition for their own talents. Whereas if you look at medieval art, east asian art and even ancient Egyptian art you will see stylised art being valued as we would value something like the Mona Lisa. I cant speak for others around the world but I heavily dislike how medieval art is treated these days, because it had its own sense of visual style and conveying ideas it is now largely considered weird or garners comments like “has the artist ever seen a cat before??” When they are really misunderstanding its intent
The misconception that anything other that the realest of real isn't as good is definitely frustrating. I had similar reactions to my work. I started learning realism to help get a better grasp of the basics and had people tell me that the realistic stuff looked better and that my older stuff looked more "animated," though I'm sure they meant anime the point they were trying to make still made it’s way through.
I think I’m split down the middle. I became an artist because I wanted to be able to accurately draw the characters from the video games I grew up playing, so what I spend most of my time drawing is silly little blue hedgehogs and jumping Italian plumbers. However, stylizing them in a way that looks perfectly visually appealing to me is often more difficult than it is for me to realistically draw my sister or my dog. Realism is really, really, REALLY difficult, but perfect stylization is near impossible since there’s often no clearly defined standard to hold it to, like you pointed out in your video.
As you said very well in your video. Both have their challenges, strengths, weaknesses, and so on. Difficulty does come down to the individual. For me, as an artist with Aphantasia, I find the visually looking at something aspect of realism way easier than trying to stylize. Since I see nothing in my mind trying to bend the rules just doesn't look right. I can dip my drawing toes into slightly stylize stuff but if I go full anime i just can't get things to look right. I can draw some cartoonish stuff easier than anime. Like pokemon, sonic, etc but I tend to find that the simpler the design the harder it is. Like jigglypuff is harder to me to draw than Nidoking. At the end of the day, I've seen so many fantastic artists on all sides of the artistic spectrum that I have an immense appreciation for all art because I know whether simple, realistic or something else entirely making art takes skill and dedication.
Stylized pieces will always be the easier of the two for me because the intense freedom that type of art provides. Realism will always be that. Realistic. A piece expected to be rendered with the detail and accuracy of a photo even to the detriment of the interest of the piece itself. I see amazing works of massive paintings done of human faces with every excruciating detail caught perfectly at 300% scale. And while the skill required to that is incredible and by and large far more of an application of skill than stylized pieces, for me, it's also boring. Why do that when I can just go outside, bump into a person and basically see the same thing. That in itself is one of the first things that makes the style more difficult for me. Because I'm just not inspired by drawing something true to life and have no motivation to do so. I would much rather look at a stylistic piece that could look like anything. Even if that character is ugly or looks weird. I also think the thought that you NEED to understand your own style fully and completely if you want to do anime or stylistic and getting hung up on "Is this a stylistic choice or was it a mistake?" is over thinking it too much. There are tons and tons of works out there that have characters within their own series that don't really even adhere to the rules of what they should look like. Characters like Arnold with his abnormally wide head. Characters like Brock with his unique eyes that are always closed. Characters like Bart, Lisa or Maggy, all who have hair that makes no logical sense that no single other character has in the show. These types of designs are all deliberate choices that toe the line of "weird mistake" to the point that I think it's good to embrace that aspect of stabilization and push towards new things as you learn and grow and decide what parts of your style you like and want to keep using going forwards. It is that type of freedom that lets people be able to just draw whatever they want and be content with "Yeah I think it looks okay" even when that "okay" doesn't always line up with how a more standardize look for other characters would turn out. Stylized pieces also have a much lower barrier of entry which I think also adds to the easier nature of them. If a two artists of similar skill level each do a piece in the style of their choosing, one realistic, and one stylized and they both make a mistake where they eyes are too large, the realistic piece is going to get far more criticism than the stylized piece and I think that's worth pointing out because it can cause realistic artists frustration and make them more critical of their own abilities and less likely to want to engage with making realistic art, which is another aspect of the difficulties of realism being harder. Of course this can and does still happen to stylized pieces and that should be recognized too, but I have seen far more people get shit on for their realistic and goofy looking human portrait than a goofy looking cartoon character drawing. tl;dr this is a completely subjective topic and I don't think there is any one real answer and your thoughts on the topic will be heavily skewed from your own experiences.
For me, I’m the polar opposite. I grew up watching cartoons and drawing/animating in a very cartoony art style, but when it comes to drawing realistically, I really struggle at it, ESPECIALLY when it comes to drawing humans. 🥲
Same!!! I can sorta draw realistic objects and things, but ever since I was younger I only drew stylized stuff in my own style, or copying pokémon lol- And I still love drawing in my own style!
I started with stylization and gradually embraced realism that I found much easier in the end precisely because you have a consistent set of rules that you can bend, but are not supposed to break. Inventing my own rules is too difficult;)
Hi! I'm a classically trained artist who also does more stylized/cartoon work. This is an interesting discussion to me because I have often found that these two styles are both based in illustration and therefor very similar, so stating that one is harder over the other is like saying a boulder made of marble is harder to tire flip than one made of granite. Sure, one can have a heavier weight, but you're still tire flipping boulders at the end of the day. Apologies for the length, I have pure intentions and no anger behind this. It's just a topic I have a lot of knowledge and passion in. A few things that made me turn my head a little was the words you used when describing 'realism'. A lot of the "perfectly replicate reality like a camera would" artists often come from the backs of modern artists who never really learned classical art or tried it for a little before doing their own thing, as is how the whole modern movement started. This has caused many artists, and many teachers, to attempt to reinvent the wheel when it comes to portraying likeness, and it's only become more apparent to me with time that a lot of the good habits or teaching points from artists today are just crude classical art methods recreated. Even the method of sketching you use in the beginning to get a structure down before going more detailed is basically a few steps away from the box method (that's what I call it, literally every classical artist you met will have a different name for it) where you replace the ribs, hips, limbs, and appendages with boxes, and that's a centuries old trick stemming from sculptors before being adapted into classical work. A much more accurate description of true realism would be the word "translation", classical artists don't use projectors, light tables, or grid measuring, not because they've somehow memorized the anatomy of every single object and creature out there, but because we learn how to simplify those objects into cubes, spheres, cylinders, cones and then translate the shadows/ forms we see based on that simplification. You don't get likeness from if you perfectly imitated the nose from your reference, but from if you've placed the shadow it casts in the right place. It's very interesting how modern realism artists are aiming to get every pore of someone's face when it's easier and more pleasing to the eye to acquire likeness via blocking and silhouette. Much like any other style of illustration, there is a ton of leeway in realism, just don't be a camera. You're well allowed to play with how something is portrayed while keeping it realistic, simply look at any sketch or plein air painting. Much like the stylized counterpart, you're able to make changes in color palette, composition, and what details you even include. Most stylization is simplification of what's in front of you, which is exactly what realism does. Going into comparisons of reference to final work, no one really see's the reference images or still life's for those. When was the last time you saw an artist’s final work right next to what they were working off of in any sort of gallery for any style? Feeling like you need to perfectly measure and match to a tee what your referencing is actually where most art fails in both realism and stylized. I rarely find myself constantly comparing every detail of my work to the reference past the beginning stages, even in a pure classical painting. Once you have everything blocked and laid out, you're mostly using the reference in the same way a stylized artist would use theirs. Helping newer students in the academy I went to; they were often pushed away from measuring so much because being mathematically correct in placing an object is not pleasing to look at. That uncanny feeling where art just looks wrong due to incorrect proportions is in both types of illustrations and is based on how our eyes interpreted the world rather than how the world is. This is also why such errors can be spotted by non-artists regardless of their background knowledge. The supposed safety net of “it’s stylized” simply suspends disbelief in a different style from realism, if it’s bad or looks wack, people will tell you. If you truly wish to have better realism, zoom out, start with big angles, and simplify everything, advice that I've seen classical artists and big wig cartoonists alike give for their respective work. Saying that realism has a hard set of rules that everyone follows and universally agrees on sends me in a bit of a tiff because it’s simply not true. Classical proportions, which is what calls for more knowledge on anatomy and is used in figurative and portraiture, are not meant to be followed perfectly, they’re there as reference to help you put lines on the page and is mostly a European method. Practically no one has a classically proportional face, and many of the methods stylized artists use for character art are from it i.e the five eyes across the face, hands landing mid-thigh, the length of arms vs legs. Everything you read or watch about classical realism from actual classical artists preface that these ‘rules’ are guidelines not hills to die on. 14:14 This is a perfectly valid point, playing with your translation of reality is 100% a fine line that gets trickier in stylized work. I would say that it’s more so because the artist is usually attempting to ignore what’s been done before rather than because they have nothing to fall back on. That’s what the modern art people did, that’s what the impressionists did, that’s what classical realism did too. The first art we have from humanity is stylized, all the super old art we have is usually stylized, realism itself began as break away from supposed rules and guidelines. What you’re saying is true, it just isn’t solely applicable to one type of art. For your case and journey in particular, stylized probably is harder than realism. I’ve met plenty of artists who love structure and a set of things to follow when painting and pushing out of those limits was always the hardest step for them. I wish you nothing but love and luck, from on and off watching some of your videos over the past year or so I can certainly you’ve been improving wonderfully. A style of classical work I would recommend you check out in your free time is the classical Russian Structural art, specifically how they go about illustration, you don’t need to go out and learn classical realism from them, but the way they build the form and describe illustration might resonate with how you learn and you might be able to take some of that back into your stylized work. Or you could just go, “huh, neat”. An interesting read is never a bad read in my opinion. TLDR; I don’t believe one is harder than the other, they’re just different lens’ to the same thing. But the argument itself is very interesting and opens up a discussion on how different realism and stylized work actually are.
Realism is harder from a technical angle, while anime art is harder from a stylistic angle. Realism demands technical mastery but style is more or less a no-brainer (since it's the same as real life). Meanwhile anime art has a much lower technical barrier-to-entry but demands stylistic mastery. For most of us, technical skill is relatively simpler to acquire than stylistic skill, hence why we find anime art harder to make than realism
As someone who grew up drawing carton's and moved onto anime, I can say I'm better at anime and understand what I'm doing way more than realism, as I've never even tried realism and always skipped it XD It depends on how you grew up tbh, but this is a very good video
it can be simplified and honestly less argumentative to ask this instead, "is it easier to copy something, or create something unique/original?" it's broader to more than just art and you won't have traditional artists automatically on guard and dismissively saying "of course realism is harder". is it easier for a dancer to learn a specific dance routine or is it harder to create one yourself? maybe harder isn't even the right term. it's different challenges.
I haven’t watched the vid yet, but my initial opinion is simply that it’s different for each person, some people are better at copying real life and others at creatively exaggerating, for me I use realism to do weird core paintings ^^
I think it depends on the artist, Realism is more being able to recreate what you see and anime is being able to stylize and imagine what life would look like otherwise.
Seems the best way to sum it up is the execution of realism is difficult from a technique perspective while the execution of anime and other more abstract art forms is difficult from a visualization perspective. Realism has endless direct references while other art forms require diverging more from what we know in real life. Both are undoubtedly hard, just in different ways. I agree with a lot of your points.
Different things are hard for different people! I personally find it easier to draw certain things realistically and other things stylistically. For example, I struggle with drawing realistic facial features (eyes, nose, mouth, etc.) but not as much with stylised facial features. Conversely, I can draw realistic hands quite well, but I find it very hard to draw stylised hands.
I don't think either is harder than the other. It depends on the artist and to what level they take their art. Realism isn't as black and white as people make it sound, because realistic artists still all have their own unique styles which can vary so heavily one another, while still falling under what can be considered realism. Same sort of thing goes for stylized art, in this case anime -- two artists can have the 'same style' but can put completely different levels of detail and creative liberties into their work and both still be considered anime artists. Also, different styles and mediums can come naturally to different artists. Just because realism is easier for one person, doesn't mean that it's easy for another. For me personally, I cannot portray realism to save my life, whereas drawing in a more comic-like, cartoonish style comes easily to me. To put my ramble in a nut shell, art is incredibly subjective and I think it's hard to judge one's difficulty over another. Especially since each style has so many extremes within its own bounds.
Wow, glad I subscribed. I'm currently taking classes under a muralist and learning to paint landscapes. Or sketch realistic anatomy. But my long term goal is to make an anime style inspired graphic novel
As an artist who started with cartoon styles, moved to manga, and finally switched to semi-realism, I’ve always had a harder time with manga/anime styles. I was so relieved when I finally tried semi-realism and discovered it actually isn’t harder for me than manga as I feared it would be.
For me it´s like a struggle to draw a realistic piece, I´ll have a book open with the rules for the correct sproportions, a realistic reference, but then I don´t wanna draw the eyes so tiny, or I want the hair to defy gravity a little, or I want more highlights- and then BOOM it´s stylized. 〒▽〒
I used to despise realism, but now i enjoy semi-realism, a balance between anime and realism. Honestly to draw anime you need to understand realism. And wow, that dog drawing is amazing!! While artists shouldn't be forced to do realism, its definitely the way to improve. Anime is a breakdown of realism, and being good at realism is actually so impressive because realism is so tough for me
I've never thought about this! Maybe artists struggling with stylization could start practicing by drawing fanart of their favorite animated shows because they have defined rules for how everything is depicted? Thanks for the video, Celestia 💙✨
I think it's cool that the drawing has a traditional canvas texture. may I ask how you did it? I can kinda guess, but you did it really well, so I thought, maybe you figured out a good way to do it
I draw both nowadays, I used to only draw anime because that was all the shows I watched but I got into Marvel and wanted to draw the characters so I tried one day and learned realism and now my anime art has improved because of my realism and I draw both depending on what I want to draw nowadays
I deal with the same issue when it comes to stylization and for me it's sort of like sculpting. You have to know what to remove from the medium (realism) to get the finished piece (the styalization in question. )
For me, I find drawing realism easier, but drawing stylized stuff funner. When I was learning how to draw, I'd often just draw things realistically, but only with a pencil & paper. It meant that I couldn't draw everything 100% accurately, but at the same time I didn't really need to go all out since I knew I was just gonna draw cartoons anyways. It doesn't look like it, but drawing realistically helped me learn proper anatomy (even for my cartoon bunny character), it helped me learn how light works, how to shade certain materials, and it's especially helpful for drawing good backgrounds. Although, another thing to keep in mind is I didn't JUST study reality when I learned how to draw. I also studied a bunch of cartoons I liked to basically amalgamate it all into my own little style, plus it helped me figure-out really helpful trick that allowed me to draw certain things faster. All and all, realism =/= stylized, and stylized =/= realism. However, bits & pieces of one can carry over to the other helping you save time in some areas. Same goes for animator diving into art for the first time or vice-versa. Art & animation are surprisingly different from one another.
I think your drawing of the Mona Lisa really represents that fine line between what should be kept and what should be bent. Though none of it is wrong or correct, I think it represents the concept well. On another note, this is why I say to study real-life things and understand how they work. And though many people get mad and immediately yell at me that realism is not required for anime and that I just don't understand, despite drawing anime myself. It does help. It goes with learning the rules while you break them. The hard truth is, if you aspire to be a 'great' artist with your own developing style, even anime, you're gonna have to learn how real things work, including backgrounds. This doesn't mean you have to draw realism, it just means you have to know what is acceptable vs. what is style, which ties in with realism styles hardcore. It's just something you have to learn if you care about your drawings looking 'good'. Sidenote: Especially since I didn't want to draw the typical anime. (just had to have dreams) I wanted something different and slightly more realistic, something like Soul Caliber, Granblue, or Final Fantasy. And what I've realized is that coloring goes hardcore in with lineart, especially with Granblue or Final Fantasy style. I can't just do lineart and then move on to the coloring, I kinda have to do them side by side and edit as needed. As well, my style has deviated so much from the original style that I really can't just look at any old reference and go, "Ya, that looks good." The hard truth of being in the middle is that I have to look at realistic images, look at references of said art, then look back at it in my style and make sure it looks consistent. So I'm constantly spending hours in the _contemplating zone_ essentially on each step, before I can move on, because if I don't, the entire piece is ruined. And it'll take me even more hours to fix it. Which is why it takes me some time to finish a single piece. ; )
I’d actually argue that realism is much easier in regards to accuracy because often you’re copying exactly what you see. However, stylization is MUCH harder to make convincing and accurate because as much as people ACCEPT that there aren’t any strict rules, it’s often also true that the same rules that apply to realism apply to stylization too. You still have to maintain anatomy and it can be easy to make things look uncanny because even slight mistakes can make a stylized drawing of a human being look off putting.
I find realism technically more difficult, but since I've always had a cartoonish/anime style I can say that figuring out how to effectively stylise the features of something is really difficult. I guess I'm in the middle; if given a reference I can do a good job at something close to realism (though I have my own ways of drawing textures like wood and leaves that might make it more stylised but still clearly the subject) but I tend to draw in a stylised way in my day to day life
This was so interesting to hear as someone who's the opposite! For me personally realism was never something I've even considered doing. I'm always very impressed by it, dont get me wrong and I think it's so beyond admirable when people do it at high levels. But I don't get any joy or inspiration from the idea of drawing realistically for myself. I've always been someone who basically preferred to live in a daydream with my ocs than take in the world around me, so the reason I love art is wanting to bring that world that is so dear to me to life. I also don't have a very clear image of anything at all in my head, so fiddling around until I make something that I think looks right for what I wanna do has always been what I've liked... Also I'm too lazy to get references more than half the time so there's that too. I usually mess around until it scratches the itch in my brain that tells me that THAT is the image I want to see of my character, since I can't see it very clearly on my own, which makes daydreaming a lot more fun. Art is a way to make it easier to see what I want to see without being limited by a real world I have trouble feeling that I'm a part of. Idk if that makes sense but I hope it does and that it doesn't sound too pretentious lmao. Thanks for this video, it was so interesting to hear from your perspective. 😌✨
Its easier for me to copy something from real life than having to draw something non realistic. It could be because its just something you see in reality and anime or cartoonish drawings require a level of creativity that i lack
this video sadly gives me "learn the rules before you break them" vibes. but overall i cant help but agree sense my father does detailed art and has trouble doing more simple artstyles.
You can still be more technical then realism with stylization. WHEN yall figure out how to accurately depict characters in 3d space with correct proportions with out references / with minimal references models by sketching out proper perspective guides And place all the correct textures in the right placements as well. stylization can be harder depending on the level of complexity you give your subjects. Not every styled thing is basically pokemon. You can go hard mode and draw Dark Souls like things with 100% precision if you train your self for it... Stylized work is more of a puzzle mode the just looking at a object for me at least...looking at irl things just doesn't use your mental capacity in the same way.
I hate following rules Stylization is so.much easier for me LOL. But i also find realism boring to do? Like i dont feel creative i just feel like im doing a homework assignment and its just. Boring as hell.
Tbh, as a person who started out drawing cartoons, I think anime is easier. However, I am slowly beginning to think that realism is easier since it's just copying a ref. I don't have the skill to do any of them tho- so I respect artists who pull off these styles well.
I've struggled with stylized eyes alone. do I go pupil or no pupil. just the top lid or both? :((((( I feel like all will be well when I make the jump to digital
0:20 I would actually say no because It's harder to do realism from imagination than look at your bowl of fruits and do it but I've seen anime illustrations where the background the characters the poses the anatomy the every little thing is so skillfully crafted that that artist's work is a thousand times harder to replicate then realism. And while you can learn realism through a bunch of different techniques, you will have to know all of those plus a bunch of brand new skillsets in order to achieve the level of proficiency of some anime artists. What I'm trying to say basically is, there is anime styles that are building off of the blocks of realism or even hyperrealism; not the styles that take realism notions break down and stylize them but actually building off of realism. Which makes those styles more difficult because you gotta already be an expert in realism to achieve them. Case closed xD Now, when it comes to the other anime styles I'd say they're on the level of realism but both have techniques and all that are equally difficult to master. And when it comes to cartoony sure it's easier to draw one cartoon character but the difficulty again balances out because usually with cartoony styles comes into play movement notions from animation so if you do cartoony youll prolly have a better animation skill than just doing realism or illustration, even if you didn't really bother to learn animation, you would already be a step ahead if you tried. That's my take, sincerely an artist who has tried them all and leads into anime + realism :3 every art form has its difficult parts and different people will find different artstyles more difficult than others
There is an over saturation of anime drawings and so little realistic or semi-realistic drawing artist. So yeah anime is a lot easier to draw than realistic.
Still watching but this has ABSOLUTELY been the case with me. I can draw with remarkably good accuracy something realistic if I can see it, but anime/stylized art is incredibly difficult for me to pull off. The fact I have aphantasia doesn't help but still, the skills required to reliably alter and stylize something without it falling into uncanny valley is definitely a different set of skills than reproducing realism.
Bruh i was bored one day and sketched lilnasx very realistically. It was so accurate that my mom thought it was a black and white print. Was also my first time doing realism. Ive been struggling for years to draw anime
![Hunxho - Ball Forever [Official Video]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/nki9ZTF9Uls/mqdefault.jpg)
“Having an art style” has always sort of baffled me, because I never realised that the way people draw is intentional most of the time. I have been asked “how do I gain an art style” and my only response has been “just draw naturally?” Because my art style comes from how I naturally draw. I don’t think about the unique stylistic features I have in my art style. And when they’re pointed out to me, it’s shocking to me because I never realised or considered that it was a unique choice, it’s just how I draw.
I went from stylized to realism back to stylized and I think personally, stylized is harder at the higher levels. Anyone can draw cartoon characters like Snoopy fairly easy, but designing and developing the style for Peanuts? That takes a master.
Another point to add: the anime style was specifically created so that less skilled in-between artists could pump out lots of cels with a high degree of consistency, quality, and speed. However, over the decades, still-image artists innovated ways to polish up the style into something much more elaborate, yet also much more time consuming.
This is partially true but also don’t forget manga artists have to pump out a chapter a week for many magazines
people have trouble drawing different things which can be affected by their thought process, how they draw, n other things. so a person might find it more difficult drawing cartoons compared to realism
when I was a kid I found stylization easier because frankly I didn't know the fundamentals and kinda just did whatever lmao. But as I got older and understood art more, I found making still life and realistic drawings a tad bit more easy cause you're basically just copying what you see.
With stylization, sure you can use a reference, but your imagination is doing most of the heavy lifting. In my opinion 🥲
For me, I'm somewhere in the middle cause there have been instances where drawing realistically is easier than drawing stylized art and the opposite is true at the same time. I draw in a way that's both realistic and stylized at the same time
What is clearly easier with a realistic drawing approach, is that it's WAY more accepted.
I found that when ppl see my usual comicy, anime style, they often find it a cute little hobby of mine.
But when I try realism (and I say try because I am NOT good at it 😂) then they are suddenly way more impressed.
I personally don't get why everyone think realism is THE THING!
Because tbh....I find it really boring 🤷♂️
It’s really a cultural thing. In Western Europe we highly value the old masters works as the PEAK oftentimes, its why we call them the masters, only in later years did modern more surreal artists get some recognition for their own talents.
Whereas if you look at medieval art, east asian art and even ancient Egyptian art you will see stylised art being valued as we would value something like the Mona Lisa.
I cant speak for others around the world but I heavily dislike how medieval art is treated these days, because it had its own sense of visual style and conveying ideas it is now largely considered weird or garners comments like “has the artist ever seen a cat before??” When they are really misunderstanding its intent
Same reason realistic graphics are such a huge focus in the AAA games industry -- Western culture considers realism to be inherently more "serious".
The misconception that anything other that the realest of real isn't as good is definitely frustrating.
I had similar reactions to my work.
I started learning realism to help get a better grasp of the basics and had people tell me that the realistic stuff looked better and that my older stuff looked more "animated," though I'm sure they meant anime the point they were trying to make still made it’s way through.
I think I’m split down the middle. I became an artist because I wanted to be able to accurately draw the characters from the video games I grew up playing, so what I spend most of my time drawing is silly little blue hedgehogs and jumping Italian plumbers. However, stylizing them in a way that looks perfectly visually appealing to me is often more difficult than it is for me to realistically draw my sister or my dog. Realism is really, really, REALLY difficult, but perfect stylization is near impossible since there’s often no clearly defined standard to hold it to, like you pointed out in your video.
As you said very well in your video.
Both have their challenges, strengths, weaknesses, and so on.
Difficulty does come down to the individual. For me, as an artist with Aphantasia, I find the visually looking at something aspect of realism way easier than trying to stylize. Since I see nothing in my mind trying to bend the rules just doesn't look right. I can dip my drawing toes into slightly stylize stuff but if I go full anime i just can't get things to look right.
I can draw some cartoonish stuff easier than anime. Like pokemon, sonic, etc but I tend to find that the simpler the design the harder it is.
Like jigglypuff is harder to me to draw than Nidoking.
At the end of the day, I've seen so many fantastic artists on all sides of the artistic spectrum that I have an immense appreciation for all art because I know whether simple, realistic or something else entirely making art takes skill and dedication.
Stylized pieces will always be the easier of the two for me because the intense freedom that type of art provides.
Realism will always be that. Realistic. A piece expected to be rendered with the detail and accuracy of a photo even to the detriment of the interest of the piece itself.
I see amazing works of massive paintings done of human faces with every excruciating detail caught perfectly at 300% scale.
And while the skill required to that is incredible and by and large far more of an application of skill than stylized pieces, for me, it's also boring.
Why do that when I can just go outside, bump into a person and basically see the same thing. That in itself is one of the first things that makes the style more difficult for me. Because I'm just not inspired by drawing something true to life and have no motivation to do so.
I would much rather look at a stylistic piece that could look like anything. Even if that character is ugly or looks weird.
I also think the thought that you NEED to understand your own style fully and completely if you want to do anime or stylistic and getting hung up on "Is this a stylistic choice or was it a mistake?" is over thinking it too much.
There are tons and tons of works out there that have characters within their own series that don't really even adhere to the rules of what they should look like.
Characters like Arnold with his abnormally wide head. Characters like Brock with his unique eyes that are always closed. Characters like Bart, Lisa or Maggy, all who have hair that makes no logical sense that no single other character has in the show.
These types of designs are all deliberate choices that toe the line of "weird mistake" to the point that I think it's good to embrace that aspect of stabilization and push towards new things as you learn and grow and decide what parts of your style you like and want to keep using going forwards.
It is that type of freedom that lets people be able to just draw whatever they want and be content with "Yeah I think it looks okay" even when that "okay" doesn't always line up with how a more standardize look for other characters would turn out.
Stylized pieces also have a much lower barrier of entry which I think also adds to the easier nature of them. If a two artists of similar skill level each do a piece in the style of their choosing, one realistic, and one stylized and they both make a mistake where they eyes are too large, the realistic piece is going to get far more criticism than the stylized piece and I think that's worth pointing out because it can cause realistic artists frustration and make them more critical of their own abilities and less likely to want to engage with making realistic art, which is another aspect of the difficulties of realism being harder.
Of course this can and does still happen to stylized pieces and that should be recognized too, but I have seen far more people get shit on for their realistic and goofy looking human portrait than a goofy looking cartoon character drawing.
tl;dr this is a completely subjective topic and I don't think there is any one real answer and your thoughts on the topic will be heavily skewed from your own experiences.
For me, I’m the polar opposite. I grew up watching cartoons and drawing/animating in a very cartoony art style, but when it comes to drawing realistically, I really struggle at it, ESPECIALLY when it comes to drawing humans. 🥲
Same. I think the only time, I really ever drew a realistic looking person, was a grade school art class
Still really hate the teacher that taught it
Same!!! I can sorta draw realistic objects and things, but ever since I was younger I only drew stylized stuff in my own style, or copying pokémon lol- And I still love drawing in my own style!
Same here
I think at the end of the day it just depends on individual inclinations and what we have grown most accustomed to doing over time.
I started with stylization and gradually embraced realism that I found much easier in the end precisely because you have a consistent set of rules that you can bend, but are not supposed to break. Inventing my own rules is too difficult;)
Hi! I'm a classically trained artist who also does more stylized/cartoon work. This is an interesting discussion to me because I have often found that these two styles are both based in illustration and therefor very similar, so stating that one is harder over the other is like saying a boulder made of marble is harder to tire flip than one made of granite. Sure, one can have a heavier weight, but you're still tire flipping boulders at the end of the day.
Apologies for the length, I have pure intentions and no anger behind this. It's just a topic I have a lot of knowledge and passion in.
A few things that made me turn my head a little was the words you used when describing 'realism'. A lot of the "perfectly replicate reality like a camera would" artists often come from the backs of modern artists who never really learned classical art or tried it for a little before doing their own thing, as is how the whole modern movement started. This has caused many artists, and many teachers, to attempt to reinvent the wheel when it comes to portraying likeness, and it's only become more apparent to me with time that a lot of the good habits or teaching points from artists today are just crude classical art methods recreated. Even the method of sketching you use in the beginning to get a structure down before going more detailed is basically a few steps away from the box method (that's what I call it, literally every classical artist you met will have a different name for it) where you replace the ribs, hips, limbs, and appendages with boxes, and that's a centuries old trick stemming from sculptors before being adapted into classical work. A much more accurate description of true realism would be the word "translation", classical artists don't use projectors, light tables, or grid measuring, not because they've somehow memorized the anatomy of every single object and creature out there, but because we learn how to simplify those objects into cubes, spheres, cylinders, cones and then translate the shadows/ forms we see based on that simplification. You don't get likeness from if you perfectly imitated the nose from your reference, but from if you've placed the shadow it casts in the right place. It's very interesting how modern realism artists are aiming to get every pore of someone's face when it's easier and more pleasing to the eye to acquire likeness via blocking and silhouette.
Much like any other style of illustration, there is a ton of leeway in realism, just don't be a camera. You're well allowed to play with how something is portrayed while keeping it realistic, simply look at any sketch or plein air painting. Much like the stylized counterpart, you're able to make changes in color palette, composition, and what details you even include. Most stylization is simplification of what's in front of you, which is exactly what realism does.
Going into comparisons of reference to final work, no one really see's the reference images or still life's for those. When was the last time you saw an artist’s final work right next to what they were working off of in any sort of gallery for any style? Feeling like you need to perfectly measure and match to a tee what your referencing is actually where most art fails in both realism and stylized. I rarely find myself constantly comparing every detail of my work to the reference past the beginning stages, even in a pure classical painting. Once you have everything blocked and laid out, you're mostly using the reference in the same way a stylized artist would use theirs. Helping newer students in the academy I went to; they were often pushed away from measuring so much because being mathematically correct in placing an object is not pleasing to look at. That uncanny feeling where art just looks wrong due to incorrect proportions is in both types of illustrations and is based on how our eyes interpreted the world rather than how the world is. This is also why such errors can be spotted by non-artists regardless of their background knowledge. The supposed safety net of “it’s stylized” simply suspends disbelief in a different style from realism, if it’s bad or looks wack, people will tell you.
If you truly wish to have better realism, zoom out, start with big angles, and simplify everything, advice that I've seen classical artists and big wig cartoonists alike give for their respective work.
Saying that realism has a hard set of rules that everyone follows and universally agrees on sends me in a bit of a tiff because it’s simply not true. Classical proportions, which is what calls for more knowledge on anatomy and is used in figurative and portraiture, are not meant to be followed perfectly, they’re there as reference to help you put lines on the page and is mostly a European method. Practically no one has a classically proportional face, and many of the methods stylized artists use for character art are from it i.e the five eyes across the face, hands landing mid-thigh, the length of arms vs legs. Everything you read or watch about classical realism from actual classical artists preface that these ‘rules’ are guidelines not hills to die on.
14:14 This is a perfectly valid point, playing with your translation of reality is 100% a fine line that gets trickier in stylized work. I would say that it’s more so because the artist is usually attempting to ignore what’s been done before rather than because they have nothing to fall back on. That’s what the modern art people did, that’s what the impressionists did, that’s what classical realism did too. The first art we have from humanity is stylized, all the super old art we have is usually stylized, realism itself began as break away from supposed rules and guidelines. What you’re saying is true, it just isn’t solely applicable to one type of art.
For your case and journey in particular, stylized probably is harder than realism. I’ve met plenty of artists who love structure and a set of things to follow when painting and pushing out of those limits was always the hardest step for them. I wish you nothing but love and luck, from on and off watching some of your videos over the past year or so I can certainly you’ve been improving wonderfully.
A style of classical work I would recommend you check out in your free time is the classical Russian Structural art, specifically how they go about illustration, you don’t need to go out and learn classical realism from them, but the way they build the form and describe illustration might resonate with how you learn and you might be able to take some of that back into your stylized work. Or you could just go, “huh, neat”. An interesting read is never a bad read in my opinion.
TLDR; I don’t believe one is harder than the other, they’re just different lens’ to the same thing. But the argument itself is very interesting and opens up a discussion on how different realism and stylized work actually are.
Realism is harder from a technical angle, while anime art is harder from a stylistic angle. Realism demands technical mastery but style is more or less a no-brainer (since it's the same as real life). Meanwhile anime art has a much lower technical barrier-to-entry but demands stylistic mastery.
For most of us, technical skill is relatively simpler to acquire than stylistic skill, hence why we find anime art harder to make than realism
As someone who grew up drawing carton's and moved onto anime, I can say I'm better at anime and understand what I'm doing way more than realism, as I've never even tried realism and always skipped it XD
It depends on how you grew up tbh, but this is a very good video
Same! I mostly draw art of my OC's which were completely inspired by anime so I never really learnt realism😅😅😅
it can be simplified and honestly less argumentative to ask this instead, "is it easier to copy something, or create something unique/original?" it's broader to more than just art and you won't have traditional artists automatically on guard and dismissively saying "of course realism is harder". is it easier for a dancer to learn a specific dance routine or is it harder to create one yourself? maybe harder isn't even the right term. it's different challenges.
I started with anime art, but I totally get what you mean, I understand how stylized art can be difficult.
I haven’t watched the vid yet, but my initial opinion is simply that it’s different for each person, some people are better at copying real life and others at creatively exaggerating, for me I use realism to do weird core paintings ^^
I think it depends on the artist, Realism is more being able to recreate what you see and anime is being able to stylize and imagine what life would look like otherwise.
Seems the best way to sum it up is the execution of realism is difficult from a technique perspective while the execution of anime and other more abstract art forms is difficult from a visualization perspective. Realism has endless direct references while other art forms require diverging more from what we know in real life. Both are undoubtedly hard, just in different ways. I agree with a lot of your points.
Different things are hard for different people! I personally find it easier to draw certain things realistically and other things stylistically. For example, I struggle with drawing realistic facial features (eyes, nose, mouth, etc.) but not as much with stylised facial features. Conversely, I can draw realistic hands quite well, but I find it very hard to draw stylised hands.
I don't think either is harder than the other. It depends on the artist and to what level they take their art. Realism isn't as black and white as people make it sound, because realistic artists still all have their own unique styles which can vary so heavily one another, while still falling under what can be considered realism. Same sort of thing goes for stylized art, in this case anime -- two artists can have the 'same style' but can put completely different levels of detail and creative liberties into their work and both still be considered anime artists.
Also, different styles and mediums can come naturally to different artists. Just because realism is easier for one person, doesn't mean that it's easy for another. For me personally, I cannot portray realism to save my life, whereas drawing in a more comic-like, cartoonish style comes easily to me.
To put my ramble in a nut shell, art is incredibly subjective and I think it's hard to judge one's difficulty over another. Especially since each style has so many extremes within its own bounds.
Wow, glad I subscribed. I'm currently taking classes under a muralist and learning to paint landscapes. Or sketch realistic anatomy.
But my long term goal is to make an anime style inspired graphic novel
As an artist who started with cartoon styles, moved to manga, and finally switched to semi-realism, I’ve always had a harder time with manga/anime styles. I was so relieved when I finally tried semi-realism and discovered it actually isn’t harder for me than manga as I feared it would be.
in my experience its easier for stylized artists to draw realism than for realism artists to draw stylization
Man Ive been thinking about this more and more after watching it and YEAH youre right..
so much makes sense now
For me it´s like a struggle to draw a realistic piece, I´ll have a book open with the rules for the correct sproportions, a realistic reference, but then I don´t wanna draw the eyes so tiny, or I want the hair to defy gravity a little, or I want more highlights- and then BOOM it´s stylized. 〒▽〒
I used to despise realism, but now i enjoy semi-realism, a balance between anime and realism. Honestly to draw anime you need to understand realism. And wow, that dog drawing is amazing!! While artists shouldn't be forced to do realism, its definitely the way to improve. Anime is a breakdown of realism, and being good at realism is actually so impressive because realism is so tough for me
I've never thought about this! Maybe artists struggling with stylization could start practicing by drawing fanart of their favorite animated shows because they have defined rules for how everything is depicted? Thanks for the video, Celestia 💙✨
I think it's cool that the drawing has a traditional canvas texture. may I ask how you did it?
I can kinda guess, but you did it really well, so I thought, maybe you figured out a good way to do it
I draw both nowadays, I used to only draw anime because that was all the shows I watched but I got into Marvel and wanted to draw the characters so I tried one day and learned realism and now my anime art has improved because of my realism and I draw both depending on what I want to draw nowadays
I struggle more in doing anime than realistic or semi realistic
Cartoonish art is soooo challenging I can only do realism😢
I deal with the same issue when it comes to stylization and for me it's sort of like sculpting. You have to know what to remove from the medium (realism) to get the finished piece (the styalization in question. )
For me, I find drawing realism easier, but drawing stylized stuff funner.
When I was learning how to draw, I'd often just draw things realistically, but only with a pencil & paper. It meant that I couldn't draw everything 100% accurately, but at the same time I didn't really need to go all out since I knew I was just gonna draw cartoons anyways.
It doesn't look like it, but drawing realistically helped me learn proper anatomy (even for my cartoon bunny character), it helped me learn how light works, how to shade certain materials, and it's especially helpful for drawing good backgrounds.
Although, another thing to keep in mind is I didn't JUST study reality when I learned how to draw. I also studied a bunch of cartoons I liked to basically amalgamate it all into my own little style, plus it helped me figure-out really helpful trick that allowed me to draw certain things faster.
All and all, realism =/= stylized, and stylized =/= realism. However, bits & pieces of one can carry over to the other helping you save time in some areas. Same goes for animator diving into art for the first time or vice-versa. Art & animation are surprisingly different from one another.
I think your drawing of the Mona Lisa really represents that fine line between what should be kept and what should be bent. Though none of it is wrong or correct, I think it represents the concept well.
On another note, this is why I say to study real-life things and understand how they work. And though many people get mad and immediately yell at me that realism is not required for anime and that I just don't understand, despite drawing anime myself. It does help.
It goes with learning the rules while you break them. The hard truth is, if you aspire to be a 'great' artist with your own developing style, even anime, you're gonna have to learn how real things work, including backgrounds. This doesn't mean you have to draw realism, it just means you have to know what is acceptable vs. what is style, which ties in with realism styles hardcore. It's just something you have to learn if you care about your drawings looking 'good'.
Sidenote:
Especially since I didn't want to draw the typical anime. (just had to have dreams) I wanted something different and slightly more realistic, something like Soul Caliber, Granblue, or Final Fantasy. And what I've realized is that coloring goes hardcore in with lineart, especially with Granblue or Final Fantasy style. I can't just do lineart and then move on to the coloring, I kinda have to do them side by side and edit as needed. As well, my style has deviated so much from the original style that I really can't just look at any old reference and go, "Ya, that looks good." The hard truth of being in the middle is that I have to look at realistic images, look at references of said art, then look back at it in my style and make sure it looks consistent. So I'm constantly spending hours in the _contemplating zone_ essentially on each step, before I can move on, because if I don't, the entire piece is ruined. And it'll take me even more hours to fix it. Which is why it takes me some time to finish a single piece.
; )
Holy I'm early to this- I love your videos so much I'm glad to of caught this, your advice is great!!! :>
I’d actually argue that realism is much easier in regards to accuracy because often you’re copying exactly what you see. However, stylization is MUCH harder to make convincing and accurate because as much as people ACCEPT that there aren’t any strict rules, it’s often also true that the same rules that apply to realism apply to stylization too. You still have to maintain anatomy and it can be easy to make things look uncanny because even slight mistakes can make a stylized drawing of a human being look off putting.
I always found realism more easier for then my stylized style. I struggle to simplify some things and not make it look so stiff lol
I find realism technically more difficult, but since I've always had a cartoonish/anime style I can say that figuring out how to effectively stylise the features of something is really difficult. I guess I'm in the middle; if given a reference I can do a good job at something close to realism (though I have my own ways of drawing textures like wood and leaves that might make it more stylised but still clearly the subject) but I tend to draw in a stylised way in my day to day life
This was so interesting to hear as someone who's the opposite! For me personally realism was never something I've even considered doing. I'm always very impressed by it, dont get me wrong and I think it's so beyond admirable when people do it at high levels. But I don't get any joy or inspiration from the idea of drawing realistically for myself. I've always been someone who basically preferred to live in a daydream with my ocs than take in the world around me, so the reason I love art is wanting to bring that world that is so dear to me to life. I also don't have a very clear image of anything at all in my head, so fiddling around until I make something that I think looks right for what I wanna do has always been what I've liked... Also I'm too lazy to get references more than half the time so there's that too. I usually mess around until it scratches the itch in my brain that tells me that THAT is the image I want to see of my character, since I can't see it very clearly on my own, which makes daydreaming a lot more fun. Art is a way to make it easier to see what I want to see without being limited by a real world I have trouble feeling that I'm a part of. Idk if that makes sense but I hope it does and that it doesn't sound too pretentious lmao. Thanks for this video, it was so interesting to hear from your perspective. 😌✨
Its easier for me to copy something from real life than having to draw something non realistic. It could be because its just something you see in reality and anime or cartoonish drawings require a level of creativity that i lack
this video sadly gives me "learn the rules before you break them" vibes. but overall i cant help but agree sense my father does detailed art and has trouble doing more simple artstyles.
i started in realism and moved to anime myself. everything pointed out seems to fit my experience so far xD
You can still be more technical then realism with stylization. WHEN yall figure out how to accurately depict characters in 3d space with correct proportions with out references / with minimal references models by sketching out proper perspective guides And place all the correct textures in the right placements as well. stylization can be harder depending on the level of complexity you give your subjects. Not every styled thing is basically pokemon. You can go hard mode and draw Dark Souls like things with 100% precision if you train your self for it... Stylized work is more of a puzzle mode the just looking at a object for me at least...looking at irl things just doesn't use your mental capacity in the same way.
I hate following rules
Stylization is so.much easier for me LOL.
But i also find realism boring to do? Like i dont feel creative i just feel like im doing a homework assignment and its just. Boring as hell.
In stylized art, you can hide your lack of knowledge behind "stylistic choices." Realism offers no such cop out
all the comments are glazing their preference
Tbh, as a person who started out drawing cartoons, I think anime is easier. However, I am slowly beginning to think that realism is easier since it's just copying a ref. I don't have the skill to do any of them tho- so I respect artists who pull off these styles well.
i would love to own a print of the anime mona lisa.
i kind of do both concurrently??? it definitely depends on the day for me
I've struggled with stylized eyes alone. do I go pupil or no pupil. just the top lid or both? :((((( I feel like all will be well when I make the jump to digital
I've never heard of anyone starting with realism right off the bat. It's always either cartoon or anime. It's objectively easier to draw and practice.
3:50 Who the fuck is TheratisCOMING? Or is that just me and my name glitched out?
0:20 I would actually say no because It's harder to do realism from imagination than look at your bowl of fruits and do it but I've seen anime illustrations where the background the characters the poses the anatomy the every little thing is so skillfully crafted that that artist's work is a thousand times harder to replicate then realism. And while you can learn realism through a bunch of different techniques, you will have to know all of those plus a bunch of brand new skillsets in order to achieve the level of proficiency of some anime artists. What I'm trying to say basically is, there is anime styles that are building off of the blocks of realism or even hyperrealism; not the styles that take realism notions break down and stylize them but actually building off of realism. Which makes those styles more difficult because you gotta already be an expert in realism to achieve them. Case closed xD
Now, when it comes to the other anime styles I'd say they're on the level of realism but both have techniques and all that are equally difficult to master. And when it comes to cartoony sure it's easier to draw one cartoon character but the difficulty again balances out because usually with cartoony styles comes into play movement notions from animation so if you do cartoony youll prolly have a better animation skill than just doing realism or illustration, even if you didn't really bother to learn animation, you would already be a step ahead if you tried. That's my take, sincerely an artist who has tried them all and leads into anime + realism :3 every art form has its difficult parts and different people will find different artstyles more difficult than others
I thought Lisa had a cap on lmao
Realism is way harder for me than realism but some anime styles are harder to draw.
There is an over saturation of anime drawings and so little realistic or semi-realistic drawing artist. So yeah anime is a lot easier to draw than realistic.
YES IT IS HARDER, and i can do BOTH...it s by a LOT
Definitely not sorry 😭
To be honest, in my opinion, art is beautiful, realism/stylization or not
Nah
I completely agree.
Still watching but this has ABSOLUTELY been the case with me. I can draw with remarkably good accuracy something realistic if I can see it, but anime/stylized art is incredibly difficult for me to pull off. The fact I have aphantasia doesn't help but still, the skills required to reliably alter and stylize something without it falling into uncanny valley is definitely a different set of skills than reproducing realism.
hi
Realism isn't hard, literally most of us started drawing with Realism first.
so as a child you drew realistically first?
@@AA-rr9ly yeah, when I was a Kid all I do is try to copy any object, I see. And obviously it's Realism.
@@bananadoesarts surprised you didnt try to draw cartoons, thats how most people start out
@@AA-rr9ly really? I always thought everyone strated in Realism and transition to other style as they develop.
@@bananadoesarts well children are more inclined to cartoons so its more common, i just find it hard to imagine a child drawing realistically at first
What.
19 seconds ago!!!
Bruh i was bored one day and sketched lilnasx very realistically. It was so accurate that my mom thought it was a black and white print. Was also my first time doing realism. Ive been struggling for years to draw anime
hi