Hmm...let's see...this is like the...umm...6th? time this has happened to me (more likely more though). But this time I'm going to spit it all out. So be prepared for a long read.
First of all I must admit that I was looking to pick up a fight here when I say "Liquify" in your thread's title...the second I saw this thread's name I thought I'd see some incredibly bad...things that someone would post as "art". Fortunately, I haven't seen the word "art" in your first reply, and I appreciate at least that. I would have gone completely ballistic if that would have been the case.
Ok, now I shall reply to the reply you posted.
First of all spare me of the "no evidence that I can't draw" thing...just a glimpse at that thing you call a portrait reveals that you are a very bad drawer and lack a lot of knowledge: no sense of proportion, color or light, incredibly faulty composition (cropping the character instead of increasing canvas size...what the hell man; and by that I mean the sides, not the bottom because it's obviously meant to be a bust). Now OF COURSE you'll start screaming that what the hell I'm talking about, that I'm a moron, because you stated that you wanted to try a new style, it's not meant to be realistic, why does everything have to be realistic? blah blah blah BULLLLLCRAAAAP! I'm tired of seeing this all over the place!! Not just on the internet, but EVERYWHERE...damned posers that can't draw and hide behind stupid excuses like they're trying a new style or that's how they envision the world or who knows what other thing that they think it sounds smart...in your case it's obvious, you even said you prefer this over the brush, therefore again meaning lack of skill and devotion...Liquify is not even meant as a painting tool, it is for touching up photographs and textures and just because you use it for another purpose doesn't make you original, it makes you stupid...it's just like using a hammer for washing up your dishes...of course there are contradictory examples, like those people you see that paint amazing things with french fries and ketchup, but really, regarding liquify the hammer example is more relevant.
That minute spelling mistake you pointed and made such a fuss aboud makes you look pathetic, really, if it were a bigger thing it would have worked, but that was just fail.
I couldn't care less if this is your first "artwork" posted here...that reaction of yours with "you expect me to be a pro?" I've seen one too many times and it's a sign of your mind going wild, for I never insinuated it...And what, you think that if you do something different it makes you special? Well, in your case it'll be like:
Everyone thinks that they're such an individual, that they have personality for doing things another way, when in fact 123352437 people do it the same way.
Speaking of which, let's talk a little about style now. First of all, don't try to preach me about this since you obviously don't know what you're talking about and you have in your mind all the generic stuff that's fed into your brain.
Style is the thing that makes one unique, the one thing that separates one from the ordinary. It doesn't consist only of technique, it's the way you express your ideas, what ideas you have, your tastes, and yourself. You have a style when someone looks at your stuff and instantly recognizes you, when immages of all your works will start to flash by him when he sees just a little part of what you do...Right now if I look at your stuff I see all the other random persons on the internet that have the same mentallity as yourself and make stuff identical to this...even if you're in a search for a style of your own, it'll start to show from the very beginning, even if you know it or not.
I'm not trying to say that you should be like everyone else, I'm really trying to make you see past the bullshit of stereotypes, that there's no such thing as uniqueness in discovering and using liquify, that liquify is a bad tool (VERY VERY BAD...damn, if I'd have access to the 10 commandments I'd add an eleventh, stating "Thou Shalt Not Use Liquify, Smudge, Dodge and Burn When Thou Paint!") for painting...it is simple to use and therefore makes you feel very comfortable, like you'll never need anything again, you have the impression that everything looks fantastic with it, when it's not (this is more about personal opinion, but when it's the personal opinion of millions of people, it does mean something)...The people that said what you made looks good I bet there are friends, relatives, random persons on the internet that don't know any better, school/high school art teachers (damn those are awfull...don't trust them! everything you make is a masterpieace for them and encourage you for every little bullshit you make => the millions of posers out there). If you don't believe me, just dare to post these on conceptart.org...if they won't ignore you, they'll bust your butt, trust me.
Sorry to jump back a little, but now I remembered that you said:
"Now, why do you say professionals do not use these tools? Because they do."
Really? REALLY? My god...it's a shock for me! It can't be...
Listen, you are in no position to make this statement...NO professional concept artist (remember, I'm talking about painting here, not photo manipulation) uses this crap, at least in the manner you use it (for everything, that is...); to the highest extent it is used when you import some textures or photos to blend in with your painting and you want to make small adjustments to them, though even then the wrap and other edit tools are better. And how do I know this? I don't know, maybe because of the ammounts of professional training dvd's I watched and from assisting at professionals when they were working...
Don't compare this with warfare, because it is a bad example. There's one thing in crafts that it's not in war: tradition, heritage...why do you think people still oil paint? Because they're t3h sux? No, because they value it more than anything and try to keep it that way. Simplicity indeed is the end of everything. You know of course that obesity is mainly the cause of too much comfort, because we don't need to go and hunt for ourselves anymore and lack of other manual labor. The same thing is going on with the crafts...the soul in them is starting to fade awya...everything is mass produced or generated on the computer, like fractal art. And yes, even painting on the computer or modeling something from scratch doesn't have the same spiritual value like a traditional painting or sculpture, because the sacred link between YOU and THE MATERIAl is lost. It's all transformed into 1s and 0s now...Call me old fart or whatever, this is the fact and you know it. Some people embrace it, some people don't.
Speaking of soul, there's another thing that I almost makes me cry and that is seing the word "art" thrown away like that everywhere like it's nothing..."My art", "I made some art", "this is one art I made now, I'll make more art...", "XXXX's art gallery"...everyone calls himself an artist.
This is because of everybody's general belief that art is either just expressing yourself in any means possible or a very pretty drawing. These opinions depend on every case, usually people who can't draw well to save their lives go for the first option. People think art has no limitations, you can do everything as long as you express yourself...Now what I'm about to say will most likely sound to you like an extremely biased and subjective opinion, but I think it's the truth no one wants to acknowledge: that vision about art is bullshit. Art is not just your ideas or your imagination put on paper or anything else, ART is the projection of yourself, of your own dimension into the world of the others in such a manner that everyone can see it exactly how you see it. It's recreating yourself in another dimension other than your own. Though it can never be achieved, because you are under constant change. You're not the same person now as you were yesterday or how you will be tomorrow or over 5 seconds. It's a feeling of very short duration, but when you'll feel it you will know, and everybody else will as well, and it's worth an entire lifetime of devotion. If you can make 1 piece of art in your entire lifetime, you are the happiest person on earth. Very few people managed to do so...Art is not just a pretty drawing or painting, art is not something beautiful and it's not a piece of shit in a can or a dead dog (or it can be if that's really you, but that was the media and everyone else in those cases).
I've fought with many people that said they made art and they really meant something with what they did, but when asked what it meant they were acting all like the "never understood artist", but bullshit nothing they made was true...This is why so many people hide behind the concept of abstract art, they think that just drawing 2 lines on paper makes an abstract painting, when it is actually at best decorative. Abstract art is really complex actually, and there may really be some true pieces of art in the abstract genre, they can be as deep as an abyss...
Of course, in the end everything is about the individual and everyone's own sphere, so you'll most likely not agree with anything I said. If you'll continue with this it's not my problem, even though it should be because I'm tired of seeing this attitude everywhere and I can't just keep ignoring it, though what can one individual do against a whole army? Oh well....I really hope you'll start seing things differently, not from now on, because I bet my rant won't mean anything to you, but at least I hope what I said will give you something to think about even for 1 minute. If what I said will make you angry and you'll feel a desperate urge to prove me wrong in everything, then it really means I did something and oh god please prove me wrong by FACTS, by your doing.
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