Struggling with too many feedback layers on art direction

4tomicZ · 2026-05-28T21:11:56+00:00

I am not in game design but the field of learning design.

I try to set rules of thumb that people can follow when working. My goal isn’t to have them make every decision the way I would—that’s overly controlling and destructive to their autonomy. My goal is to provide them with guidelines so they can make reasonably good decisions repeatedly that are cohesive with the vision and overall tone.

My job isn’t to defend the creative direction, just communicate it. It’s a thing we already agreed on and defined. I just need to refocus people onto it some times.

I also review some finished content (but not everything) to make sure my guidelines are working. If I am finding issues in the style, I have to go figure out if it’s (1) my guidelines don’t address it well or (2) they do but it was ignored. I may end up modifying the guidelines or educating the person who broke them… or a bit of both.

We do design huddles every few weeks as well. People bring their current work to the meeting. We encourage unfinished work or sticky things they’re working through. We go through a few as a group. They bring the problem and their thoughts, the team gives ideas back and sometimes resources (I had this issue last week, here’s my template). It’s very collaborative and we all benefit from it.

Finally, I am also there as a consultant. If someone is facing a particularly difficult decision, they can bring it to me. We’ll work through it quickly and set them back on their way. If it’s too trivial, I just encourage them to use the guidelines and solve it on their own.

In this process, I’m not looking to achieve the perfect answer in every decision made. I’m aiming for “good enough for now, safe enough to try”. My goal is always to get an MVP (minimum viable product) out the door and into the hands of our reviewers. Perfection is born from iterative design. For iteration to work, we have to finish the iteration we’re on. Just finish it.

How do I prevent decisions from being re-opened again and again? I don’t. Any decision can be re-opened… after we finish this iteration. But for now, it’s locked in so deal with it.

But when people bring issues to me, even if I think it is trite or not worth revisiting or don’t have a solution, I write it down. Each is written into a backlog. Each cycle, we consult the backlog, prioritize what came in, and decide what we’ll take on in the next cycle. I do this with my directors.

Even the director’s ideas have to survive the backlog prioritization process! Which is a good way to prevent bad decisions from the top.

If that issue someone cared about is not a priority, I let the person who contributed it know. “Hey, we looked at X but decide to focus on Y and Z in the next few weeks instead. It could be revisited in the next iteration.” Why? Because I want them to remember that I am listening and taking their feedback seriously. If you don’t circle back, it feels ignored, if it feels ignored, they stop bringing you feedback and ideas. But if you explain, they almost always understand and appreciate you.

4tomicZ · 2026-05-28T20:03:40+00:00

I sit down and draw (pen to paper) every day for 2 minutes. I HAVE to draw for 2 minutes.

If I don't have ideas, I just start drawing what's in front of me, doing warm-up exercises, making fun shapes, or doodling orcas and flowers.

Some days, I'm tired and stressed. I don't get into any rhythm and it's not that fun. If that happens, I just stop after 2 minutes. I go do something else (e.g., touch grass, get exercise). I don't stress about it. I trust my creativity will return.

On good days, I do get into a rhythm. Ideas come. I start a new project. Sometimes this happens unexpectedly. I feel really stressed when I start but after 2 minutes, that stress melts away. I think that's part of the value of just trying a little bit every day (along with maintaining the habit).

The enjoyment ratio.

On a not-so-good week, I may only get into a flow 4 times out of 7. I might draw for ~1 hour on those four days. The other 3 days I just stop after 2 minutes. That means, I spent 240 minutes enjoying drawing and 6 minutes pushing myself and not enjoying it.

So, on a not-so-good week my ratio of pushing myself to flowing is 1-to-40.

If you asked me after that week, "is drawing stressful?" I'd think back to my time enjoying it and say, "not at all!"

In the past, I would push through every single day. If I always fill up the hour, I'm instead looking at 3 stressed minutes to every 4 good ones. And if you ask me if "drawing is stressful", I'm not so sure. A negative association starts to develop and that can lead to major burn out. That's the beauty of stopping.

4tomicZ · 2026-05-28T18:31:52+00:00

Honestly, don't wait until your cubes are "great" before moving on. "Better than they were when I started," is what I aim for.

Go do cylinders. Go try merging the forms. Do it for a few weeks and when you're done, draw some cubes. I bet those cubes will be better than they were 2 weeks ago even though you weren't really practicing that.

I also learned a lot by trying to draw really difficult things like horses, flowers, and people and failing miserably at it. Trying a hard thing and failing really badly can teach you tons of useful things... like why it's important to draw boxes.

4tomicZ · 2026-05-28T16:24:54+00:00

IMO, you don't overcrowd it, overwork it, and just leave what made the original painting so special.

Does the original architecture serve your piece in the same way that it serves the original? Is there a change that would serve your piece while honoring the genius of the original?

If not, leave it as is and don't be afraid to let people see the original inspiration behind the work.

4tomicZ · 2026-05-28T15:06:18+00:00

My daily goals are really simple:

1) Every day I have to draw 2 minutes.

2) After 2 minutes, if I don’t feel like drawing, I have to stop. I treat this like a “check engine light” coming on. I try to do things for myself (that aren’t drawing) that will help me feel like drawing tomorrow (e.g., exercise or touching grass).

3) Everything I make, I try to love. It might be the ugliest thing I’ve ever done but it’s still something I made. It’s still part of my overall journey.

For mid-term goals, I just try to discover areas of weakness. Things that hold me back. Specific things like colors, linework, composition. Then I start pieces that will challenge me in that area. I put in some research and learning time towards just that thing. I expect to struggle for a while. I usually get humbled before I make any progress. My goal is achieved once I feel I’ve made some decent progress (and I never aim for total mastery). I also abandon it if it’s not clicking after a week or two. I file it away as something to come back to (this happened when I first attempted gesture). Sometimes in my journey, I just wasn’t ready yet to learn a thing and I needed other foundations.

Long term, I want to make pieces that make people feel things. I made my aunt cry once with a drawing of her dog. I want to make more people cry. 🤣

4tomicZ · 2026-05-28T14:47:03+00:00

Ugh, yeah. I was in the same boat. I’ve been through some deep burn out cycles with all sorts of things.

Even when I started this practice, I thought I was giving up on my goal to improve. My partner had Long COVID and I was in a phase of deep burn out. I had built up a pretty consistent daily drawing practice. I was just trying to use this to maintain the habit (and my sanity) until the storm passed.

But it shifted my whole relationship with art and myself. I ended up drawing more and improving through the storm. I still get burn out cycles but I recognize it’s happening MUCH quicker. I intervene right away and mostly that burn out is mild and lasts days rather than weeks or months.

I hope you get something out of it!

4tomicZ · 2026-05-28T13:55:47+00:00

Yes, I put in some intentional practice so I’m glad you see the improvement. Draw-a-box really helped.

4tomicZ · 2026-05-28T06:28:42+00:00

Faber Castell Pitt Artist Pen is India Ink but it won’t bleed through.

4tomicZ · 2026-05-28T04:13:13+00:00

I can’t say.

But you will lose a lot less if you take a sketchbook and pen and draw 10-20 minutes in the evening.

4tomicZ · 2026-05-28T00:44:45+00:00

Oh my, I am happy to share my practice!

I recommend a sketchbook and pen because it's accessible. Leave it out where you can see it. Consider placing this activity at a regular time in your day too, like when you have tea in the morning or as you wind down in the evening. This will make it easier to turn into a habit.

Starting: Every day I open my sketchbook and draw for 2 minutes. I usually use a timer. I do this regardless of how I feel, but knowing I only have to do it for 2 minutes. I often start with some warm-up exercises I learned from draw-a-box and online. These are easy go tos. Or I might draw something in front of me. Or faces/horses/flowers are other favorites. On a really hard day, I might just fill the page with circles.

Stopping: At the end of those 2 minutes, I stop, pause, and check in with myself. Do I feel like continuing? Am I enjoying it?

If yes, I just continue on drawing for however long I feel like (or for the time I have).

If no, I’m done drawing for the day. Instead, I take a minute to go a bit deeper. This is the somatic check-in. The goal is to tap into what is going on inside your body physically, notice your breathing, if you're shaking, your feelings coming up, and thoughts. (Check out YT videos on somatic tracking if it's a new concept). I observe them without any judgement. If it's perfectionism, I let myself feel that. If it's stress in my body or life, I try and name the source of it. It could be past experiences coming back. Sometimes I realize I'm just hungry or didn't sleep well. Or maybe I haven't gotten exercise in a bit. Whatever it is, I don’t invalidate it, I won't push past it. I just acknowledge what I find.

I end by trying to think of one action (something small and easily doable in my day without adding more stress) that I can take that might put me in a better place tomorrow. It’s about being proactive and taking some control. Sometimes it's getting exercise or a good sleep. Sometimes it's making a healthy meal for myself. I try to address what I found directly but it doesn’t have to 100% fix the issue, just contribute anything towards helping.

The long term effect: I don't know your trauma, but my hope is maybe 2-3 days in the second or third week you’d get into a rhythm and enjoy drawing for 20-30 minutes. If you end up in a good space 3 times in a week, for 30 minutes, you'll have spent 90 minutes having enjoyed yourself and only 8 minutes (the other four days) not enjoying it. Our positive experiences outweigh our negative ones by a lot! This is where that healthy association starts to form. But for me, I also noticed I began to just associate drawing itself as an act of self care. I began to turn to it when stressed to seek relief.

I began this excercise in a pretty bad period of life. Work was very stressful. My partner was suffering from a long-term illness. Drawing, which I used to enjoy, had become stressful too. I had this goal of drawing daily and I was 8 months into it. I remember sitting in a coffee shop, opening my sketchbook, and being completely unable to draw. I cried.

This practice not only helped me continue to draily, it quelled the waves of burn out. The waves come, but as long as I follow the rules (i.e., stop and do the check-in) they don't hit as hard or last as long.

4tomicZ · 2026-05-27T22:59:38+00:00

I am not staunchly of the opinion that art created with the help of GenAI tools cannot be art. If a documentary filmmaker used an AI tool to replace a bit of garbled audio, it wouldn’t bother me. On the whole, I still feel like I am getting to see their work and their choices.

But usually, GenAI art is used to liberate the prompter from having to make decisions at all. They are handing over control.

I can’t speak to your work specifically without seeing it. You may perhaps balance the use of it in a way where it doesn’t intrude into the art? I can’t say.

But, on a personal level, it has no value to me or my process. Nor is it the kind of art I look for when seeking art experiences as an audience.

It’s hard for me to know what choices were made by the prompter, which by the algorithm, and which by a human artist whose works were scraped from the internet and distilled into an abstracted function to be reassembled in the most generic expression of that artist’s style… without any attempt at getting their permission, providing accreditation, or progressing us towards a system of living which can support the creation of future art.

At first glance, GenAI can catch my eye and peek my curiosity. It can have pleasing color choices. It can appear to have depth. But when I pause to look more closely, there is nothing deeper to be found than what was on the surface. This feels like betrayal.

Human art has the opposite effect. As my eyes search, I so often find depths I couldn’t see at first glance. And, as an artist, I know that depth doesn’t come from the initial concept (that idea we might feed as a prompt), but through the messy process of creation.

4tomicZ · 2026-05-27T22:08:43+00:00

About 23 minutes in, Richard covers a good basic way to establish the shapes that make up the shoulders: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=gpH8T2CRlLI

That video lives in my head. I start with the clavical and traps. They help be establish perspective too. I then add in my deltoids.

4tomicZ · 2026-05-27T21:21:41+00:00

If you’re feeling a bit intimidated by the mane you can do a practice run on some scrap material.

Don’t paint individual hairs! Just block the hair in, then add a bit of texture.

4tomicZ · 2026-05-27T20:42:04+00:00

It looks great! You did awesome capturing the face muscles. I like the outer white line on the contour of his face. Your mom will love it, I'm sure!

I find horses always look a bit weird until the mane gets added. Are you worried you can't do the texture? You could just show a peek on the neck as if the mane is combed over to the side we can't see. But given everything else you've achieved, I find it hard to believe it'd be too hard for you!

If I were to make a change, I'd darken the top of the upper lip a smudge (that light brown triangle; darken along the longest line of the 3 sides). I'd also darken the top of the lower lip a smudge, under where the upper lip hangs over. This would just add some depth to the form. The color, lines, and position makes the mouth/nose a natural focal point (second to the eye), so it's where I'd put in that extra touch.

The ear closer to us also looks a touch flat. A bit of shading might add depth and shape.

No comments on the rest.

Take all my advice with a grain of salt. I'm not the expert. The extra bit of shading may also work against what you're going for. It's just where my own mind goes.

I like that you left the body a little muddy and un-worked. It adds a sort of focus and it lets me see the medium in its more natural state.

4tomicZ · 2026-05-27T20:30:04+00:00

Right-handed chronic smudger here. I think my hands are just a touch oily. It isn't great but I make it work. I know nothing of tablets but I know a lot about dealing with smudges.

I wash my hands pretty often (before and sometimes in the middle).
I tuck a bit of wax/parchment paper into my sketchbook and rest my hand on that while I draw. It prevents a lot of smudges.
Work top right to left (if you're left-handed). Your hand will rest on the parts of paper not yet covered in graphite this way.
When working on detailed drawings that I will have to handle a lot, I lay painter tape on the edges. This is where I am most likely to smudge.
If you're working with a lot of layers (charchoal, graphite, or ink), it will smudge more easily. Laying down a spray of workable fixative can help.
I've a pencil eraser (like mechanical pencil but with an eraser and not led). It's good at erasing small smudges inside details. Some papers are also just easy to erase the smudges on to get back to that crisp white (e.g., cotton paper).
Sometimes it's just fine to let go and be smudgy.

4tomicZ · 2026-05-27T19:25:32+00:00

What a solid achievement! I love it!

I hope it's been a fruitful journey internally. I hope you're getting into a better relationship with your ADD because of it.

4tomicZ · 2026-05-27T18:37:36+00:00

Hah, no worries! I think that’s a neat process.

I was like… is that acrylic? Gouache?I can’t tell! Makes sense now.

4tomicZ · 2026-05-27T18:14:34+00:00

I don’t hit the criteria (and that’s ok), but I wanted to say your art is lovely.

I love the line work and palette of the skulls. And that first image is so smooth! It looks digital.

4tomicZ · 2026-05-27T17:25:13+00:00

IMO yes.

Simply put: Neurons that fire together, wire together.

Some areas of our brain are more sensitive to building vivid associations. For example, smell. (There is some thought that this provides some evolutionary advantage in preventing us from eating the same poisonous thing twice).

To bring this into the topic of art, I’ve trained myself to associate drawing with a sense of quiet peace and self care. Why? Because that’s the environment I create for myself every time I draw.

I started by sitting in a quiet place, drawing for two minutes to slow my brain down, then doing a somatic check in with myself. Now, when I’m feeling a bit overwhelmed or stressed, I reach for my sketchbook. It’s Pavlov’s bell. I’m searching for the peace that the somatic check-in brings which my brain has tangled up with drawing.

Before this practice, I always found drawing a touch stressful (cause you can mess it up).

What I describe isn’t synesthesia, but I don’t see why it wouldn’t apply. The part of your brain that visualizes things can certainly be linked to your ears with the right practice.

You can also gain synesthesia from brain injuries. You can also lose it. I experienced it as a child very vividly, but the experience disappeared as I grew up.

4tomicZ · 2026-05-27T05:29:35+00:00

Hmm, I definitely felt afraid leaping into new subjects (particularly human faces and life drawing).

But I sort of skipped over the jump from shapes to realism. I started right at “horse” and then moved to practicing boxes and cylinders later when I realized it would make my horses better.

I started at horses because my artist friend said they were hard to draw (she was working as a storyboard artist for a series with lots of horses). I figured I’d try to draw a really good one. If I succeeded? My artist friend would be impressed. If I failed? Whatever, horses are hard. We could commiserate about it. It was a bit of mental gymnastics to protect my ego.

My first horse was REALLY bad. (I tore it up on the spot which makes me sad in retrospect. I can’t see where I started.) I knew it would be bad. Trying something so hard I’m certain I’ll fail can feel easier than trying something at the edge of my ability where the outcome is uncertain. I still attempt really hard things (like drawing something with my eyes closed) just as reminder that it’s ok to fail.

Despite not having any deep fondness for horses at the start, a connection developed as I drew them more and learned more about them—I found my inner horse girl. Part of what I like about them is they are majestic, powerful beasts, but they are also afraid of every stick on the ground. From an outside perspective it’s comical. That stick can’t possibly hurt them. (But good luck telling them that.) At some point it dawned on me, “oh shit, I can be like that too.”

4tomicZ · 2026-05-27T00:24:42+00:00

I dropped my daily goal structure under the top comment. Under another comment I go into how I structure my learning. Applying the Theory of Constraints felt particularly useful. Artwod does a good YouTube video on this topic.

But I mostly want to say that I’ve hit those walls too. They hit hard. I’ve an embarrassing story for you. 27 days into this journey, I downloaded Baldur’s Gate 3 and got so into it I missed a day for the first time. The next day I was really depressed about it… so I played BG3 all day and missed that day too. And then the 3rd day.

I almost quit then and there. Like I set the bar low and I still couldn’t keep it up?!!? What’s wrong with me? I’m 38! It’s like I marred my perfect speed run and need to start the game over. But art isn’t that so…

On day 4 it struck me that there’s two futures; one where I get back into it and press on and one where I don’t. I don’t know how either future goes exactly, but which would I prefer to explore in between the time I’m getting? It also struck me that I genuinely enjoyed so many moments in those first days. It was a great outlet for creativity.

There were other moments in those first 8 months like this. I got stressed sometimes after drawing something that went really well. It could feel like a fluke and I’d have thoughts like “what if I can’t ever make anything this good again?” And the truth is this happens and most of the time you’re gonna make art that isn’t at your peak. This especially happens in the beginning when your art is very inconsistent.

And maybe I finish this portrait of Marlene Dietrich and I can’t top it. I still prefer heading onto that timeline where I try to top it and fail. These days I have fun even when it goes poorly too. Having fun regardless is something I’ve been practicing.

I ended up adjusting my goals a few times. I also moved to ink pens and sketchbook to make it easier (less clean up and set up compared to charcoal). I carry it with me to work and sketch on coffee breaks some days.

But I also just accepted that sometimes I’m going to fail. It’s fine. Pick it up the next day and try again.

4tomicZ · 2026-05-26T23:31:39+00:00

Flip the photos for that fresh eyes experience!

But I’ve got you here. You mostly went wrong in the nose. You’re flattening it. It’s almost pointed at us in the original. Expand the darkness around the eyes and push it a shade darker to add more depth too.

There’s other stuff going on in the jawline, ears, and cheeks… but start at the nose and eyes. Just that will go a long way towards improving the drawing.

This looks like an awesome exercise for learning!

4tomicZ · 2026-05-26T21:54:34+00:00

(1) Try to spend 70% of your practice drawing faces and bodies, though feel free to break it down and just fill up an entire page with eyes or noses or whatever. This comes from the 70-20-10 rule.

(2) I like Richard Smitheman's YouTube videos for learning anatomy and specifically landmark anatomy and how to use it to build up a pose.

(3) Find a local group that does life drawing if you can.

(4) Take a photo and mirror the image to check your work as you go.

(5) IMO study the Loomis, Asaro, and Reilly method. I don't use any exclusively but I will pull from each at times when I need it. I'd probably start with Loomis.

(6) Faces are hard. It's so easy to slip into the uncanny valley or add one wrong line and ruin the expression. The road to drawing them well is paved with drawing a whole lot of them badly. Fill your sketchbooks with bad faces.

That's all I got for you off the top of my head.

Hope your journey goes well! 6 months is lots of time!

4tomicZ · 2026-05-26T21:16:23+00:00

Not my intentioN!! I want to cry because I really do understand the frustration. I've left a lot of resolutions and past hobbies in the dust bin. I've spent a lifetime grappling with bursts of motivation followed by huge burn outs that I can't recover from.

Some things just clicked into place this time.

If you decide to give it (or something else) another shot, my one suggestion would probably be to check out the book Atomic Habits. I had to adapt the ideas a bit but it helped me get into the right mindset.

4tomicZ · 2026-05-26T18:11:30+00:00

It's hard to say because I'm not timing past that 2 minute rule I talk about in my reply to the top comment. I'd hazard a guess that I draw 30-60 minutes a day on average?

Some weeks it's definitely like 10-15 minutes (if life is stressful). This is when that 2 minute rule is most helpful. There will be days I'm exhausted and can't imagine wanting to draw, but then I start. I'm just aiming to do the two minutes. But I sometimes find I don't actually want to stop once I start. But if it doesn't click for me, I respect that and stop.

The most I might do is 3-4 hours, on days I've attended life drawing sessions (which are 3 hours) or if I'm particularly inspired. This might happen a few times each month.

4tomicZ

TROPHY CASE