I hate my art teacher for saying that Anime is generic, just copying and it's all the same. Well I return Realism is too, then D:<

She wanted me to draw realism, thinking that I had no idea about anatomy because I draw cartooney stuff. O<
I really prefer drawing Anime because it's so much more...apealling to me and fun to draw. I like to draw Semi-realism, I don't like to go beyoooond that to Realism, though. xD

Well, I base my drawing proportions on my own proportions... So either way, anime, or realistic, my drawings turn into un-proportional monstrosities.

Yeah, I have really long arms and thick legs, so those get incorporated into people I draw.

Thank goodness we don't have Art as a subject, though. I think the teachers despise anime...

First, I would like to say that your art skills, both in realistic art and anime, are phenomenal from what your examples show. Kudos from one artist to another on your fantastic drawings skills...I, as a fellow Menewshan and artist, applaude you and am impressed with what I've seen.

Second, I think that every artist who enjoys drawing anime has come up against this trivial topic, whether they draw from real life as well or not. People have always questioned my drawing abilities since high school, including one of my art teachers, who insisted that no art school would ever be interested in my "comic art" unless I knew how to draw realistically as well. Now, I agree with the comment made before about how learning to draw realistically will only serve to help improve your drawing abilities otherwise, and vice versa. And yes, my teacher's comments did make me work harder to learn realistic drawing so that I could better my anime related drawings and also be taken seriously as an artist. Now, I go to a reknowned art university where I'm studying Graphic Design, and I continue to draw both realistically and comic artistically...and have for one project of mine, which was a self-portrait, incorporated both techniques of drawing into my work.

So, to conclude in accordance with the discussion at hand, I agree that there is a bothersome quality about people who assume that people who draw anime are incapable of drawing anything realistically. I think I've personally proven to myself that is false, and I hope to prove to others in the future that such is not the case...

...In short, I agree with everything the poster of the topic has stated ^_^

It really depends on the artist. Everyone has the potential to be able to draw in both (and other) styles but it all comes down to whether or not they want to bother with the practice and learning. What I've unfortunately encountered more often than not is a lot of anime artists who start out in anime, never grow and stubbornly stick to it while rehashing their same bad habits over and over again. Which is where I believe this prejudice is coming from, because there are so many underclassmen in my school right now who can paint a storm but have shit for anatomy once you get closer than 10 feet to their piece.

And a lot of that goes for anime artists in general. Obviously, not all, and I'm very glad that there are so many people in this thread who agree that drawing anime doesn't mean you can't do realism. And I agree, it goes hand in hand so heavily that you can't really seperate the two but. Big but. That's only if the artist realizes this for themselves and actually works on it. Headshots alone can tell a lot about an artist. Do they realize that there's a skull underneath? Most don't, I've seen a lot of heads lose their cranial cavities because the artist in question didn't know that in real life, the back of the head extends further out. Do they know that the eyes are set in sockets? That the mouth bulges out a little under the nose? etc.

Not to say that the simplistic chibi styles aren't valid, but because they're so two dimensional they don't teach anything about 3-d forms over a 3-d object in space. So it's fine for someone who's had experience in realism but for someone just starting out drawing it could teach them some really bad habits that'll be difficult to get rid of later on.

I believe that's what a lot of teachers want to get across, but they do it in such an awful manner (your example shines here) that they don't really get the underlying point across to the student. Here's a case in point: I used to be around the Penny Arcade forums in their art section, and there was this one guy who kept moaning and groaning about his style and asked for advice. Nearly the entire forum came forward and told him, you need to fix your anatomy and stop drawing in your generic anime style. He eventually ended up disregarding everyone's advice saying, drawing like this makes me happy. (which was fine, but he shouldn't have wasted everyone's time like that.)

It's not to say that they dislike anime, because there were other artists who did the style. Just that they also had a firm grasp of realism, anatomy, value, weight, etc. so they came across as people who cared about improvement and such. But yeah, I think there are plenty of people like him who also contribute to this prejudice against anime artists in general.

Gods, this is a novel. Sorry. _o_ One last thing, which should make everyone sorta cringe: a lot of my artist friends can tell Miyazaki's style, Shirow's style and maybe one or two other well known artists, but they CANNOT tell the difference between anything else in between for anime. It all looks the same to them. >_< So likely, your teachers suffer from this syndrome also, inadvertently.

It's always upsetting to hear when this is the case.

To draw anime well you have to be good at realism and develope a stle of anime.

Often people think poor proportions and art when they think anime. This is a terrible thing, because it is not true, but people judge on the art they see drawn by beginners who think that they are drawing anime when their drawings aren't decent in the least.

it doesnt mean that but it's good to have a well balanced portfolio

I've always had an art teacher that supported me. She has an open mind about different styles, and also thinks that drawing anime is a way to improve in art. Though I do think realism style is harder, I think it's only because I don't practice it nearly as much as I doodle anime everywhere.

Now, if only I can convince my parents. My dad thinks that anime isn't even concidered art. He calls it like... "Japanese-crap." -_-;;

Ah, Anime vs. Realism. I know both sides pretty well [insert arrogance here]. It’s always interesting to see people’s reaction to both realism and anime, and well, it’s not fair to judge them as anything different from each other.

Each style of anime is rated in a different way, though. When I went to get my portfolio evaluated by the head art instructor at Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) I had two with me. (And a few very large pieces, which did not fit in the portfolio at all.) We ended up having a lovely chat (but who doesn’t with the most prim and proper British woman you would ever meet), and when she looked through my realism portfolio she was nodding her head in approval. She liked it very much, noticing that I had technical skill, but a lot of the pieces were un finished. (HA HA ha :cough: haha >_>; ) She then meandered over to my from my photo manipulations claming that I had a good base of contemporary art (of which I have none) to my anime portfolio, and quirked her brow slightly augmented with a slight smile. We got into a small discussion about anime, and she explained there were two types of anime in (most) instructor’s eyes. Very pleased with my style of anime (IE my first comic page) she made comment that the other style shows improper physical structure and that the people who draw in that style usually state something along the lines of “LOL IT’S AWESOME B/C IT’S ANIME” (Just image the proper British woman saying that. We both had a good laugh~!) But she continued to look through my stuff and was pleased with its originality. (She was just upset that nothing was finished XD! But she did like the stuff that WAS finished <3 :D)

So that was a fun experience all in all – and what she, as I deciphered it, was only interested in seeing that people loved what they do with originality and not just some carbon copy of CLAMP manga style. Show backgrounds, show movement, and you’re fine. And PB, I’m SURE that if you would have shown your stuff to him he would have given you more A+’s, but I can concur with the whole ass hole teacher thing.

My freshman year art teacher was a total douche about anime, and believed that anyone who drew anime couldn’t draw at all. So, of course, I retaliated out of anger and out of pride [lol +10 arrogance]. On the back of every assignment I drew him as an anime character. Boy did he get offended; it was great, and really funny. He began to relax about it of course, especially after I drew an extremely large-eyed anime version of him right next to a very realistically drawn burro. He began to laugh about it after that and realized that people CAN draw realism AND anime and still be talented artists.

So the truth behind it all is, (that I like the word so) you need to develop BOTH your anime and your realism skills. That way, you can develop you anime style off of a good base.

PS you’re lucky you can GET A+’s! D:< Our school had to change our grading system because half of the seniors were getting 4.2 and up because all of their classes were A+’s D:< :jealous: So colleges weren’t able to figure out who to pick for the UW XD

I think drawing anime is VERY difficult. I have yet to master it and I think I can draw realism much more accurately. Drawing anime is limited to one kind of style, really. You have to draw it a certain way or it doesn't look right. With realism the possibilities are much more broad. So I think realism is much easier.

I mostly draw Anime, but I can do realisum...

ouch you are a really good artist!! my anime and real life drawings really suck!!! i hate me!! but anyways, i draw anime, real life, or cartoons.. but yeah i know i suck.. some people say my drawings are cute, lovely, awesome sometimes.. but i really feel thet i suck. why? because i see many people having greater artworks!!! cooler than mine.. i feel insecure, and sometimes i had this "inferiority complex". lol.. is inferiority compex a disease? i hope not xP

I think that some artists who draw anime-style can't draw realism........ But probably just due to lack of practice. I can do realism fairly well, and I've been trying to do more anime...... Yeah, they're both difficult, and they're both legitimate art forms. I know that my art teacher in high school didn't mind people drawing anime as long as it was their own creations--not someone else's. As far as I'm concerned, that's the best way to go about it. I think that eventually, anime artists will get more respect--it's just going to take a while.

That's just stupidity on your teacher's part. It shouldn't matter if you draw anime or realism. Art is art, no matter what style it's done in.

I've heard a lot of people say that when you start drawing you should start with realism before yous attempt to draw anime, because you have to have an understanding of proportions and anatomy before hand.

Also, I like drawing both realism and my own cartoonishanime style. But I more so stick with realism for the most part.

I've met many art teachers who told me that drawing with the anime style isn't art period.
It frustrates me. -__-;

Taking art classes while at school completely put me off doing it at college. My teacher was the sort who liked drawing baskets of fruit.. nothing against that, but we always had very set projects to do and any time I did something slightly different she got her delightful 'frowny face' on -_- mm disapproval.

I tried talking to her once about other influences.. and she asked me to bring in some of my stuff from home. So in I came with a horde of random stuff XD At the time I really enjoyed drawing portraits from magazine photos [I had no useful interwebs for stock photos =P], but mostly I'll admit I was a superhero fangirl.. I drew big butch guys flapping about and shooting fireballs at each other XD;

Cue her less than enthusiastic face again.. ~_~ And the comments on my 'cartoons'. Blah.. it takes some serious anatomy skills to get musclebound guys in skin tight suits right.. especially in some of the fantastical poses they can get into.. it's kind of what attracted me so much to that kind of stuff in the first place. I am so in awe of many, many US comic book artists *_*

Complete lack of support was pretty depressing really :/ 'cartoons' are not Art it seems..

These days, thanks to further influences I tend to draw more 'anime' stuff.. it's a personal choice. I can do the realism thing if I want to, and still do for friends and family who want presents for others.

But whatever.. I find it pretty disgusting that teachers of all people can be the ones who are most close minded.. I always figured they were there to help people to grow.

I totally agree, it's so annoying how close-minded a lot of people can be :(
Although, not all realism is derived from already existing photos.

Ugh, I'm no artist but I know what you experienced (as evidenced by the number of replies) is not an isolated thing. Four of my friends in real life are talented artists, but our high school art teacher rejected anything they did in their own style since it was cartoony (not necessarily anime). Personally, I think you can't expect too much realism skill anyways from a high school class. This isn't to say people at that age don't have the skill, but where I live art is a required elective class, so some people funneled into the classroom have little skill at all.

I agree with ProdigyBombay and I highly disagree that just because one is more prone to drawing anime styled art, one is not able to draw realism. It's utter nonsense. Those people just stereotyped the anime style with what they know and hear rather than trying to understand it themselves better. If you have read enough manga and observed(even if it's only the Japanese ones), in certain manga the styles used are VERY close to realism. I can't remember any of the artists (as I am bad with names) but if asked to draw realism, they could draw it just as well as they did their manga art.

Back when I was still in high school, I had an art teacher who almost everyone agree does not know how to grade art. She gave a student A+ for a particular messy piece that even the person that drew it hated and a piece that many said were really well done received a B- instead. And well, I always receive not very excellent grades just because of my anime-ish art (I'm rather prone to drawing chibis then). ^_^;

When one enroll themselves into an art institution, anime style or not, one would be thought how to draw realism art. Many artists I met online who are studying in some form of art institution (and a number who do not), they have their own 'anime' style of art but they could also draw realism really well, as it is sometimes their base for drawing what they do. I myself is trying to teach myself realism art to improve my proportioning in drawing anime styled art. And then it comes to artists and their own style. If realism art is only limited to one type of style, then where is one's freedom of art? Artists do not become great artists just because they limit themselves to what they should draw than what they want to draw. Even those who draw realism art have their own personal styles. I'd like to rant more but I've to run to class soon.

As for your art, it's really beautiful! =D

A lot of people don't consider anime style an art style at all. Though there are colleges that specialize on it. It's a sad misfortune that so many people miss out on this fun way of drawing due to bias twards anime and the junkies that draw it. I'm pretty proud of my drawing skills and I think that if anything, it helps when I do realism.

When you're an anime artist, you can draw mostly everything. That's the beauty of it.

I learn to ignore people like that...they just don't understand. You are obviously an amazingly talented artist in both realism and in anime n__n

(and thus I now stalk your dA xD)

my art teacher back in high school used to tell me anime wasn't art. For one, who is she to decided what art is and isn't.

my teacher never gave me lower grades because I drew anime though. I made sure to only draw it in weekly sketches (which were whatever we wanted to draw) and not during class assignments.

She did tell the whole class that I copied characters and one day I told her, look, I make up all of these characters myself. Just because they're anime doesn't mean I copied them.

I always thought it was strange that I could draw both anime and realism. But now that I think about it, it isn't really much of a difference. Since I don't do realism as much I do find it more difficult. But if I drew it as much as anime I probably wouldn't think that.

Unfortunately that's the mindset for so many people in the art world. :\ It may be unfair but it's still like that. You draw beautiful anime and realism. Don't let them tell you if you suck. I agree, anime and other stylized images are a whole other world of difficulty.

That's why I enjoy drawing anime/cartoons/stuff from your imagination. It's quite hard...but people want to see that you already know the basics of realism I guess.

That is so unfair! Seriously what's the problem in drawing Anime and Realism? Both of them are difficult to make it and are in some way similiar o.o

People just don't know what's real art anymore!

Maybe they are being lame and annoying because they can't draw good anime... xD I don't know.. Just don't listen to them.

Wow, I can't believe this thread is still alive. o_o PB started this god knows when, and she's not even here anymore.