RATING YOUR ART GLOW UPS

This one's from 2020 versus five years later. And this one is from 2021 to 2025. Four years apart. Oh, first digital drawing versus one of my last. Oh, I'm at a loss for words. If you keep showing me stuff like this, I might just become a furry. What's up, my beautiful nephews? Today we're going to be doing something that I absolutely love doing, which is raiding your guys' art glow-ups. Buckle up and brace yourself because you're about to be hit by a wave of inspiration or existential dread. So, I went into our Patreon Discord server and I asked my beautiful patrons to share some of their old work and their new work. I'm a little bit scared, I'm not going to lie, of the uh incredible stuff that we're going to see today. But, let's dive right in. Corsario, who started out 1.5 years ago with zero experience in drawing versus now. Woo! Look at those colors. Ain't that beautiful? My goodness. This first piece is killing me, though. What's going on here? Like, is she ascending? She's like, "Oh." First piece here is from 2023, and the second piece is from 2026. Now, the artist actually said, "I don't think I've improved that much, sadly." Um, what are you talking about? Are you out of your mind, dude? Open your eyes. Look at the colors. Look at the lines. Look at your lighting. Look at your stylization. Everything has gotten more confident. But again, maybe that was just your plan to get me to compliment you, you sneaky little. Next time, you know what? Next time you have something to say, okay, shut your mouth before you say anything. Oh my. This is a 4-year difference move from digital since I've been drawing for 13 plus years. That is incredible. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. You've been drawing since you were seven. Jesus. And I'm really glad that you actually made the move to digital painting because a lot of people tend to think that, you know, it's like a whole different world, you know, and you got to relearn everything all over again, but that's actually not the case. So, in my experience teaching myself digital art, I feel like almost all of my skills translated from traditional art over to digital. So, if you do have a foundation in traditional art, and you're somebody who's a little curious about digital art, uh, give it a shot because you'd be surprised how much of your skill set actually translates over. Oh, wait a minute. Is that a heart on her nose? Look at that highlight. It's the shape of a heart. Oh, that's cute. Hey, you so sneaky. Look at you, sneaky little Ah, yes. Furry art. It's not an art improvement video without some furries. Progress from late 2023 to early 2026. I love it, man. I think that my best improvements are in displaying emotion. You know what? You might be on to something. I think your best improvement might also be self-awareness. This is great. This is fantastic. Look, I know I like to joke a lot about all the furry hate and stuff, but it deep down I appreciate all of you guys. You know, if drawing furries is what makes you happy, keep doing what makes you happy, brother. Keep that up, man. like you're not hurting anyone in the process, just my eyes. So, right here we have something a little bit different, an environmental piece from 2025 to 2026. My goodness, that looks so good. Looks like something that I would see in like a Spiderverse still or something. That's cool. I had been doing portrait art for 3 years prior and transitioned into background paint, so I improved fast. Yeah, you absolutely did. This is great. And you know what? I like the stylized clouds you got going on in the background here. That's kind of cute. One old, two new. Look at that. That's incredible. I've been practicing to improve my shading and rendering and compositions. I mean, for me, I think it's always cool to see somebody who maybe started off with a certain style, in this case, you know, very, very much anime, and venturing out and branching out and trying something new, which is, you know, a lot more of a realistically stylized rendering. Very cool. And you've definitely done a good job. BR, what the Should I put like a warning on this? Okay, I'm going to just sneak right past here and pretend I didn't see that. Let's not claim this energy here. So, this piece is from four years ago versus now. And that's great. I love that. You know, you've got a level of threedimensionality here that was uh simply not present on the original drawing, which is great. Peter says, "I think I started out when CO began and here is my progress so far." Are you out of your mind? Oh my god, that is great, dude. Huge difference, man. And here's one thing. This might be a personal thing with the first piece, but I don't know. For some reason, I cannot stand the look of smudged graphite. I don't know. Is something about smudging graphite like this just looks so unsanitary to me. But again, this is crazy, man. Just based on what I see here in this painting, I think you have a really good grasp of colors. Oh, wait. This is cute. We got some dinosaurs. Man, I used to love drawing dinosaurs when I was a kid. I'm not going to lie. This guy kind of looks like a turkey. So, this is from uh 2023. And this one, wow, is from 2025. Not only do I see a lot more texture on the actual dinosaurs themselves, I'm also seeing a lot more clarity and confidence in the background. That looks like there's a scene here that I can actually step into. Maybe you should look into doing some scientific illustrations for educational dinosaur content because I feel like you'd actually do great. First digital drawing versus one of my last. Oh, I'm at a loss for words. 215 fully rendered pieces in 2 to 5 hours a day. My goodness, bro. You were dedicated. The improvement absolutely shows. I mean, yeah, the anatomy wasn't on point here. The colors weren't on point here, but it's like you leveled up a thousand levels and just got to like endgame. What the heck happened? And look at them floor grippers. My god, you really got the anatomy down on those. And you know what I love the most about your progression is you've never really forgotten the true reason that you do art, which is this guy's a gooner. I'm just playing, man. Great job. Great job. Oh, cute. That's so cute. Stop it. Started drawing in 2023. Was pretty fun. So, I kept drawing and practicing ever since. And here is now. That's crazy. Oh my god. Now, not only do you guys inspire me, but you guys also scare me a little bit, okay? With how fast you progress. What the heck? I mean, look at this first piece. You were using a grass texture, like a basic grass texture. And then here you just look at you got so good with your textures. Look at these textures. And this one is from 2021 to 2025. 4 years apart. Oh, that is beautiful. Do you guys see this? Like shiny. Still a long way to go, but trying to always make pieces that make me slightly uncomfortable to grow. That's a really, really good mindset. And I can definitely see you've been implementing that mindset for the past 4 years. What I find really interesting about this one is, you know, you started off with less obviously technical skill, but I can still kind of see where your stylization was. And now it's like with more technical skill and more fundamentals under your belt, you actually are able to realize the stylization that you're trying to achieve, which is just great. This looks fantastic. Four years, no shortcuts, no nothing. Just hard work and getting uncomfortable. And this is one thing to know about art as well is there there really is just no shortcuts. You know, you have to take the time and be patient with yourself and allow yourself to grow over a period of years. You know, it's not something that you can just immediately get better at overnight. Oh my goodness. Why is he kind of first work which is this piece is from 2022. Oh, I just realized that is crazy. Can I even show this? Do not demonetize me. And this is the current one. If you keep showing me stuff like this, I might just become a furry. I just love how rigorously the you furry artists study anatomy and just get so damn good at anatomy. Like this is amazing, man. Also, the colors on his outfit. Like, bro, before, after. Before, after. Four years. Four years of furry art. These are about a year apart. So, that's the first piece. And one year later, that's Look, the anatomy has gone so much better. I mean, just look at the before, right? The thigh was going I don't know. It was going places. wasn't going into the hip socket, but it was going places. And for some reason, this guy put a watermark for AI generated content in the corner. Why did you do that? This doesn't look AI generated to me. I know I still have a lingerie way to go before I'm truly happy with my art. 2021 to 2025. Look at the improvement in the anatomy here, guys. That is amazing. Now, here's the thing, guys. I'm all for stylizing your characters and exaggerating their proportions to fit your own preferences, but I'm also for learning real anatomy. Because if you learn anatomy and understand your proportions, understand how to draw real people, you can then take those rules that you've learned in real life anatomy and apply them to your style as characters much, much more effectively. Again, it's like learning the rules before you break them. 2022 versus 2025. Look at that, dude. I love the freaking water effects here, man. Are you doing like a conlu type of thing? Bro, I cannot take my eyes off of these. These are mesmerizing. Amazing. All of this within 3 years is crazy. What have you sacrificed? Your sleep or your social life? Or both? Probably both. This one's from 2020 versus 5 years later. You Oh my god. What did you do? This is a generational lock in that you had. Seriously, man. What happened in these 5 years? Who hurt you? But I'll give you credit for your 2020 drawing. You actually made a really good looking hand. Most people when they're starting out, they tend to shy away from the difficult things like the hand. So, the fact that you were able to draw that and not shy away from it means you're probably somebody who never backs down from a challenge. And I can see that in your just incredible improvement here. Great job. Honestly, I I'm at a loss for words. I might have pooped my pants a little bit. First one is from 2020. Second one is my most recent work. Look at that. Amazing, man. Man, it was a long transition from traditional to digital. Inconsistency played a role to why my personal progress took so long. I think you've done a really good job here. This is really good. Oh god. Oh. Oh. 3 years ago to now. I'm incredibly proud of where I came from. Built up the courage to draw more of the body and to step into coloring. Still have a long way to go, but couldn't be happier with my work. And you know what? I am happy for you. And you should be happy with your work. Okay, this is great. And you guys might have noticed this by now, but one of the commonalities with a lot of these art improvements is they actually stepped outside of their comfort zone. That is the number one fastest way to get better is doing things that you're not entirely comfortable with and trying things that you were afraid of. Never be afraid, guys, because this this could be you. So, this one is from 2020 and this one is from 2026. Beautiful. Just beautiful. I can definitely see that over the last 6 years you've solidified your stylization a lot. Like this here is a drawing from somebody who knows exactly what type of stylization they love. 10 out of 10. Oh my goodness. This one is from 2023 and this one is from 2 years later with some improvements made. Now, personally, I wouldn't blame you guys if you said you couldn't see the difference here because it took me a minute to realize as well. But there are some very subtle things that you've made changes to in this second piece here that's made me realize that you've really, really, really, and I mean very much so, strengthened your fundamentals, especially when it comes to compositions, which is funny enough, a tutorial topic that we're talking about on Patreon this month. Let me just point out a couple of these things to you. Okay, first off, uh, shape language is much stronger because look at the hair. Look at the little strands of hair, the shapes that break off from that main silhouette. Okay, and then look at the piece from before. This old piece had a lot more ambiguity. You weren't exactly sure where all the strands were going, whereas the new piece has a lot more certainty, a lot more confidence. Now, something else that you might not have noticed because it's very subtle is look at the tree branches in the background, right? They're very heavy. Now, on the new piece, look at how that part of the background has been lightened up. This is a very, very smart compositional decision because if you scroll back to the old piece, that tree branch, that darkness in the background almost distracts you a little bit from the silhouette of the character. Something else that I think is cool to note is if you look at the old piece here, her sleeve was quite bright and this part of her costume was also quite bright. And just squint your eyes, okay? Squint your eyes, take a step back. What is the first thing that you see? Right? The white sleeves and the white dress kind of jumps out at you a little bit. Whereas on the new piece, if you squint your eyes, the first thing that you see is her face. And that is the focal point. Very strong fundamentals here, and I love to see that. And if you guys want to learn more about compositions, check out my Patreon for this month. Holy Christ, it's Max for snapping. First ever realism piece back in April 2024. And the second one is last year's recreation. That is amazing, bro. What? Yo, if I squint my eyes, that could be a photograph. You know, a photograph of a slightly yassified Max. Look at his lashes. Oh god, he's beautiful. Cute. Lillian says, "This is from 2020 and this is 5 years later." What? I am blown away by you guys. Come on. Like, you amaze me at every turn. How did you go from this to this 5 years later? That's crazy, man. This is this is scary. You know, I'm scared, but I love this style, man. I just love this. You got such a nice desaturated color palette, but you have really pleasant transitions between the colors. And low key, bro, if you told me the same person who did this also drew this, I would take you by your ankle and I would swing you around in the air like a helicopter because no way. You're you're you're bullshitting me. That's five years, guys. Five years. Five years and a lot of hard work. Anything is possible. And here's another artist with an old piece from 2020 to 5 years later. The rendering on this is absolutely gorgeous. I love this little water fish. And I also really like how you've kind of stuck to your old style. It's like you kind of knew what type of style you really gravitated towards and you've just really amplified it and made your rendering 10 times better. Oh, these two images are literally 10 years apart. This might be the longest one that we have seen today. So this is the first one 10 years later. Wow, dude. If I take like a huge step back, that's a photograph that just recently I started using references and practicing art more technically by watching your videos. That's really, really good to hear. And I can definitely see that you're seriously grasping your fundamentals, man. Like, this is great. The colors look amazing. This is my first digital art versus my Oh, it's black. What happened? Did I break my Discord? All right, I guess they don't want me to show this one, but I'll show it this way. I think I've improved at everything, but I've definitely got significantly worse at touching grass. Understandable. And I would definitely agree that you have improved in basically every single aspect of your art. I mean, compared to the first piece where you had a flat shading, you have rendering now. Compared to the first piece where you had very little line quality, now you have fantastic line variation. And compared to the first piece where her face was broken, now you have really good anatomy. 2021 versus 2025. I've improved a lot in anatomy and my overall understanding of color. More importantly, I found my style and process that allows me to fully express the kind of art I want to create. And that's what I was going to say, too. I feel like you've locked into a very beautiful style here that has so much life, so much texture. Look at the colors here, the reds and the greens. Look, I'm an absolute sucker for painterly styles like this, and this is beautiful. absolutely beautiful to me. You really opened my eyes to color theory and especially simplification. I used to be very reluctant to draw backgrounds, but you showed me they were approachable. So, thank you for what you've brought to my drawing journey. There's a bit of you in each of my drawings, dude. I'm going to cry. That is so I love that. Look, this is why I do this, guys. If it weren't for this, I wouldn't be teaching you guys. This is the whole reason. This is what makes it all worth it for me. I love you guys. One of my first attempts at drawing OC way back in 2018 versus my latest OC, Kazu. Great. I love to see that we have become demonic. But no, good job. Very good job. Um, huge improvement here. Uh, Discord decided to stop loading images for me and it started freezing up because I think there were just so many posts in that channel. Definitely didn't get through everybody. I think maybe we got through like 50%. That being said though, if you weren't in this video, I'm going to try to finish up the second half of our submissions in a separate video. But yeah, hopefully seeing some of these art improvements makes you guys feel inspired. And personally, I just love seeing the improvements in other people's work. It's got to be one of the most motivating things ever. Believe in yourself, guys. You can absolutely accomplish this, too. Stay consistent and step out of your comfort zone. Please subscribe to my channel if you want to see more art related content. And check out my Patreon for monthly art tutorials where I teach you guys in depth the things that you want to learn. Thanks so much for watching to the end and thanks to everyone who submitted their work for this video. You guys are truly an inspiration to me. Amazing, guys. Amazing. I love it. You guys inspire me so much.

You guys SERIOUSLY INSPIRE ME WOW. ✨ Monthly Tutorials on my Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/samdoesarts 🫶 Limited Merch and Print Releases: https://samdoesarts.com/ ⭐️ check out my work here: https://www.instagram.com/samdoesarts/ 💫 Gumroad shop: https://gumroad.com/samdoesarts My art book: https://store.3dtotal.com/products/the-art-of-sam-yang