EXTREME Frustration!

(Inspired by Lady Gaga's New Video for "Bad Romance")

So I'm REALLY trying to draw in a different style... and mostly from my imagination. I'm not seeming to have trouble when it comes to the basic outline and composition. My problem begins when I have to add color, value, and details. I'm attempting to do this in Photoshop, but there are SO many methods of coloring and drawing in Photoshop I'm kind of getting overwhelmed. Well not "kind of," I AM EXTREMELY overwhelmed. I do not know what is wrong with me. I have gotten this far (see the image above) and I'm just stuck. You can see the fire I zoomed in on just to give myself a confidence boost... yeah no luck.

I've been looking at several people's Deviant Art pages and tutorials, but I still get overwhelmed and I just kind of stop.

So I decided to take it slow and try to color someone else's line art. JUST so I could get comfortable with coloring. But now for some reason Photoshop is crashing when I start to attempt to color these line images.

SERIOUSLY?! Is this a sign I should not be drawing in this style?! I DO NOT UNDERSTAND. I have NO PROBLEM when it comes to drawing from observation. But when it comes to drawing images out of my head, I become overwhelmed and lost and extremely discouraged. Well not so much drawing out of my head... I think my problem is just with the medium (aka Photoshop). I think I'm just not comfortable creating compositions with Photoshop yet? BUT NOW PHOTOSHOP IS FREEZING AND CRASHING?! That's just what I need.

I SERIOUSLY wish I could watch one of these artists work in real life and see their methods. Cause I'm still stuck with traditional painting methods which doesn't seem to translate as well in Photoshop. Here are some of the artists I've been looking at:

http://moonlightspectre.deviantart.com/
http://quasimanga.deviantart.com/
http://jiuge.deviantart.com/

I mean I do not want to draw anime style at all. But the graphic/ digital coloring style. I really love the way Moonlightspectre colors her work. I can do my own line work... but I just wish I could color like her.

I'm not going to give up, but this is EXTREMELY frustrating. Maybe I will just go back to oil paints... lawl.

Art Getting In the Way of... MY ART!

Okay... so it is 1:11AM and I'm all hyped up on caffeine because I have a lot of homework to do. It is more of the homework from my "Creative Design Theory and Elements" class that was mentioned in my last post. But I am REALLY in the mood to start and completely finish an entire speed painting! LIKE RIGHT NOW! I seriously feel like whipping out my laptop and sitting there for 12 hours straight working on a Speed Painting. BUT of course I have to do all my homework and then actually go to class tomorrow and turn it in. So basically I have to make ART which is getting in the way of... MY ART! How ironic! Ugh, maybe if I didn't procrastinate so much I could have already had my homework done and would be able to do a speed painting now.

*sigh* Oh well... no point in crying over spilled milk right?