Are you an artist?
Are you not an artist?
Good.
I literally don’t care, because today we’re
all going to come together and look at some
of the worst art advice on the internet.
We’re going to learn how to paint like this
guy, as explained by these guys (insert pictures:
terrible 4chan posts).
That's right, we’re going to learn how to
paint like Ruan Jia . . . from 4chan, because
how could that go wrong.
Greetings parasocial parish.
Rejoice, for today father is blessing you
with art advice.
Today’s video is sponsored by-- no it isn’t.
Anyway, how was your day?
Okay.
So, have you ever heard of the artist Ruan
Jia?
If I’m mispronouncing his name, please let
me know, angrily.
The reason I enjoy looking at his artwork
is because I get sad when I look at artwork
that's so advanced I feel like I can never
make it, so to make myself feel better and
to get some inspiration, I look at beautiful
illustrations.
The same ones . . . that make me sad.
Knowing that it’s a catch-22 isn’t going
to stop me from willingly participating in
it.
I feel like life would be simpler if I could
just get rid of my internet and spend my time
painting watercolor dog portraits.
But yes, I really enjoy his work.
But why be salty about someone else's hard
work when you can work hard yourself and be
salty?
Cry smarter, not harder.
So I decided to do something about it.
What better person to explain how to paint
like Ruan Jia, than Ruan Jia himself.
It’s time to Google.
*ruan jia shares the secrets of the universe
but it's in chinese*
So that’s not really going to work for me.
I have many skills but art is the only one.
I most certainly have not learned how to translate
other languages besides English and sarcasm.
But did you honestly think that was going
to stop me from learning how to become like
Ruan Jia?
Yeah, it did.
Cuz I'm really not going out of my way to
translate that.
But, when all else fails, just go back to
what you tried the first time and see if it
works now.
It’s time to Google.
Harder.
I di-- I didn’t like that.
A couple of amazing results came up on the
first page, but none of them made me powerful
enough to understand Ruan Jia’s process.
How does he use brushes the way he uses them?
Then, I found the motherlode.
An /ic/ thread from 2015 about how to paint
like him.
If you didn’t know, /ic/ is a board on 4chan
that‘s all about artwork and art critique.
And 4chan . . . is bad.
Everyone on 4chan is anonymous and none of
them are nice.
But maybe they know how to paint like Ruan
Jia, so let’s go through this board I found
so we too can learn.
The post that starts this thread off reads
. . . “Big boys thread?
Big boys thread.
Sub-2-years-of-serious-study peasants stay
out, hobbyists not welcome either, and god
forbid you come in here with your opinion
about abstract art and watercolor dog portraits.”
Wait . . . In this video I’ve already given
my opinion about abstract art AND watercolor
dog portraits.
I don’t know about you but I’m starting
to feel kind of unwelcome in the “big boys
thread”.
“Todays debate: How does Ruanjia pull off
that hard-grainy yet soft look?
And how does he so unbelievably well control
his edges throughout it?”
So someone actually answers, anonymously of
course.
“Because he spends over a month on each
piece.
He also paints at like 10,000 - 15,000 pixels
wide, so when he reduces the size down to
2 or 3000 pixels wide it creates a lot of
texture”.
This is actually really solid advice.
I’m not sure where they got those specific
numbers from, but I am sure that my computer
can’t handle 10,000 by 15,000 pixels, especially
since it could barely handle exporting the
video you’re watching right now, but I do
work in the 4k+ pixel range and it does look
nice and sharp when you export it to a smaller
resolution, and this effect plays pretty nicely
with texture brushes.
See, look.
This person chimes in with: “My guess is
that he uses a textured brush layer as a mask
and paints highlights over the top of it with
it's alpha clipping the brush.
It could also be a bunch of textures with
'blend if' set between them to get those transitions
between value groups.”
I literally don’t know what any of that
means but it sounds technical so it's probably
right.
“Stop trying to get "the secret answers"
from people.
The only way to learn how things are done
is to do them yourself for many, many hours.
Even if you could figure out how to get the
texture you can't draw for crap so anything
you make will still look bad.”
Okay, I--
“Considering your first inclination was
to come on here and ask others how something
was done, rather than just trying to duplicate
it yourself, means you'll never get to that
level so why bother.”
Ee-- but like--
"You sound delusional about how much work
it takes to get to that skill level, or just
lazy.”
Um . . . okay . . . yeah.
Did I just ask for help?
Because I didn't know how to do something?
Pathetic.
So that’s another thing I've learned today.
Wait, are you keeping track?
1.
Work in a large resolution and export it smaller
for nicer textures, and 2.
Asking for help means you’re delusional.
I don’t know about you, but I'm finding
this to be very educational.
Then, someone responds with their artwork.
Where are the big boy’s works?
“Right here buddy”.
Okay.
Like . . . It’s nice but . . . “big boy
art” equals an unfinished study of someone
else’s work?
"Sure Jan".
“Here is my attempt.
Essentially you use a texture brush as an
alpha clip for a gradient and those are your
'hard edge' textures on the helmet.
The silhouette of the helmet however has a
soft edge when the value differences aren't
that high, by hard texture edges with high
contrast areas.
If anyone else has a criticism, feel free,
but post yourself or you have no credibility.”
Okay.
So, it’s not a bad attempt, I actually think
it's a good study.
But I don’t necessarily think you have to
post your artwork just to earn the right to
criticize someone else.
Like . . . “Hey there Bonanno Pisano, that
tower you built in Piza is kind of . . . leaning,
a little bit--"
And Bonanno Pisano is just like “imagine
telling me that a tower is leaning when you’ve
literally never built a tower.
Can’t relate.”
But like, the tower looks like this.
So we’ve actually learned two things here,
we’ve fed two birds with one scone, as PETA
would break into my house and force me to
say.
Use hard edges for high contrast and soft
edges for lower contrast, and . . . you can't
critique anyone else's artwork unless you
have an art portfolio.
Those are equally as important, so I hope
you’re still taking notes.
But like I said, the study was honestly nice.
I mean, I thought it was nice.
“Looks like trash, pointless exercise.
You - can't - draw.
How many time must it be said?
You're just pointlessly applying texture to
forms that are wrong.
Learning all the stupid tricks isn't going
to make your work look any less amateur.
This thread and many others like it are just
time wasters teaching yourself how to polish
turds.”
Okay first of all . . . nobody . . . can’t
draw.
So let's just end that one right there.
Secondly, yes, drawing is the backbone of
painting.
But there is a way to say that without discouraging
someone.
Source: I just did it.
But you know what, despite the wording, we
can still take the advice from it.
“Knowing forms is a must when painting”.
“LMFAO no, he just paints with flow.
Pic related is my attempt, and you can see
what I mean on several of his hi res ones,
he just applies the flow on textured brushes.
He paints more with non textured brushes however.
Also he uses wet edges to enhance his edges
and stuff.”
Use flow in your brushes and use wet edge
for sharper edges.
Flow and wet edge are all part of custom brush
settings, and I can make a video on that if
you need me to.
“> big boys thread
>asks about his brush”
That’s actually a good point, like I didn’t
even realize.
The person asking the original question calls
himself a big boy, and then asks the most
beginner question in existence.
Good job.
“I wanna be a Big Guy.
Someone name an animal and one of the elements."
“Barium Sea Cucumber”.
He was one of the greatest artists of all
time . . . Barium Sea Cucumber.
“I don't find any need to learn to draw
because my life is trash.
Sooner will I end myself than make successful
art.”
The only response to this sentiment is . . . “Good.”
Can we delete 4chan.
And then the last post I’m going to read
. . . After over 120 posts, someone finally
gave me the answer to my mission.
Behold this image, from Ruan Jia himself,
reposted from his blog.
Ruan Jia uses 4 brush attributes.
Soft brush, Hard brush, Wet brush, and Dry
Brush.
He uses a combination of these 4 attributes.
He experiments with them until he gets a result
that works.
We actually did learn how to paint like Ruan
Jia.
From 4chan.
Like, it was literally supposed to be clickbait
but I guess . . . still did that.
Weird flex but okay.
Anyway, looks like I’ve gotten ten minutes
of content out of this, so . . . leave a like,
tell me what you think and subscribe if you
haven’t already.
Thank you for watching and a big thank you
to my sixty two thousand subscribers.
Okay bye.
