elfyarts - Tumblr blog

[elfyarts]

Types of Ships

Parts of the Ship

Wind Directions

Sides of Boats

[elfyarts]

I grew up hearing the phrase “you never stick with anything, what’s the point” a lot. I’ve always been attracted towards seemingly disconnected interests, and gone through phases of being really into something. But eventually my interest would fade and I would move onto something else. 

Or at least that’s always how it’s been phrased for me, by others. Now I realize that my interest for the old thing didn’t fade so much as my interest for something new outshined it, and that’s vastly different. 

I was always made to feel bad about it, with every abandoned endeavour I was told I needed to stop starting things if I wasn’t going to stick with them. I was told I was wasting time and money picking up these random interests and abandoning them after a year. 

So eventually, I stopped picking things up. I told myself “what’s the point, I’m going to give up in a year anyway”. Even worse, I started dismissing every new interest, because I had no way of knowing if my interest was “real” enough or just another passing phase. I stopped trying new things, I stopped looking up stuff that piqued my curiosity, and having chronic depression made it really easy to leave everything on the dirty floor of neglected ideas. The more they piled up, the more depressing it was. All these things that could be nice, but I just can’t take care of them. 

I realize now how bullshit that kind of thinking is. So what if I stopped doing karate after a year? That’s one more year of karate than most people I know. And in that year I learned discipline, I learned to listen to a teacher, something I had never done before in all my years of private education. I learned the true meaning of respect, that it’s something you do out of faith at first and maintain as it’s reciprocated, not something you do blindly and regardless of how you’re treated. 

It gave me the foundation for the determination and grounding I needed to practice yoga. Another year. Not enough to be good at it maybe, but again a year more than most people I know and a year that is not lost, but gained. I learned balance, I learned to listen to my body, I learned how to let go of emotional tightness through physical stretching. 

And then iaido, only a few weeks because I couldn’t afford to keep going. The year of yoga I had done a couple years previous had given me a better starting point than the other newcomers to the class. I already had balance, I had strength in my legs and I had better posture. In those months I learned the importance of precision, the true definition of efficacy, the zen state that is incessant repetition. 

Did I practice long enough to get good at iaido, and yoga, and karate? No. Of course not. It takes years to become proficient and decades to master any of those things, but I learned other skills and those skills were an invaluable part of my growth both spiritually and emotionally. Likewise for my forays into painting, sewing, graphic design, film. I’m a photography student now heading into my second year of school, and every single second of practice I have in those other disciplines has given me more experience in those areas and made learning easier. 

Skills carry over. They intersect and connect in ways that are sometimes unexpected. Nothing is ever lost, experience is never a waste of time or worthless or stupid. Allow your focus to wander, reflect on what you learn, and consider how you can keep using it in other aspects of your life. Stop telling people their interests aren’t worth their time. 

[elfyarts]

Alternatives to Tumblr if Yahoo goes any further

Soup.io - well-known alternative to Tumblr. Reblogging, post types, themes, collab blogs, dashboard, artsy, great community already there. Soup can auto-import everything you’ve posted on Tumblr.

TypePad - Includes reblogging. Dashboard and post types similar to Tumblr.

Jux - Artful posts, beautiful blogging experience

[elfyarts]

quick and easy: Rivulets And Rain by ZedEdge

[elfyarts]

SPOILERS FOR CRITICAL ROLE CAMPAIGN 2 EPISODE 30! ...kinda? • Started drawing this in a hurry as Matt Mercer describes this scene at the end. Ignore horrible proportions, this was essentially a 30 min speed paint on my iPad Pro! I feel like I didn’t entirely do the scene enough justice, but I needed to get it out quickly. • • • #applepencilart #applepencil #speed #digitalart #ipadpro #procreate #quickdrawing #speedpainting #fanart #mattmercer #matthewmercer #criticalrole #crcampaogn2 #yasha #yashaart #ashleyjohnson #molly #mollymauk #death #storm #artist #geeksandsundry #barbarian #dungeonsanddragons

[elfyarts]

when ur checking for traps but ur dumbass future husband just goes ahead and sets them off and fckin kills u

and when ur dumbass future husband realises he just killed u

when u were gone for 30 fucking seconds and this dumbass just killed ur sister

bonus: when ur actual rl husband realises ur character just died

bonus bonus: Sam just laughing through the pain, loving the drama

[elfyarts]

New youtube video!

Go watch the process of my newest drawing over on my channel! Hoping to be able to do more of these! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qqPNPRKaZtU&feature=share

[elfyarts]

I have been long dormant from Tumblr with art stuff but no more! I bring you my newest piece! “A Knight’s Hall” featuring my OC Briella strolling through a hall in her family estate. Done with iPad Pro, Apple Pencil, in Procreate. Briella was the first thing I drew digitally, so of course she would be the first thing I drew with my new iPad! (Saved up for with my art, that I got for myself for my birthday.)

[elfyarts]

I think this applies to everyone, not just artists. But yes, I need it for myself!

Being bitter and negative is boring and I dont want to do it anymore

[elfyarts]

This is totally you @darksabreassassin

Writer culture is writing one shots and fan fiction about your own characters instead of the actual book

[elfyarts]

Every color is different than the color on the pencil. Every color is different on different types of paper. This is what I do first when I get a new sketchbook; I use a few pages in either the front or the back to make swatches of colors for the mediums I’ll use in that sketchbook.

[elfyarts]

@darksabreassassin This is the relationship between Wolfe and Hailey, I swear!! You know?

emotionally cold character: i don’t do relationships

pure cinnamon roll character: *exists*

emotionally cold character: shit

[elfyarts]

Did this yesterday. On Twitter a World of Warcraft artist had a “ball” where people would draw their characters in formal attire to attend the ball. So, I joined in! The drawing is a little rushed, and that’s why proportions are off. “Eoredra almost didn’t go to the ball. She knows a lot of people do not like Illidan or his followers. So she was very late because she was hesitant to go. But Lókí the Death Knight insisted, and she couldn’t say no when he got them matching attire. A conversation like this happened at some point: Lókí: “You’ve pulled a Leroy Jenkins on a boss in the Burning Throne. How can you be so afraid to go to a ball?” Eoredra: “I know how to fight. I don’t know how to dance...” Done with Prismacolor Art Markers, Copic Markers, and Prismacolor Colored Pencils on Canson XL Multi-Media paper

[elfyarts]

Sometimes it takes looking at where you’ve been to realize how far you’ve gone. Comparing this to recent art, I can see my improvement. This was my first ever attempt at a realism portrait!! Still happy with how the material textures came out, but not so proud with proportions. This was definitely before I had it all figured out.

[elfyarts]

Painting commission done before Mother’s Day. The background and crowns was done with a metallic/shiny acrylic paint. It was hard to get the effect in photos, which is why there are weird angles. The picture was done so that it could be oriented any direction so there is no technical “top”. Acrylic paint on canvas

[elfyarts]

Yet another Mother’s Day portrait! This was for my mother-in-law and includes all of her grandchildren. They live far apart, so getting a picture of them altogether would be impossible, so I drew one! She really loved it. Pencil on Canson XL Multimedia paper

[elfyarts]

Another “Mother’s Day” drawing I did. This one was for my grandma. Also of my grandpa who passed away a few years ago. Pencil on Canson XL Multimedia paper.