#are pretty much all of those pics from canva's free image library?

[twelve-nights]

too lazy to do my usual formatting but uhhh lazy moodboard for myself :3

center image is from frog and peach's 2019 production btw

[eluari]

I found you through your giveaway post and wow! Your art is so pretty and I am honestly in awe! Do you have any tips for people wanting to improve?

Hi there, welcome to my blog. 🤗 Thank you so very much for your lovely compliment. That’s very kind of you. I still make a lot of mistakes myself when it comes to art but I’ll gladly share some tips that have worked for me in my art journey. They are in no way universal of course and I can only speak from my own experience but if some of those tips help a fellow artist out, I’d be happy. 💕

Practise regularly. Despite of what some people might think you aren’t getting born with the gift to be a good artist. It’s all about practise. Don’t let it get you down when you struggle to draw certain things. Keep in mind that repetition is the key. You need to build a visual library first before you can draw properly. And building that visual library will take a long while, especially when it comes to anatomy.

Use references. There is no shame in using references. In fact, you need references to build your visual library. Whenever I paint, I always use multiple reference images for everything that I’m not quite certain about. For example, let’s say I’m wanting to paint flowers but I have no real clue what those flowers actually look like, then I’ll get myself a reference image. When I’m looking into a complex pose, I might even take some pictures of myself in that pose just to create a reference that fits my needs. Those pics tend to look rather funny sometimes. 😅 But hey, they are just for studying purpose. And also, don’t aim for an exact copy of your reference (unless youmake a study), you’ll hardly ever find a reference that fits your needs completely, so try to improve it. Make it your own.

Flip your canvas regularly. I can’t stress enough how important it is. When you’re in the zone it happens easily that you get blind to your own mistakes. Flipping the canvas allows you to have a fresh eye on your art and suddenly you’ll see all of your mistakes and can fix them. Apparently, some people don’t flip their canvas because they think their drawing looks ugly when flipped. Guess what, everyone sees it that way. 😆 So do yourself a favour and keep flipping that canvast hroughout your process.

Study values before you begin to study colours. Learning everything at once can be overwhelming so it might help to learn painting in greyscale first to get your values right before you jump into colour. You might get some nice results quickly that way, especially when you are starting out with portraits. Turn your references to greyscale as well when you study.

Grab yourself some nice brushes that feel comfortable for you to work with. I’m personally a fan of dry oil brushes or chalk brushes (I do like textured brushes) but the main point is that you feel comfortable with them. But keep in mind that the brushes are just a tool, they won’t do the work for you.

Find artists you look up to and observe their work. Why does their work appeal to you so much? What makes it special? Some of my favorite artists are J.C. Leyendecker, J.W.Waterhouse (Pre-Raphaelites in general), William Turner, Caspar David Friedrich, Alfons Mucha, Leonardo DaVinci and Caravaggio

Check out Youtube! There are so many good channels around with helpful tips. Marco Bucci for example has this series called “10 minutes to better painting” with a lot of helpful tips! And those episodes are quite entertaining to watch as well. I also enjoy Swatches, and I like to watch WLOP’s or Astri Lohne’s process videos. I find it very inspiring to observe their process.

And last but not least be kind to yourself and be patient. Allow yourself to make mistakes. Only when you allow yourself to make mistakes, you’ll eventually overcome them aswell and that’ll allow you to grow as an artist. There was a time when I couldn’t stand to look at my sketches because I found them ugly. That actually got me down until I realised that they merely serve as construction lines for my finished paintings.

This turned out rather long and even though there is so much more I could list I don’t want to overwhelm you. If there is anything else, you’d like to know feel free to ask and I’ll gladly answer. 💕