#that's still coming probably but also I'm finally learning how to make my digital art look like my trad art

[weaponizedmoth]

Sketchy redraw of a drawing I made a year or so ago. They're my ocs, Hayden Metzler (who's not awake atm) and Anthony Lamonica who is sort of an insect God destined to eat other Gods that threaten the very fabric of reality.

They're in love <3

The original is under the thing blah blah

[inherstars]

Personal blathering, you know the drill.

I'm in kind of a transitional period where I know I want to do SOMETHING new, especially as Marc spends more time doing improv, and I don't want to fall into the rut of spending my nights folding laundry, or whatever other chore needs doing, or scrolling online for hours while something's on TV in the background that I don't really give a shit about.

Those things are RELAXING, sometimes, but it's not how I want things to be.

I'm on a writing tear right now, which is super nice, but I'm also realistic that this can't last forever. I also acknowledge that it's a muscle I need to keep working, even when the mood eventually flags.

I was baking a fuckton, for a while, and I still enjoy that (actually hoping to get some pumpkin bread and bagels done this weekend), but there's only so much of that I can do. I have like 2 pies in the freezer and I can't even remember what kind they are. Plus donuts. Plus jam. I can't just be like, "Ooh, I'm gonna make a cake!" because... bitch, what the fuck am I going to do with an entire goddamned cake?

I did a HUGE purge of art supplies at the start of Covid, because it was taking up so much space, and the reality is that I was just never going to sit down and do all the projects I once imagined. I still have all my digital and traditional painting supplies, I just wish I enjoyed sitting down and doing it like I used to. It may be like writing, I kinda just need to make time for it.

I am also finally at the point where I think I'm ready to sell the sewing machine. If I haven't learned to do more than simple hand sewing by now, it's not going to happen. I don't have the temperament, and I need to be OK with that.

Archery? I miss archery SO MUCH. I just fucking hate that I can't grab my bow and some arrows and go out somewhere and shoot. It's a whole fucking involved THING. Gotta join a club. Gotta hope a lane is open. Gotta make small talk with the redneck Trumpers.

I think that's a huge reason why writing and baking are such easy fallbacks for me. There's no prep work. I pick up the laptop and start. The kitchen is so organized that I can crank out two entire batches of bagels before work in the morning, and then polish off the dishes I used while they bake.

If doing something requires a huge amount of assembling materials, prepping them, then cleaning and putting all those materials away when I'm done, it feels so exhausting that I don't want to bother. I already have a fucking full time job on top of all the other mental loads I carry. I don't want to relax by doing more work.

Hence why I've toyed with the idea of picking up guitar again. I actually had a guitar YEARS ago, and tried to teach myself, but (at least for me), it's not a self-taught thing. Marc has a guitar he stopped taking lessons on. I just took it to the town's only music store to see if it will fit me, and got the most lukewarm, disaffected response from the owner.

Is this too big for me? Eh, a little, but it's fine.

Do the strings need to be loosened or restrung? Eh, they're probably fine.

Like, fuck, why do you even have this store, my dude? Do you even like what you do?

Then I'm like, hey, getting my hair done might be a nice pick-me-up, let's go do that. It's 1:30 PM. I call every salon in town and none of them can give me an appointment, including the ones that are open until 7 PM.

Sooooo I guess I'm doing laundry and scrolling on my phone and watching TV again. Nice.

I don't know what I'm feeling. A kind of restlessness, I guess. Last summer I was busy almost constantly with rescue, but it sucked so much out of me physically, emotionally and financially that I haven't wanted to do it again this year, especially after seeing for myself that it didn't even make a dent.

Blehr, I don't know. I need to come up with something to do or somewhere to go and stop bitching about it.

[mexicanwanderingsoul]

Hyperfixation Alert: Guadalupe Victoria

I don't know where else to share my (digital) collection of Guadalupe Victoria pictures, so here you have it, Tumblr!

You see, something I'm kinda jealous of when it comes to American history (and other countries), is how often their historic characters are represented in art. It's more difficult to have this in Mexico... I'm talking about the figures who fought in the War of Independence... and it's hard because many of them were killed before getting their face depicted on a portrait.

The paintings we have of many of our "heroes" from the war of independence were created decades after they were killed, so that's not really what they looked like.

This is why I've been obsessed with depictions of Guadalupe Victoria, Mexico's first president. Enjoy!

I've divided this collection in "generations", the first generations being the ones the other depictions of Victoria stem from. Before we countinue, many of these portraits are not dated, so this organization system I've created might not be arranged in chronological order they were created.

Anyways, these are from the First generation:

The one that we'll see more of, is the one on the left, probably because of how handsome he looks. In all three depictions we see Victoria in his military uniform, which he probably never used in battle, since he was not a professional soldier (like most in the insurgent army).

It is a nice uniform, though, the influence of the Spanish uniforms from the viceroyalty is clear.

Second generation:

On the left we see Victoria in civilian clothing but wearing the presidential band. On the right we see a miniature portrait.Both of them are very pretty images, but we can see they are derivative of the ones from the first generation.

In order to simplify depictions of Victoria, his uniform will in later representations lose many adornments, which I think makes it look a bit more like the uniforms of the Mexican army in the mid 19th century... or like a low ranking soldier from Victoria's time. Also his arms are no longer crossed on his chest, which give Guadalupe a more rigid (and boring) pose:

Generation 3: Cartoons... He looks like a funko pop!

Generation 4: Victoria in different logos (all of them schools)

One of these things is not like another... Yes! The image in the middle is not Guadalupe Victoria... It's Agustín de Iturbide!

SEE?! Someone didn't learn their history...

Generation 5: Cute Victoria

Drawings made for schools, ephemeris or lame political propaganda.

Generation 6: Misc... idk what to do with these...

This one above is an image from a "monografía", a piece of paper with images and information on the back. Its use was very popular during elementary schools in Mexico back in my dys, idk if they're still used.

Victoria becomes president. Finally, something original! I'm not sure if it's from a monografía, but it wouldn't surprise me if it was.

¡Va mi espada en prena, voy por ella! The image below depicts Victoria's most famous heroic act during the war of independence:

To inspire his soldiers the young officer threw his sword towards the battlefield, where his troops refused to go despite being essential to capture the place they were attacking. Having done this, he cried "My sword is at stake, I'll go and fetch it!" and threw himself on the battlefield, which inspired his soldiers to follow him. It was after this battle that he stopped being José Miguel Ramón Adaucto Fernández y Félix and changed his name to Guadalupe Victoria. "Guadalupe" for his devotion to the Virgin Mary of Guadalupe and "Victoria" because victory was what the insurgency wanted to achieve.

I love that low resolution image with my whole heart, but it must be said, that one of its (possible) innacuracies in depicting this event might, once again, be his uniform. As previously stated, like many of the officers in the insurgent army, Victoria (then Félix) was not a trained soldier... In fact, he'd studied law before joining Father Morelos's army! So he wouldn't have an officer's uniform, or if he indeed wore one during the war, he probably stole it from a dead or defeated Spanish royalist officer. Regardless, it's still a cool piece of art!

COINS!

Look, they're our friends from the first generation!

Honorable mentions:

A bronze statue in Perote, Veracruz—the state where he spent his last years and died.

His presidential band in the Museum of Presidents in Saltillo.

[seventhegodsblog]

Hi, I'd like to request a matchup.

I'm British Korean, on the short side, with wavy black hair, black eyes, a few freckles and an thin but curvy build.

Personality-wise I'm reserved and insular with people I don't really know, and keep away from them, but if I get to know someone well there's a crazy and clingy side to me. I have a lot of mood swings and sad phases- I don't know if it's depression since I've never been diagnosed or anything. I'm either overly anxious and calculating and nervous or just totally reckless, like "Well fuck, you only live once".

I'm interested in religions and spirituality. I'm a Pagan. I write, make art in any form, dance (formerly ballet, now modern), love eyeliner, and stare at the wall for hours on end lost in my thoughts. Also, I'm not a fan of digitalism and a techno world.

I'm quite the stereotypical Pisces, with a very morbid side.

xx

Ok first let’s be friends please

And

You got

Brahms hellshire

No not because your British, just because he likes art so he would watch you make your beautiful art,watching you in a curious puppy type of way.

He wouldn’t want to learn about the religion and spirituality stuff at first! But once he say how cool it is, he finally got interested and asked “may I look?” While your in the living room looking at a book

(I’ll look for book recommendations for help with your journey)

Once Brahms saw you do something out of just “fuck it why not!” He’ll ask you “what are you doing?” And how ever you respond he’ll say join you

He’s clingy to, so! You’re like peanut butter and marshmallows! It’s adorable! He will follow you like a lost puppy, and if you kiss his face he’s hugging you carrying you to bed, and magic! Poof! Cuddles

He wants his eyeliner done! Please do this tall boys eyeliner he won’t like it but still ask you to do it. He also states at you through the walls if your staring at the wall he’s looking through, he’ll come out and probably scare you on accident.

[emelkae]

Get to Know Me Tag

Thanks for the tag, @avrablake @emersonjydestein @odysseywritings

Relationship Status: I'm actually an aromatic person in a polycule. Which sounds like it'd be hell at face value but we're all having a good time of it lmao

Favorite Color(s): Dark purple! I really like dark colors in general too.

Favorite Food: I love breads and pastas, but I can't eat any of them because the gluten will really mess me up :/ Gluten-free versions just aren't the same.

Song Stuck in My Head: Pain by Three Days Grace. I remember hearing it at the age of twelve and FREAKING out because it fit an edgy OC I was writing at the time. I recently rediscovered the song and happily bounced down memory lane for a little while. Now it actually fits Margot in the prequel, come to think of it

Last thing you Googled: The word "segue" just to make sure I was using it right 😅

Time: 12:46pm

Dream Trip: I want to do the cliche backpacking around Europe thing. Of course before I do that I'd learn a smattering of a bunch of languages, and I'd sound terrible with most of them. It'd be so worth it though.

Last Thing You Read: Still making my way through Mistborn: The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson. I read five pages every day and I'm on page 415/643, so I'm on track to finish it around Thanksgiving.

Last Book You Enjoyed Reading: Unfortunately I don't read as often as I'd like to. A while ago I was reading the New Jedi Order series because I'm Star Wars trash, and the only novel I enjoyed from beginning to end was Traitor by Matthew Stover. I literally made a word document listing stuff I loved about it because I wanted to deconstruct why it worked. If I could worldbuild like Sanderson and characterize like Stover, I would be truly happy with my writing.

Favorite Thing to Cook/Bake: I just love making food in general. I have a Thing with texture so I really really hate touching raw meat and eggs, but otherwise cooking anything makes me happy.

Favorite Craft to do in Your Freetime: Writing, but I want to get back into both traditional and digital art. It's just... motivation machine broke :(

Most Niche Dislike: Cool-toned lighting. I like cool color palettes, but something about cool lighting makes me uncomfortable.

Opinion on Circuses: I'm indifferent to circuses. If someone asked me if I wanted to go to one I'd probably say no, but I wouldn't refuse to go with someone who really wanted to see it.

Do You Have Any Sense of Direction: Not at all. I will forget how to travel routes I've been down hundreds of times. I once somehow drove to another state by accident.

Leaving an Open Tag, but also tagging @pepsiwriteswords @psychic-timetraveler @draculinawrites

@epickiya722 @introversiontherapy @klywrites @cabaretofwords @thanatostouch

[vesselsart]

What are your most niche interests?

Hello! This is a fun question! I've been thinking on this for a while but I think that I finally have an answer now so strap in while I give another overly long reply :) I don't have a huge amount of interests really since I don't really have the free time or energy for them and I'm not really a very online person either so some of the things that I call niche here are probably more so just that way to me, what with not being super aware of audience bases. But anyway, time to learn things about me!

- Interview with the Vampire is my favourite film! I suspect it might be less niche now since the show has come out, but whenever I've mentioned the film to people in the past, they rarely know of it so in my book, it stays niche. I also like German Expressionist films, which are definitely niche - Nosferatu is probably the most well known, but I personally enjoy The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari a bit more.

- Welcome to Night Vale is, and always has been, my favourite podcast. I know it's pretty wild to call this niche given the impact that it had on the internet in the last decade, however it seems to me as if that impact was pretty localised to the US. It's the art that is least recognised when I trade at cons, and also my least recognised cosplay, so it for sure feels more niche in the UK, in my experience. I also adore Hello from the Magic Tavern which is at least niche in the UK also.

- Mothman is my favourite cryptid, which isn't niche in itself since he's definitely one of the more popular ones, but I think that my very deep and vested interest in him is what makes this one niche. Mothman is very, very important to me <3 What a good guy!!

- The Maine are my favourite band! Another instance of likely less niche in the US than they are here, given that they do Sad Summer Festival and 8123 Fest and what have you. But every time I mention them to someone, they've never heard of them, and they're still playing relatively small venues on their UK tours. For such a long running emo band, I'm surprised that they aren't more well known, but also if they ever became a stadium band, I think it would break my heart a little bit so I'm glad to keep them small and close.

- Pretty much all of my academic interests are very niche. I did my degree in Art History and Classical Studies, and my dissertation was about how formal institutions can utilise digital technologies to better facilitate the repatriation of Native American heritage. A large amount of my undergraduate work was about Native American culture and heritage, but I have rich and varied academic interests! I'm also very interested in: Greco-Roman queer literature, Neo-Classical architecture, frescoes (particularly ceiling frescoes), cults, religious studies as a whole, and all things pertaining to death rituals, afterlives, and death deities.

That's all that I can think of for now, but if anything else comes to mind and the mood strikes me, I'll try to come back here and share an update!!

[starwalker03]

Ayo it's late but 2023 Digital Art Progress

I drew the most digital stuff I've ever drawn last year. I finally pushed past a lot of my issues with the digital medium and figured out how to actually Do The Thing per se. so I think I got a lot better over the course of 2023. I definitely changed my visual style a lot, that's for sure.

Unfortunately I did lose my USB in 2023 as well so I lost a lot of my files. much sadness.

LONG POST. lots of drawings to get through and I have Thoughts.

Anyway these are dated in my files as March, which is my earliest I have rn, so this is kinda a representation of how I started the year.

I was busy most of April so May has two files. these were both a part of my semester one project of my degree.

I've got a lot of things dated for June, which is surprising. and not a lot of things dated after. I'm all over the place with starting wips and when it comes to finishing them... ehhh it happens eventually.

I really wish I could go back in time and fix that leg. I just wanted to avoid drawing toes lmao. the thick line art really is a problem to me but that's neither here nor there.

I think I finished a bunch of thing in June, because these are dated two days apart and I definitely started one before the other lmao. hell I think the one on the left was started in 2022.

I'm not sure when this was but it was early in the year. I tried to veer away from the harsh lines and ended up swinging too far into semi-realism. I loved how it was looking (this is still a wip) but the amount of time it was taking was too much for me to replicate again.

This definitely a June piece, because I wanted to do one character every few days throughout Pride Month. Didn't finish it.

last year my friends and I considered starting to record and post our dnd games, so I did some arts of the characters of our current campaign.

I think the solid black line art all of the same thickness was one of the main things I always disliked. I could never quite make it work with everything else I was doing.

This is probably the only work I did with solid black lines that I really liked. it seems to work okay here.

The July came around, and artfight with it! (this character belongs to Crimson_Deceit. You can find Crimson on instagram as Lova.cos or twitter also as Crimson_Deceit)

and then the DCU rarepair exchange came in September and I didn't have time to write treats so I drew them, which spawned a new attempt at shading things that I've been messing with ever since. I prefer the way my linework looks with it.

I messed around with clown oc designs in October, cause that was a mini trend on instagram. didn't finish fast enough to post it but i really like some of the designs.

in December I drew the OCs of some of my friends, as we finished our playthrough of CoS last year. this is our cleric, a changeling who went through many names and faces, depicted holding hands with their player @angelicsky64817

Last piece of the year was this muck around. I'm still trying to figure out some of these new style choices I'm making.

Finish off with a sneak at what I'm currently doing in the new year! I've been drawing one big piece so it's stretching over from january. It's still a wip. And it's such a big image I've gotta compress it.

woo! now I gotta go finish that thing. there's gonna be three more characters to the right of the yellow one. why have I done this to myself.

i hope that in 2024 i can get more of a grip on the saturation of my newer styles of drawing. and learn some more colour theory. and also get better at drawing skin, cause I think I'm mostly okay at clothes but skin always looks boring or weird.

[hopefulcanary]

Do you have any drawing tips for semi-beginners hoping to improve drawing people? 🙏

Draw at least once a day, even if you don't feel like it. Artistic skill is 5% raw talent and 95% stubborn af bull-headed "fuck you I'm mad that I can't draw a 3/4 head so I am gonna draw it a hundred times until I get it right"

Do drawing warmups– straight lines from the shoulder, spirals and circles and cubes, things that get your muscles, well, warmed up. Even if this is all you can draw that day, you're still gaining fine motor control.

Copy from old school masters. I literally, 100% do mean "sit your butt down and freehand a copy of whatever famous painting/sculpture/piece you're gaga for". Critically analyze how these artists drew the human form. Why do you enjoy these artists' works? What would you like to learn from them? I'm not a great colorist, so I enjoy studying how other artists utilize light and color.

Listen to Jack Kirby's advice:

Use references. All the time. Every damn day. Download stock photos that look cool and try drawing them. Take photos of yourself, your friends and fam and draw them. Feel weird because smug little assholes cry that "that's cheating", or folks make fancy jpgs of how you have to change a certain percent of the pose/hair/face/the way the shirt is flowing on your friend's body because exact life-drawing studies are "copying" now??? References are how artists work successfully and grow as artists. So you know, fuck them.

"Stock photo [person] [action]" is a life saver for finding poses to practice on

Use grids if you need to. Our predecessors did. Hell, they used crazy things like the camera obscura to make the perspective of their paintings correct. Programs like Procreate literally have grid guides to help.

Just completely stuck on a body part and frustrated that you can't get it to look right? Trace it. You have my permission. Trace it to get the form right, then try free-handing it again. You'll probably nail it. MAGIC. This is not "cheating".

(Don't trace stuff and pass it off as yours/use it for final pieces* unless your style is literally rotoscoping, a perfectly valid art form. Like, know your work and take pride in it.)

Related to that, don't feel married to a particular "style". Learn the basic foundations, then Experiment. Do those "draw my character in [X] style" memes. Flexibility will help you be kinder to yourself. Push your limits.

Redraw old work, so you can see how much you've improved.

Everything about a person can be broken down into basic shapes. Don't feel like you have to draw all the body contours perfectly the first time, and don't feel married to your first drafts. Revise, revise, revise.

Be kind to yourself. Seriously. Allow yourself to be patient with yourself. Adults in particular are so hard on themselves when it comes to drawing, when we don't need to be.

*On the topic of tracing:

Want to know where you CAN trace all the live long day? Your own work. "What?" Yes. Good god, yes. Light boxes exist in meat space for a reason! Layers in digital programs exist for a reason! So you doodled two different pics of Bucky Barnes and you love his face on one but hate it on another? C&P that sucker over or draw off that. Make a new layer above the mess. Finesse the Winter Soldier into complying cuz he's an obedient boy. It's your vision, go HAM.

On the subject of "Originality":

Andrew Loomis' Figure Drawing For All It's Worth is a solid read that goes into the specifics of how to draw people, going into anatomy and breaking down bodies and faces into shapes and lines. Part of my improvement came when I stopped stressing out about the whole image (at least at first) and took things section by section.

It might seem a little dense and intimidating at first, but it's so much better than a lot of the "how to draw" stuff on the market today.

This is also dense af but I hope it helps!

[eat-worms]

yall, knife trick updated and I've been loosing my SHIT.

(I'm doing my schpeel for this under my wip for this piece cuz I want the final to be not so cluttered. )

ok so this fic like... almost single handedly resparked my love for making digital art. I had made a piece or 2 before the one I did for knife trick but they were very experimental and dazed and haphazard. I find it beneficial to draw from reference, but it isn't what I love about art. and so I read this fic and just was so so excited to do something with this wonderful world and these wonderful characters built from very little canon interaction. and I just drew. and I spent like a whole 2 weeks only drawing after that. it wasn't fan art for knife trick after that first piece. but I was so proud of it. and I saw what I could do. and I was inspired again by a vast and heartwrenching fictional world. and I haven't really taken a long break drawing since. and something about the tension and the luster of life these characters bring I find so enrapturing and rare (for me) in fanfiction and this truly has that. SO. HERES MY WIP after the new chapter. gosh this moment. oh and that quote, it made me cry, I saved it on my phone let me get it.

"The thing about saying goodbye is that they say goodbyes are the hardest, when really goodbyes aren’t all that hard at all. Saying goodbye is as easy as saying any other thing, in fact almost exactly that easy. As one leaves the grocery store and says goodbye to the cashier, they don’t feel bad at all; as you hang up the phone on an annoyed parent you might feel quite relieved to say goodbye.

Saying goodbye depends much less on what is said and much more on what isn’t said.

Sometimes the people saying goodbye are not aware they’re saying goodbye, and years down the line they will think to themselves, was that really it? The very last thing I said?"

like I'm SOBBING OMG. also rans autistic coding (not really coding, I think its confirmed just not spoken by the characters) is just... so important to me. I've been trying to get just an adhd diagnosis for over 2 years now and a lot of people in my life are saying I'm likely autistic, but regardless of all that I SEE my self in ran and it's so cool to see him learn more about himself. I have another diagnosis appointment tmr morning actually and it's like... wow. like the amount of self-reflection and frustration ran goes through during this story because of his differences with the culture around him. and how he always feels/is literally trapped because of this. it's just so real and personal. and even tho Watson is an asshat and imprisoned him before he got the answers he needed... he still got them. Ran and Jackie's story is just so special I'm glad I'm here to read it. it brings me so much comfort. also fanfic writers for this story... im coming for you. I probably already have come for you tbh 😅. Ok. I think maybe one person is gonna read this wall of text but that's alright, I just want it out there. this story is special. please please read it if you haven't. I'm going to go and re-read it again and finish this drawing!

[corvidiss]

Clearly what's wrong with you is that you can't tell how awesome you are

Isn't there something like the development of skill and the final stage is being aware that you're great at something but the one before it is being great at something but not knowing it??you're probably at that stage

I'm bad with run on sentences sorry but I'm sure you know what I'm talking about

Gjskgkslf you know what, anon? Yeah.

It's interesting you bring that up, actually, because I have a really weird relationship with my own abilities. See, I can be borderline arrogant about it – I consider my writing skills to be bloody damn well good if I don't say so myself (I do), and I often look at my own art and go "Wow yeah that's good, I'm pretty badass at this" – but I don't usually say these things, because, well people don't like it when someone's arrogant.

But people don't like it when someone denies appreciation or their own abilities either. I think that's something a lot of us sometimes forget – that being self-deprecating about our work can be as bad as, or possibly sometimes worse than, being arrogant about it, for ourselves, and for the people who enjoy it. (Not to condone arrogance though. Self love is good, self-worship is unhealthy.)

Despite my high opinion of at least some of my creative work, I am still very dissatisfied with a lot of it – and I think that's because of the fact that I know I can do well. I look at the first doodle I've drawn in two weeks, and beat myself up because it doesn't come close to the 11-hour digital painting I produced two years ago. I write something short without a clear intention of where it's going while I'm tired and achy, and get frustrated that it doesn't compare to the polished prose I published last week, or the piece of writing I did in an exam a few years ago and somehow got full marks on.

And everything between "tired 10-minute attempt" and "My god, it's practically breathing!" makes me question myself too, because I forget that people aren't robots. We don't have a setting at which we always work; we have good days and bad days, and we have art block and plot problems, and we have insane quantities of factors playing into our ability to do things well, or even at all.

Just because you can't make yourself do the dishes, that doesn't mean you're a worthless pile of stale spaghetti.

Just because you can't draw as well as someone else yet, that doesn't mean you're not good at other things. Or that you should give up drawing.

(Another thing many people don't realise is that you can be good at things like being nice, and a lot of people don't seem to realise how much their online acquaintances appreciate them – myself included, it seems. This type of skill is just as worthwhile and just as valid and capable of making people happy. It's also a skill that mental health problems can to make you completely blind to. Your friends and mutuals might not actually hate you, you know, or find you annoying or whiny or blunt – it might just be mental illness fogging up your windscreen.)

So it's definitely worth my while reflecting on these things, and I'm glad you brought it up, because I don't do it nearly as often as I should. It really serves to just think about this now and again, to rationalise your failings and remind yourself that nobody can work at their best the whole time. And that your best now is far from what your best will be in time to come. And that you don't have to be doing your best to be doing well – that mediocre art of any kind is still something you made out of nothing, and that's so incredibly cool! And, importantly, that what you create isn't a reflection of your worth.

Also, while I think the skill development stages thing is definitely an interesting concept, I'd argue that one can learn to be aware of one's own merits before one has mastered a skill. I think it's important to do our best to see the good we're managing, even if, and especially when, we're picking out things to improve on as well. It's a long, difficult journey, especially for those who struggle with self-worth and related difficulties – but it's a truly worthwhile journey to embark on, and even the tiniest of progress along it is cause for celebration.

Good work! You're managing to give yourself credit for what you've done, even if you're not totally satisfied with the results of your efforts. You're seeing what you did right, and learning from your successes as well as your mistakes. That's progress, friend, and I'm proud of you!

Well done! You managed to look at something you've done and noticed something positive about it. It might be massively outweighed by the negatives you're seeing, but it's progress, friend, and I'm proud of you!

You did it! You managed to say thank you, or even just ":)" when someone complimented you or your work, instead of disagreeing and/or pointing out the things you hate! It was so hard for you to avoid arguing about it, and you gave it a shot and finally resisted the temptation. That's progress, friend, and I'm proud of you.

...That went on a bit of a rant; oops...

TL;DR:

I'm borderline arrogant about some of my creative work in my head, but I don't say it because people don't like arrogance.

But people don't like self-deprecation either, which can be as bad for both the creator and the appreciator to an extent.

Despite my high opinion of my work, I often beat myself up because not everything I do is my best, which is ridiculous of me tbh.

Because humans aren't perfect robots and we have bad days and art blocks and so on, and many things contributing to how well we perform at any given time, it's unreasonable to expect ourselves to do our best the whole time.

(Also, you can be good at being nice to people, etc; it doesn't have to be a creative skill you're good at. And people might not hate you as much as you think they do, because mental illnesses like to fog up your perception of that sort of thing.)

Reflecting on this sort of thing can be really helpful, because it can make you realise you were being unfair to yourself when expecting to work at high standards 24/7, or more of the time than you can.

And you don't have to have mastered a skill to notice your achievements in it; it can be a long and difficult journey to be able to see the good in your own work, but every step, however small, is an achievement, and I'm proud of you.

Thanks so much for bringing this up, anon! Sorry to ramble so much about it XD And I hope you have a good timezone!

[tangerinegod]

Hello! I am sorry to bother you but I am a senior getting ready for college this year. I am in the US and I wanted to major in the same thing you did, do you have any possible tips for me? I still haven't even looked for colleges that would be best for animation majors so I figured if you were up to giving out any tips/saying any basic ideas if you wanted to/if you had the time to then maybe I'll have a better idea! I apologise for if I sound weird! I'm tried to word it correctly but I can't 😿

hi!! i’m totally down to share my experiences! someone else also had some questions so i’m going to put them all together in this post haha, hopefully this helps! it’ll get pretty long so apologies ahead of time but art school is a lot to think about so i wanna be as helpful as i can around it, its a lot of time and money. I’m gonna put it all under a read more cus it is really really long!

i wanna start off with the fact that I had the privilege of attending school in a financially stable environment, my parents were/are really supportive so w merit scholarship i only came out with around 20-30k in debt and i also had housing support my entire time in school. they were ok with me focusing on academics so i didn’t hold a retail job unless i was out of school like summer/winter break. Ofc though i regularly take commissions/do merch/cons to try and pay for all bills that arent rent cus i did want to be financially independent where it was possible. I also did try and work during the semester but everytime i did my body would deff start to breakdown from the fact that i didnt wanna compromise schoolwork with jobs.. so just read ahead know this experience is from a student who was able to attend focusing only on school work for most of the time!

the biggest thing is knowing art school is not required to become a professional in either freelancing or industry! there are a huuuge amount of online tools and classes these days that provide the exact same education and for cheaper too. i think it depends on what experience you prefer/can handle/want but it’s definitely possible to make art/animation art your living without higher education. the thing that college will for sure give you though is the ability to meet deadlines, work even when you dont want to, and connections with peers+teachers. i think the connections part is invaluable because you’re basically coming out with a network of people you already know and who know you! 

also its good to know if you want to attend/can handle art school! it’s a lot of time and energy and students get burned out really fast. the best piece of advice i got before going was ‘if you draw every single day, even if its for only like 5-10 minutes or a doodle for a whole year you should be fine’ consistency is super key because you’re attending school to draw, and you’ll have to create work for stuff you aren’t excited for at some point or another. burnout is extremely real and the only reason i didn’t experience it was probably because i got super into drawing naruto fanart again inbetween sophomore and junior year! it helped give me something to draw seperated from school which is the only thing i was drawing for since i had entered rip. a heads up id also consider myself a workaholic so i fit in ok with the ‘art school’ environment but it is suuper unhealthy. if you are fantastic at managing your schedule then it’s definitely possible to take care of yourself! freshman year i got 8 hours a sleep a night and only pulled all nighters for some second semester finals at the end. sophomore year + up though i ended up prioritizing hw over sleep and like for sure, definitely shortened my life span. there’s another q down below where i’ll go more into detail but ya, be careful w ur work balance!

another tip especially for animation is knowing for a fact what type of animation you’re looking to go into, and what the school is offering. I didn’t think i’d get into art school at the time so i only applied to two places + decided if i didnt get into either id attend community to get credits out of the way while building portfolio. honestly? i did not do a lot of research LOL but like i did end up having the chance to tour and stuff! just know that each school will have a very different curriculum. The main differences are schools that prioritize 3D (cg animation, cg modeling, ect) and 2D/traditional (hand drawn, ‘oldschool’, digital or traditional based) this is a huge difference so make sure you do research for it! in most cases a 2D/traditional program will also offer 3D since it’s at the forefront of the industry animation wise rn. My school taught 2D but like hand drawn on physical paper 2D, frame by frame. while it was a good experience it’s super outdated because digital tools make it way faster + easier! i’d recommend looking for a program that is digital 2D over traditional 2D. 

if after your senior year covid is still affecting campuses in the US to keep them shut down i’d recommend attending a community college to get credits and then transferring into school. one of the negatives is paying money for gened classes when ur not there for them; if you can get them out of the way sooner and cheaper there is absolutely no negative + you could graduate earlier or use the extra time for better work or to work a job! 

these are all the general tips i think i’d give on like a broad basis of attending or not to think about? let me know if u have more q’s! someone asked q’s im answering below that go more into personal experiences + work culture so heres those:

- how many hours a week do u spend studying, in class, otherwise making art? like how much of ur life does it consume?

I was basically working on art.... 24/7! since i wasnt working a job at the same time i crammed as many credits as possible into my schedule so on avg i did 18 credit semesters (around 6 classes) art classes go for 6 hours and non art go for 3, so i’d spent around 30-35 hours in class a week! hw wise it varied on the class but combined it would be around 35-50 hours a week... im guessing? on average studio classes would have 8-10 hours of hw, maybe 5 for a light week, and gened classes 5 hours w them all combined. or this was probably how things were before junior year? junior+senior year i had thesis + everything else ontop.. i’d spend around 30-40 hours on thesis a week with other classes ontop of that bc my film was super long cus im a dummy! 

- is it hard going to art school n realising that altho u were probably quite talented… so is everyone else? Like. all of a sudden. ur not special and everyone seems as good as u, you know? More generally, how do u deal with comparison?

kinda?? i think instead of the idea of like you vs others it feels more of like a competition at first to be the best. this varies hugely on school culture though; my animation year was really friendly with each other and get along extremely well, so my answer to this is v different than some others who attended different schools. i think that the idea of ‘comparison’ only lasts a portion of the first year because at some point you realize that it’s not a who’s better as much as its a ‘these are my coworkers’ type thing? like healthy competition 100% because we’re all working to improve but i think most of us learned pretty early on that viewing each other as peers going into the same workforce helped a lot. also at some point everyone develops their own style/starts to develop their artistic preferences so there isn’t a way to compare whos 'better’ anymore? i dont think there ever is tbh because style is appealing based off of an individuals preferences. If anything realizing everyone else is also amazing makes you wanna work harder ig? or thats how i felt! it’s inspiring to be surrounded by so many people who create such amazing work. 

- is there a lot of workaholic culture? all nighter culture?

100000% there can be a workaholic and all nighter culture. i know people who avoided it and thats honestly fantastic because i fall super easily into that pit. sometimes i’ll pull all nighters on a personal project just because i really want to finish it... i am definitely considered a workaholic all the way through and its not healthy rip... i’d estimate at the worst i was pulling 2-3 all nighters a week and only 4-5 hours of sleep on the nights i didn’t? that was only for one year tho, after that i was like yeah ok this is really bad for my health in the long run LOL so i tried to cut it down to one all nighter a week and around 5-6 hours of sleep the rest of the week! by senior year my decision to cram in full semesters paid off and i was able to consistently get around 7 hours of sleep a night + no all nighters minus finals since my schedule was lighter despite thesis 😭 while there is that culture i don’t think people view it as like a badge of honor or something to be proud of anymore which is good, we mostly view it as a flaw of the art school system and something that needs to be fixed!!

- are you glad u did it? how did u know it was what u wanted?

i am glad i did it! i’m definitely in a limbo right now of if it was worth both my time, money, and my parents money rip but i think with what i got out of it i definitely wouldn’t be as far skill wise or knowledge wise when it comes to the art industry. i would say it was only worth it for be because i had so much support going in though so i was able to focus so much on improving. if i had only been able to put in part of the effort and not make full use of the resources provided i would honestly have a different answer.. 

i knew it was what i wanted when i realized i really couldn’t see myself pursuing a different profession happily! despite all the bumps and stuff im fully in love with drawing still and feel honored that it’s a field that can provide a living. my second profession choice was to go into culinary school? and third option i think going was into music cus i was also a band kid hehe.  

- how do u cope with ur hobby becoming ur job? how do u deal with art going from something u do for fun to something u do on command constantly?

i think seperating work art from personal art is important! in my case im doubling naruto into being personal work so i have something to fall back onto that isn’t work related. its been a hyperfixation for 12+ years? so drawing it at this point is just like personal art imo. some people have hobbies outside of art and only draw for their job! i think after attending classes for so long the idea of hobby turning into job feels extremely natural? also i enjoy doing it so thats a huge plus! 

sorry this is SO long but i hope i answered your guys’ questions! if you have more just lmk!

[hypnowave]

List 5 things that make you happy, then put this in the askbox for the last 10 people who reblogged something from you. Learn to know your mutuals and followers ❤

okay ily for sending me this no joke!! this is such a huge infodump i'm actually going to cry

1) just dance + dance central 3,, you DEFINITELY expected this one, i never shut up about how much i love both of these games and how they've helped me get exercise 6 days a week during the pandemic. i don't even OWN a copy of dance central 3 yet (though that might change when i get off my ass and actually spend some time looking at secondhand xbox 360s and kinect sensors) but it was something i was completely obsessed with in my childhood and it feels really nice to be able to talk about how happy it makes me without feeling shameful about it being weird or niche. it's a game where you can time travel using the power of swag dance moves, what's not to love?? on the other hand, i got a digital copy of just dance 2020 on discount not long after i got my switch, and i've managed to get the megastar rating on 95 songs so far! i'm hoping to hit 100 before just dance 2021 releases in two to three days, but even if i don't manage to get it by then, i'm still pretty excited to hit that milestone. i'm also currently trying to memorize the choreography for the alternate routine for lady gaga's bad romance and oof ouch my bones

2) i started watching buzzfeed unsolved true crime about two days ago and i'm absolutely hooked. i have no idea how i've gone so long without watching it (save for one episode that i took a look at because i was curious about the particular case they were talking about), but it's nice finally having something to put on while i eat my meals that isn't pokemon or among us. both games are great, but sometimes you just need to throw something fresh into the mix, y'know? it also feels nice going on a true crime kick again in general, haha.

3) I LOVE MY CHARACTERS AND ART and i've been drawing a lot of humans recently! i feel like i'm actively improving and that i'm gradually becoming more confident with my human artwork. i'm no maestro and i know my work isn't astounding by any means, but doodling my friends' characters and seeing their reactions has helped me push forward and try new things when it comes to art. i don't draw my own characters as often, but i've been working on some new plots and it's slowly coming together and it's giving me that sweet sweet serotonin. tangentially related but my FRIENDS' characters and art also makes me incredibly happy. i'm now going to annoy the hell out of them by tagging them; @/polygarnstars you know i would absolutely die for all of your characters (especially bate and fanael. horrible children) + i swear you know my own characters better than i do, @supernovacity if i had a nickel for every time i drew eyvind i'd probably be able to get a better laptop and drawing tablet by now, @arasolcan YOUR CHARACTER CONCEPTS AND DESIGNS SLAP and i always love when i get a chance to hear about them and doodle them, @kingsmanmechanics the starboys live rent free in my head and our current AU is SO GOOD i love it, @fihyn hello i love elvoth and co., and i should honestly take a shot and drawing more of your characters!! they're so unique and i'm excited to see what you have planned for 'em.

4) my cats,, i have five cats and they all share one brain cell. mochi usually has that brain cell. kiki still doesn't understand that she's not allowed on the bed and i've given up on trying to convey it to her sgdhgnshfkd

5) uhh i'm highkey blanking out because i really gotta go get some sleep but man, i can't believe i'm in university. sure, it's a stressful thing to go through, and i'm not going to pretend that the pandemic isn't making it even harder to socialize and get out of my comfort zone, but a year ago i was thoroughly convinced that i wouldn't get to experience this. the fact that i managed to get here and study the things i'm interested is amazing to me and i don't think i give myself enough credit for that :")

[frogsandfries]

I thought about it

A lot. Really hard.

For one, I don't love the idea of the pixel art. But at the same time, I spend most of the time working at--whodda thunk--the pixel level, one pixel at a time. Sometimes I work with the frames zoomed in on my tablet. Of course I hate how they look. Of course at what, like eight hundred percent zoom, they look like garbage.

I took several minutes to look at some frames from my phone, from Tumblr, from Stitch Fiddle (I refuse to apologize for making pixel art on a cross-stitch pattern making platform). At the proper scale, I realize my color palettes are actually good, they work, they look good. They look how I would ideally illustrate if I was any good at digital art.

I'm starting to research and I didn't realize in 2019, traditional publishing venues were looking to take on graphic novels. I know I'm always a couple years out of sync with......... honestly, any kind of art trend, but I think if I worked really hard on my outline and I worked really hard on building a great query......... who knows.

It'd be extremely awesome to be able to pay the bills while I work on this. It'd probably be a dream come true to be able to focus on this. Plus, I might actually thrive under a little creative pressure. It might be fun..........orrr it might actually be stressful in a bad way. It probably wouldn't be like finals week in college--that's little sleep for a week so you can put the finishing touches on projects you were only assigned two weeks ago. I wouldn't procrastinate, but I probably wouldn't be able to live up to tight and stringent deadlines, and still set the quality assurance that I demand.

Maybe I should wait a while longer before trying to query an agent........ maybe I want to have more work finished before committing to bite off more than maybe I can chew. Ugh! But what if I could get what I feel to be a real job? What if I could make a living with my art?? What if I could take my computer back to work and say, "thanks for all the fish"??

What if, with the muscle of a big name in traditional publishing....... what if, with someone who has something to lose, what if???

But...... looking for an agent would be its own full-time job......... sharpening my query, sharpening my presentation--

Speaking of presentation--I spent a lot of time thinking about that too.

I grew up, came of age, creatively and socially, online. When I was between eighth and ninth grade, I searched high and low for an online, mobile community. I learned about keitei shosetsu and that was it. But when I gave up writing and became visual artist--everyone knows graphic novels come in panels and pages. I'm incapable. I thought about it really hard, and it doesn't really suit my style. I tried really hard, but I constantly over-thought and it never felt right, never looked good.

I've found my niche!!!! I can make art, tell a story, and I think it's perfect for mobile. But I wouldn't say no to grouping the frames into strips by pages and spreads, seeing my work on paper.

Knowing that traditional publishing may be an option, knowing that I have a unique style that could be just the thing somebody's looking for--man, that's almost motivation enough. I want to try to work really hard to finish the outline, and then I want to try to also work really hard to get at least the linework up to the part where Kitty arrives at the school. I hope I can find an agent who enjoys a click-through graphic novel as much as I do.

Still got a mountain of work in front of me.

[douchebagbrainwaves]

WHY I'M SMARTER THAN FOUNDERS

If you ever got me, you wouldn't have a clue what to do: look at what happens to those who win lotteries or inherit money. Isn't the pointy-haired bosses. In OO languages, you can, even if you forget the experience or what you read, its effect on your model of the world. There is a very sharp dropoff in performance among VC firms, because in many cases the language layer won't have to change at all. Then I'm worried. VC firm will not screw you too outrageously, because other founders would avoid them if word got out. Large-scale investors tend to put startups in three categories: successes, failures, and the distinction between the spikes and the average becomes sharper, like a digital image rendered with more pixels. And the big hits often look risky at first. The problem is, for the company to have a low valuation. In fact, if you have a browser on your cell phone? N elements.

But as well as Lisp, so they get the pick of all the parts, as ITA presumably does, you can make the search results useless, because the first results could be dominated by lame sites that had bid the most. If you want to work on what you like, and let people design whatever object systems they want as libraries. Will there be a phone in your palm pilot?1 So the total number of new shares to the angel; if there were 1000 shares before the deal, the capitalization table looks like this: shareholder shares percent—VCs 650 33.2 My guess is that the concepts we use in everyday life that you don't have time for your ideas to evolve, and b you're often forced to take deals you don't like it. I suppose I should learn Lisp, but it is a byword for impossibility.3 Though the first philosophers in the western tradition lived about 2500 years ago, and even have bad service, and people will keep coming. 5 are now widespread. That idea is not exactly novel. If VCs got de facto control of the company 2/4 2. You can start by writing things that are useful but very specific, and then think about how to make money, but what you'd like to be able to avoid the usual chicken and egg problem new protocols face, because some of the most important things you can understand about startups.

The difference between then and now is that now I understand why Berkeley is probably not worth trying to understand.4 Neither Bill Gates nor Mark Zuckerberg knew at first how big their companies were going to spend the weekend at a friend's house for dinner. VCs also insist that prior to the deal the option pool is down to 13. We were compelled by circumstances to grow slowly, and in particular, Internet startups are still only a fraction of what the finished product will do, but that dramatic peaks can only be achieved by people with certain rare, innate qualities; nearly anyone can learn to be a complete picture. Could you describe the person as an animal? That scenario may seem unlikely now, but Fortran I didn't have them.5 The goal is the same as intelligence.6 All they need is a language that actually seems better than others that are available, there will be no more great new stuff beyond whatever's currently in the pipeline for several years after, and finally issued in 2003.7 Don't hire people to fill the gaps in some a priori org chart. That's what happened with domestic servants. Partly the reason deals seem to fall through so often is that you get less dilution.8

So someone investigated, and sure enough, that patent application had continued in the pipeline for several years after, and finally issued in 2003. And yet this guy will be almost entirely overlooked by the press. These heaps o' boilerplate are a problem for small startups, because it's always the oldest it's ever been.9 If you work hard at being a bond trader for ten years, thinking that you'll quit and write novels when you have enough money to pay a little more equity, but being slightly underfunded teaches them an important lesson. This is understandable with angels; they invest on a smaller scale and don't like to get across about startups, that's it. So when I ran into the Yahoo exec I knew from working there in the late 1950s. I know a lot of people wish that hacking was mathematics, or at least to know what they want from me. Probably because the product was a dog, or never seemed likely to be smarter. Barely usable, I admit, this is true.

We might have to give definite if implicit advice will keep us from straying beyond the resolution of the words we're using.10 Maybe mostly in one hub, and it seems to consume all your attention. But I have a hunch that the main branches of the evolutionary tree pass through the languages that have the right kind of place for developing software. They're not pretending; they want to believe you're a hot prospect, because it is the cool, new programming language. And this tradition had so long to develop that nontechnical people like managers and venture capitalists also learned it. Some languages are better than either of them?11 At the very least, you're supposed to be working on their company, not worrying about investors. They'd rather lose the deal than establish a precedent of VCs competitively bidding against one another. Wall Street's language. Since people interested in designing programming languages, a lot of good publicity for the VCs.

Notes

Kant.

Even the cheap kinds of startups will generally raise large amounts of money from it.

There's a good plan in which internal limits are expressed.

And the reason the US. Bankers continued to dress in jeans and t-shirt, they're probably a real partner. Record labels, for many Americans the decisive change in how Stripe felt. You have to do business with any firm employing anyone who had died decades ago.

I find hardest to get going, e. Economic inequality has been decreasing globally. Microsoft, incidentally, that all metaphysics between Aristotle and 1783 had been Boylston Professor of Rhetoric at Harvard Business School at the end of World War II had become so common that their system can't be buying users; that's the situation you find known boring ideas intolerable. This has, like arithmetic drills, instead of crawling back repentant at the network level, because the illiquidity of progress puts them at the lack of movement between companies combined with self-imposed.

The wave of hostile takeovers in the country. This seems unlikely at the end of economic inequality is not to pay employees this way, they'd be called acting Japanese. This sentence originally read GMail is painfully slow. Geshke and Warnock only founded Adobe because Xerox ignored them.

That's the difference between being judged as a type of product for it.

If you actually started acting like adults.

The existence of people. Why go to college, you'll be well on your own mind. All languages are equally powerful in the sort of wealth—that startups usually lose money at all.

This includes mere conventions, like the intrusive ads popular on Delicious, but trained on corpora of stupid and non-broken form, that it killed the best in the sense that if the present, and FreeBSD 1.

And while they may try allowing up to the principles they discovered. Xxvii. Wisdom is useful in solving problems too, but art is a big change in the cover story of creation in the US News list?

Thanks to Chad Fowler, Patrick Collison, Dan Giffin, Geoff Ralston, Trevor Blackwell, and Stan Reiss for the lulz.

[i-draws-dinosaurs]

Hi! Do you have any tips on getting into digital art? I'm getting an art tablet soon, but I don't know where to begin. I want to draw animals if that helps

Congrats in advance on getting a tablet! I’m still pretty new to the whole digital art thing myself (I only got my first tablet like one-and-a-half years ago), but I’d be happy to give some tips on getting started!

1. Don’t try to create a masterpiece the first time you use the tablet. This might sound a bit obvious but the first thing you should do with a tablet is a lot of sketching and messing around to be able to get the feel of using a tablet, which can be a pretty unfamiliar sensation. If you expect yourself to be able to create a beautiful digital painting the first time you use a tablet, you’ll probably be disappointed. Just playing around with little sketches is a much better way to get accustomed to digital drawing.

This is the first thing I ever drew with a graphics tablet. Just a sketch of an Allosaurus head with which I then proceeded to attempt an obscene amount of detail and gave up after I barely started. It’s okay to start small!

2. Play around with the brush settings in your art program. Most art programs have a wide variety of brush settings that you can fiddle around with to adjust size and transparency based on pen pressure, as well as different styles of brush that give different effects. I’d recommend messing around with these a bit while you’re doing your practise sketching to find a brush type that is most comfortable for your style of drawing.

You can get a ridiculous amount of variation in brushes by fiddling around in the settings. I use Photoshop, but other drawing programs probably have similar tools. There are plenty of tutorials online on how to create your own personal brushes on different art programs, which can be a fantastic way to personalise your art and make it a bit more special.

3. Practice shading and highlights. One of my absolute favourite things about digital art is that it gives you the ability to easily create strong, bright highlights over your drawings, which is something that you just can’t do easily with a lot of traditional media such as coloured pencils. If you put in the time, effort, and practice to get this right, you can create really solid, three-dimensional-looking art. I can’t offer a lot of great advice on this since it’s still something that I’m working on myself, but there are plenty of tutorials on the internet on shading and highlighting in digital art that are really worth checking out and studying.

This Teratophoneus is probably one of my proudest achievements in shading and highlighting so far. The ability to draw light colours on top of pretty much anything is incredibly useful for creating good, solid highlights

4. Don’t feel pressured to be amazing at digital art immediately. There is definitely a learning curve to becoming good with a graphics tablet, and you almost certainly won’t be able to create beautifully-lit, photorealistic art right away. I’m still very early on in my digital art exploration, so I know that it can often be disheartening to see accomplished digital artists creating amazing pieces of art while you’re still trying to figure out how to use the lasso tool. The important thing to remember is that these artists probably have years more experience than you. That being said, if you put effort and care into practising digital art, you will improve at it, just like any other art form. Your first attempts will probably not be all that impressive, but your first attempts do not reflect what you will develop into as a digital artist.

Two dinosaur heads, drawn by me, roughly 1.5 years apart. I only just found this really old drawing today, and I am honestly shocked by how far I’ve come. Art improvement might be hard to notice as it happens, but it’s so rewarding to look back and see where you came from.

And finally, the two most important ones (in my opinion):

5. Experiment with whatever you feel like. Digital art is an amazingly versatile medium. You can essentially make your artworks look like anything you want to. That can sound quite daunting, but it’s a great opportunity to spread yourself out and challenge yourself artistically. Want to draw something simple and cartoony? You can do that. Want to draw something so detailed it looks like a photo? You can do that too! Want to just go completely nuts with colours and see where it takes you? Guess what, you can also do that!

Don’t be afraid to try doing something new with digital art. I have at least three very different digital art styles that I can use interchangeably whenever I want it, and I feel like that’s the real power of digital art. The ability to create whatever you want to do, whenever you want to do it, however you want to do it. The ability to diversify and branch out and explore completely new styles and methods without having to worry about resources or media or buying lots of expensive pencils or paints that you might never use again. Whenever the mood strikes you, just sit down and start creating anything you want.

ABOVE: The many digital art styles of Tas. From abstract graphic design to realistic, anatomical illustrations, digital art is an incredibly broad medium.

6. Keep practising traditional art. This is something that I think is essential as an artist. Digital art should not take over any traditional art methods that you already use. Instead, it should be treated as something to expand your range, not replace it. I’ve raved about digital art quite a bit in this post, but to me there’s still nothing that feels better than a graphite pencil on a sheet of paper.

I drew a series of Triassic reptiles in graphite last year, and they remain some of my favourite restorations of prehistoric animals that I’ve ever done. Don’t underestimate the humble HB pencil.

The great thing about doing digital and traditional art is that one method informs the other. You might figure out some cool new technique with watercolours, graphite, coloured pencils, or whatever you prefer to use, and then use that same technique in your digital art. Likewise, digital art can also influence how you approach your traditional works. I have personally learned a lot more about shading since I started creating digital artworks, and I’ve been able to apply that knowledge to my traditional pieces as well.

This Bi-stahieversor is my most recent traditional artwork, and almost all of the shading and texturing techniques are based on things that I’ve learned from doing digital art. I highly doubt I would have been able to learn these as well if I hadn’t done a lot of shading practice in digital art.

Well, this has turned out to be significantly longer than I thought it would be. If anyone else has any other advice, please feel free to add it! I’m sure there are plenty of more experienced artists out there who have much more to teach than I could at this point in time.

Good luck with your new tablet, Anon, and best wishes in your artistic endeavours!

[thedigitalstudent]

Hi I'm 13 years old, female and I come from Lebanon. Being middle eastern, my family and friends are always telling me that I won't succeed in directing feature/Hollywood films (although it's my passion). I want to study in the US but it's too expensive. I don't even know where or how to start. Sometimes I think I should just give up and go the easy way by studying medicine like everybody wants me to. Could you please tell me what to do?

Hi there!One of my closest friends is Lebanese and is actually in Lebanon as I type, she directed her final year project based off the Lebanese Civil War and is now applying to work both in London and Lebanon so it’s been known to happen!

I will say that if you can imagine yourself doing something else then do it, this industry is hard and there are times when you’ll feel like giving up, you just have to make sure your only option is to soldier on!

From my understanding Lebanon produces a lot of TV/Advertisement work in Beirut and since a lot of people, like yourself for instance, are steered away from the industry it may be worth emailing those companies and asking if you could go in and shadow some people/do some work experience - they’ll appreciate your enthusiasm! Also you’ll find that once you’re in with these companies they tend to train you up inside the company and could even send you to their other offices such as Dubai or the US.

As far as school the US is crazy expensive and there are a lot of film schools around the world that don’t charge those kinds of prices, I’m afraid I’m not much help on the US. However here in the UK is probably your next best bet, I personally studied BA Digital Film and Screen Arts at University for the Creative Arts - I lived an hour outside of London so I could work in London but the cost of living was a lot less. So this could be an option?

My best advice for now is to just make things! Experiment, get your friends involved, be behind the camera and in front of the camera, try having no people at all. All you need is your phone and a basic editing software to get started - if you head over to Lynda.com for a free trial (not sponsored I just love this site!) they can give you industry standard tutorials on any software you need. Also Youtube has a good selection these days too. If you really want to get in with the pros Avid (the company that make all the industry standard software) have just released a free version of their editing programme called Avid | First, it’s not as extensive as the actual version but you can still make some pretty amazing stuff on it.

Also watch ‘In Conversations’ with your favourite directors/editors/cinematographers etc they are amazing insights and are a lot easier to understand than textbooks. Filmmaking is all about learning from others and having that inspire your own experimentation.

That was a very long reply I hope that’s ok!

Honestly you’ve got a good few years to build up skills/ideas before film school becomes a concern so focus on having fun with it for a while longer - a lot of places of students scholarships if they show potential and a portfolio of work would help you qualify 

- Rachel