#this started off as a vague redraw and face practice and it turned out way better than I’d hoped

[lizziekilgannon]

Emmasha Lavellan my beloved

[creative-robot]

Do you have any tips on fighting art block, I haven’t drawn anything in a while and want to but don’t know what to draw

I have a few that I use yeah! First rule of thumb, The first two or three things you draw while trying to get out of artblock are most likely not going to become finished pieces, this is OKAY and ENCOURAGED, Think of it as warm-ups to ease yourself back into it! Artblock tends to happen because we set too many expectations upon ourselves or find a way to subconsciously wall ourselves off from drawing from anxiety, which also tends to block out all the ideas

Number one way, do some little warm-up exercises!

The first thing I always recommend to anyone is to draw some blobs! No really hear me out, pick an animal —personally I usually go for snakes or cats— and, if you’re on traditional do some contour lines and make some blob shapes, if you’re on digital set your brush size really high and make some blobs that look VAGUELY like your animal, than without doing any erasing, add some little details or eyes to make it look more like it’s animal, you can add to the shape— other colors, tails, ears etc— but the main rule of thumb here is NO ERASING, Filling up a sheet with them and making it simple helps you ease back into it and warms up your drawing muscles

Another one I recommend is grabbing a reference and just vaguely sketching it out, you’ll see this one repeated no matter who you ask about art block, some will say do gesture drawing, some will say do contour practice, honestly it’s whatever fits your bill. Practice some hands, doodle some random faces, grab an object and draw it in a stylized way, this doesn’t only help you practice but it can also give you some ideas for future projects, or to just turn the sketch into your favorite character lol

This one includes a little bit of mental prep but honestly? Save. Every. Sketch. Even if you make/look at it during artblock and say ‘wow I hate this’ you SAVE IT, your concepts are still good, your brain is just telling you that you can’t make it work, and yeah some of the sketches aren’t gonna be anywhere near pretty but that’s the POINT! You don’t have to work on one picture the entire time you can bounce between multiple depending on where you feel you’re most comfortable each day, and you don’t have to use every sketch as your basis but your concepts are what make your art yours, getting rid of it and only having the things that you’ve finished will give you unrealistic expectations to keep OUTSHINING them every time and set up more of a wall for yourself in the long run

This one’s a bit more specific but, character design! This is the one I use the most besides the blobs, make a creature! Grab a generator and fuse some animals together, make a fake pokemon outta it or make a new hybrid altogether, don’t worry about how realistic it is the important part of this one is the thought process, you don’t have to use it in the future you just need to make it for now, it definitely helps get your gears turning while still keeping it generally non-stressful. Grab a random mood board and make a character design out of it, take a theme (steampunk, robot, alien, clockmaker, etc) and apply it to something mundane, like coins,or pens, or book covers! Or, of course, fashion! Purposefully make the most deviantart neon edgy OC possible! Turn your main brain off and just have as much fun with it as you can, you don’t have to post it you don’t even have to show it to anyone else

A lot of artblock is about shifting your gears or changing perspectives of what you create to feel good about it again, like I said before a huge part of artblock is feeling like your art isn’t ‘good enough’ or feeling like you’ve run dry on ideas, or just pure unfiltered stress. The biggest thing you can do is to start small again, draw like a kid, don’t let your thoughts about anatomy or critiques stop you, and you’ll find yourself starting to warm back up to your own creations. At the end of the day if it’s just causing you a lot of stress trying to break through art block the best thing for you might be to actually step back and give yourself a break, and come back later.

The best part of art is you can literally do whatever you want, draw something cursed, redraw a meme, draw Frosty the snowman saying ‘fuck’, play with colors, draw something cute as scary as you can or vice versa, draw a mushroom, make up a new kind of animal or plant, draw yourself as if you were in your favorite media’s, the best way to go is to let go of all the ‘cringe culture’ mentality and just go as apeshit as possible



[infinitum-imaginaerum]

Model Type // Johnny - NCT

“Heyyy, buddy,” Taeil called, rolling up into the room. Johnny was the only one there, so there was no mistake Taeil was talking to him. Johnny looked over, eyebrows raised, ready to hear what Taeil could possibly have to say that caused him to sound so nervous.

The older male scratched the back of his neck as he continued to approach Johnny. “Yes, Taeil? Got something to say?” he asked.

“Do you want to make an easy five hundred bucks?”

Johnny squinted hard as he looked at Taeil. There was no such thing as an easy five hundred bucks. He waited for Taeil to explain, but he literally was just going to stand there looking like a dork until Johnny conjured a response.

“What’s the catch, Taeil?” he asked.

Taeil’s nervous smile wasn’t easily hidden and he tried to turn away so the younger wouldn’t be able to see it. “It’s a modeling job. They’re looking for physique models; an artist… you have to sit still for a while.”

Johnny looked at Taeil, waiting for more. He could tell by the hesitation that there was a lot left to say, plus he was being really vague about the whole thing.  “You know them, obviously. You don’t come up to me so nervous asking me to sit in front of someone with my shirt off if you don’t. You wouldn’t be asking me in the first place,” Johnny explain, squinting again, very suspicious of Taeil’s behavior.

“Fine! She’s a friend of mine, she’s trying to get a designing job but she’s having a hard time with bulkier dress because she’s never had practice drawing those types of people. No cameras, no paperwork, she won’t even remember you,” Taeil finally explained, but he could feel the red paint his face the more he talked.

“Five hundred dollars and all I have to do is sit there,” Johnny stated, asking for confirmation with the look in his eyes.

“Five hundred, just sit there, still, patiently,” he responded.

Johnny was the shy type when it came to things like that. He wasn’t a huge proponent being shirtless around anyone. So, he sat there and thought about it, staring blankly at the wood of the coffee table, following the grooves.

“When?”

“Later today… I know it’s really last minute, I’m sorry—”

“I guess it won’t give me time to change my mind. I’ll do it for five hundred,” Johnny replied, interrupting Taeil who emitted a sigh of relief and thanked him kindly before leaving the room, no doubt to go tell his friend that it was good to go and that Johnny would be there later that day.

The day seemed to pass with no problem. Oddly enough, Johnny didn’t feel anxious at all about this. It was one-hundred percent anonymous other than the fact that she’d straight up know that he knew Taeil. No names, no contracts, no pictures, just art.  

He rolled up to a sketch brick building, but it held the address scribbled down on the paper clutched in his hand. A few more times his gaze switched between the paper and the building before he pushed aside his reservations and went in. It was chilly out his hands shoving immediately into the pockets of his hoody as he entered, trying to beat the cold. “Studio B, studio B, studio B,” he muttered to himself as he walked down the hall. The rooms appeared to be numbered in no particular order so finding Studio B appeared to be harder than he thought.

He finally arrived to a solid wood door, a sign on it that signified his destination. His hand wrapped around the bronze handle and now he was having second thoughts. “This whole thing is so sketch,” he commented to himself, but the door was opening and he was stepping in before he knew it.

There was an easel at first view, he could see jean clad legs sitting behind it and that had to be Taeil’s friend.

Johnny cleared his through, “Hello.”

“I’m so sorry; I didn’t hear you come in! You must be Johnny,” you supposed, scrambling out of your chair to greet him.  “I’m really glad you could come; I have been having such a hard time finding a model and I just—”

You paused when you finally had a chance to look up at him after cleaning your hands off. His hair was a little disheveled from his hood, but other than that, you were particularly speechless. You blinked hard a couple of times to make sure he was real which had him turning his head away from you in embarrassment.

“Forgive me for staring,” you commented as immediately as you could, trying to shake yourself back into reality and get down to business. You jutted your hand out containing the wad of cash promised. “If it’s more comfortable, we can do a couple of sketches with a shirt on so you can get the hang of posing for a while,” you suggested as he hesitantly took the money from you, shoving it into the back pocket of his dark jeans.

No words passed from Johnny’s lips as you directed him to a stool where he could sit under the proper lighting before you dashed behind your easel, turning it to face to his left and positioned your stool for the proper head swivel. “We’re just going to do a couple of quick sketches, but still try to find a pose that’s comfortable,” you suggested.

He shifted without words, covering a majority of his face with a large hand after hiking a leg up to rest his foot on a rung of the stool enough to he could rest his elbow against that. It was the arm furthest away from you so it didn’t really matter. The other was bent, his hand shoved halfway into his pocket and the leg supporting him was straight out, shoe planted firmly on the hardwood.

“Is that good?” you asked him.

“Yeah,” he replied dryly.

“O-okay,” you stuttered. You could definitely tell he didn’t want to be there; but he had already agreed and you had already paid him so you weren’t about to let him go so easily. You threw down his basic shape with a hard pencil—your sketch lines were light, but you wouldn’t want them to be too noticeable if it were to be a completed piece. After getting the basic shape you began with his torso, measuring his broad shoulders with a thumb marker on your pencil as you held it out to him.

He watched you jot down quickly on your paper pad, watched the way your tongue would peek out to swipe across your lips, watch the way your brow would draw together when something was just a little bit off, and the way your leg bounced as you focused. Your foot stopped bouncing, shoe hitting hard against the wood which almost jolted him as you reached your pencil out towards him again, unable to properly match the angle of his shoulders with the angle of his hips and the way you couldn’t match the curve of his back just right.

Johnny was definitely different proportions than you were used to drawing. He was much taller with much longer legs, much broader shoulders than any man you were used to. It was going to be a bit of a struggle, and you knew that, but you weren’t adjusted to just how much of a struggle it was.

He listened to the way your teeth clicked together as you thought, erasing and redrawing, erasing and redrawing.  He listened to the way your pencil tapped the easel; the way your shoe clicked on the floor again.

“Not trying to tell you how to do what you do, but I think you’re trying to visualize what a body is supposed to look like, instead of visualizing it as just lines that go a certain way,” he spoke, just loud enough for you to hear. You didn’t want to admit—in all the years you’d studied art and taken art classes, that was the most basic of all basics when it came to drawing anything. Don’t focus on what it’s supposed to look like, just focus on the lines that it is.

“You’re right,” you replied and took a deep breath. Part of it in actually was that you were having a hard time looking at him without getting distracted. Taeil failed to inform you just how easy on the eyes he was and now it was coming back to haunt you.

You did your best to finish up the page of sketches, getting stuck half way in some of them and deciding to just move on and start over. You filled up a whole page with the same sketches here and there. It wasn’t long before you just had enough.

“I’m done for now. I’m going to step outside and get some fresh air. There’s water and cokes in the fridge, feel free to help yourself,” you mentioned to him, setting your pencils nicely back into their case before you disappeared through the door.

Thankful, Johnny stood from the hard wooden stool, able to stretch his legs again and retrieve a water just to mosey to the comfy looking couch on one side of the room. He plopped down on it, a little low for his liking, but did his best to relax. His bent legs were too long for the futon, and the only comfortable way for them to go was out. His knees spread further apart as he fell into his own mind. He wasn’t thinking about much, but it was enough to distract him for quite some time.

“Okay, I think I’m—Nope.”

The same second you came in the door, you were out of it again. Just seeing Johnny on the couch so lounged out was enough to make you scream. It wasn’t helping that you’d been single for who knows how long and any sight of an attractive man had you wild, but Johnny didn’t need to sit the way he was.

He scoffed which turned into a chuckle, having every idea what was going on. “How are you going to draw me with a shirt off if you can’t even stand me when I’m clothed?”

But it wasn’t long after that you collected yourself again. You came back in, this time without uttering a word and made your way to the fridge to grab water for yourself. You quickly twisted off the cap and took a long swig. “Okay,” you finally said, making your way back to your easel and flipped the page.  “Mr. Seo, when you’re ready, please,” you commented, prompting him to get up from the couch with a raised eyebrow.

“Can I stand?” he asked.

“If that’s more comfortable for you,” you replied. “Just remember, it’s going to be a while.”

He nodded, setting his water on the futon, his hoodie following as he pulled it over himself. You wanted to audibly hiss at the sliver of skin that peeked out from under his shirt, the curve of his back from his hips right above his sneaky underwear had you looking away. Which was unfortunate, because a second later it was exposed for good when he peeled away his black tee as well, tossing that onto the futon before moseying back to the stool.

He planted both hands down on it, gripping it, showing off every curve of every muscle in those thick arms of his as he straddled the stool, kicking both feet up onto the rungs. “Is this good?” he asked you, totally facing your direction so there was no way he’d miss when you were checking him out this time, as he’d have to keep his eyes in your direction for the duration of the drawing.

Your mouth felt dry, your fingers were shaking. “I was hoping for something a little more natural,” you replied.

The way his thick lips pulled into a grin had you out of your mind. You couldn’t look at him, it just was self-torture. He shifted full rear on the stool but he still sat facing you. His arms crossed over his chest and head fell slightly to the side, pulling those luscious bangs out of his eyes. He gave you a questioning eyebrow raise.

“I guess that’s better.”

“Then let’s get started,” he smiled, eyes shutting as it was better to drown in his own thoughts and let the time pass than to be fully aware of how slow it was ticking by. But he still heard the same noises—your pencil tapping your easel, your foot on the ground, your teeth clicking, all ticks he found absolutely adorable.

He found himself smiling, biting his lip as he thought about you and how your hair cascaded down, shrouding your face in just the right manner; your eyes and the way they gleamed and glimmered; the way your lips moved when you spoke—it wasn’t so bad being here after all.

“Stay still, please,” your voice interrupted him and he tried his best to go back to resting face.

They were only thirty minute sketches or so, any position wouldn’t have felt too bad, not after assuming they were going to be close to two hours each pose.

“Don’t be weird, but I want to get a good pose of your arms, if that’s possible,” you said. Johnny had no problem moving the stool, letting his back hit the wall which still resided in good light and lifted both his arms to tuck his hands behind his head. He stood on one leg, giving his hips a sassy angle.

“Wow, okay,” he barely heard you mutter, but the fact that he could get to you like that was a victory in his mind. You went to work immediately, trying your best to focus on your pencil and paper and less on the way his eyes tore into you like a hungry lion.

Soon it became not long enough. Soon it became he was leaving already. Soon he as shaking your hand as you thanked him for his service after he had clothed himself and was ready to head out the door. He headed back to the apartment, ready to tell Taeil all about it and perhaps ask him more about you.

When he pushed the door open, it was almost as if Taeil was anticipating him.

“How did it go?” he asked as if he was Johnny’s mother asking how a first date when or his first day of school.

“She’s cute,” Johnny said and Taeil’s jaw dropped.

“I don’t think that’s what I asked,” he said, following Johnny into the kitchen as he raided the cabinets for a snack.

“It was fine, Taeil. Just business,” Johnny replied, pulling a box of crackers from the top shelf where only he and Doyoung on a good day could reach them. “Though, she did try to undress me before I undressed,” he laughed, moving Taeil aside to head back into the main room.

“What does that even mean?”

“It means she thinks I’m real easy on the eyes, catch my drift?”

“What are you—”

“I’m saying, if she’s interested, I’d like to take her to dinner. Capisce?

“Ca-Capi-Pea-shh?”

“If she asks for my number, give it to her; I swear sometimes you’re five years old.”

A week had passed since that day. Johnny was sitting on the couch as he normally was, Taeil had just gotten up to get something to drink when the younger noticed the elder’s phone light up. Curiously, he looked over. The name, he recognized. The message…

How come Johnny hasn’t…

He couldn’t see the rest.

“Yo, Taeil; you’ve got a message,” he called but Taeil didn’t reply. He checked for Taeil thoroughly, making sure he was nowhere in sight as he snatched the phone up and unlocked it, having seen him put in his password a thousand times to open the message.

How come Jonny hasn’t messaged me? You gave him my number right?

Johnny’s mouth fell open slightly, almost appalled. Taeil, that slimy little—he plucked his phone from his pocket, typing down your number quickly and locked Taeil’s phone, tossing it back on the couch as he heard the older male coming. It was just before he sat down that Johnny sent you a message.

All this time he was supposed to give me your number… and I just found out he was hiding it from me.

“Don’t hurt her, Johnny,” Taeil commented, not bothering to look to his phone or to the other male or anything. He just looked at the TV. “She’s very close to me, and I will be very upset with you if you break her heart.”

“Nothing’s even happened yet—”

“Johnny, I know you. You’re the type of guy she’s gonna fall really hard for. So, be careful what you do. I know there’s chemistry. She told me all about you trying to get her all flustered, ass,” he said, throwing in that last part for decoration.

Johnny chuckled, thinking back it probably wasn’t the best idea, but it was far too late now.

“I just want to take her out and see what’s up. I’m not the type to play games, Mr. Johnny–I–know-you.”

“Be good to her!” he called as Johnny rose from the couch, taking his phone with him as he went off to his room.  A small conversation ensued between the two of you, starting right away with him insisting he take you out and you trying to reject, but ultimately it didn’t take much for you to fall victim to him.  

It was less than a week later that he had you sitting across from him looking over a dessert menu.

He watched you, watched the way your hair fell into your face despite the number of attempts you gave to hold it back through all of dinner. You’d been playing with his hands nearing the end of dinner as he talked, so it didn’t seem all too unnatural for him to reach over and tuck that strand deep behind your ear. It had you looking up at him.  

“What?” you asked after a couple moments of silence as he just looked at you.

“You stared at me plenty a week ago, I think it’s only fair that I return the favor,” he said, tilting his head as he talked to you, watching your eyes shift from his to his lips. Your tongue flicked out to wet your own, mostly subconsciously.

“Are you still looking for dessert?” he asked you. “Or have you found it elsewhere?” he teased with a flick up on his eyebrows.

“Leave me alone,” you teased back, eyes darting back down to the menu.

“I’d be happy to give you both,” he smirked, especially when you tapped his leg with your foot, a gentle but warning motion.  You ended up ordering Crème Brule which Johnny insisted he didn’t want any of, but ended up taking a couple of bites off your spoon after pleaded glances. After that he quickly paid the check and whisked you out of the restaurant.

It was a casual date, so both of you were in shoes suitable for walking, which was ideal since Johnny was leading you every which way. He walked side by side with you, moseying to milk the most of your time together. His hands were nervously shoved into this pockets, your hands clasped in front of you, not sure what else to do with them.

“Can I hold your hand?” he asked you quietly.

“I’d love that,” you replied, listening to his large hand scrape against the denim of his jeans as he pulled it out, offering it to you and you took it upon yourself to lace your fingers with his. He swung your hand between the two of you which brought a soft blush to your cheeks just as you stepped into some tall grass. You’d arrived at a park.

“I know you gotta get home soon, but I just wanted to take you somewhere quiet for a minute,” he admitted, leading you over to a bench, allowing you around it first to take your pick of the best seat. He sat next to you with a tug on his hand, letting your laced hands rest against his leg as he sat next to you.

He was getting ready to start before you butted in, “Thank you, Johnny. For everything,” you told him, and it closed his slightly ajar mouth to bring it up into a smile.

“You’re welcome; thank you for spending time with me,” he replied as he looked at you. You glanced at his shoulder and he scooted over a little more, picking up slightly on your cue so you could lean your head against him.

“What do you think about a second date?” he asked.

“What do you mean?” you asked.

“I mean, do you see this going somewhere?”

You squeezed his hand and pushed a little harder into his shoulder. “If the fact that I’m totally comfortable with you like this right now isn’t enough, I don’t know what to say,” you told him. “I’d love to see you again,” you added.  

“May I kiss your cheek?” he asked. You shyly lifted your head from his shoulder, enough that he could crane his neck just so far to place a kiss on your flushed cheek. You bit your lip, you cheek burning where his pecked you as you reached up to touch it.  “Let me take you home,” he said. You didn’t have words to reply, just let him tug you to your feet until the two of you wandered in the direction of your place.