switchbladesainted

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I did go to art school (yikes) and post mental breakdown + post grad I suffered a year long art burnout but I'm finally making things again and I'm happy. My boyfriend and I sold some stuff at a local Pride market recently and I feel very accomplished. Here are some things I made for it! I'll be getting top surgery soon so I'll probably spend a lot of time doodling in recovery (assuming I can hold a pencil and move my arm slightly).

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some thoughts i had about the way that bugs love

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do you have any general art tips or tips for improvement?? youre such an inspiration for my art. hope ur having a good day <3

yeah for sure! i have little tutorial thingies here: for colors + skin, meat, painting + hatching ^.^

and now here's my biggest piece of advice or at least what's most important to me at the moment. i think there's this tendency, especially among digital artists and artists that post online, to "develop their art style." i don't consider myself to have a set style nor am i actively pursuing one. it used to be a great concern to me, i would worry and analyze and conform as best i could in order to have a recognizable style.

i have only seen improvement and felt more confident in my art after deciding to completely do away with that impulse. i don't have one way of drawing eyes, i don't use a set color palette, i don't render the same way in every drawing. i approach each drawing i do with no clear plan in mind, no guidelines that i have set for myself in hopes of achieving, for me, unattainable consistency. obviously, there are repeat offenders in my art: ways of hatching, certain color combinations, beloved subject matters...

it's why my carrie drawings are so important to me! they're essentially the same drawing over and over but i do something different every time and i feel like i learn something new each time.

that's not to say that people who use the same techniques or colors or for every drawing are limiting themselves. professional artists and hobby artists alike find what works for them and then do it. i'm just saying that i am personally at a stage where experimentation is more important than consistency. i post my art on the internet so i have worried at times that i am losing the benefits of "being recognizable" or "having a brand" by just doing whatever. if someone saw the top two drawings and then the bottom two would they know they're by the same person?

who cares! i like all of these drawings!! i gained something from each of them and i'm glad i didn't let style get in the way of that. i feel like this is a very long winded answer to a question you didn't really ask but... i needed to learn this so i hope this sentiment helps someone else!

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Do you have any tips on painting meat? I am trying to paint organs but it's not working out even slightly

here are some tips on drawing organs/body horror + some tips on drawing meat and here's some process pics of my chicken hearts drawing:

reference pic + finished drawing

step by step pics

this is as realistic as i get with my drawing and as you can see i still took some liberties. i don't think i have much to say that i haven't said in my other tutorialish things but! my teacher hammered home a couple things in me: texture, color, and shine. he would not leave those highlights alone and yeah, they're really important for showing the slickness and form of the organs. if you have any specific questions let me know but other than that just have fun with it :D

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i love girls who are computer

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and cross the patron saint of switchblade fights

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Bohatyrka by sculptor Vasily Korchevoy

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Hello, I've seen some of your merfolk stuff, and tbh it, along with other similar artwork has inspired me to make better art of merfolk by incorporating more of the original fish aspect of the tail to look like it fits with the human half (rather than making it look like you just stuck a fish and human together lmao) and while I'm trying my best with it, (mainly practicing with sketches till I make a design I like enough to fully draw and color) I can't quite seem to get it right? Any tips or examples you can give? Or maybe some art tutorials you can link? I'm pretty much a beginner artist but would love to learn how to be better!

Even if not I appreciate just the inspiration you've been to me!

hello! :0 and oohh merm tips? usually for me kinda don't think about the tail and 'human' half as separate things but as one whole? some things I like to keep in mind when I'm researching or sketching things out:

-scales/patterns/fins are a nice way to make the merm feel more cohesive! :0 (like the koi and leopard seal merm below for patterns) or to blend the human/fish part together more if you're doing a more standard merm. I also like using the fins for 'hair' sometimes.

-silhouette of the fish/sea critter (like do you want your merm to be on the classic side or absolutely funky or somewhere in the middle haha) for the most part sharks/a lot of fish/mammal merms fall under the classic merm category for me and when I get to non-fish/fish that aren't the standard shape I tend to have the most fun with those.

top row is pretty normal (koi, sockeye salmon, leopard seal)

middle row (lobster, horseshoe crab, feather pen) they're still pretty humanoid but the silhouette itself is more like the creature they're based off of.

third row (hula skirt siphonophore, hatchet fish, gulper eel) they're still merms but they're not particularly humanoid haHA.

I like drawing merms that also look like their counterpart in silhouette? which doesn't necessarily mean things will match up; like with the gulper eel merm I didn't want to make a merm with a big mouth and came up with her having these funky basket arms that she could 'gulp' or scoop up fish.

here's another example of that when I was drawing an anglerfish merm; at first thought of having usual the whole merm as the anglerfish and then thought it'd be fun if the merm was just the luminescent lure part haha.

hmmm basically it helps if you can incorporate little things/details you notice to the human half? my brain's kinda bouncing around right now haha/all I can think of for now but hope that was helpful anon! :0

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i think he would listen to oingo boingo

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Transvamp bat swag

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little sketch of kirby and navi since the new game was just released and i just got ocarina of time:)

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your awful heart to song.

kofi

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obsessed with this horse and all his problems

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maybe someday i'll be able to go back to that texas sky

i made this drawing last year, wanting to move back to the state i grew up in. when i was in middle school, i had to move away after being outed and targeted at my school. recent news about my home state had me thinking about this piece again. i have a lot of words i wanna say. none fit.

[id: a drawing of two trans gay cowboys in an embrace against a fence. they are kissing, which is hidden behind a cowboy hat. the one in front is shirtless, with top scars. /end id]