#don't compare yourself to others

[lauramkaye]

Keep Your Bad Art

You know when you finish a piece of art/writing/music and you're so disappointed because it didn't turn out how you wanted? And you just want to throw it away and never think about it ever?

Don't.

Keep it.

Because being an artist-any kind of artist- is a process that involves experimentation and practice and trial and error and growth and it's very easy to get discouraged along the way, especially in today's social media environment when you are seeing everyone else's BEST on their feeds all the time.

When you get frustrated about your own growth as an artist or feel like you aren't getting better it helps SO MUCH to be able to look back at your own past work and see that you actually HAVE.

I made myself a little collage with a few works I've done over the years since I started seriously working on my art so that when I am getting frustrated I can remember. Obviously there are a lot more pieces in between but these were all black and white portraits so I liked seeing the progression.

If you had shown me the last picture right after I drawn the first one and told me I would one day draw it I would not have believed you.

I'm excited to see what we'll all be making in another 3 years!

[tessaannedesigns]

Willow the Flamingo. 🦩 💖🌸

[nhzmlplths]

to everyone out there. YOU. YES YOU.

reblog this and write at least one thing you're proud of yourself for. ANYTHING.

It can be that today you helped someone carry their bag, maybe you drank a glass of water, maybe five, maybe you finally finished that Minecraft axolotl model, maybe you finally had a warm shower, maybe you started that project that's due in two days, maybe you ate some vegetables, maybe you scored a 100% on that maths test-

ANYTHING!! There is ALWAYS something for you to be proud of, and every single day is a new one and you can ALWAYS start again if something didn't work out.

I'll start. I just spent like an hour trying to study Vocabularly for a German spelling test. I studied three words out of 48, but right now I am contently eating a carrot and chilling, about to carry on with the next Shadow and Bone episode. THIS IS MORE THAN I DID YESTERDAY!! yesterday i did not study ANYTHING. so all in all, I'm really proud of myself and deserve a fifty minute break.

NO MATTER HOW LITTLE, A WIN IS A WIN!!

take care of yourself man<3

[chalkrub]

mockley time it's mockley time will you have some mockleys of mine

[deoidesign]

One of my first digital pieces (2010) versus one of my recent ones (2024)

We all start somewhere!

[eerna]

can you explain your art techniques a little bit further? I just saw your post about arcane helping you drop line art and stuff, and I wanted to understand better (as someone trying to get into digital art)

Sureee, ty for asking! :)

For the first 7 years of my digital art journey I imitated the comicbook-style art tutorials and techniques artists I liked used. This means that I would start out with a sketch, draw the lineart on another layer on top of the sketch, hide the sketch, use solid blocks of color on separate layers for the coloring, and add lighting effects on top of it all. I was never really happy with how it turned out, and I often felt like I shouldn't have gone past the colored sketch phase because the full render would lose so much life. I used pretty much the same brushes I use now, aside from some textured ones, but not to their full potential because they were painting brushes being used for flat shading. Here's a few examples of fully rendered stuff from 2020-2021:

Then, I realized I do NOT have to do things I don't wanna do, and I can totally remove any steps from the process that I wish! I experimented for a while until I settled on a new thing that worked for me. And so my current process is: draw a sketch, color it all on one layer (base colors), add light effects if needed, add another layer on top of everything, and paint until satisfied with the level of rendering. Then I add optional effects, such as fires or patterns. This means I leave the sketch layer visible, so I have to clean it and base colors with erasers as I work, but it enables me to preserve the sketchy energy. The "all rendering on one layer" approach frees my hand and I don't feel pressure to render everything separately and perfectly, which in turn, ironically, makes my art look more detailed because the eye compensates for unfinished bits. In addition, the line between a colored sketch and a fully rendered piece is much thinner, which means I don't have to commit to completing anything, and that is a big deal for an insecure person prone to artblocks. If I lose interest halfway through the lineart-and-blocks-of-color process, I am left with an unusable piece. If I do it halfway through the painting process, I get a charming, messy piece a la my recent Chappell Roan art (I left the armor unfinished, and yet it doesn't clash with the rest of the art). Here's a recreation I did to show what a big difference the different approach makes:

So why didn't I stop doing lineart sooner? I did try, but my attempts tried to replicate what I did when painting traditionally, instead of adjusting to my digital abilities, so it usually looked whack. I remember showing my friends the Rito Village piece back in 2019, which was painted based on a screenshot from the game, and one of them telling me "Don't go back to lineart!" I was like "YEAH I am NOT going back to lineart!!! I will keep painting!!!" Only to realize that painting landscapes with already stylized references and painting portraits were completely different. Here's a painting portrait from one of those trial and error attempts. Later I realized the mistake was working on TOP of the sketch, as I would have done for traditional work, instead of both below AND on top of it - after all, my intention was to preserve the life of the sketch, which was impossible when I couldn't even see it. I also didn't understand color values (or honestly, any color aspects) very well, resulting in some low-contrast, unappealing blobs.

So yeah, my advice to any beginner digital artist is: experiment and figure out what works for you. Think about what makes you happy when creating, and build your process around it. Also, keep researching art theory and applying it to your work. Good luck to you and all other digital artists~

[deservedgrace]

this might be a bit scattered and vague because bringing attention to dissociation makes me dissociate more and forget things and struggle to explain stuff lol, but... i feel like evangelicalism kinda teaches you dissociation as a baseline? especially if you're raised in it as a child?

like, arguably equating being human to being sinful, human nature and sin nature being interchangeable phrases for the same concept, convincing people that they need to be separate from sin if they are to be good and therefore need to be separate from being human, calling your wants, needs, emotions, thoughts, etc sinful and needing to repent for simply being human and having a human experience, that "existing in the flesh is not what god intended for us", that almost requires dissociation on some level

but there's also the dissociation from "the world" and "worldly things", from common phrases like "we're in the world not of it", believing that we are so separate and distinct from the world that we're called to "save it", to the belief that this life isn't our "real" life, our "real" life is the one we have with god in heaven

and all of that is just, par for the course, extremely normal beliefs to constantly be exposed to: your human self is not your "real" self, this world is not the "real" world. and that's without even getting into the way they use music, prayer, chanting, etc, to induce hypnotic states and other thought/emotion stopping tactics to disconnect you from your thoughts and emotions if you start feeling or thinking the """wrong""" things

and like, i didn't realize until after i left and long into my mental health journey that my default is dissociation. i thought it was normal to just exist like this because i didn't really have anything to compare it to, especially because i was taught that worldly people were the ones running on autopilot and disconnected to their thoughts, actions, emotions, etc

i just... wonder how common it is, and how many people don't even realize it

[musical-chick-13]

This is the only thing I'm going to say about the election until it's over:

Anyone who did not vote for Harris or who attempted to dissuade people from voting for Harris, you are indirectly responsible for whatever shit Donald Trump does if he gets elected. That blood is primarily on his hands, yes. But it is also on yours. I hope you can live with that because I sure as hell wouldn't be able to.

[beautiful-basque-country]

I'm SO grateful to the universe for keeping all my classmates anonymous regular people.

I can't imagine the pressure - from the rest, from your family, and from yourself! - when comparing that former classmate who is rich and internationally successful and you that just try to make ends meet.

[introspectivememories]

i think tim is possessive in the way that he wants to monopolize bernard's attention but bernard is possessive in the way that he wants to monopolize all of tim's emotions. like if tim could he'd replace all the breath in bear's lungs with his own so with every exhale, bernard would only think tim, tim, tim. but bear wants to be the sole recipient of tim's emotions. he wants to keep every smile, every tear, every frown to himself. he wants all of that to only be his. but tim belongs to so many people unlike bear who only belongs to tim. so he settles with the way tim laughs so hard that he snorts, at his corny jokes, at home. he settles with the frown that appears on his face as he works out the kinks in a new WE proposal. bernard lets himself be content with the way tim looks when he's hovering over him -- flushed and panting, tears building up in the corners of tim's eyes. at least this, he thinks reaching out to caress his boyfriend's face, at least this is mine. only mine.

[silusvesuius]

this tree from my new drawing looking goated afffffff 👑👑

[kazu-naito]

"amen is so hated we are so oppressed" idk if you've noticed but he's in 2 covers and on the dr poster like bro he's quite literally the most popular (current) love interest in the app tf you oN about 😭

[zehina]

I am not cut out to be a writer, never was. I don't have a consistent schedule, and the weight of wanting to provide for those few who enjoy my writing crushes me eventually.

I don't know why I decided to be one.

[yukidragon]

Just wanted to remind everyone that the fact that you are creating art is a wonderful thing, and you're wonderful for sharing it. I guarantee that someone out there is happy that they found your creation.

This applies to all forms of art - drawing, writing, photography, game development, music composition, voice acting, choreographed dances, etc. Just the fact that you are creating anything is amazing. You're putting your soul and your experiences that make you, you into that art, and it truly shines. This is why even a silly doodle can really resonate with others.

Keep creating. You're making the world a better place, and I'm so proud of you.

[kingslionheart]

Do you think Uhtred was as in love with Alfred as Alfred was with him?

HELLO!! okay, i think that they loved (and despised) each other in equal measure, though the actual difference that should be considered with them is more about who showed it more between the two of them than whether or not they had the same amount of love for each other, and for that it's also important to consider that how much someone shows the love doesn't automatically imply that one loved the former more than the latter.

so if we consider the question as a "who was more willing to show that love" then i would argue that it was actually uhtred who did that more, but that's completely because he was more open to it compared to alfred who had wayyyy more to lose and wayyyy more issues with loving a man than uhtred ever did (for example, uhtred's openness with aethelstan's homosexuality in seven kings must die).

NOW, my brain is pretty dead so i don't know how to explain it any better, but i think i talked more about all of this in detail on this previous post!! xx

[fiona-fififi]

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