#getting myself out of artblock slowly

[consumeroflemoans]

I found this photo on Pinterest and had to draw Soukoku to it. It’s too perfect

[corpsoir]

Sailor trio crowding together for a group mirror selfie -- what poses do they choose?

skagen is a permanent victim of the bunny ears i think <//3 they go to the mall and take a billion silly selfies together and annoy the other customers there lol

[possiblytracker]

I should just sit down and get some of my commissions out the way this morning so I don't rapidly contract in on myself and implode anticlimatically before my copy of scarlet delivers

[kyzera0]

Slowly trying to get myself out of artblock

[pap-da-coconut]

umm henloo :)))

sorry i've been frozen dead for so long but (!!) i finished my first semester of uni last week (i'm studying animation now yippiiee :DD)

(tbh i really wanted to come back to posting on here but i couldnt even draw at first. the school made me feel so overwhelmed and i was even regretting enrolling at first BUT i think im finally getting my shit together and the relationship with my art is slowly starting to heal and also! we have the greatest most blorboest teachers ive ever seen and i love them and i stan them and-)

!!anyway i can (kinda sorta) make pictures move now woo :DD pspspss wanna see a littol bit of my semestral "film"?

(its not perfect but considering we did not do the basics and i had no experience with animating before i'm really proud of myself xD)

ANYWAYYSSS MAGNUS PROTOCOL HUH??!?

i didnt listen to it yet because all my time and energy was going towards the semestral film and aaaaaaa i have to catch up now!!

it makes me feel so uneasy though because. guys this podcast means SO MUCH to me. TMA got me through my moms illness, through shit highschool, got me out of a really bad artblock AND it basically got me into my current uni ??? (not even overexaggerating)

like. i need tmagp not to ruin it tzjgfxhg xD i am going to throw up but i also cant not listen to it so.. ✌️lesgooooo lesgoooooooouaaaa

[lynaferns]

I hope next year I can take things slowly and just be able to draw calmly. I want to experiment more with my artstyle.

My DCA hyperfixiation is not dying anytime soon but it's been slowing down this year and I had the biggest artblock of my life. Not like when I was a kid and didn't draw for a month straight and I was like 'meh, not big deal', I didn't have anxiety at the time so it was like, whatever, y'know but this time it's been so difficult to draw over the months, having a million ideas but feeling burned out all the time to draw.

Finally being able to focus more on my OCs is helping out so I hope next year gets better and I start going to therapy again (aparently I got evaluated as asperger and not autims when I was a teen wich means they put me in the 'low needs' group :) so they didn't gave me the help I needed :))) because I wasn't autistic enough :)))))) so we are looking to have me evaluated again, obtain the correct 'autims tag' and see a private psicologist, hopefully not like the last one (: )

*cough cough* I'm also looking forwards to open my first commisions sometime next year *cough* 'cause I've been pushing it at a side for the last years because of a lot of stress and not feeling confident enough and because talking to people scares me and I've had the the commisions table ready since two years and edited it like four times gonna do it a fifth time because *cries* and I'm still not very confident because is not the same drawing for myself than drawing for others a character that I'm not into so is not gonna have the same cuality as a character that I like and know about and I don't even know how I'm going to time manage each commision becuse the time it takes me to make a drawing is a desicion betwen God and the stars and my possible ADHD idk man the lady I talked to about my autims gave me a few looks and coments like I had it bad because I- *coughs and dies*

[pine-niidles]

April Project Updates

Hiya! I hope you've had a good April. Me, not so much. The month started still heavy with artblock and outside of art I've also not been feeling great. At the very least I've kept up with regular life drawing but I decided pretty early on to focus on making progress on things I needed to get done unrelated to art. It's possible I did just need that time to rest as in the last couple of weeks the artblock has been going away! I've been able to slowly make progress on my art pieces without hating every step :) In other positive news the tree outside my kitchen window has fully regrown its leaves & there are lots of beautiful flowers growing on my regular walking path to the pool. 

2023 Sketchbook

The finish your project jam helped give me that last boost I needed to finish putting together my 2023 sketchbook pdf, which is a mix of my physical sketchbooks & misc digital art from last year. You can get a copy on itch.io.

2024 Hourly Comics Day

Same as above, I did the last couple of steps I needed to finish my hourly comics day pdf, also up on itch.io. 

There's very little new there, I just wanted to have all the hourly strips together in one easy to read place + share the printable booklet version that I made for myself in case anyone else was interested in printing themselves a copy.

Impractical but Cool Fantasy Swords

I've been chipping away at this zine in my off time for a while, now I just have these last 6 swords to finish shading and then finalizing the layout for the whole zine.

​Hopefully marking this as done will help push the last bit of artblock out of my system and I can get back to drawing new things rather than just finishing old art!

Life Drawing

I don't normally share day to day life drawing in these updates but since it's pretty much all the art I've got to show this month here are a few of my fav sketches from April:

Plans for May:

​Zines

I currently have 4 small-medium zine ideas bouncing around my head, I'd like to finish two of them this month but I'm undecided which two.

Don't Wake the Sleeping Dragon

There's a lot to rework with DWSD mechanics based on feedback from the first playtest, the biggest change will be that I'm no longer trying to keep it to two pages max. That was an ambitious goal for my first ever ttrpg, and letting go of it will give me a lot more freedom to explain the rules a little better and add mechanics to facilitate rp. I'm aiming to get a second playtest draft out this month & to start on some art for it.

[lemonrin-i]

This may be an overused question, but how did you develop your art style? (Did you get inspired by someone, or did you take time perfecting it) Or how do you deal with the art block?

Hmmm well for me I started drawing for fun in Middle School but I didn't take it seriously until around High School? (Note that there were years I had major art blocks due to having bad drawing equipment 😭😭)

When it comes to developing your art style (also sorry if my advice isn't helpful), Id personally just play around with drawing first, get a sketchbook and start drawing your interest!

When I was taking art seriously I made a goal for myself to keep drawing until my sketchbook was full of drawings. During the time I was a big fan of how Koyoharu Gotouge (author of Demon Slayer) drew stuff because at the time I was constantly under the assumption that you needed to understand realism to make good art-- The change in perspective was a huge game changer for me.

Right now I would say I'm comfortable with my current art style, so I'm not really under the obligation to change it. I'm mainly putting my energy towards other things like rendering, shading, color, composition and even *shivers* l-lineart

Now,,, for dealing with artblock. This is a really tough question because artblock can be caused by multiple factors so it's hard to find a ready solution to deal with it.

For me, when I have artblock. I try not to force myself to draw for a few days. Basically just invest my energy towards other hobbies.

However if your trying to get out of a slump-- Like you really really wanna draw or you already been suffering from artblock for a long ass times. I highly recommend going back to the basics, try practicing your skills again, doodle, make a artboard or something. Don't stress over it, just do it

You won't immediately come out of your artblock but if you slowly build up to it, you could potentially get out of artblock (this is a method that's helped me at least)

Anyways I hope this helps or was at least insightful :3

[birdo-is-here]

might slowly be getting out of my artblock chat ‼️‼️ pray i didn’t just jinx it for myself ‼️‼️

[bearbrickjia]

What advice would you give to a fellow artist who had lost creative and career direction? 🙂 I’ve experienced a tough year personally and I was wondering what steps you take to push through stressful times and also how you get back on track as a creative? 🙂

I receive this type of questions all the time and to be honest, I'm not sure either. I hope I know how too 😭 In the past few months or maybe more than half a year, I've been mentally drained and felt unsatisfied with every artwork that I produced, I just don't feel like drawing at one point. It's definitely not burnout because my freelance life is honestly quite relaxing, I get to choose what projects to take and arrange my schedule freely, I have lots of free time and probably only work like 2-3 days a week, my clients are all kind and nice to me, no stress at all. But somehow I felt empty inside, like something is draining away slowly.

When I had artblock in the past, I will watch some movies and shows that I like, read some books and do nothing for a few days and I will be fine after that. But this time is different, it's useless no matter what I do and it lasted for months, it's very frustrating and I just don't know what I should do.

I'm still finding ways to solve this, and I'm trying all kinds of things that I haven't tried before now - such as accept the invitation to do a public sharing at SGCC(which I will never consider in the past), learning a new music instrument, self publish an artbook, hired a personal trainer and start working out, and travel more. So instead of staying home and draw all the time, I'm trying to go out more and explore the things I haven't try before. I do feel a little bit better now and is able to draw passionately sometimes, but still far from what I used to be.

Or maybe being able to draw passionately sometimes is enough, I don't need to push myself too hard, right? Maybe it's because I keep seeing good art by other artists on social media all the time so I feel unproductive and guilty when I'm not producing art regularly. Maybe because I keep observing the world through a small hole so I'm unable to actually feel it and produce something that is sincere. Maybe I should learn how to live first before making art. Maybe I should take my time. There is nothing to heal but empty spaces to fill up. I'm still learning and I hope I find my answer soon.

I'm not sure if this answers your questions, maybe I have drifted too far away haha. Even if this doesn't help you, I hope I at least provided some sort of comfort. Everyone are different and has different paths to take in life, I hope you find your own answer soon.

[viviraptor]

Hi ... for the artist ask meme, 4, 10 and 18 ? ^_^

HEYY thanks for sending something!!

4. piece you wish got more love?

if "love" specifically means interaction/popularity then this is a lot harder to answer now than it was years ago. it took me a while to get over the numbers game but i do still get that bummed-out feeling when ppl's enthusiasm for a piece doesn't really match my own, if that makes sense?

i think the last time i felt that way was when i first posted this shrimpship painting, i put a LOT of hours and care into it and i really really love it, i consider it one of the best shrimpship things i've put out. but the notes came in slow in those first few days, and it was easy to compare its performance to the drawings i was doing for a monthly challenge in that same month, that had less time put into them but did a bit better.

but like every time that happens, i found ten times more joy in seeing the 5-6 "regulars" in my notes telling me how much they like it! and my own opinion still stands and that's more important than anything

10. how do you deal with artblock?

in a lot of ways! when i want to draw something but i feel like the process really isn't going my way, what helps the most is just stepping away for a while, for as little as an hour to as long as a day or two. you can't really force yourself to be in "the zone", any attempt to push through usually just frustrates me so i just wait it out.

if i still wanted to draw SOMETHING though i try to make experimental things without the expectation of it looking any good. picture studies usually do the trick, and changing up your regular art process is fun too, like skipping the lineart step or working on just one layer. the point is to have fun and loosen up, eventually i can go back to whatever i was doing with fresh eyes and steadier hands!

18. something you feel like you need to work on?

DRAWING. TAKES. SO. LOOONG FOR ME ANGRY FACE. ideas come slowly in general and i have super deep-seated perfectionism that i'm still whittling away at, the simplest of drawings can take 6 hours, maybe 3 if i really rushed myself. on top of that i try to keep a very consistent neat style for commissions specifically, but that usually results in those pieces taking 10+ hours on average which my prices... don't really compensate for.

that's what makes experimenting and loosening up super important, i need an outlet to make messier things while in the middle of making that super clean thing i'm getting paid for. i'm probably doing better than i was when it comes to perfectionism, i just need to make more conscious efforts to leave good enough alone, especially when the stuff i get hung up about would probably go unnoticed to anyone else... GYAH

[avathestarwarrior]

Hey there Ava, I wanted to say something in regards to those posts you recently made about your characters and art as a whole. Apologies in advance for the essay ahead, I had a lot to say and I really feel passionate about this because, hey, I've been there and I don't want to see you discouraged over this. First I want you to know that you aren't alone- when I was your age and still learning the ropes of art I felt exactly the same. All my friends around me what felt like suddenly jumped in their skills and only perfected their characters (design and story/personality-wise) while I sat stagnated in both. My characters were one-dimensional and I had little to no understanding of the major principles of art. And without a doubt, it is discouraging because they're being noticed for it and I hadn't made any ground in improvement at the time. This is a horribly common feeling especially for those without any access to formal training/teaching and beginners alike. Most of my friends lived in places where they could easily gain professional guidance and tools (usually through college, many countries allow you to jump to college while still in mid-teen years onwards), while I remember having to teach myself everything and struggling to learn even the most basic digital programs. Neither my high school or college (that I went to art classes specifically for, even the introductory ones) ever went in-depth when teaching the basics, and so generally I never had that strong foundation all my friends built onto. It's painful, but it's going to be okay because there are ways to help this. Now real quick, I'm going to go ahead and address what you were saying about your characters and art. Being completely honest, you were one of the first people I followed when joining this site, and I've really enjoyed seeing your work. While you may think that others would ignore your work over currently higher-skilled artists, I need you to know that there is a certain joy in watching someone find their way in a skill and grow within it. Drawing and designing characters (and yes, even writing them regarding their backstories/personalities) is a skill. For some, naturally they jump off and fly right away, with little to no friction. But for others? There may need to be a little more guidance and work. Some people also learn more slowly than others, and that's nothing to be ashamed of. You do not "suck" at these things. You just may need more supplementary sources to help guide your growth is all. That leads me into my next point;

When I said that you aren't alone in this, I don't just mean "I've been there". I also mean, there's an insane amount of free sources that are online you can use to push yourself forward. Pinterest has a lot of good references ranging from 'how to draw this' to 'something I can use for inspiration' and you can easily amass a huge collection for just about any of your drawing needs. Also YouTube! I stagnated in my art and designs for years, but when I started actively seeking out tutorials my skills slowly-- very slowly-- grew and I was able to not only learn new things but also build off of them from there on. Some of my favorite tutorial/art/design tips channels are: -Marc Brunet (short and sweet, easily digestible tutorials on drawing from a professional game artist turned art teacher. Just about anything drawing related is on his channel). -Brookes Eggleston - Character Design Forge (a channel specifically for improving character design (and a few tips on personality qualities as well) and some of the principles you can use to apply when designing). Both of these channels also have tips for the whole mental aspect of these things, which is very encouraging and helps when trying to get out of a mindset that may be hindering you and your progress, including artblock and feelings of inadequacy. I apologize again for the long ask, but I really hope this helps you in some way! Know that you're not in this journey alone and that with some time and a little bit of guidance, you will improve-- which I want to also say that it's much easier for others to see than for you to. At the end of the day, try to be a little more compassionate towards yourself, because it can only get better and I know you're doing your best. The fact that you're posting your art and characters online like this is already inspiring enough to many who are afraid to even start, and I genuinely mean that from experience. As scary as it is, maybe ask some of your friends or artists in general that you look up to for tips, most people are happy to provide insight on their work when asked politely- and definitely seek out some resources for yourself as well, those that I mentioned are without a doubt a good start. I wish you all the best of luck, and please take care! <3

Thank you there friend for this long ask. After reading this, I think I forgot something important! I already know these things and I have't tried it out recently! Thank you so much for reminding me and everyone who might come across this that we are indeed not alone. I am truly touched and I'll make sure to never underestimate myself again! Sadly I don't know exactly who you are (Although I assume you were like the first one to like the rant post I just made) but thank you again. And I hope that maybe you can like DM me? Anyways, thank you so much!

[doxiedreg]

Okay, I am always interested in "24. How do you deal with artblock?" Because a lot of artists have interesting ways to go on about it!

As soon as I notice drawing is frustrating instead of fun and just doesn't cooperate with me I just straight up stop drawing until the right mood/drive/energy returns. Art block for me is most often my body telling me that I need a break and trying to force myself through that will only make it worse and take longer. Right now I'm slowly coming back from an art break. When in this stage I either finish old wips I have laying around that spark my interest or just draw whatever my hand wants to draw. I cant come up with clear ideas for art, I can't make large illustrations. Just low pressure sketches that I can then render if I wish to do so. As the sole art creator of my blorbos (outside of commissions) this can be very frustrating because I want blorbo content but if I already spend my commission budget of the month and am out of art juice I just will have to deal with not getting any.

So yeah that's how I roll with art block :)

[chlopieno]

YOU HAVE PETS?? YOU HAVE PLANTS??? I MUST SEE PICTURES!!! Tell me about them tell tell, and then show me some of your art and maybe your wips and then tell me a little bit about yourself

This is probably gonna get long, so full post under the cut (hopefully):

I have a kitty! I found her a few months ago and kept her. Her name's June and she's constantly bouncing between being the sweetest and the most troublemaking kid in existence <3 we had cats at home before, but she's first cat that's mine, so im figuring everything out, but i love her so much ;w; she's my baby

And when it comes to plants, i used to have a lot of them! I had to give most of them out to family members when i took June in, because i learnt they were toxic, but some of the plants that i still have are these:

I have two orchids, two yuccas, two silver inch plants, one fern and a few plants that i can never remember names of ^^' the pohotos show my smaller yucca, the other one is around 6 years old and is taller than me already :3

Sadly i don't have many wips, i have been pretty artblocked whole 2022 and this year im very slowly getting myself to draw again but! I'm taking part in a collab so even tho i havent started drawing yet, there will be art "soon"-ish

When it comes to me, I'm actually mainly OC artist! Of course i've always drawn fanart from time to time, but most of my brainpower goes to rotating my own characters around.

My main characters include Charlie (left) and her bestie Ivy (right). They haven't really gotten a story and for the most part were just getting into hijincks, but i've been slowly cooking a world and a story for them and my other characters to take part in :3

And my all-time favorite oc is Anne:

Who's a prissy princess with malfunctioning moral compass. I love her a lot, i made her when i was 15 and she's one of my oldest characters

I hit photos limit so i'll just write second part or sth and link it here lol :>

BOOM

[soy-koi]

SLOWLY getting myself out of artblock, but school starts on the 6th...

[yofriesenburg]