#i stopped painting because i was so discouraged because I'd spend days on a painting and get two notes

[killerchickadee]

I painted for the first time in over a year. 💕

[ryuuka-balaen]

bwah

I know I said I'd post abt this after 10h but uh.been real tiredddd

also I was planning to go and take ~glamour shots~ of all the armies I've got to like show off the models but. uh. tiredd,, girlsleepy,,,

anyway! gonna try my best to talk abt them as much as I can and explain why I've got all of em

so I was introduced to Warhammer by my oldest brother around 10 years ago, when he'd seen his half-brother (who I'm not related to and don't know) playing a game with a friend of his. He's thought it looked cool as hell, and so convinced his friend+roommate to split a starter box (Attack on Black Reach) with him, and my less old older brother and I joined in with each buying an army starter box. I've never liked the "good guys humans" options in games and was an enjoyer of Big Monster, so Tyranids were the obvious faction choice for me. I bought the Tyranid Battleforce Box, my brother bought the T'au Battleforce Box, and my eldest brother took the blueberries Ultramarines from the starter, leaving the Orks to his friend.

I absolutely adored my new bugs, and had a blast building and painting my new collection consisting of 3 Warriors, 5 Genestealers, 10 Termagants, 10 Hormagants, and 3 Ripper Swarms.

My brothers, unfortunately, quickly realized that this whole 'building and painting models' thing wasn't as exciting as they thought that playing toy soldiers would be, and gave up before finishing theirs. So we never actually got to play a game.

My brother gave away his blueberries to his half-brother, the Orks I don't know because I never talked to that guy, and my other brother gave his T'au to me, so I gained a Crisis Battlesuit, 3 Stealth Battlesuits, a Devilfish Transport Tank, a Cadre Fireblade, 10 Firewarriors, and 10 Kroot Carnivores to my funny little model collection. Sadly without anyone to actually use them with I had no motivation to paint the new minis, and aside from a couple I still haven't got around to giving my T'au some colour.

A few years later, in my first year of high school I met a few Guys, just real Dudes Bros even, who played warhammer and was invited to join them one weekend for some Basement Wargaming

I was super excited about the idea, and went and bought a couple new Tyranid models to use then. It was a bit of a rush to get them built and painted within just a couple days, but that added a Carnifex and a Hive Tyrant to my bugs box

Those guys were kinda jerks :(

so I didn't talk to them further, and went back to not having anyone to game with

More years pass with my beloved guys not getting touched, and in 2018?ish. I dug them up and went in to a Friendly Local Game Store with my bugs to ask for a demo game. the store employee agreed but seemed,, Unimpressed. with the request, so I got it over with quickly, bought a couple items (Tyranid Ravener x3 box, T'au Pathfinder x10 box), and left. That was discouraging but I still wanted to try, so I visited another FLGS, just to look this time, and was introduced to the game Hordes which seemed interesting. I bought a starter pack of models for it in hopes of getting to play A Wargame, but still have never gotten to use them.

this is the only photo I can be bothered rn to find of them how they were at this point, before I've started repainting them

For my birthday last year, my dad gifted me a 3d printer, and though I didn't use it for much for a long while I did test printing a squad of Necron Warriors, because my fianceé at the time had said she liked necrons in the context of Warhammer video games such as dawn of war and I guess I was trying to make them as like, an intersection of our interests or something, but she didn't care and it doesn't really matter anymore anyway.

Aside from that I gave up on getting to use my models for a time, until following some Unfortunate Events last September-January I decided I should make an effort to stop spending 100% of my free time on virtual games and with online friends, so I invited one of my few meatspace friends to take me to a new (and much closer) game store that hosts bimonthly Warhammer game nights. We brought my T'au for me to use and Tyranids for my friend to use, and hoped for a decent time. The two people that were there did accommodate us with a small scale beginner kind of game each, but one of them was sortof irritable and snappy about the fact that we had invited ourselves (supposedly this was a members-only event of a private discord server? despite being posted publicly and inviting new players on the store's Facebook page.) and about that we had outdated rulebooks, because I suppose they thought we should've spent $80 each just to try the game. The other person present didn't talk without yelling and was a little inconsiderate of personal space, so I think it's understandable that we chose not to go back.

Later, after my hip surgery in February, I spent the time I had loafing around immobile at home to start making some models with that printer I mentioned.

The first that I printed was my Grey Knights!

I had a lot of fun being able to choose proxy models that fit an aesthetic I liked, and printed proxies for a Brother-Captain, a Nemesis DreadKnight, a Paladin Squad, a Strike Squad, and a Razorback Transport Tank.

I didn't print more Tyranids or T'au because I wanted more variety in the models I had - the friend I'd visited the game store with was willing to play more but didn't have any models so I'd need to be able to supply enough options that we weren't just playing eachother with the same two armies every time. The reason I chose to print Grey Knights was purely aesthetic - I hadn't read anything of their Lore, but I've forever been a Known Enjoyer of Knights so it wasn't much of a choice.

After that, and still during my three months of Surgery Loafing Time, my friend who worked at value village acquired a secondhand Recruit Edition warhammer starter box free of charge from their workplace and gave it to me. From that I got my Necrons, and unfortunately some of james workedshoppe's dearly beloved bland boring blueberries (Ultramarines).

over the last few months I've played a few matches with the one friend I have who will, including one today! And convinced my eldest brother to give the game another try and have played one game with him, in which he fielded some Imperial Guard models that he picked up cheap and already assembled/painted secondhand. I also offloaded those blueberries I didn't want on him because he's one of those people that likes playing Generic Human Faction.

Also, in that time, I've made my favourite of the models I have! my gorgeous beloved beautiful babies my Imperial Knights!

(oops those four makes the picture cap for posting from mobile)

sadly I haven't taken a Proper and Well Lit Glamour Shot of all five of them together yet but I'm super proud of them :)

finally, the last and most recent models I've gotten were the Tyranid half of the newest Value Box Set called Leviathan - financially I probably shouldn't've bought them, but they were being offered for $110, when to buy each of the kits included would've cost around $530, and there were new models included that can't be bought separately yet so I think it was a pretty good deal, and I've been having a really fun time painting them! (at least in the very little free time I'm able to find for myself right now around 20hrs/week college work and 35hrs/week dayjob work).

also I've Been Posting about a large bug I've been working on printing (a Hierodule Bio-Titan, which costs $250 individually to buy a kit), but sadly I still haven't finished building that model because I'm trying to magnetize it and that's been... challenging.

All Together, over the last decade I've accumulated 97 Tyranid models, ~30 T'au models (the kroot carnivores went missing at some point while in storage), 28 Necron models, 13 Grey Knights models, and 5 Imperial Knights models. it's been really lovely and makes me super happy that I've been able to indulge in this hobby recently, I love it a lot :)

(@catgirl-niko tag so you see the actual response to your ask)

if I have the energy for it at a later date, it might be fun to try to talk/write as much as I can about all the lore things I know about the guys I've got (especially since I've sorta made custom/ociguess? lore for my Knights), but after a six hour game today(battlereport post to come) of learning a lot of new rules, slamming out an college assignment in an hour (still handed in 15min late 😔 ), and now spending two and a half hours writing all this, my little kitty brain is right fried and I'm needs some sleepies

it's not exactly what was being asked, but I hope this is fun to read :)

I'd love to know your favorite 40k army that you've had.. I see all your cute little 'nids and they're fantastic, but do you have other army's too?

Kay so I'm just got up & headed to work rn so I can't give a Full Answer to that yet but wanted to answer this so u know that u've been Seen and Appreciated

anyway the short answer is that I've got 5 faction armies, and the bugs are my 4th favourite of them! the others, in order of which I like best, are Imperial Knights, Grey Knights, T'au, and Necrons

[wannastayugly]

hi! i have a question/advice request about making fanart, i’ve been following you for quite some time, and i REALLY love your digital art, from the style to the way you work your colors, really everything about it is so wonderful and amazing.

I’ve been doing fanart for 3 years now, and i have a somewhat similar style to yours, the thing is, i spend a lot of time finishing a small part of the painting, like, A LOT of time, to the point where it becomes boring and discouraging and i end up abandoning the piece altogether.

My question is, is this normal? i know the more practice you get the better you become, but sometimes it feels like i’m stuck just painting a nose for a week, and i feel like i can’t get the result that i want unless i spend an astronomical amount of time on it. i’m asking you specifically because you were my main inspiration to start and make my own fanart, whenever i see one of your fanart pieces i get inspired to start a painting, and then it takes a long time and i stop, and the cycle repeats. So i would really appreciate any advice or tips <3

Firstly I thank you very, very much for your appreciation for my art. I've said this already, but hearing I'm inspiring someone else to be creative is one of the best things I can get as an artist! So thank you, this is super lovely and it's an honor to read messages like yours!

-

Before I talk more, I'd like to remind you there's no "normal" when it comes to art. Some will take hours to paint something, others days, or weeks. That depends a lot on your style, your skills, if you know or don't know what exactly you want for that painting, and even on the quality of the references you're using sometimes. We'd need to see what exactly you're struggling with, it's hard to give an advice when I don't know you nor your work. So everything I'll say here will come from my personal experience with my own style, and what I learned when I felt something like you're describing to me, ok? I hope it helps! And you can come back and ask me to talk more about about specific themes if you'd like!

-

1. You can make little studies before starting the actual painting! Thumbnail studies. Sometimes we spend a lot of time fixing mistakes we made in the beginning; sometimes the direction of the light isn't great, sometimes the angle you chose isn't the best. You can prevent that by studying that composition as a first step.

2. You need image references. You don't need to follow them exactly as they are, but you should have references to remind you what the volumes of a face look like depending on where your light source is, or how skin texture and colors look like under sunlight. Using referentes is extremely important when working with realism, because most of the sensation of realism comes from the way you build volumes/light and shadows and not from the details nor the blending.

3. You need to find out what painting process fits you. My process right now is totally based on classical oil painting techniques: getting the proportions right when I'm sketching, getting the general volumes right with light and shadows, with a neutral color, and only then adding more colors and working on textures and smaller volumes and details. A step-by-step process can help you to focus on what you want from each one of those steps, one by one, and correct mistakes earlier.

4. Don't try finishing one part before going to another! Always zoom out at the beginning and work on your painting as a whole, and when detailing try going from one part to another. That'll prevent you to get bored early and it helps giving your painting a more homogenic feeling.

5. Painting in a style that demands you to blend everything and add skin texture, body hair, fabric texture... That can be exhausting. Remember you should take breaks from painting, but also from that painting specifically. You can have more than one WIP at the same time and switch between then. That helps a lot, because you'll be solving different problems on each painting and you'll always come back with fresh eyes and new ideais to incorporate into your works.

6. Remember there are many different art styles we can call "realistic", and also that we can work in many of different ways to build that visual sensation. There's no need to blend everything! A good tip is finding a nice brush that leaves a beautiful texture behind, something you won't feel the need to erase later. You can also work with larger canvas sizes and save your work in smaller scales, in a way those brush textures won't really show up that much.

7. You can play with different art styles! I do that a lot and it helps me to keep interest in the styles I work with the most. It's nice to think differently sometimes; to find a different kind of challenge. It's refreshing! There are also moments it's important for us to ask ourselves what exactly we love about and want from what we're creating. If you feel you're questioning everything too much, or that you just can't get satisfaction from your process anymore, allow yourself to venture finding new references, experimenting with completely new styles and techniques. Finding out what you want with your art is almost a journey of self-discovery. I myself am questioning the importance of over detailing and blending right now, something I held onto for years, and I'm definitely making a style transition. If that's your case, it's completely normal and healthy! Embrace it, allow yourself to do what you really feel like doing, or to just go crazy and make the most random art ever until you find yourself in your art again.

8. You're doing great. ❤

[cosmicsnowcryptid]

Hey, hailey. First of all, I must say, I REALLY admire your work. I'd love to make a blog similar to yours, with my own works of art and my own writings and all that, but I have one serious problem: confidence. My confidence levels are -1000, as it stands, and I can never leave anything online for more than an hour before I take it down. I can't even ask out of anon. Do you have any advice?

I inspired you?

[looks around] 

You sure you have the right blog? Hailey? Me? Do you mean @haleyscomett-art? She’s the actual arti- oh, you’re sure. Well, okay. I don’t know why that’s the case, but that makes me really happy. Thank you for the kind words!

I have gotten this question a few times and danced around it a bit, but I think it’s time I give a real answer.

This one’s a little long, so here’s a quick table of contents that you can skim to see if you’re really interested.

Part 1: Believing that you have the talent within you- lessons from Van Gogh

Part 2: Letting others see your imperfect art, and being okay with it- lessons from Mark Fischbach

Part 3: How to keep going, even when you don’t feel too confident- lessons from Lin-Manuel Miranda, with a guest appearance 

Part 4: Yay! We’re done! Here’s some closing thoughts.

Part 1: Believing that you have the talent within you- lessons from Van Gogh

I used to do the same thing- post and take down immediately, sit in my own anxiety, simultaneously hope that people saw it and that no one saw it. It’s a confusing feeling, and I understand.

Here’s what I’ve got to say about that.

There is something in you that wanted to post your work. It’s not that you want attention- there are plenty of ways to achieve that. No, you wanted your work to get attention. And why is that? Because deep down, you know it’s good.

Bear with me on this one, because I know you’re already frowning and telling me that it’s not. But hey, don’t interrupt me, lovely, ‘cause I’m not done. 

There are two kinds of “good”. There’s good in the technical sense, which is what you’re talking about. Smooth lines, good shading, proper proportions. And yes, those things are important. But the second type of “good” is much more important, and it’s the emotional kind. Passion for the subject. Care taken to create the details or the colors- or the vulnerability to crash things that may not make sense on a page because it reflects what you feel. The clear love it takes to put in the sheer amount of time and effort required for art. You give the art emotion, and the viewers will have emotion as well.

This is why you can see something that is astounding in a technical sense, but doesn’t really affect you too deeply. You analyze the perfect structure, and you say, “this is really cool! This couldn’t have been done better.” And you are impressed. But something feels… off about it. A little cold, in a way. Detached.

My father is a professor. This hangs on the wall of one of his classrooms. This is definitely art- someone worked hard on this and this shows obvious precision and skill. Now, it’s perfect for its purpose, obviously, but look at it as an art piece. You don’t feel anything when looking at it, do you? I mean, maybe mildly freaked out by the face, or a bit curious about the text, but it doesn’t invoke anything in you.

Now look at this.

Did you feel that? That little tiny feeling in your chest?

This is called The Starry Night Over The Rhone, and it’s by someone considered to be one of the greatest painters of all time. Vincent Van Gogh. You might have known it already, just by looking at it. (We’re pretending you didn’t read the title of this section. Shhh.)

Look at it again.

There’s no doubt that Van Gogh had technical skill, sure, but is that what really makes the piece for you? Because if so, I have some bad news for you. 

This was in a letter he sent to a friend. This is what it looks like without all of the emotional backing.

Now, I can hear what you’re saying. “But Hailey! That’s not fair to say, because the way he uses colors is a technical skill.” And you’re right! But let’s look at a photo of the actual place. (Source)

Take a minute to look at the sky. Now scroll up, and look at the sky in the painting again. 

He wasn’t painting the sky as he saw it. He was painting the sky as he felt it.

Now, I want you to look at this. 

I know you know this one. This is Starry Night. It’s a similar painting, but doesn’t it feel… different? It feels a little… sadder, doesn’t it? 

The first painting was the view from his apartment. The second one was the view from his asylum window.

Looking at them and knowing that… it makes sense, doesn’t it? Somehow, a little part of you is going, “yeah. I understand.”

I bring all this up to make an important point- if your lack of confidence is because you can’t draw straight lines, or your proportions are off, or the shapes are all wrong, you can throw those thoughts out the window. You say you keep sharing and deleting your art. You share it because of the emotional backing, and you delete it when you second-guess it based on technical skill. 

You don’t become a Van Gogh by deleting everything with faulty lines. Look at those faults. Address them head on. Say to them, “yeah, you aren’t right. You look off. I don’t like that. But the good news is, I can improve on this as long as I don’t give up. In the mean time, I’m going to put all my love into you, and that will be enough for now. It will make you good, because I care, and that’s half the battle.” Your emotional investment and skill is necessary to develop your technical skills, and if you have that, your art WILL improve. Period. Full stop. 

Part 2: Letting others see your imperfect art, and being okay with it- lessons from Mark Fischbach

Now I’m going to tell you a personal story about my own art.

“Seriously? You just used Van Gogh as an example, and now you’re going to talk about yourself?”

Yes, I am. I may not be Van Gogh, but I’d bet that you aren’t, either. I know a lot about lacking confidence in sharing art, and I recently learned a very important lesson about it that I’m about to share with you.

Also, stop interrupting me, hypothetical reader. It’s rude.

I have always lacked confidence in my own art. I tried posting some a few years back, and I got some anon hate for it. Then I quit art completely for a good two years. My confidence was so flimsy that one single rude person was enough to drive me from the hobby that I loved so much. I tried to get back into it when I went to college- I took a figure drawing class, sure that I could get on the right track. 

I dropped it halfway through the semester.

I thought I was done for good. I had pushed it away, gotten more realistic dreams. And then Markiplier hit 17 million subscribers.

Yes, the Youtuber. @markiplier. That one. 

No, get back here.There’s a point to all this, I promise.

I’ve followed him for years. I remember hitting 2 million (side note: I wish I had reached out to him back then instead of being such a lurker!) and I still watch his videos every day. He saved my life. Now, that’s a whole different story, but the point is that I felt as though I owed him a lot, and so I decided, despite my hesitation, to borrow my roommate’s drawing tablet and try again. 

By this point, I had not attempted to draw in years, and… uh… it really, really showed.

I wrote a whole gushy story about it (which you can read here- I won’t try to detail the whole thing again, because, as you can see, I babble way too much, and this is already impossibly long), which made this an even more vulnerable thing for me, took a deep breath, and posted it. 

Not even ten minutes later, someone tried to tear me down. 

Other notable asks include these gems:

“If you’re shy about your art, it’s for a reason.” 

“If anything creative is your dream, you need a new dream.” 

Oof. That’s harsh, and I felt every word. It stung. And I probably would have given up again right there, if not for this:

Can you imagine the confidence boost I got from that? Because I’ll tell you, it went from 0-60 faster than a high-speed roller coaster, my friend.

After that, all I could do was draw. It reignited my passion, and I lost a lot of sleep just trying to make more and more art. 

In the span of a few days, I went from this: 

to this:

So, why am I telling you this? Is it to toot my own horn? No. To show off? Extra no. Do I think it’s perfect? EXTREMELY NO. In fact, I don’t think it’s even good! I could spend five straight days trying to fix his mouth alone, and I still wouldn’t be satisfied. But the point isn’t that it’s good objectively. The point is that it’s worlds better comparatively speaking. There’s a huge difference in skill level there, and that difference came from confidence. Not confidence that I’m any good, mind you, but confidence that I could one day be good, as long as I kept pressing forward, and sharing my progress with the world could only motivate me.

 I’m so fortunate that someone I admire so much reminded me of this, but you don’t need your hero to tell you that you’re good for you to feel confident. The only person who needs to convince you is you. I was actively rejecting it, which is why I needed it from an outside source- but if you are determined, you can make your own confidence. I’ll make a whole separate post on finding confidence at some point, but I know you’re tired of hearing me talk about myself in this part, so we’ll move on for now. Here’s the main thing you need to remember when it comes to sharing your art:

No matter your skill level, you are improving with every step you take. You can be proud of yourself for having the courage to be vulnerable and show the world a part of you. You are brave, and no one- not people who discourage you, not unimpressed friends and family, not cowardly anons who seek only to tear you down- can take that away from you.

Part 3: How to keep going, even when you don’t feel too confident- lessons from Lin-Manuel Miranda, with a guest appearance

Sometimes I really struggle with motivation, no matter how passionate I am. It’s just human nature. The problem is, when your motivation leaves and you stop working, you stop improving. That makes it so much harder to start again, because you feel like you’re starting over every time. You get trapped in a cycle that kills your confidence.

If this has already happened to you, it’s okay. There’s a beautiful concept called a second chance, and, despite the misleading name, you have a million of them. There’s no better time to try again than today. 

That being said, there’s only one way to stop this cycle from happening. In the words of a certain Shia LaBeouf meme: If you’re tired of starting over, stop giving up. I’m not linking it. You know the one.

Okay, maybe I’ll link it. Just once.

Now, this is easier said than done. Oh, do I know that. But the core of sticking with something isn’t staying motivated at all times. That’s just not possible. No, the way to keep going is to form a habit and commit to it. For this, I’m going to bring in my writing inspiration that I admire from a distance at all times good friend, Lin-Manuel Miranda. (I recommend you follow him on Twitter if you don’t already. He will be the light of your life immediately.)

@linmanuel wrote the musical Hamilton, if you weren’t already aware, and he’s the embodiment of the line, “How do you write like you’re running out of time?”

He never seems to run out of words. He makes everything he does look effortless, and he does so much of it. He’s just naturally gifted, right?

No. Not even, and I think it does him a great disservice to say he is. He became a talent powerhouse because he worked his butt off every day of his life in order to do what he loves. 

He wrote the soundtrack for Moana while doing 8 shows a week as the star of Hamilton, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to his multitasking. You can argue about natural talent all you want, but that sort of thing doesn’t just happen because “he’s got more energy than me!”. It’s because of his steadfast dedication to his craft. He keeps going, whether he has inspiration or not. He stays positive and commits to putting something down on the paper, and he’s not afraid of making mistakes. 

Mistakes are how you learn. If everyone quit every time they made a mistake, no one would have ever accomplished anything, and that isn’t an exaggeration. Failure is how we learn. Don’t be afraid to keep trying, to keep building your habits, even when you fail. That’s the only true path to success. 

Part 4: Yay! We’re done! Here’s some closing thoughts.

You made it to the bottom! Wow! And this thing was really long, too. How’d you do that?

Well, I’m glad you did, because now I have the chance to tell you this: I believe in you, and it’s okay if you don’t believe in yourself yet. Sometimes, instead of having confidence or dedication or skill, you just need to believe that it’s possible to have confidence and dedication and skill, as long as you keep working on it. 

Keep going. You’ll get there. I promise.

And hey, you, don’t forget- I love you, and I’m rooting for you.

[imaginehetaliadorks-blog]

I'd like a matchup if that is ok. I'm a bisexual female with long blonde hair which is usually worn in a ponytail and grey eyes, I'm overall very a quiet, introverted person I'm easy hurt by harsh words and I tend to apologize too much but I can be blunt when needed, I have geeky hobbies and despite the fact I have low self-esteem I take pride in my creativity, enjoy drawing and my head is in the clouds half of the time, I absolutely love animals and practically mother my own cat!

I ship you with...Italy! ☆ He isn’t harsh on people and his bubbly personality is something maybe you would like. He dislikes hurting people with words and I don’t you would be an exception to this. He is very gentle and encouraging in his words and would always admire your personality because you'd be too cute for him.☆ While others may be annoyed with you apologizing too many times, he would not be at all. He would just hug you and say that it's okay because everyone makes mistakes. If you still felt bad, he would start talking about his mistakes and would probably make you understand that you can't expect not to make them in life. ☆ When he first heard you being blunt, he would just tilt his head and smile brightly. He would think you're opening up to him and it would just make his day better. ☆ He would always make sure to give you a compliment here and there to make you understand that you shouldn't have low self-esteem. He would understand that it's hard to start believing in yourself but he would not give up. He would want you to know how amazing you are for him.☆ There would be nothing more beautiful to watch than seeing you draw for him. He would be so happy that you do believe in your talent. He would usually sneak up and watch you from afar, admiring your focused face. He is creative himself but he prefers painting a little bit more. That wouldn't stop him from going outside on a walk with you to sit on a grass under the tree with sketchbooks. Drawing together with you would be his favourite times that he would spend with you.☆ You cannot tell me you two wouldn't have at least one cat. You two would be like a mother and a father to yours feline. This sneaky little Italian would have a strategy to get your attention too~. When you'd be petting a cat, he would pretend to get very putty and jelous to at least get a hug from you. He just loves affection that much.☆ While he would be up for being geeky with you, he is not good at this stuff at all. He would try for you though and would not get discouraged. He would try and try just for you~