#i hate lineart but i actually enjoy this??

[daydreamerwonderkid]

~Wings, hearts, some things are meant to be torn apart

Faith, hope, some things are meant to be gone broke~

DO NOT STEAL/REPOST MY ART.

Update: So @nefarious-616-necromancer stole my art and is trying to claim that all art on their blog is theirs. They're also saying that they have "permission" from the original artists to repost the art they stole. If you see their posts, screenshot the evidence, contact the actual artists and report them. They delete comments and block anyone who tries to credit the actual artists or asks them to show proof that they created the art in the first place.

Fuck people like this. /end Update

Palette taken from the cover of Lewis Blisset's Killing Butterflies.

I had a lot of fun with this one. Probably my fave piece that I've done so far.

WIP

[solaestial]

i made an end roll fan video 🙈 the song is tenohira wonderland by sasanomaly

watch on youtube!!

[exalok]

reason: the seven resketchings of one smuch cannot hurt you

the rest of me: mournful wailing

[lovecoredeity]

every time I get a compliment on my art I’m always surprised because it’s stuff I don’t think about or think I’m good at

[puffys-artblog]

Based off a conversation with a friend.

I hate Wilsons hair. Why did Wilson have to be so hard to adapt into my janky artstyle.

I very much blame you for this, @whosgoji

[thep1nscollective]

Made the most difficult thing ever (made a necklace on my own

[piccolos-bigtoe]

POV you're a betta fish in an already shitty tank and some annoying asshole is trying to get your attention

Short little cute little Scout animation WIP I am working on....... Perchance I am enjoying animating, mayhaps... I had to do a whole project for my class and make an animation (I'm a studio art major, so liek I am just somewhat tech skilled and can use photoshop jussstttt well enough but I know little to nothing, the most animation experience I have was me at 14 making frames one by one in CSP and throwing them into EZgif one at a time LOL) and it was liek super frustrating at first but after seeing the final result I was actually like "you know what.... perchance this is cool..." So hes gonna have a little talking textbox visual novel moment. I also wanted to animate because I watched Quazzies Lil' Pootis FINALLY and it has my whole heart mannnn

OH also I LITERALLY accidentally deleted the fucking file for the Scount one because of COURSE I did, BUT I saved all the initial frames so not all is lost!!! Sobbing tho, my lief is soooooo hard...

I am still working on that comic from forever ago, and I actually plan to make it into a screen print given I have enough time and bookbind it into a physical comic LOL.

If anyone is curious... This is the animation I was working on for my class. The actual lineart wasn't an issue, it's just that my dumbass didn't clean the keys enough and like it worked as a sketch but not as an outline, and I was lazy and didn't want to redo them (but I did eventually w.e.) This is my character Joey Hottdog..... He hates his dad and he is a sigma loner emo in a normie world... I always wanted a cartoon of him and so I made a Cartoon network style TV bumper... I used Clip Studio Paint to make all the frames, and then Opentoonz (free animation software, it's zupah cool) to put it all together.

I hope that people enjoy my little rambles, tbh it's really fun to ramble I wish more people did it becoz I look at my mutuals (or just anyones) stuff and I liek love it all and I wanna hear people talk about their stuff or maybe I am cray-zee

[scratch-house]

revolutionary girl utena characters as their real ages (1/?)

commission me here! and u can find more of my art in my art tag #fartposting

heyyy!!!! so i'm working through the block, still trying to finish old wips, and consistently, the thing that keeps me working on these is just letting myself be messy. i hate hate hate having to have super polished art, especially lineart, so i was like, if i'm going to be able to work on this and finish it, i've gotta just throw that out the window. and i think it looks pretty cool! i enjoy it!

the background was kind of just a bunch of miscellaneous improvised shapes. i tend toward those bar-like rows of rods in the background when i do this + some kind of dark framing shape, but this time i was actually going for the like ruins of the duelgrounds. also, i've started drawing characters with really big ears and it is very artistically satisfying for me like i don't know why, but utena had so much hair in this drawing i decided it looked better and less confusing if her ears were just covered. also, i forgot about her boys' uniform shdjshdjshd i was so focused on just other aspects of the piece that i just looked up the regular girls' uniform as a ref, but i think it kind of suits the vibe of this painting. to me, this is like, young utena standing up for someone being bullied so it has this childlike desperate, slightly scrappy feeling about it; the boys' uniform feels more polished and princely to me. i think that was the motivation behind all the hair too. i'm not a girl, but when i was a kid i was known for having a lot of very long thick hair. i would've been younger than utena is in the series, but i think there's sort of an association with childhood there

[abyssalzones]

What's your comic writing process like? I'm starting to get into making my own comics and I really admire your work!!! Any advice?

Ah, intrepid traveler, you've done well to journey to this secluded mountaintop spire, in search of the answers you seek. I indeed can provide such forbidden comicmancy knowledge... at the cost of your mortal soul...

coughs. anyway, I'm going to warn you immediately that what works for me does not work for everyone else, and in my experience the way I do things can prove very slow and discouraging for anyone who is more interested in the actual "drawing the damn comic" part of the process. I only do it this way because I enjoy weaving a narrative web that feels not only fully contained but re-readable, but my projects are often so long and my memory so shitty that I can't just keep all of it in my head! It would spill all over the place and make a really embarrassing mess of brain-juice. Not ideal.

but as for my own process, uhh... I suppose a comic would be fitting, right?

a little choppy but you get the idea.

as for turning words into art, I've been experimenting with figuring out the best way to do that for a little while now. Originally what I was doing for something like Ad Astra Per Aspera was to take my "script" and sketch it out on paper very loosely, before transposing that onto my canvas and working from there:

...but, I've found that can make it kind of difficult to space everything around on your standard page-size, and the thing I'm having the most problems with currently seems to be finding the sweet spot of panel-size proportions. So, I've taken to printing out standard thumbnail templates (you can just find these on google) and sketching very tiny panels in those, which seems to give me a slightly better sense of scale... (mild chapter 5 spoilers, sorry ad astra fans)

but I have yet to totally pull through on this, so who knows, maybe I'll try something else in the future!

As for advice, this is probably most applicable to me, but as a disabled artist I have a very hard time managing my workload without literally working myself into injury. I don't think I talked about this publicly but when I was working on that ten year anniversary comic I was literally drawing every single day for 3 solid months. Sometimes, in my case, I really can't bring myself to stop once I've latched onto an idea, and sometimes I find the most rewarding thing I can do with my time is to draw- but I seriously cannot overstate: Do not fucking do this.

You will fuck up your wrist, your back, your neck, your eyes, and probably your mental health. It's a well-known fact that mangaka have a lower life expectancy than the average japanese person due to the intense workload imposed on them by deadlines and personal expectations. Comics are a very demanding artform, and even though I'm not on any sort of mandated schedule there are times where I've toiled away at something when I likely should have been exercising or taking vision-breaks. Therefore the best advice I can give you is to chill the hell out.

Namely, find parts of the process you can be lazy about, and embrace the laziness! You don't like digitally sketching? Don't do it! Skip it, or maybe find a way to traditionally sketch things out in advance like I do. Hate lineart? Don't fucking do it. You really don't feel like wasting your time writing 72k words of comic scripts? ...then, don't be like me. skip that part. I'm a flawed human being and what works for me might not work for you.

The second most important piece of advice I could give is to read comics. Of all kinds. The reason for this is pretty self explanatory: In order to figure out your own comic-making style, you should first pick out bits and pieces from the artist's buffet to add to your plate. Manga, graphic novels, american comics, european comics, weird niche little webcomics, funny papers, anything and everything. This advice rings true of pretty much any art form, but I find it to be essential to honing comic-making skills because so many things you feel will just come intuitively often don't. and that's okay! nobody is born knowing how to leave space for speech bubbles or shape their panels in a way that imitates stretches of time. The best way to figure out stuff like this, in my experience, is to study the "masters", and then after becoming well accustomed to the basics, figure out what rules you want to bend or break to create your own style.

I consider myself to be in equal parts a writer and an artist, which lends itself well to making narrative comics, but maybe you're a bit more of an artist and want to focus on panel-by-panel visual storytelling. Or, conversely, maybe your talents lean closer towards writing, and the art itself is more of a secondary skill. Regardless of your unique blend of talents you can and should make a comic, you should just also be aware of your strengths and try to hone in on those- there will always be opportunities to build up skills you lack, but focusing on what you do best will always lead you in the right direction.

Anyway, that being said, here are some recommendations in no particular order:

Monster, Naoki Urasawa (!!)

Bone, Jeff Smith

Witch Hat Atelier, Kamome Shirahama

The first IDW run of Transformers comics (namely More Than Meets the Eye and Lost Light)

Persepolis, Marjane Satrapi (!!)

Through the Woods, Emily Carroll (really any Emily Carroll comics)

Kill Six Billion Demons (webcomic) (!!)

Akira, Katsuhiro Otomo

The Third Person, Emma Grove

Tintin, Hergé (can be super racist please be wary)

Dungeon Meshi, Ryoko Kui

Calvin & Hobbes, Bill Watterson

Maus, Art Spiegelman

Cucumber Quest (webcomic)

Jellyfish Princess, Akiko Higashimura

Golden Kamuy, Satoru Noda (!!)

Note that I did not grow up with manga so I am seriously behind on a lot of extremely influential japanese comics such as Dragon Ball, One Piece, basically any of the original Shonen Jump comics, but they're widely considered building blocks of the genre so if you love the artform I think you should give them a try! Same goes for classic non-shonen manga genres like various Shoujo, Josei, Yuri, Gekiga, ETC.

same as above applies to a lot of classic DC and Marvel works, I unfortunately am just not a big fan of superhero comics... but I'm sure there's good stuff in there. a couple of my mutuals talk about booster gold and the blue beetle all the time so I'm assuming there has to be something worthwhile.

...and many, many, many more that I'm forgetting! I noticed as I made this list that, to my knowledge, hardly any of these are made by black or just non-japanese-mangaka BIPOC artists, which makes me sad about the gaps in my own comic collection. Therefore, anyone is welcome to add their own recommendations in the replies!

now go forth, and combine images with text!!!!!!!!!!!

[elisacaleisa]

jax is back at it again btw i fucking hate editing in this app it keeps failing me istg /lh

Jax's Personality Swap AU:

SHAW/SOLAIRE PIPELINE: Porter > Milo > Vincent > David > Asher > Sam > Porter

(i struggled w the choice to swap asher and sam cuz pattern,,,,)

Porter > Milo:

Hunting Werewolf

- quite mysterious and flirty

- "all alone by yourself, sweetheart?"

- suspicious as fuck

- but it works

- a weapon

- "i've been raised to kill, sweetheart. get too close and your last kiss will be on my lips."

- just really lonely, wanted to make his father proud and protect his pack

- "Gabe knew he would be gone sooner or later... so he had a project. Me."

——————

Milo > Vincent:

Skeptical Vampire

- "why are you here all alone by yourself??"

- uhhh

- "listen, youre lovely and im glad you think im lovely too, i got the lineart right too after all, butwecantbeherefortoolongpleasego"

- nope, not leaving

- "ugh, youre lucky youre cute, lovely"

- snarky

- kinda a loser but so hot

- likes to dress pretty

- best friends with sam

- he supports lovely

- independent, still a prince but really not seen as one

——————

Vincent > David:

Charming Alpha

- "well look who we got here~ do we share the same path or do you follow me, cause i am too pretty to resist?"

- he chuckles a lot, he is totally amazed by angel

- "arent you a little rebellious angel~"

- an alpha, he takes the role seriously, but he is still enjoying being out of his pack

- clearly flirty

- he likes to push buttons but is aware to not go too far

- protective? possesive?

- and he brings food for angel when theyre late from their joh home

- "you need to rest, angel. sleep tight. I'll stay by your side"

- actually very caring and soft

——————

David > Asher:

Serious Beta

- takes the beta role very seriously

- "david. youre late."

- gets stuck with baabe in an elevator and is not happy about it

- "stupid elevators, god fucking dammit."

- he is not comfortable to be with you here

- can be mean at first, but he is frustrated

- "this has to be a joke, someone had to put us up in here together on purpose..." mumble mumble

- protective

- david, angel, sweetheart and milo ship asher and baabe so clearly lmao, but dont tell him that

- feel responsible for everything, may have breakdowns

- he needs a hug

——————

Asher > Sam:

Goofy Vampire

- Vincent's right hand

- and a teaser

- still southern ofc this is a personality swap

- "well well well, late romantic Vincent Solaire! why are ya so red~?"

- number one fan of darlin'

- is not taken very seriously by the clan

- despite that, he tries his best to help vincent and the pack however he can

- has tendenc to avoid serious talks but darlin' helps him settle down and talk

- "...'m sorry, darlin'. i just didn't want ya to think of me otherwise..."

- god you love this goof

——————

Sam > Porter:

Vampire Knight

- he is like a security for Vincent, even when they don't see eye to eye sometimes

- doesnt kill until necessary

- really caring

- his weapon is his words, fangs are secondary

- "calm down, treasure, no need for a fight. now, why are you looking for me, huh?"

- suspicious of treasure, but helps them as they help him

- reveals that theyre like older brother figure for vincent, since he is the prince and need someone to guide him

- "why arent you the prince?"

- he doesn't answer... There is a lot you dont know about him...

[enavstars]

I know everyone is excited for dragons rising and so am I but May is not over yet! So here's my drawing for mermay:

I actually forgot about mermay but I managed to do something before it ended :) (and tried a no lineart style)

Fun fact: I didn't know what ship to draw so I randomized it and ninjago was literally 1 of the 6 options (the other ones were ocs) and then I randomized the ship and plasma came out so good for you I guess xd.

Close up

Also I finally watched crystalized and I kinda liked the characterization overall but hated what they did with Harumi (she should have stayed dead) and the ending was rushed but overall I enjoyed it.

[cinnamonsly]

was thinking back this morning to my AP art class i took my senior year of hs. and how my art teacher absolutely would not let us do anything other than realism lol. and how i honestly hated that class (and switched out of it after 1 semester)

i will never understand the art teachers that are vehemently against anything stylized. like just bc it’s not photorealistic & uses lineart/a more simplified shading style doesn’t automatically mean it’s not art? i feel like as an art teacher u should just be encouraging creativity in general! if ur students like drawing anime or furries or whatever else, shouldn’t you just encourage that since they’re actually taking time to learn and enjoy drawing? especially in my AP art class, where we were given a lot more freedom to choose what we wanted to draw & didn’t have set projects we would all work on as a class. and yet i was still forced to do realism (which is good practice ig but it’s boring & not what i enjoying doing solely as an artist). which is definitely the reason i ditched that class lol

[aureoboros]

commissions are: closed for now!

hello everyone!

i’ve had health problems that are making it very difficult for me to work and function outside of my home, which just isn’t viable with how expensive necessities are. so while i’m in this limbo, i’m opening up commissions! reblogs are greatly appreciated :]

a lot of my examples are bg3/dnd related, but regular ocs are more than welcome, too! i can also do fanart for other media if you’d like.

for right now, these will be through paypal. just send me a dm here if you’re interested! more information below the cut.

commission info:

- first come first serve, i will keep in contact with you throughout the process and start the sketch asap. for drawings with the highest level of detail, it’s possible that it may take a few weeks for me to complete. lower levels will take about a week or a few days over.

- while this is over dms for the moment, i’m going to make a proper form to fill out! reference photos are greatly appreciated for ocs, but detailed descriptions work too! i would also prefer if you provided a short personality description, and any ideas you have for poses or character interactions. i want it to be as close to what you envision as possible! if you want the drawing to be set at a specific time, or a specific aspect ratio for the image, let me know that too! busts cut off at the mid-chest, and half-bodies are cut off at the mid-thigh. i can also make icons (head-shot only) for a discount!

- payment comes after you’re happy with the composition! i’ll block out the characters and where they’ll be on the canvas before moving on to the full detailed sketch.

- i know my example images don’t have much shading. it’s because i enjoy the lineart process a lot more than anything else, so i don’t focus on it as much in my personal work. for fully rendered pieces, though, there will be actual light and shadow.

- more explanation on backgrounds: basic flats, simple patterns, and simple objects for framing are free of charge. keep in mind that detailed backgrounds are not my strong-suit, but i do need the practice, and i will try my absolute best. the more detailed the background is, the more it will cost, but everything is negotiable.

- i can do anthro characters (like tabaxi, dragonborn, etc) in my detailed style too! i don’t have as much experience in drawing robotics or machinery, but it’s not off the table. i like doing little details :]

- i will not draw illegal ships or anything hateful (racist, homophobic, the obvious), and i don’t do nsfw.

- don’t use my art for ai training or nfts.

- if you have any questions, feel free to ask!

- thank you for reading ^^

a better look at some of my examples - for more, check the #digitalart tag:

[juni-ravenhall]

im thinking a lot about "what i want to do with my art" lately and i also have many years of figuring shit out already as an adult so i will post some general advice stuff that might help ppl

art should be fun. if you hate doing lineart then stop doing lineart. if you hate rendering and shading then stop doing it. if you hate anatomy then stop doing it and just draw funky shapes. if you love one color then use that color. if you love doing complicated detailed patterns then start doing those more. if you love drawing circles then make art with lots of circles. do what is fun to you, with the only exception being someone giving you good money to do something not fun, if you need the money.

u dont have to have 1 art style, consistent art is only relevant for commissions/jobs where u are supposed to deliver a specific style/quality/etc that u were paid for. if ur not getting paid or making a portfolio for a specific type of job, then draw however the fuck you want and dont care about anything. have 500 different styles and techniques, or just have 1 if thats how you work. it doesnt matter and everyone is different

the way to develop and evolve quickly is to draw as crazy as possible. push yourself as far as possible and dont care about anything dont worry about anything. fear holds you back. actively choose to draw crazy and push things far. no cringe no limit no rules no anatomy no perspective no color theory fuck everything and go crazy.

dont think "i dont know how to draw a ball room full of dancing people with fancy clothes" "i dont know how to draw a gallopping horse" just start drawing it and see what happens. when you get stuck you look up reference and tutorials. this is how you find out what parts you struggle with so you can then get specific help.

try to draw as bad as possible half the time. think, im going to draw this really fucking bad and ugly. im going to make the worst fucking horrible drawing. do it on purpose. fuck the concept of beauty and quality and perfectionism. draw bad on purpose. draw crazy on purpose. it will help you find freedom.

when looking at other ppls art for inspiration, separate between "i like this thing" vs "i want to draw more like this thing". all art that you like doesnt have to be relevant to how you draw stuff yourself, you can appreciate x type of art without your art being anything like that at all. this is especially important about things like clean lineart, rendering, amount of detail, """correct""" anatomy or perspective or shading, etc. just bc you like some art with beautiful shading doesnt mean you have to want to do beautiful shading. or maybe you do want that! thats why you figure out which ones are aspirational to you and which ones are just amazing and cool but not what you enjoy doing with your art.

the "2 cakes" concept - it doesnt matter whatsoever if someone else drew the same thing as you "but better" (in your eyes). your thing is still unique and has value existing because only you are you and your art is your art. ppl are happy theres now 2 cakes instead of just 1.

i already said this but Just Try. Just Go For It. some of my favourite comics are actually "badly drawn" from a generic perspective. but theyre unique and interesting bc every human is unique and interesting. you can draw stick figure drawings, comics or animations. you can draw simple or complex, good or bad, or go back and forth between styles and techniques, draw good one day and bad the other, make a comic where every page is a surprise in quality and style, nothing matters, do whatever you want forever.

the things you think are "bad" or "boring" or "cringe" or whatever other negative word might not be that to other people. someone might see your "ugly doodle" and love it so much they want it printed out on their wall. and even if some ppl dont like something, other people will like it. the ppl who like it are the ones that matter. not everyone has the same taste and thats how it should be.

draw for yourself. or draw for other people if that makes you happy, but do things that make you happy. draw your favourite things and your obsessions and express your feelings and draw your favourite characters and use your favourite colours or brushes. draw things that your friends like and send it to them. do things that make you smile. draw things that youre thirsty about for that matter. happy pride month. cringe is dead

if you have a hard time picking up the pen dont start thinking "i cant draw". youre probably suffering from some stress, mental illness or ND symptoms or something. try to find out how to solve problems in your life that are making you stressed and overwhelmed and not able to have fun making art. get help, talk to a counsellor, talk to a doc. and make sure you aren't pushing yourself to make art that isnt fun for you, bc that in itself will make you unhappy.

if you feel stuck, aside from looking up references and tutorials, try different techniques and materials. try a new software. try drawing on paper or on a tablet or paint on a canvas or try new pens and papers. make a collage. do papercrafts. sculpt. do something different than what you usually do

CLEAN YOUR ART AREA whether its a desk for your tablet or a table for your paper or stand for a canvas. make it EASY to pick up the pen / brush / whatever and start drawing. dont put objects on top of your tablet / papers / easel / whatever. make space for your art and keep it organised. it should take 1 second to start drawing without having to clean anything first.

if you feel like youre just bad at drawing, like i said, draw bad on purpose. draw crazy on purpose. fuck all the rules and perfectionisms and what you "should do". dont worry about anything just draw the worst and craziest you can. you can do this. i love your art. you exist. youre unique. you are you

[crazysodomite]

i see a ton of issues with 'creativity' in art online spaces on social media... not just the 'adoptables' community or whatever but it's REALLY bad in there. and i think i know why... man it's hard to structure my thoughts...

'originality' is actually extremely narrow in art spaces specifically on social media. people get extremely fixated on having an 'original art style' but at the same time all art is being funneled into 1 specific way of making it. and when someone DOES go outside of the norm it becomes their 'thing'. their 'brand'. read: what sells their art/gets them popular.

a few examples: so many posts on the internet complaining about hating drawing lineart, having to redo the line 100 times, etc.

lineart is immediately suggested for beginners and most art is based on lineart first, which makes some people hate art. and they end up thinking doing it any other way is 'wrong' or 'too difficult'. beginners feel like they must make their art like this. sketch > lineart > color fill > shading > detail. when in reality you really don't have to do any of this at all. your art can truly be anything and anything that you hate about creating art can just be removed from the process. am i making any sense? i think i went through this process too. i started out doing lineart and i fucking hated it. i couldn't initially realize that painting is the easiest and most fun way for me to do art. because most art advice on social media (how most people nowadays try to learn i think) is aimed at this specific way to do it.

we aren't giving advice on how to explore art and creativity but only how to make your art most appealing...

same thing with smaller stuff like not being able to do the second eye in art. you don't even HAVE to make your art symmetrical. you can obviously desire that result but i feel like some people aren't even considering the possibility. and this isn't just because people are just lacking in creativity. if your art is 'too weird' and 'not pretty' 'outside of the norm' you will get bullied and made fun of viciously. your art can only venture outside the norm if it's still appealing. and most people aren't up to taking that risk because a few horrible words about a persons art can end their desire to do it completely!!! am i making any sense. when you venture and see art outside of what's popular on social media it's like your eyes are wide open...

and then, when someone does venture out of the norm in a creative and appealing way, it suddenly becomes 'their brand' and if someone creates something remotely similar to it, it's considered 'plagiarism' and drama and harassment follows. it's MY THING to draw this in that way. you can't get inspired by it. it's MY BRAND.

so we come to the conclusion of people trying to claim ideas as their own only and try to make profit out of it. and attack anyone who threatens 'their thing'. the endless battles over adoptable markings and palettes. the 'style theft'.

the 'my artstyle is so inconsistent'. it's okay to want to feel like your art is truly your own but the reality often is that. 'i need a concrete style so people expect this one specific thing from me and will pay for it' which obviously there's no blame in people trying to make money but the way it affects artists is just horrible.

the 'artist branding' thing is really fucking bad in adoptable spaces. if you're an 'in demand' artist a lot of attention is paid to your art not because people really enjoy it but because it has trade value. and even really gorgeous designs from people are looked over and devalued because they're not a high trade value artist...

im tired of trying to make my art appealing and popular instead of what i like to do. and im also tired of people not being able to appreciate art outside of it's most appealing form and calling ANYTHING outside what appeals to them bad or boring or whatever the fuck. i can really say more but i have trouble structuring my thoughts...

Mommy needs cigarettes 🚬 i just ranted on facebook.

[akolnoix]

I love your art sm!!!!!! Do you have any drawing tips / process examples?

thank you!

i don't take many progress pics, so here's a timelapse just for you.

i'm almost entirely self-taught (and in a very uneven manner lol) so i can't offer much in the way of technical skills. so i'll just say a few of the things i'm glad to have learned over the years. (largely wrt digital art)

-if you really dislike a step in the process, there's a good chance you can decide to just... not do it. hate doing lineart? you can just neaten up your sketch a bit, or go completely lineless. hate coloring? switch to black and white. hate shading? just don't do it.

you'll draw a lot more if you enjoy it, and in the future you'll probably get in the mood to try again at something you used to hate, and re-evaluate, so you're not missing out.

like for a while i drew almost entirely in black+white because i hated coloring, and then i played theresia: dear emile and was hit with the inspiration to work with color again, and i've continued to do so ever since.

on the other hand, i've been doing digital art almost exclusively for like 10 years now. occasionally i'll be in the mood to draw with an actual pencil again, so i do it. and my decision is reaffirmed haha

-the scope of your character drawing will truly unlock the moment you realize there is no fundamental difference between drawing men and women, only specific features that differ on a person by person basis

-most programs will let you use any brush as an eraser (or "draw with clear"), it's a lifesaver for using heavily textured brushes

-use pureref for your reference images. idk how i worked without it for so long.

-fall in love with drawing noses. they're one of the most distinctive parts of the face, and so many people just default to one or two types!!

-sketch on a grey canvas, instead of a white one. spare your eyes the strain

-the artists who actually went to school are right, you really should use references. they making everything so much easier AND you improve your skills. win win scenario