#i like to let my lineart get a lot more loose and sketchy

[echosong971]

more expression studies and notes on p cause i love doin’ these hehe

[3798tadpole]

4 + 15 + 21 for the artist ask thing !

oh my gosh its pink.... TYSM ELLIOT ILY! 4. What defines your artistic style? i answered this before but let me think of another thing.. thinking so hard rn someone help me. i think i have a very sketchy and loose art style like i do not enjoy lineart or doing things cleanly, i feel like doing things quickly and roughly leaves it with a more natural feeling. its nice 15. What do you like drawing the least? gonna think of another thing again dont u worry. probably anything angular or with a lot of straight lines i literally can't draw straight lines.. i rly will make anything curved and round OTL i'm trying to break out of this because it's becoming a problem 21. Do you believe there is such thing as “bad art?” honestly not really.. i think there's such a thing as morally bad art obviously but not "bad" when it comes to skill level. i think i'm really inspired by children's drawings and things like that, what you make before you get an idea in your head that it can be bad. watching my niece [5 yr old] draw is really refreshing, she drew a picture of me and well it looked like a yellow and purple horse it was really great. i stuck it in my journal i rly loved it and it made me happy. she just drew what she felt, isn't that great

[philcoulsonismyhero]

#broo this looks so good!#how many hours did it take?#it's all pencil linework#must have taken patience beyond my understanding

Thank you!!

You have activated my trap card: talking about drawing

I wasn't keeping track, tbh, since I've been poking at it on and off over a couple of days. Some number of hours greater than two, but I genuinely have no idea. Believe it or not, this is actually what counts as relatively loose and sketchy by my standards! Pencil lineart is what I fall back on when I don't have the energy for proper inking, since it's a lot more forgiving. (Plus, I've got this excellent propelling eraser that lets me clean up really tiny details, so I was able to get rid of the construction lines without losing the details around/on top of them and that helps it to look neater.) Usually I'd get really particular when inking the lines, but this time I just quickly went over some of them with a really sharp pencil for definition, or a blunter one for weight, and let things stay a bit fuzzy in places.

The whole thing was pretty haphazard and improvised, actually. I started redrawing a screencap, but then I changed the expression, moved the limbs around, messed up his hair and clothes... It was pretty much an experiment in being a bit looser and not so reliant on references, so it's interesting that it looks like it took patience! It felt like the total opposite when I was drawing, I was just throwing things at the page and seeing what stuck by the metric of what I found the most entertaining. It does help that I've drawn Ironwood a truly ludicrous number of times by now, so I've got even his more complicated prosthetic hand pretty down, and I could probably draw his face and hair in my sleep.

While I'm rambling about the drawing process (I meant it about the trap card!), I put far too much thought into the damage and the blood (and my usual habit of making sure the lines of his metal arm are vaguely realistically visible through his sleeve, because I always thought the show animation was lazy about that). Obsessive levels of detail is always the fun part, I get into the zone and forget how long I've spent on things. The vague context I had in mind is that this is the result of the big James-vs-everyone fight in the better version of vol8 that exists in my head. (I did vaguely consider making this the aftermath of the Watts fight, but I chickened out of the level of gory involved in drawing his burns.) His aura has been knocked out, he took a glancing bullet to the shoulder, something nicked his face or maybe it's a laceration from a blow, and the big one is that he's over-exerted himself far too soon after getting his arm replaced and he's bleeding from the amputation site. Figuring out where the blood would have soaked through his jacket sleeve while running down his arm as it hung limp was fun. I would have drawn blood on the knuckles of his left hand as well, but metal hands don't bleed and I was less keen on the implication that it was someone else's blood, so I just went with damage to his glove. Can you tell I've been watching a lot of forensic pathology crime dramas lately. Oh yeah, and it's less clear in pencil than it would be in colour, but I had to include the heavy dark circles under his eyes that I always draw him with as one of the few bits of shading. Man has Not been getting enough sleep.

I do love drawing this disaster, it's been way too long.

Vent art? Stress relief art? One of those things, feat. this disaster because he's good for that

[greatsabrecat]

Heyyy! Your art is such a huge inspiration for me. I was wondering how you keep your art so loose? I have a lot of trouble letting myself go with my art and it frustrates me because I always feel like my lines and etc have to be perfect, but I really want to just be loose and have fun because that's what I love in art.

i used to draw very sketchy and sometimes cant see but sometimes i still do a little.... doing lot of gesture draw and feeling it with the whole page and using arm instead of just hand i think helps yu get a better feel for your “space”.....also i stopped doing lineart and end up just cleaning sketches or layering on top of them because i would get hung up on the lineart being “clear”additionallying; sometimes limiting myself helps me focus more on just drawing and not worrying about getting stuck on details or 4893958 layer........not sure if this makes sense but i hope it helps a little...

[clovercoin]

it was suggested to me to update my FA page since furries like to help people - especially other disabled peeps. Instead it just made even more drama I guess  lol...

I feel I was very transparent these last few months about me literally grinding my arm to keep it in the most minor shape and not let it wither like I’m usually required to do by doctors because I didn’t want to spend 3-6 months getting back muscle memory and quality of art that people expect from me.

Please feel free to look at my entire art tag - I share MOST of my content (including wips/messy shit). You’ll notice the quality of my work fluxuates constantly - it’s from my current degrading situation. I thought I was being very open about this but shrugs...??

http://popcornless.tumblr.com/tagged/AJARTING

Don’t forget to also please look at my @cloverly-ponies too I did a LOT of artwork there while trying to boost my self esteem and confidence. It’s one of my favorite things to draw is ponies so if I get “blocked up” or my arms are especially tired and weak I can typically still sorta draw a pony for fun. 

This time I did most of my focus on pillowings so I can be caught up and also wanted to practice my design skills. I don’t know how it works for other artists but designing is not a skill that comes strongly to me and it’s something I personally had to work at really hard in order to make acceptable content for others. Just means research and practice, practice, and more practice.

I choose to do paca trades for COMMON-ONLY-PILLOWINGS as a test and exercise to get both pillowing anatomy down for commissions and to refreshen myself for design customs and work I currently owe. And I owe a lot. But the problem with this is I owed them during my prime - they expect THAT quality of nice sketch, approval, smoother lineart, and not slapped on colors. I guess this is probably me overthinking and being way too hard on myself right now - but that’s what they ordered and I want to give them that.

Test commission I did for a friend who understood my circumstances. Very loose, very sketchy, sloppy coloring. However they told me that’s okay, just let myself experiment and I was grateful for that. It’s hard trying to get yourself in the ring again when you arm continues to fail and shakes under stress. (By stress I mean literally holding it up and gripping a pen. Yes. That’s really hard.)

But recently between personal exercises, stretches, and consistent work I finally was able to make a completed order like this!!! Exactly the quality area I want to be at for my work - the owed work!

So? Yeah. This test process was reckless of me, I should have been resting during my sick spells but instead I pushed myself and I paid off. My arm has some strength and burns to draw every day even if it’s practice work. But I’ve been so sick and exhausted trying to get moving junk ready cause you just know end of July will be here before we’re ready.

My goal with all of this was to keep my arm strong and stable so when we get to WI and my work station is set up, which personally I hope will be done within a week (give or take internet set up tho..??) I can immediately slam myself into working myself sick for catch up. Because anons, it’s really really important to me.

I don’t know why anons are targeting me on @closedspeciesdrama but please.. Can you lay off just until after August 1st? I’ll eat all the shit you want to dish me then. I will take the beatings. Just please let me worry about moving instead of you peeps trying to ruin my job and livelihood through harassment.

I’ve slow. REALLY slow. My recent flare took way more time than it should have. I’ve upset a lot of people and they have every right to be upset with me if they have any problems I always encourage my customers to please seek me out and chew me out. They EARNED that right the moment they decided to do business with me. I will gladly take it from them - but you anons? Please step back. If you’re a miffed customer, just please talk to me about it. Let’s try to set up some due dates for your projects. Or else let me try to figure out a refund for you come after that first week of August. I’m fine with that. But please, just talk to me. Don’t harass me on anon - it’ll just burn out spoons that I need for work or packing.

[amerricanartwork]

Ah, I see! Yeah, with that specification, it does seem like there isn't much traditional art in most fandoms I've seen. Heck, I barely remember seeing any that wasn't my own, now that I think about it. Makes it all the more nice to see someone who enjoys it too, though!

And once again, I totally agree with you about the sketchiness of graphite! I've been loving the sketchy look of pencil drawings more and more, and like you mentioned, replicating that appeal has been one of my biggest hurdles when it comes to digital art. Sketches also do so often seem to have more life and energy than lineart, which is why my recent methods have been focusing on merely refining my sketches until it can function as lineart while still being a bit loose or adding lines on top once I've done all the colors and shadows to further define the forms; the latter is precisely what I did for the above drawings. Even so, though, as of recently I've been focusing a little less on being clean with my lines (still graphite as of now to train for ink), still trying to get the general shape but allowing it to not be totally exact. And then, with the way I sketch at least (a lot softer with tons of circles as bases for the forms, then gradual darkening/thickening to refine the shapes), I've found it can even provide some level of shading on its own!

For me, though, the biggest challenge is trying to get that sketchy look, but also have the drawing be coherent; as much as I like the messy, unfinished style, it's hard for me to shade and color if the distinctions between parts of the subject aren't clear enough, which often happens if I let too many of the initial sketch lines remain and muddle things up. I also like to have my sketches clean enough that I don't have to go back and fix or define things at a point when the additional colors and shadows and whatnot make such edits much more complicated. This means I usually end up with thicker, cleaner lines anyway because I draw over the same line like 15 times trying to make sure the curves are exactly as I want them. You know what I mean?

Oh my, that was way more than I expected again! I hope you don't mind too much, though!

Caption these images!

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Okay, serious talk, I've been looking to invest in colored pencils lately! I figured now that I'm getting more into the digital painting process, why not carry around some colored pencils so I can practice the process traditionally? I think it'll be a nice way to get more used to it and practice shading with actual hues instead of monotone shading; colored pencil drawing seems to use much of the same general workflow as digital painting, and I feel I have many more opportunities to draw traditionally than digitally, so with these I'll be able to practice more regularly.

Hopefully I can get some better quality colored pencils than the ones I have now soon, but until then, I hope you like these two little practice doodles!

[songsoftheqalli]

You're drawings are so good, I cant wait to see more of your work! I was wondering if you have any tips for someone who's just starting out? :D

Thank you very much! I’d love to pass on some tips! Now let me just start this with a quick disclaimer, I’m by no means an expert, industry, practice or skills wise. My beginnings were self taught but I’m currently a character design student. And a lot of this advice is going to favor character design because it’s my field but I’ll try to keep things as general as possible. (Also this is going to get long I’m super long winded so it’s going under a cut my apologies mobile users.)

General tips -

1. Always be practicing. I draw every day, even if it’s only a little bit or the work that I produce isn’t what I’d like it to be. Every day you’re putting in the effort to practice and improve your work is never a day wasted. You’ll find you pick up on nuances that help you learn the tricks to your own style and understanding.

2. Rough doesn’t mean bad. Sketchy work isn’t necessarily less valuable then clean and crisp work. If sketching in a loose format helps you to better get a feel for the work then you can always come back and refine later or work that sketchy idea into your project.

3. Jealousy and feeling inadequate aren’t uncommon, literally every artist has those exact feelings. I get them ALL the time. But you can’t let that feeling of “I’m not good enough” stop you. You gotta let your stubbornness win in this situation, keep drawing, don’t give up on yourself or your work just because that little voice in the back of your head tells you that you’re not as good as someone else. Everyone is at different levels and trying to compare yourself to other artists will only bring you down. Gotta keep trucking! 

4. Equipment is not your limit. I work on Cintiq HD companion which is one of the leading brand screen based drawing tablets available on the market and it’s also incredibly expensive. But I certainly didn’t start my art career on the highest quality tablet I could get and neither should you. My first tablet was a Bamboo fun tablet that I used into the GROUND and obliterated by the time I needed an upgrade. 

And even if that was all I had available to me as an artist, it would still suffice as an art tool. Just because you’re not using the same brand as the industry leads for your art tools doesn’t mean you’re never going to be as skilled as they are. You can make amazing work happen with nothing more then an HB pencil if that’s all you have you available to you.

5. Your teachers and mentors aren’t always right. I know this one is a little weird, but I learned very quickly in art college that while the fundamentals of art stand, every single artist will approach those fundamentals differently. I had two design drawing classes with two very, very different professors. 

Both of them were wonderful teachers with very contradictory opinions and practices. Neither of them was better or worse then the other, it was up to us as students and artists to determine which style fit us individually. And that applies to you too. You don’t always have to follow every piece of art advice you’re ever given, find which works for how you create and go with it.

Art practice tips -

1. One of the biggest beginner mistakes that plague the art community is shading with blacks. The color black does not belong on any layer of your artwork unless it’s the color you’re using for lineart. Get creative with your color tones. The color wheel is your friend. How so? Look at the color you wanna use in your art, now slide two shades to the left on the color wheel. There’s your shadow color. Experiment with your color, it’s an immediate improving to your work trust me.

2. Work with your brushes and tools not against them. When using different brush types in your art program, if you’re using a pencil styled brush like in my sketch at the top, don’t try to then use that brush as a coloring brush. You’ll only end up fighting it and wondering why it doesn’t look how you’d like it to.

3. Not sure how to draw something? Look up a reference! in fact look up multiple. Look up references of that item or pose from different angles so you can get a feel for how it looks in a 3D plane. Can’t find good references through google? Try tumblr, this website has an absolute metric TONNE of art blogs for reference and anatomy. Go ham, in fact go ham twice. 

4. Don’t like how that character looks when you draw them? Keep drawing them. You’ll never get the real FEEL for the character in your first few tries. You have to keep at it, which is precisely why concept art has multiple stages and many initial designs. It takes time to get that character to come to life. Hell, the first few times I drew Ganbataar he looked like flaming garbage.

5. Take breaks. I know, you want nothing more then to keep drawing this one thing because you swear you’ll get it right in just a few moments. Stop, take a deep breath, step away from your work. Taking breaks, even if it’s whole days worth of breaks, gives you time to relax, destress, and come back to the project with a new perspective. Pushing yourself is good, it keeps you motivated, but know your limits. You will crash and burn, I know from experience, it’s not fun.

6. Make friends with other artists. Surrounding yourself with a good environment of creatives helps to keep the artistic juices flowing. You’ll bounce ideas off of each other and keep each other motivated. 

And above all else, in all fields of art, understand that art and artists are always a work in progress. You’ll never stop learning new things or discovering new things about your work. So always be willing to experiment and try new things, you’ll never know, you might find a style or a practice you really like! 

I wish you much luck in your artistic endeavors my friend! I hope some of this helps you in any way! And if you ever have any questions or inquires, you can always contact me here or over here at my art/personal blog!