#im a silly artmom

[rhosart]

I think it can be both. It can be really daunting, as someone who is starting out to look up art or see a ton of art that is just so good and so far beyond what you can imagine achieving. Just as it can be daunting to put up your art that, in real life people go "Wow you're amazing!" And you get radio static on the internet. Where someone talking about boogers or rubber ducks can get hundreds of likes/notes.

But I also, never would have kept or even started drawing if it wasn't for the support I got from the internet. I started out by editing screenshots from old games for forum signatures. Then because of an art forum devoted to Everquest I fell into pixel art or dolling and then.. I tentatively started drawing because I had encouragement. I was a teenager and my dad was a professional illustrator so I was afraid to draw. Big shadows. Sadly the forum is very dead now. This was 15+ years ago. But they had figured out a system to help people get the support they needed. Not just random commentary.

You could post a piece, whether it was pixel art, traditional, mixed media, or digital and let them know what level of constructive criticism you wanted - if any.

Which allowed you to get encouragement and praise without feedback when you just needed to be encouraged. And allowed you to ask for hard hitting critique when you needed that too.

While that place is gone.. RIP StudioMMO! I decided last year that I needed something similar and made an art support discord with some of my artist friends connected to an MMO I was playing. It's not just tied to that, but now it's thriving and I've built it in a similar way and while I believe every active member would have improved without us. I do honestly think forming support groups of artists truly helps us all.

We need to cheer for each other, and be one anothers eyes when ours are tired. We need a place with people who will support our work because its hard to get it elsewhere.

It's not a closed group but I haven't chosen to make it a tumblr or anything. But if you need support, or just a place to chat with other artists.. by all means message me. I won't be offended if you check it out and leave.

It's an active but not so overwhelmingly huge group so you actually get people responding. Most people post ESO or SWTOR or WoW art but the premise is a support group for people who do art and play MMOs. The art can be of whatever.

But I also encourage you all to build your own if that's your preference. It's been extremely effective for me, and I've watched many of our members absolutely blossom in the year since I made it. It makes me feel so proud and like I want to hang all their art on my fridge. I'm a goober that way.

Maybe it's silly. But I do believe you can use the internet to support your efforts if you go about it in the right way. However there isn't a website that tells you how best to use the internet to your advantage to learn that doesn't get overly huge and too big to be supportive in that way.

All I am saying really is. Find your creative support group. Your tribe. Be one anothers cheerleaders and teachers. Everyone can benefit from extra eyes even if you are just starting you can still have input that someone could use. My art eyes and brain have more skill than my arthands, so I use that to help others.

That's not even delving into how valuable the internet is for finding resources. But I'll stick to talking about creative support groups for now.

The internet can be such a hindering place for an artist’s creativity and attempt to learn.