#im also a lot better at traditional than digital so

[transgender-eichi]

they wouldnt get out of my head i'm so ill for them you dont understand

[snailfen]

i got some watercolor brush markers for christmas !! did some other coloring to get used to it then pumped this out. anyways now all i can think about is drawing slither wing

[reblogs appreciated !!]

[artistotel]

tips for traditional artists (mostly painters)

so while i primarily post doodles and such on this blog, my true passion is traditional art. :) i see a lot of tips for digital artists but rarely for traditional ones, so this is just my own experience (before anyone goes like "oP tHaT iS nOt UnIvErSaL eXpErIenCe" (i know this site well enough lol) if the advice doesnt sit well with you feel free to ignore it because i am def not an end it know it all. and nobody is because art is so broad and there is no right way to do it.

EQUIPMENT

so, first of all, in my language we have a saying "the tools dont make a master", meaning a true master could create with anything. i mean, sure, to a point, tools wont replace your ability to conceptualize art, but cmon.

equipment matters, especially when painting. i mostly work with acryllics and markers. lets talk about acryllics.

paints

its important to get at least okay quality paints. the stuff i use is not insanely expensive - croatia has limited offers, and i am poor. however, i tried paints for like 1€ from tedi and they are far inferior to goya's paints i use (3-4€ cca per 100ml. and those 100ml are going to last you a very looong time if you work on small scale paintings, and i even managed to fit in large ones).

ESPECIALLY THE WHITE PAINT. i cannot stress this enough. if youre gonna buy cheaply, buy everything cheap except for the white. make sure the white is good. it will serve as a thickener for other colours and good white can even do a good job of covering up the black paint.

brushes: get good brushes. if you paint frequently with bad brushes (like the ones i get from muller; they seem fine but ehhh im constantly changing them) you will be spending more in longer run than you would if you invested in something better. im not talking about 100€ packs made of donkey tail strands or whatever, i mean normal brushes, but look at reviews a bit. i once ordered like 10€ pack of brushes from amazon and they performed muller ones by far (and were cheaper); they left thicker paint and didnt get ruined after five uses.

markers

now see, i dont have any advice here, but i wanted to contrast it with my previous talk about how i purposefully buy good paint. well, i purposefully buy bad markers. really bad ones. because equipment often depends on what style you are after. i use flomasters, and they do what i want: and thats a cheap and trashy look.

canvases and papers

if youre gonna invest into something, invest into paints rather than canvases. you can trick a bad canvas by putting on multiple colour layers, you cant trick bad paints. but there are differences to bad and good canvases, of course. however, if youre just starting out, just go get a bad one; i take most of mine from tedi, or order online. you dont gotta spend billion of euros on them.

paper is also important. i am a painter and i bought a Leuchtturm1917 though unfit one, and was annoyed as to why everyone thought it was great. then i bought the one with specific sketchbook paper and it works fantastic. if youre painting, you need appropriate paper.

learn colour theory and some art history

yes i know this sounds boring. but its not. draw inspiration from your predecessors. there are people making oil paintings of modern things. you heard "dont shade with black" (and thats my personal mantra too) but chiaroscuro was a valid art movement. if you take a look at my own art you will most likely say: oh, thats pop art! and you would be right. i am inspired by roy lichtenstein, andy warhol, and other pop artists. but thats just the surface. my use of colour is inspired by the impressionist takes on it; i dont shade with darker colours, i shade with different ones. i shade red with blue, yellow with purple or red, and so on. if you look at the topics and subjects of my art, you will find surrealism. if you look at my approach to art itself, you might find influences of croatian naive. learn about actual philosophies behind art movements you like; you might find something for you.

ok these are just some general thoughts i had, id probably have more lol but thats it for now

[attyrocious]

heyyy I'm new to digital art, would you mind sharing some tips regarding programs and tutorials and etc? also on how to turn a real life piece into a beautiful and clean digital piece... really love your art

oh good luck with your art journey! my experience with digital art is pretty dated (as in a decade + levels dated) and i might be too out of touch to give beginner tips but regardless, allow me to attempt

Programs: it would help to know which hardware you have for digital but ill put down some i have experience in 1. Clip Studio Paint Pro - PC/Android/ipad/everywhere i think? unfortunately they betrayed humankind and its now a subscription everywhere but on PC. i bought a one-time license years years years ago on sale and its probably the best available on my end. I also got it on subscription on android so i can sync works between my PC and tablet. its very flexible in a way that you can draw with it in the most basic way single layer sketches or whatever but they have so many features and keep adding more.

2. procreate - ipad only never been an apple user but my friend is, and he's been a procreate user forever. he recently tried CSP on ipad though and he still claims he likes procreate better for ease of use and compatibility with tablet ergonomics and apple pen

3. medibang paint - pc/android/ipad

free forever. and out of all the free programs i recommended my other digital art newbie friend this is what he liked best.

4. adobe photoshop - dont even look at this the only reason i have one is im leeching off company license. its still unfortunately the industry standard tho but CSP is much cheaper and has the same controls and most of the basic functions 5. Paint Tool SAI - my first art program but i haven't tried it again. honestly still think this has the best brush flexibility and pen pressure control ----- As for tutorials, i find digital art has such a steep and high skill ceiling and its a challenge im still tackling and probably will forever tackle haha. I'm trying to osmosis painting techniques from splash art painters from League of Legends who most of them post complete timelapses (my favorite being Bo Chen) where you can study not just their techniques but like, art directions that make their pieces striking. Anyway, I also promised a friend I would make a simple coloring tutorial so maybe after inktober hustle, I would look for a piece there I'd use for the guide.

---- Traditional to digital is never a satisfactory process to me but if you can, invest on a scanner. I use an epson v39, had it for years.

scanned vs edited. the goal is to at least get the white of the paper as white as possible and the blacks the blackest, without whitewashing/burning the rest of the colors. Level correction function is your best friend here and most art programs have that.

Then i just clean dust and errors and slide the contrasts around until it looks as close to the original piece

If you have a decent phone camera, you can get away just posting instagram aesthetic pics with materials framing it or smth and just edit as usual. natural light tends to be a lot more forgiving than the harsh light of scanners anyway.

Anyway I hope this helps and have fun learning!

[koopalingsmagicmischief]

UPDATES: Why Blog Activity is Sporadic, Magic Mischief in Fanfic Form, New Characters, and More!

hello, whoever happens to read this update post about a silly little AU made by a silly little guy, im alive and bored and i need to give a few updates

The reasons for my sporadic activity and inactivity

a lot. between work, mental health, and being disabled, i can't really stay on this blog 24/7 and provide constant content. and yes, that means the blog going radio silent for a week means im recharging and working on stuff behind the scenes! and taking short, sporadic hiatuses when i need a break is better for me in the long run, anyway—

Magic Mischief Fic In The Works + More!! 6 new characters?!

another thing i wanna mention is that im planning on turning Magic Mischief into a fic, as that would be easier for me, personally, as a fanfic writer; but don't worry! the blog's here to stay, and will continue to serve its purpose as the place for Magic Mischief AU content and updates! in addition to K:MM becoming a fic and chapter updates will be posted here, some of the other content for this blog will include:

screenshots of K:MM shenanigans on ponytown + eventually i might remake the skins since im getting better with the outlines

fake twitter interactions

Gacha Life 2 used for the magical girl/magical boy forms because imma be real your boy suffers extreme art block sometimes and it's better than picrews—

incorrect quotes and other shitposty shit; some will just be in text form, but pencil sketches, digital sketches, fully colored comics (traditional or digital), and fake twitter interactions are all also options!

concept art, lots and lots of concept art

and more!

and in addition to all of the new blog content, i have 6 new characters im working on!! these 6 characters all seem to be staples of Koopalings AUs on Tumblr, so i decided "hey i should probably add them to my AU too!" and ive been struggling with trying to get the proportions right for 4 of them bUT NEW CHARACTERS ARE DEFINITELY COMING SOON DON'T WORRY—

[handsomethrowrug]

respond to the following prompts out of character, then tag others you'd like to get to know a little bit better.

roleplayer name: Ash

roleplayer pronouns: She/her

muse name(s): Tacari/Scar here. Other muses elsewhere that have varying activity levels that can be checked over on the hub blog. One that would probably be of interest to people here would be J.ack S.kellington.

preferred communication: IMs. I do have a D.iscord, but due to personal experiences I don't give it out openly. If you have me added there, that's usually a good place to get me. Mind you, I'm not a super chatty person. It's not a bad thing! I do try, but I promise it's not a bad reflection on you if I go quiet for a while. Timezones and whatnot make it awkward sometimes too.

experience: I've been writing in some form since I was a kid. From a rp POV, there was a brief stint on N.eopets back in about... 2007? Then a friend and I wrote on d.eviantart and I tried working with rp groups there (this was difficult when you were a timezone outlier who mixed as-it-happened chatroom stuff and a traditional artist in an era when digital art was really worshipped). I was introduced to t.umblr in 2012 and I've basically been here in some capacity since. A portion of my experience was with a closed D.isney rp group, and then I eventually branched into indie writing by about 2015. Probably my biggest reach with D.isney stuff was on Jack's old blog, skeletonwithabowtie.

Yeesh. I'm old.

preferred roleplay type: I'm flexible! I'm happy to match my partner's writing length. I can blather on a little with internal observations and whatnot so I can cut that down.

pet peeves & dealbreakers: People who don't cut threads. Sadly, T.umblr makes this a lot harder for people, especially for people only on mobile, so I'm more patient with it than I used to be. Also, people viewing me as a stepping stone to get to interact with someone else. I know I'm not the most social but... come on. That's just rude.

best time to write: I work five days, and I do spend a lot of time with family, so my activity does fluctuate. Typically, it would be in the evenings (American afternoons)... Though sometimes I can take advantage of timezones to do things when it's quiet during the day.

are you like your muse? I hope not??? Should I be worried??? Jokes aside, I would say only in the smallest ways, like being dramatic or a smartass younger sibling. But I do think there's a fun challenge in writing someone who isn't 'like' you. I'm still not fully confident in whether I portray the snarkiness right, but I enjoy trying to flesh out his character and figure him out. Plus, I'm older and (hopefully) wiser than when I first took him on, so I hope that I won't give up when I start fumbling.

Essentially:

tagged by: @mostpeculiarmademoiselleetmsieur and @thepaststillhurts (Thank you :D )

tagging:

I have not been paying attention, so I'm gonna leave this as an open invitation!

[leonenjoyer69]

I really love your art, and I've been wondering what your art process is? Also what art program you use?

THANK YOU SO MUCH, I'm glad so many of y'all like my stuff hehe :333

I did kinda go into my art process and style in this post, doing a quick headshot doodle and giving some personal tips, but! I can always share a little more :3

Okay, so I do most all my art traditionally, bc honestly I'm not very adept at digital art lmao. Most the time I just doodle headshots and such, but whenever I do half/full bodies I just,,, rawdog the poses bc I'm too lazy to look at references 💀 this is usually what my art looks like before I go back and fix things up and erase guidelines and such:

I'm a very messy artist, but hey, it's clearly got it's charm cuz y'all like it :3

The program I use is usually IbisPaintX on my phone (occasionally I'll use MSPaint on my laptop tho), and most of my digital art is done in one of 3 ways--

1- The traditional drawing is imported, I extract the line art, and just color it under the sketch. I like this bc it's easier and I really like the paper texture, but it does wash out the colors a weeee bit and it's hard to color pick from, and the lines are sometimes a lot lighter than what I want, but it's easy and I'm lazy 😋

Here's a good example that shows the impact on the colors and the paper texture :3

2- I import the traditional drawing and then actually do real line art over it. Always looks better, but far more time consuming. Usually I do this for more serious pieces (or sometimes I just feel like it honestly) like this one-

And 3- fully digital. Ngl, this usually only happens when I have an art idea and don't have access to my sketchbook or if I don't feel great and don't wanna sit up to draw. But, they're usually always the vaguest doodles ever that I plan on doing traditionally later, but they just somehow keep evolving. I've done VERY few solely digital drawings, and one I just did I can't even show bc it's for a server art trade that hasnt been revealed yet, but I can give this one:

Uh, fun fact, when I do fully digital I like doing line art the long and hard way by just... Erasing and cleaning up my sketch lines, instead of going over them on a new layer, so yeah 💀

Otherwise, most my traditional art is done in my sketchbook (or on copy paper) with normal number 2 pencils! though I do also have a knack for drawing on random paper in pen. Im a pen doodle enjoyer, one of the best things you can do to improve at art quicker, I swear it.

That's all I can really think of, so!! Thank you for the ask, and I hope my answer is good lmao

[krash-8]

talk shop tuesday! what do you think has shaped your current artstyle? has it derived from a certain media/fandom or came naturally? what's your favourite thing about your artstyle*?

*(the most important question)

hi vryfmi!!!! sorry I keep forgetting to answer my asks 😔😔

ok hmmm id say my style now definitely reaches back all the way to big nate as a kid lol, that's so far back but I cannot deny it. my simple doodles have spawned from that and there will never be any escape as long as my style evolves. it's still there today.

I also was inspired by cartoony comic books in general, 2d animated stuff like rottmnt, and 3d animated stuff with the hella cool texture like spiderverse !! definitely a LOT of general observation that worked it's way into my art too, thanks all you random artists I saw out of nowhere. I unconsciously put that stuff together and then built off of that :3 lots of experimentation

(my style is a bit different traditionally actually, I had to change my style once I started doing more digital to rely less on sketchy lines and paper texture to save me lol. but as of rn my style is pretty matched up on both mediums, except for a bit of a traditional advantage in sketching!!!)

ok ok the last part uhhhh I guess I like my faces I draw :] I try and make them really expressive and I'm pretty proud of my ability to do that, or at least I hope I do that lol, but im proud of my faces and I hope I get even better than i am now !! :33

yea here's my latest, koda and asher my little guys

tysm for the askkkk

[their-we-go]

hey! your art reminds me so much of me and my gf even though the ppl in the drawings don’t often look exactly like me or them :) so thankyou!

i’m actually getting more and more into art recently, and wondering how you landed on your specific style, also, do you use procreate? or something else? i mostly do traditional art styles but i love to learn more about digital art

im sorry you’re anxious at the moment, i am too if i’m honest. i guess we can both find a little comfort in acknowledging it but also knowing that these feelings will pass (as my therapist would say lol) 🫶🩷✨

hi!! that’s so sweet—it means a lot to me that you see yourself and your gf in my art. my whole goal for the butch & femme portrait series was to create art that our community would be able to see themselves reflected in, because for so many of us that doesn’t happen very often.

it’s awesome that you’re an artist too! i’m sure you don’t need art advice from me, but i can try to describe how i landed on my current style at least.

so i tend to switch up my style a lot (if you scroll for long enough in my art tag you’ll see what i mean lol), but i knew i wanted this portrait series to feel cohesive. i also wanted something with kinda shaky, imperfect lineart and a lot of texture. just because i feel like i am able to put more emotion into a piece when it isn’t technically polished, for some reason.

then i just kind of experimented with procreate brushes until i liked the result. i use the “evolve” brush on procreate, usually with opacity turn down low so i can build up my colours in layers. and then i had to practice lol

anyway, i hope you have fun with digital art if you end up getting into it. it’s brought me a lot of joy over the years.

thank you so much for taking the time to send this ask! i enjoyed answering it and i do feel better than i did this morning. i hope you feel better soon, too <3

[raisinchallah]

you know i have been trying to be a more just and fair ruler be more varied in my critique try and reevaluate moffats work out of the 2013 tumblr criticism land but then i watch forest of the dead and im like oh my god how did this keep happening he cant keep getting away with this like even just in contrast to say the maternal themes in the doctor dances which while also having a subplot about motherhood is like instead saying its powerful and saves the day for nancy to fight back against the social conservatism of her time and claim her son as her own but its like supporting non traditional families and fighting back against shame which when combined with the introduction of jack harkness and the frank discussion of random people in the world being gay you know creates this far more rounded thematics of motherhood but then its like dear god forest of the dead donna and rivers pure happy memories being like nuclear family and motherhood is like soooo crazy to me especially rivers situation cuz like with the computer fixed and everything surely the little girl who loves books and imagination would be far happier running around in matching space suits going on adventures from her favorite books with river or something rather than endless digital family roleplay til the end of time and like donnas whole story could have worked so well if it was you know a lot creepier and they did not imply those were her inner most desires at the end of the episode like deconstruction of donna feeling like she had to get married and have a family and all these other things and its actually like a total fucking nightmare would have worked soooo much better and god also the constant running jokes about the woman who was like too pretty to be smart taken advantage of by everyone very cruel streak running thru the whole thing insane i alos think i straight up blacked out forest of the dead from my memory cuz silence in the library was so memorable to me but i had literally no recollection of the second half when i finally rewatched it well i stuck that in the vault for good reason so funny cuz it was like in my recollections one of my favorite episodes but i think that was heavily impacted by the fact i watched it with friends at a sleepover right before everyone went to sleep and then i stayed up far later watching more doctor who episodes because i struggled to sleep and because i was a nervous person who was frightened by things in doctor who episodes i still remember staring at the shadows in the dark trying to work up the courage to run to the bathroom lol

[emperornero]

combining the two ask games ive been tagged in recently so everything is in one place 👍👍 anyone who sees this can do it and tag me as the one who made you do it idk thank you for tagging me ^_^

1 - tagged by @evecc

are you named after anyone? - i assume this question is more of a ‘are you named after your grandparent or some famous person’ but im in this weird place where YES all of my names come from other “people” but its not in the traditional way lol . ive been using axel as a first name for about 5 years now and it comes from my old original character. yes im named after an oc. nero is obvious. theo is more of a joke than something i would consider going by irl but its from a video game character

what was the last time you cried? - today yayy

do you have kids? - no and i never want to be a parent if i have the choice

do you use sarcasm a lot? - no and i dont understand it and i often struggle with obvious jokes both through text and irl. my brain is fucked and even if something has been stated before to be a joke i usually dont remember it

what sports do you play/have played? - i used to swim before hitting puberty. now im not comfortable with anything and once again my mental issues dont make it as fun as it could be

whats the first thing you notice about people? - if its a physical trait its probably clothing. i will look at the colors and try to remember what someone is wearing to remember them better

eye color? - dark brown

scary ending or happy ending? - depends on the media but happy is nice :]

any special talents? - i dont think i have any .

where were you born? - small random city in poland

what are your hobbies? - digital art and ancient rome are my main . i also like learning about pokemon [the competitive scene and its changes more specifically]. other than that i always enjoyed studying biology

do you have pets? - a kitty named kefir and a dog named toro. the latter is unfortunately very old and is having health issues caused by that. ive been preparing for his death for the last weeks but i think im more calm about it now. hes doing ok but i know it will happen soon..

how tall are you? - 6 feet / 180+ cm. i slouch a lot due to my chest so its not always visible.

favourite subject in school? - biology and latin

dream job? - i used to really want to be a dentist but honestly i dont know. mental problems impact my view of the future a lot and im not sure what im even capable of doing anymore

2 - @theromaboo

relationship status - taken :]

favourite color - all shades of purple and tyrian purple

song stuck in head - pizza tower ost unexpectancy part 3

last song ive listened to - scatterbrain by radiohead

three favourite foods - mcdonalds nuggets . salmon. garlic bread

last thing i googled - its literally all just polish to english translations for words i dont remember lol

dream trip - ancient roman sites in italy again but this time i actually have some time to see stuff instead of being in a group aaghfg

anything i want right now - freedom ?

[smaradog]

time for an introduction

hello! im smaradog but you can call me smara or mar for short, i have a weird sense of humor that feels edgy but i dont do jokes that are at anyones expense, or say weird things, since its not really something thats part of me at all, making others feel bad and/or uncomfortable is against all i stand for, at the same time my humor can kinda be silly/catgirlesque for lack of better description?? (??? ihave no idea what im saying) and kinda fecalfunny style humor overall.

dni if youre a bigot or a terf or some stupid shit like that

anyways im a neurodivergent asexual trans girl (she/her, it/its fae/faer, sli/slime pronouns please!) who speaks spanish and stuff idunno!! (i am not from spain dont pile me on with them IHATE SPAIN!!!! /j)

so yeah i draw a lot of lesbians and whatever else comes to mind

[art tag!]

i WILL start talking about something im working on or something i like for WHOLE PARAGRAPHS so be WARNED!! and heres some insane things i do!

the insane things i do in question:

art (digital and traditional)

pixel art

sound design

3d modeling (learning the basics)

music (regular music and chiptunes, and whatever weird experimental thing i can make also it kinda sucks but shh)

storyboards

modding/romhacking games

kind of a jack of all trades really! so yeah thats basically it! have a list of me dumping like a million interests i have

music: the strokes, arctic monkeys, gorillaz, daft punk, indigo quest, red vox, muse, crx, albert hammond jr., royal blood, enjambre, bandalos chinos, comisario pantera, lemon demon, tally hall, the voidz, fish in a birdcage, nelward

chiptune (counting psg chips, fm chips, low quality samplers, etc.) [fade, tim follin, jeroen tel, squarewave, shoob2000, 4mat, rushjet1]

animated shows:

the owl house

amphibia

ena

one piece (at enies lobby arc rn)

yu yu hakusho

jojos bizarre adventure (i cant deny it even if i dont talk about it, stopped at part 5)

one punch man (kinda, dont remember a lot)

adventure time (havent kept up since grass sword episodes)

ok ko (literally dont remember what the last thing that happened was)

regular show (stopped keeping up at some point) showing interest in: gravity falls, infinity train, hunter x hunter and mob psycho

films:

literally any spiderman movie from anything 2002 - now (i know theres older obscure ones)

(cant think of anything else whoops)

games:

terraria

halo (anything pre 343 sorry)

castlevania series

bloodstained

undertale/deltarune

omori (kinda lost interest)

doom (classic series, havent played 2016 and eternal)

half life series

sonic series

mega man series (classic)

minecraft (kind of? i'd rather play beta 1.7.3, but especially a fan of better than adventure)

celeste (havent finished, one of the few insane people that didnt use assist mode at the hotel chapter)

umjammer lammy

parappa series

castle crashers & battleblock theater

serious sam series

splatoon series (havent played splatoon 3)

dont starve together (i dont play often and im not super familiar with the lore) night in the woods (looks nice but. didnt finish at ALL)

portal series (i 100%ed the first game)

streamers:

vargskelethor joel (probably on top along with jerma)

vinesauce vinny

jerma985

grayfruit (i watch sometimes)

simpleflips (i watch very rarely)

i also like a few webcomics but honestly i dont remember at the time of making somehow, you can ask me about one of them though! (its not homestuck i swear /gen)

i ALSO also have super weird interests over niche little 80s - 2000s technology and stuff

due to personal reasons, i have 3 things i dont wanna hear about, but im not gonna mention them on this post.

if you made it this far reading you are insane honestly but shoutouts to you

[ye-local-simp]

Hello lovely! Could I get a twst matchup? I’m 20 and use she/her pronouns. I’m bi so any gender is fine. For personality I’m creative, introverted, and individualistic. Though I’m introverted, around my friends/when I’m comfortable I can be quite talkative and humorous. However, I definitely treasure my alone time the most. Im a very big homebody and can be very hermit introvert sometimes. As for bad traits, I am sometimes the worst pessimist when it comes to myself. I’ll be fine motivating others but then when it comes to me I live by the “be ready for the worst and you wont be disappointed” As for hobbies escaping to new worlds while reading books/comics, watching movies, and playing rpg video games. My favorite genres are fantasy and sci-fi, though I do love a good classic from time to time. Apart from that, I love working out. My interests on the other hand are art focused. I’m currently in art school working with mostly digital mediums, though I sometimes work with traditional. I love my practice and everything including, game, web and interaction design, video art and visual effects, 3D modeling and character design, and digital illustration. Sometimes I whip out graphite and ink.

A list of random likes: coffee, chai tea, dark chocolate, rock/blues/jazz/80s pop/soundtrack music, statement jewelry and accessories, cafe art shows, arcades, comic book stores, purple, thai/Indian/Chinese food, roller blading to classic rock, quality alone time.

A random list of dislikes: people i am unfamiliar (I have trust issues oops) with and have to make small talk with, the biting cold, rain, non fiction, staying too close to reality and not being allowed to daydream/imagine/roam freely in my thoughts, physical touch, overly crowded areas. I think that’s it thank you!

You are going to be matched up with...

Idia!

-you both would normally have game nights together, he knows they aren't fancy dinners but at least it is more enjoyable.

-He is a lot more modern than you are in terms of music he listens to but he low-key likes your 80's jazzy style.

-You both also understand why crowds suck, like that's the one things he wants to avoid so he is glad that you also hate them.

-He helps you with coding to make digital illustrations better.

-you both have daydreaming moments where you would cuddle and stare off into space.

[gothmods]

Its not that i dont get peoples anxieties around ai generated images leading to fewer commercial job opportunities for illustrators rather that idk if it will really make a dent given for a lot of cases digital illustration could already be subbed out for stock photos/illustrations or low effort graphic templates etc (and if those options werent available i dont trust that employers wouldnt just, underpay for illustration gigs)

Ive fiddled around with ai enough to know that its not any faster than slapping together stuff in photoshop or doing simple graphic design

But more than that i personally feel the best solution rn is to support people in other fields in the fight for better wages - since a lot more people would buy or commision art if they had disposable income.

On a similar note i think the gig economy is just, precarious to begin with and its worth asking why there arent more salaried positions in the arts

Maybe my perspective is different because i dont do digital art and most of the artists i know also dont. Its a somewhat different field to navigate, traditional arts that is. Lot less commercial commisions and a lot more reliant on sales or securing grants funding. The only contract work ive done is curatorial.

I would kill for a salaried curatorial job.

But yeah while ai will definitely change the field idk if it will make it any worse. And it sucks because i do find ai art interesting and i do wonder if it can work in ways other than text prompting. I mean i know it can i just would like to see that really explored. Doing cool or weird tech experiments is unfortunately also stiffled by profitability. Its worth asking what we could do with ai outside of its commercial applications. I dont see it as different from other art mediums in that sense - in that they are all weakened by the demands of capitalism.

I do hope that ai imaging continues to suck a little though. I find the flaws in it more interesting than if it could perfectly replicate human processes. Its why i like playing around on artbreeder a lot. If you can work out why things are going wrong you can push that in interesting directions. Ive gotten good at using the slider controls to do other things. Artbreeder uses GANs whereas most text based generators use diffusion models, but im not techy enough to explain the difference.

Another problem with ai i do think, its intimidating to try and learn about and requires a base knowledge. I do think not understanding emerging tools absolutely puts creators at a disadvantage in terms of the development and direction new technologies go in.

Im trying though so i will report back if i actually get to a point i can explain it. Ive seen some analogies but id rather understand it as it is...

[bmpmp3]

i guess “wobbly” isn’t totally the right way to describe what’s going on with my art, a better descriptor might be a sort of “double vision” created through an inevitability turned into an intentionality

(sorry im very sick rn and my sick brain accidentally wrote some barely readable essay about my own artistic techniques orz under da cut)

i think a large part of the reason i gravitate towards drawing analogue vs digital nowadays (ignoring the fact that i have spatial issues and i can keep track of proportions much easier on paper than on a screen) is that like, at least in my experience (growing up on deviantart LOL) traditional art, while being less popular online (at least, growing up on deviantart it was), also allowed way more room for visual mistakes and imperfections than digital art did. i think sometimes, at least for me, having an undo button ended up putting a weird perfectionism on me instead of being a useful tool orz

YOU MAY have noticed my double/triple lines in my linework, especially in long, uninterrupted lines, that’s what i mean by inevitability turned intentionality: its a sort of “line correction” like one would do when doing a rough sketch except for some ungodly reason i do it during my very permanent inking stage LOL jk jk its actually several very good reasons: you know how many artists find their rough sketches look better than their final linework? part of that is because your eyes bring in all the competing sketchy lines together as one cohesive sort of “vibe” of a line, making it look exactly how your brain thinks it should look to be “correct”

another reason is that, going back to the spatial issues, the dysgraphia is inevitable and i will always end up strange, jerky lines no matter the sketch stage or the ink stage, no matter how careful i am no matter how careless, its something that’s stuck with me for 24 years and i can usually write my b’s and d’s without a reference nowadays (the z’s are still questionable) but it’s always present - SO i’ve found, especially in the past couple years, embracing it is vital

hold on, here’s some examples of my double lines:

THIS drawing around the legs is a REALLY clear example lol

you can see what happened, the red lines are what i attempted to draw first, my dysgraphia then caught up to me half way through bringing in those big wobbles, and then i added the blue lines as a sort of corrective buffer

this one had a LOT, the orange lines were likely what were drawn first. you can kind of tell that i tend to ink from the face first because as i get to the body i get more tired and the more corrective lines need to be drawn LOL

of course there’s exceptions: i think with this girl I hadn’t done any warmup sketching (just drawing vague circles and swirls and lines or maybe a blobby creature doodle LOL) and my hands were hashtag unsteady hjdskfjds

of course when i said inevitiability turned intentionality, i do mean that part of it is done intentionally: on purpose. that’s part of embracing it: it really does just look good and feel good to draw like this. like here i can’t remember or tell which lines were drawn first, i just know it felt right where i placed all my doublelines

i think that’s why i had to stop doing digital art for a while, it tends to not be super conducive to this style of drawing, or at least i haven’t quite gotten the hang of it (despite doing digital art since i was 10 LOL). i remember like 90% of the stuff i would draw digitally, instead of letting my doublelines through i would just ctrl+z and redraw the line 3000000 times until it was “perfect” orz a fools errand that created way more work for myself and was nawt great for my drawing health (both physically and mentally very exhausting). i hope someday i can work out some techniques im happy with that make digital art feel as easy as analogue art has become for me

my chosen medium for colouring in traditonal art also helps i think, i originally gravitated towards watercolour because it was faster and easier on the hands than pencil crayons (especially as a person with this many ocs with black and brown hair LOL my pencil crayons were STUBS while the other colours were nearly untouched) but it also allows for you to get SLOPPY with it LOL painting outside the lines feels SO good and right and not painful WOULD RECOMMEND. plus, i think you can see it in my drawing of Su up there with her brown hair, because to build up deeper colours in watercolour i find it easiest to do it in layers + i cant mimic the brushstrokes very easily, i end up with these sort of simple gradations around all my drawings which i think has a similar i-liked-the-rough-sketch-best effect that the doublelines have, the weird aura tricks the brain into filling in the blanks

of course my lineart style is not super conducive for digital art colouring, paintbucket filling this shit is a NIGHTMARE jkgdfldsjhfkds that’s another thing i gotta do a lot of experimentation with..............

anyway WHAT im trying to say is sometimes the best thing you can do for your art is let your arms draw the way they want to. (also im tricking your eyes into seeing the best version of my art with my fuzzy colouring and double-lined inking. bmpmp3′s trick hee hee)

[molluskzone]

the thing that i dont get about digital art / AI comparisons (saying theyre both "cheating" in the same way, which ive seen a few times from both pro-AI and anti-AI people) is that in AI the only input is like... the text. it doesnt just make things easier or faster, it completely removes your creative control over a piece and automates the entire process. it's like... typing your essay out on google docs (easier and faster than writing by hand, you have access to spell check and dont need to erase or scribble out words you want to remove, formatting is much easier, etc) vs just inputting a prompt into chatGPT. do you understand the comparison im making here? it's literally the exact same concept, except i've never seen someone say that typing your essay on a laptop is cheating because "it's easier which makes you lazy and not a REAL writer, you're the same as the people trying to pass of chatGPT as their own writing".

also, if we're going there... all of the "cheats" you can do with digital art are entirely possible in traditional art (minus stuff like animation which are absolute HELL to do traditionally, especially 3d animation, but that's besides the point). so i don't even get the art-purist "you-can't-call-yourself-a-true-artist" pretentious argument here. YES, traditional art takes longer and costs more to make (you can buy a tablet once for 200 dollars, and connect it to a laptop which most people already have (or just use your phone/tablet which is even cheaper), and then have that be your only expense for YEARS except for replacement pen nibs and cables. meanwhile, sketchbooks are expensive and you need to constantly buy them, colored pencils are expensive if you're serious about it because you need a lot of different colors, paintings are on another level when it comes to materials cost, etc). i genuinely respect traditional artists since that shit is tedious. HOWEVER... saying that digital art is "cheating" kind of reveals to me that you're just unaware of all the potential "cheats" in traditional art. yes, theres some skills you need to learn, like coloring evenly with colored pencils or alcohol markers, or learning brush techniques and blending, color mixing, color matching, taking good photos of your art if you are someone who wants to post on social media, but there are ALSO unique skills you need to learn in digital art, such as managing layer types, learning to disconnect your eyes / hand (if you don't have a screen tablet), optimizing the image for digital viewing, color choosing (WAY HARDER TO DO DIGITALLY THAN TRADITIONALLY). they're equivalent in this way.

however... layering? use a light box and separate your sketch and coloring / lineart layers. undo? use a light box. quickly change colors? plan ahead better. physically paint over part of the piece. want to make multiple colored versions of a piece? cut out a lino block and use different colored ink to make prints. scan the drawing, print out more and color over them. tracing? fucking put the piece of paper over your laptop screen and trace it (we were expected to do this for practice in my high school art classes). mirroring / "flipping the canvas"? hold drawing up to mirror. if youre drawing on paper, hold it up to the sun or use a light box and flip it. symmetry? you can buy tools for this in which you hold a physical mirror up to half of your drawing and trace the reflection. we also used these in art class. you can also use tracing paper for this- it's my preferred method for making symmetrical traditional art, and for redrawing parts of a sketch / full piece that i want to move around or replace. color picking? any method you use digitally you can also use traditionally. the only trouble is IMPLEMENTING said colors in a full piece... but you also have to do that digitally. the biggest hurdle in color picking for traditional art is just... not having the resources to create a certain color easily, but that's a "can't afford a lot of paints / colored pencils / markers" issue, not necessarily a skill issue. even photobashing reference images or rearranging a piece is possible traditionally if you like... cut the sketch out and rearrange it physically before tracing over it, or physically making a reference with the same method. it is not hard and i have done this traditionally before. you can also use tracing paper for this. line stabilization is the only thing i've seen that's actually unique to digital art, but you can mimic this in traditional art by just... weighing down your art tool or having to redo the lineart a few times with the light box method (time consuming, yes, but not necessarily skillful. it just takes longer if you're bad at it, but the SAME results are possible). different layer types? just do the "math" in your head and figure it out. ive literally mimicked multiply layers before without actually using a multiply layer just to see if i COULD, and the results were the same. the only fully 100% true comparison i've seen is that stuff like AI-generated coloring and shading applied to digital art are "cheating" but that's... not digital art at that point... you're just making an argument again AI specifically because they are separate... it's closer to someone recreating an AI image themselves, or editing an AI image to make it look more realistic, which are, again, separate topics. also you can literally shade and fix traditional art with AI too if you take good enough photos of your art so this isn't even really a good argument against digital art specifically, it's an AI issue.

the only argument i see that makes sense is that traditional art, digital art, CGI animation, and AI art are all their own mediums that all require different skill sets (though i'd argue that traditional art and digital art are much more similar to each other in what skills you need than any of them are to AI art, but whatever). which i honestly kind of agree with? or i would is AI art was more ethical and not used in really dumb ways. but i personally think the AI slop is ugly, and my main gripe with it is that people try to "trick" others into believing AI art is real art by refusing to label it, or even labeling it maliciously incorrectly by naming fake artists as a credit for the image. you can't really do this with digital art since it's... pretty obvious when someone is creating something digitally. you know exactly what you're getting.

i think its fine if you want to say that traditional art is better or that you respect it more, because you're allowed your own opinion (even if i think you should at least experience drawing digitally before making a snap judgment). but its not "cheating" and its certainly not comparable to AI