#im hoping to get more art on my personal portfolio

[tem-tem-timmy]

my passion to draw is a blessing and a curse man

like i am super duper motivated after doing so many ref sheets but it causes me to feel robotic in a sense. i rarely get “traditional” artblock. sure i will have breaks but thats normal, and when i do actually get artblock it lasts for a short time.

im not sure how im gonna do on artfight this year but i think im gonna beat my 25 attack record lol

side note: i would love to do paid commissions in the future, but i don’t think art will ever be my main job lol. but i think it can be a good side hustle :3 my parents tell me i could be working for disney or something but uhhh i rather draw ppl’s personal sparkledogs 😭- also also animation doesn’t equal my art skill i can do basic pixelart gifs at most lol

[elderscrollsconceptart]

I hope this isn't an unwelcome suggestion, but I think you could extend the lifespan of the remaining new art by posting a little slower. I appreciate all of the art no matter how often you post, but it throws me off to have periods of silence followed by every other post on my dashboard being yours.

LONG REPLY BUT PLZ READ 🫶❤️

So i suppose some transparency about how i try to post might be appreciated by the community here so ill try my best!

I have posted TES art daily since this past winter and plan to continue to do so for a long as i can.

As it stands im not actually short on TES art whatsoever!

For example i still have thousands of pieces of TES Legends and ESO art remaining in my archive.

BUT

From the beginning of this blog i was aware of one major fact...

The available art from ESO and Legends outnumbers art from ALL the other TES games by several magnitudes.

Honestly i could exclusively post ESO and Legends art and probably not run out for years.

Typically I post in the evenings and (usually?) its 10-15 posts per day. Unfortunately even if I spaced them out through through the day I'd be going through all the art just as quickly on a day to day basis.

"Running out" isn't a concern in terms of the overall archive BUT it IS a concern for the TES games which have FAR less publicly available art and known artist credits, such as Morrowind or Oblivion.

I've long struggled with the fact that I (personally) care about posting art from the mainline games more than I care about posting art from ESO or Legends. I love all TES games but I personally view some of the art as more important to see preserved ATM, ESPECIALLY art from games pre-ESO or Skyrim.

Why am I more concerned about older TES art? Simple. Those games existed in era before artists commonly had digital portfolios. As such most of the art is either behind some sort of NDA or has never been digitized.

ESO AND LEGENDS ARTISTS ACTUALLY UPLOAD ALOT OF THEIR WORK TO THEIR PORTFOLIOS ONLINE. THANK GOD. I wish I could say the same for the older games :(

Like FR it's EASY to find ESO artists. You know what's NOT easy? Finding artists and art for games like Daggerfall or Oblivion. I want to ensure the more obscure art and artists (especially from the pre-eso era) get archived on here ASAP.

I've long decided I want this blog to serve as a digital archive of its own so people in the future can more easily find TES art AND the artists credits (if we have them).

It's really important to me that places beyond UESP partake in TES art archiving. That's what I *try* to strive for at least through this blog.

For transparency sake I may not be around to post here in a year or two due to a possible career change I'm looking at.

It's nothing certain but the career I'm looking at would effectively remove the kind of free time I'd need to run this blog.

The career change may never happen!! But in the event it does I wanna make sure I post all the TES art I can, with art from the older games taking priority.

---

Sorry for the word wall folks, but I love your love for this blog and you deserve transparency from me! ❤️🩷🧡💛💚💙💙🩵💜🤎

Todd Bless 🙏🙏🙏

[shadale-s-safe-space]

I don't know much about you as a person, but from what I can gather you've had a long journey with art, but still have the motivation to continue even when its rough. I'm sure you didn't start out making masterpieces, so if its not too much trouble, do you have any advice for a 16 year old artist losing motivation? i feel like im stagnating right now and its awful

Idk man, all I can say is, draw watchu want without the care who's gonna see it or what they gonna say , commit to new ideas and care less about pleasing everyone, because I know that way too well, I started learning by drawing animals, flowers and nature, "you should draw something else", switches to furries " No you must do human portraits", draws humans *no one fuckin cares*, and I felt miserable drawing what I didn't want all the damn time just trying to please everyone and be liked, hell, I still do that sometimes cuz I'm a dumbass. When in reality, when you do your own thing is when you're the happiest, this internet bullshit? Yeah don't trust the likes and favs, people like what they find relatable, no one really knows how much time you've spent on your drawing or how much you love it, when a 5 min doodle you did could do more than a painting that took 2 whole days to complete just to be scrapped in a new speedy record, paint what you love for yourself and you only.

Don't be shy to learn new things, I have tons of stuff I don't post here cuz I know people wouldn't care about it, but here for this post, have this that I practiced when I felt too depressed to think of anything good and wanted to step back from the MD artstyle

You'll see, you'll thrive when you draw what you want, and get yourself a drawing buddy! That way you'll stop focusing on the internet and more on each other, and each other's improvement. Tbh I struggled with that one. Since everyone I had were not into art irl, I somehow managed to find someone after 10 years of drawing alone. I honestly wanted more people to join in and make an improvement circle, but unfortunately that never happened.

I found myself twice as productive now than ever, even though I'm not active here as much I am still drawing and making things, ofc giving you more comics! And other fun things in the future I hope.

If you're struggling to draw something just do it, man commit, i was uncomfortable drawing men and male characters for years, I've wasted so many years being "too uncomfortable" and draw a naked person like yeesh who fucking cares, it's for studying.

And ofc if you feel like you're not improving at all please, please experiment with your artstyle and try something new, please refresh your mind, I was stuck for years doing the same thing over and over, same colors, same 2px brush, drawing like a machine same shit over and over, I felt so stuck and lost, but also afraid to do something new, idk why, I guess I never felt good enough or deserving of it. I also didn't go to art school, I am NOT a professional, nor will i ever be in my opinion. Hell, me feeling like I'll never be good enough left me afraid to try and apply for art school, they were asking for sculptures, different mediums all that scary stuff and I was like, I don't.. know.. how to do those things... I can't build a portfolio in less than 3 months?!?! I don't even know how to use half of what they're asking for!!

In reality at the end of the day, art is what you make of it and no one can stop you, search for inspirations and don't be afraid to try, yes you'll fail fist 2 or 10 or hell even 100 times, but you'll come back with more knowledge than ever.

For ending I give you the most confusing drawing to ever exist [dw he's just sleeping on top of her and she's just ghasping for air but awe romance or sum lol] is it weird? Yeah but I had a fun time making it hahaha

Idk I'm bad at putting my thoughts together, but hopefully some of this helps.

[alicenpai]

Hey Alice! Really random question but what cons happen in Toronto besides fan expo? (Specifically looking for June augest ones) I swear there’s more. I’m not sure who else to ask this or where to find con information haha. Alternatively do you know of con information in Vancouver canada? Thank you

hi! fellow torontonian spotted 🫡🫵

for large scale anime/gaming/geek cons in toronto, there's: - toronto comic con (march)* - toronto game expo (march) - anime north (may) - anime fiesta (july) - beware as i heard this one is not great for events but maybe they'll improve, smaller event - fan expo (aug)* - furnal equinox (march) - toronto game expo (nov) * good luck applying to these bc the rebooking rate is INSANE and you will also be out a $800 deposit for a whole year

yeah............. toronto has a huge population but as you can see there's really not much in the summer LMAO which is why these few cons are really important to us. and canadians opt to travel for cons during the mid summer season. americans have it good haha. here are some other popular ones: - g anime (jan, gatineau QC) - yeti con (june, blue mountain ON) - ai kon (july, winnipeg MB) - animethon (aug, edmonton AB) - otakuthon (aug, montreal QC) usually same weekend - the only out of province event i attend currently, i really like otakuthon and personally i did really well, but i have heard from others that the profits this year were not as good as last year. (keep in mind the small business culture is huge and competitive right now) - london comic con (sept, london ON) during off-peak season there are also a few markets (bamtori studio has been hosting them every few months and they're so goated!!!), there've been more buzz on markets in recent years as the small business scene boomed. personally i don't think my art suits markets demographic so i don't apply for them/ this post will not cover markets. vancouver events: - anime revolution (aug) usually same weekend as animethon and otakuthon. i have heard conflicting opinions on anirevo so please do your own research on this con. rebooking rate is crazy. - fan expo vancouver (feb) for any informa canada run events, be aware the rebooking rate is extremely high. - emerald city comic con (march) - forgive me for putting an american con here

if i had to travel to the west coast id pick emerald city comic con, i heard it's pretty good to travel out to (and the other ones id have no chance of getting in anyways) if anything i know about these events through hearsay and by googling ahaha. if a con is good then more artists will recommend them generally. you can also join artist alley network international (AANI, you can google them for the application to their discord). personally im not sure how long ill be doing cons as i've been putting off working on my animation portfolio for so long (animation is kind of grim rn so a lot of us have been relying on cons)... and im not sure if ill travel beyond montreal next year... but yeah... hope this helps!

[iraprince]

Heyo! Any advice on struggling to get your art seen in the world? I feel like no matter how much I post, or what I post, people never see it or seem to like it. I love art and am pursuing it as a career (hence why Im getting a degree in it currently lmao) but its kind of disheartening to work really hard on something, post it, and no one sees it.

oh, man. i'm afraid for this one i don't feel like i have a lot of solid advice. having a large-ish following online feels like something that kind of just, like, Happened to me, mostly on accident/in ways outside of my control, and even if i had some ideas on how to potentially replicate those gains i don't think they'd work consistently. (also, a lot of my large jumps in follower count came from mental health related work going viral bc it's #relatable; this is something i have complicated feelings about and it's absolutely not a viable, like, "strategy" or something that i would recommend, in the way that ppl can say like, "fanart gets attention!" or stuff like that.)

so, i don't have advice for how to actually GET those eyes on your art; i can maybe help with making ppl more likely to STAY once they do find you, and how to build a following that will actually help you maintain a living from your work -- bc i have TONS of peers w a following a fraction of the size of mine who get more jobs than me, are doing cooler/more "professional" stuff than me, etc! (heads up that most of my experience is on twitter; i know less than nothing about places like instagram + tiktok, and while tumblr functions very differently from twitter i feel like i handle things mostly the same here, aside from doing less personal posting/being less talkative and not 'networking' or following many people).

SCROLLING BACK UP TO ADD A SPOILER ALERT: AS ALWAYS I HAVE SAID "HAHA IDK I DON'T REALLY HAVE ANY ADVICE" AND THEN PROCEEDED TO TYPE A FULL ESSAY. IF YOU ARE ON DESKTOP YOU CAN HIT THE 'J' KEY TO SKIP THIS POST. IF YOU'RE ON MOBILE, I'M SORRY

a very important thing, especially professionally: it HAS to be easy to see what you do. (this is easier here on tumblr, where u can have a designated art tag etc, than on twitter, which is an awful website that sucks. <- guy who makes all his money on twitter) this means, like -- if i see something from you and get curious and click your profile, it should only take one more click to quickly see at least SOME of your art. on a professional account, it's probably best for your icon to be your own work, something snappy and memorable and eye-catching that reads well at a small size; people shouldn't have to dig for 20 minutes before they can start browsing your art. on twitter, this means TRY not to gunk up your media tab with a ton of reaction images/screencaps of your gacha pulls/etc; on here, it means make your art tag easy to find; on any website, a portfolio link, prominently displayed, is the best bet. (i am still working on that one myself lmao and i've been working professionally full time for a few years now so like, there are outliers and wiggle room on all of this).

next! it's great when your audience finds you, but you have to find them, too. find artists who do similar stuff to you and get into their stuff -- sincerely, not just as "networking." (like only do this with ppl whose stuff you actually think is cool, not just trying to get in mutuals with everyone you see in hopes of a bump, obviously.) get interested in other indie artists, find the people who are working/publishing in the spaces that are exciting and aspirational for you, and support them! i don't want it to sound cynical when i say there's a kind of give-and-take built into this; the point is not "well, if i reblog/retweet a bunch of YOUR stuff, maybe you'll feel obligated to boost mine in return," but that when you find other artists/creatives who are on the same wavelength as you, you will naturally stumble into pools of people who want to support art like yours, and you and your newfound peers will help each other when you hype each other's stuff up and direct followers to each other! (again re: things going differently on dif websites: this is twitter-specific for me, bc i use my tumblr as a gallery/portfolio. that doesn't mean it doesn't happen here tho! it can and does happen everywhere!)

it is really not a competition. i know that SOMETIMES it is in like, a really nitty-gritty numbers sense; people only have so much money to spare, they will make choices about whose patreon they can afford/what comic to buy/etc, that's true. but to me that's not competition. people who are sincerely into your stuff will hang on until they can afford it; maybe that means someone follows you for two whole years before the planets align and they have the budget/opportunity to commission you. by hanging out in similar circles you are not taking potential business or opportunities away from anyone else, nor are you risking leading your own audience to Someone They'll Like Better; you're just offering more options, and the internet is VAST and endless, and EVENTUALLY people will show up who are into YOUR STUFF, SPECIFICALLY. helping each other is never going to stifle or delay that!!

and my final chunk of advice is the one i give constantly that everyone is probably super sick of hearing but i just seriously seriously believe in it, even tho i know it's slow to pay off and hard to follow: keep doing exactly what you want to. keep doing it!!! you have to!!! yes, i mean the stuff that's getting like, 2 likes and 0 reblogs! the stuff that 'nobody likes!'

earlier i mentioned i have gotten big follower bumps from like adhd comics and stuff like that going viral. the thing is that, from a professional standpoint: my follower count has like, more than quintupled from where it was at a few years ago; my patreon income has absolutely NOT quintupled lmfao. it has less than doubled, over that same period of like... i wanna say over 4 years. that's still good, i'm grateful for it, and i owe a lot of it to the sheer numbers game (the more ppl see ur work, the more likely it is you'll reach someone who decides to support you), but there is absolutely not an actual direct correlation between numbers and career success/stability.

where there IS a direct correlation is between "people who give a shit about the art i really truly love making" and "people who like my art enough to support me professionally." HUGE chunks of the followers i get any time something goes viral slough off over time; there's nothing wrong with that, they just follow me bc something was funny/interesting and end up realizing my work's not actually their thing. but the ppl who follow me bc they're into all the stuff i post most consistently, the stuff i care about and am passionate about, stick around. and i would not have found them if i wasn't posting the shit i care about!

out there there are people who will be 100% crazy about the stuff that is 100% what you want to make. it's like actually statistically impossible for there not to be. the more niche your thing is, the longer it will take to find them, but they absolutely exist. but if you give up before you find them -- if you start saying, "well, i'll put in 50% of this idea that i love, but the other 50% is too weird and nobody's gonna like it and it'll flop" -- well, in that case, you can only ever find the ppl who are 50% into what you do. don't fuck yourself like that!! you cannot deny yourself the possibility (the INEVITABILITY!!! IMO!!!!!) of finding the people who will 100% get what you're doing.

so: on a pragmatic level, i'm sure there will be ppl who disagree with me on this, and who think it's absolutely mandatory to do fanart as a crowd draw or learn about algorithms and posting times and get on tiktok and do the visibility grind and everything and that it's stupid and irresponsible to tell people not to. i'm sure it's also easy to point out that i'm speaking from a place where i now have more eyes on my stuff than i know what to fucking do with so maybe i'm just totally out of touch and being naive or something. but for me the most important part of doing art now, ESPECIALLY as a career, is to keep loving it and to believe in what i'm doing and to build an audience that cares about the same things i do. and i think it is really really vital to make that your top priority. bc if you don't, then even if you DO crack the code to suddenly getting tons of notes on everything etc -- will you even keep wanting to do it?

this job is hard. it's lonely, in my experience; i spend so much time sitting in front of my computer alone. it's unstable, which is stressful and can be frightening. it's emotionally taxing, for me, because art is so important to me that it's hard to set boundaries and separate my identity from it and actually treat it like a job. it has taken me a long time to find success doing this; maybe i could have gotten there faster if i had tried to find ways to draw an audience specifically, but i think if i had somehow managed to get a big patreon following/tons of commissioners/etc by doing something formulaic or doing stuff that specifically gets tons of attention, but isn't what's natural for me -- i don't think i would have lasted very long that way. this is already hard and complicated enough; i don't think it's sustainable to give up any unnecessary ground on doing exactly what you're passionate about, bc at least in my case, that's mandatory for this even being a livable career for me. i would burn out and decide to do something else very quickly if the only way to succeed was to chase numbers/engagement.

doing it this way is very slow. if i hadn't been able to lean on family/my wife while starting up, i would have had to have a day job for much longer (like, years, probably) while saving up and preparing to go full time; for as long as you struggle to get traction, it may mean going full time has to be on the backburner. but the thing is that there's nothing wrong with that, it's the reality for the vast majority of us (from what i've seen) -- and you'll eventually build a career that can last way longer, i think.

okay oh my god i'm done. sorry about that. like i said this job is pretty lonely and i sit here all day and think about this stuff and then generally do not talk about it with anyone until somebody asks me about it and then i repeat myself at length again. like i did here. anyway have a good night sincerely and i hope some part of this was helpful!!!

[emerulynn]

hi!! i saw a post where u mentioned u go to wdka, im also applying for illustration and im super nervous. whats the worst thing about the school? or do you have any tips for the portfolio?

oh shit sorry I haven’t been checking my asks, but I think yesterday or Friday was the Open Day, idk if you could’ve gone bc that would also help but I hope my rlly late answers help as well 😭

Hmmm the worst thing about the school and I’m gonna be honest here is how it sometimes feels like some of the assignments aren’t helping me all that much?? Like wdka’s concept of illustration is broad, it’s less than just drawing and more of visual storytelling through any medium. So sometimes I find myself struggling with an assignment that doesn’t involve drawing and pushed way out of my comfort zone.

I think it gets better now that I’m in my second year tho because I know how to navigate things better and also learn how to put a bit more balance on personal work and assignments. You just have to get through the Practices and Second big assignment in first year Illustration tbh, that’s the point where most people dropped out 😭 The most useful thing in the school is the facilities, teachers (ask for suggestions or networking opportunities from teachers you think have the same career path/vision as you) and ofc your peers, sometimes classes. Also if you don’t feel like you align with illustration that much you can always switch majors after the first term without having to repeat the year.

Note that I might also be harsh about the academy bc I’m paying international fees which is like 10x the tuition EU students have to pay.

As for the portfolio, they love to see you explore and experiment with different mediums and methods of art-making, so include photography, clay, mixed media work if you have them. If you don’t, don’t worry because my portfolio barely has any range, that was their critique for me after receiving my portfolio too since I mostly drew digitally and only included some analog drawings and photos. but i got in heyy

Another thing is make your portfolio easy to navigate ofc, you don’t have to go over the top with the design, just write concise texts of your work and make it not look confusing. Number your works and number the pages.

That’s it I think they love versatility that’s the main takeaway. Good luck and hope this helped!!

[kentopedia]

hi there ! i hope this isn’t an uncomfortable question. but im in awe with ur selfship art, u guys look stunning /p. i was wondering if u could perhaps recommend ur favorite selfship artists? im hoping to get more comms in the future. be sure to take care of urself <3

hi!! omg no not an uncomfortable question at all <3 thank you so much you’re so sweet 🥹 of course !!! i tend to stick to the same artists sob, so i don’t have as many recs as some others on here, i’m always trying to find some new ones <3 but my personal three favorites:

@/nintnot on instagram is my favorite !!! they don’t have any bsd work posted, but they did this one of me & dazai if you want to see an example for him!! :) it’s one of my favoritesss she’s the sweetest and she draws every character so beautifully!! i have two more ideas i want to commission her for again

@/luvluvluv06 on twitter is another good one!! i haven’t posted the comm i from her yet but a she has a pretty wide portfolio posted <3 a lot of people on here commission her

and then @/puri24A on twitter did the one in my pinned <3 she’s so fast and sweet, and i think she has done dazai before also if you want to see an example of their bsd work !! such a unique style!!

i’m a little picky about how people draw nanami & since i get the most of him, i dont branch out much LMAO. i’d definitely look into them though <3 i feel like their pricing is all very fair also! i have a couple other artists if you look in my selfships that have done art for me, but i recommend these three the most :))

[nerves-nebula]

was wonderinv who to ask then saw ur poston art school and went . yo!

anyway can i ask hows art school? like . is it worth it?? whats the experience and everything like + do u regret ur decision to go there? (dont feel forced to answer any of these) (for context + incase it wasn’t obvious ive been wanting and thinking of going to one if ever given the chance)

Oh man, where to start. Well first of all some of the main reasons to go to art school are the resources and the connections.

If you wanna get into furniture for example, that’s a lot easier if you have access to a whole workshop with tons of different saws. I’ve learned to use three different book binders as well as done hand binding myself, which is great fun for me but idk how I’ll make money out of that.

The thing is that depending on your major/department, a lot of the stuff you do in art school you could theoretically do on your own as well. So if you think you have enough willpower to make your own schedule and find your own resources then I’d say do that, and work on building your portfolio so you can show it off if you ever get the chance. especially if you don’t really have the money for college (I’m incredibly lucky to have someone help me cuz otherwise I’d be screwed)

If I’m honest, I didn’t really want to go to college at the time of me applying. I was kind of interested in learning how to wrap cars, and I wanted to take a course in that, if you can believe it. but all of my parents kids have to go to college no matter what (as in my mom forced me to apply to college and then sent me off like “I can’t help you pay for college btw good luck!”) so it was inevitable that I was going to go to an art school. which is fine because i've also always kind of wanted to go to a school, i was just stressed about not being able to afford it haha.

THEN there's what kind of art school you're going to. I'm at one of the most prestigious fine arts schools in the USA, because though I got admitted to others, I couldn't afford to go to others. the one I'm at offered the most money, because they could afford to. Idk what I'm gonna do with this degree but im in graphic design rn so I'll probably do something in that field. and it helps that the name of my school is renowned.

but if you, say, want to get into animation you're probably going to NEED to go to an art school. even if you cant get into an animation school specifically, any art school at all is better than none when it comes to animation (I think, idk for sure i'm not interested in animation as a job. my friend is tho so maybe I'll ask him)

now, HOW is art school? WELL. I've heard this isn't uncommon, but the first year was literally actual torture. it was really really bad. it made me more suicidal than I'd been since I was 12 and it ALSO made me start cutting for the first time ever. but I survived it, and the second year was way better! (if still stressful) the first year is for where they try to kill you, and the second year is where they go "haha just kidding ok lets get into what you want to know" at least that's how it is at where I am.

DESPITE the pain, and despite how even now I'm anxious about going back, I don't regret it at all. I really like my classmates and I love my professors. I love a lot of the work I've done and the skills I've learned. I liked living on campus and being so close to all that Art Stuff, even if i was too tired all the time to ever go out to any of the events.

plus on a more personal level, anywhere is better than living with my parents. so even if it was hellish the first year, i'm at least happy that i got things done and i wasn't wasting away at home with my mom.

hope that answers all your questions :)

[alrightrandy]

new year, new plans

what's this? a geniune alrightrandy blog post that isn't just random slop? …finally.

all jokes aside, i'm well aware that i haven't necessarily been ultilizing this site – as well as other platforms im on, as much as i wanted to. however, considering the new year has just begun i believe it's time to make some form of change around here.

i just want to preface this by saying that, all through out last year, i've ran myself into some personal turmoil that led me to essentially lack any sort of focus to work on any hobbies. it's hard to explain, i feel like i have done a lot but at the same time i clearly didn't have much creative output as much as i wanted to. and again, it didn't help that i was also juggling with stuff in my personal life too.

i guess the point i'm trying to make across here is that, i haven't properly found a right balance for myself, both creatively and irl-wise. and i certainly didn't have a proper sense of direction either… but i'm hoping to change that this year!

through out the end of 2023 up until the mid january, i've went through a pretty prolific event that kind of sparked a slew of motivation and plans to really get myself back.

in summary, around the holidays a phone of mine completely bricked itself for some random reason, making it practically inaccessible for me to use. and keep in mind, i'm still saving up to get myself a laptop, so i really had no other personal devices besides that phone.

thankfully, i did manage to get a new one – however, the point is that me being phone-less for a brief moment was very "humbling" for me. not only it was the only device for communication and having a creative outlet, but it just goes to show nothing should be taken for granted. ANYTHING can be lost in a matter of seconds, a simple reminder that i really needed to get myself together.

and with that, everything brings me to here. i've somewhat finally came up with a plan to hopefully boost some motivation within me, and also have a better commitment to my creative output.

to get the obvious stuff out of the way, in reguards of my youtube channel – as well as anything reguarding about dj'ing and music. i am going to try my best to put a heavier focus on these since its something i'm still a complete beginner at. it's a new hobby i've recently picked up, and it only makes sense for me to try to lean onto it a bit more. matter in fact...

i just recently put out something onto my channel!

i'm going try to put out at least one mini mix on a monthly (or bi-monthly) basis. hopefully it will not only expand my portfolio as a dj, but i geniunely think this could help with my issues with commiting to something. plus, i think it would definitely bring in some life to my channel since i still have no clue what direction i want to take it in.

don't get it twisted, i still want to experiment with all sorts of different types of videos. however, i can't make any promises if any of it will reach the light of day. at least with these mini mixes, they will hopefully still appear consistently even if i have nothing else to upload. idk, i think its a decent enough idea to sink time into.

now, reguarding everything about creating artwork and ultilizing my platforms. it's still somewhat uncertain, however if you checked my pinned post i have recently updated it with new sites you can check me out on!

but in short, i will also try to branch out more and maybe even network myself to finding ppl / communities. and along the way, i will also try to get back into creating art since i really have been putting that on the back burner. again, no promises but i have been putting some thought into it! (i'm looking at you Newgrounds and Bluesky…)

i'm reaching my text limit, so this is all i have for now. i'll catch you guys on the flipside, i really do hope i do better this year. knock me out if this post ages horribly lol

happy 2024!

~🐇

[hyunjinspark]

Hii I Hope ur well 💛 questionnn! Only if ur comfortable with answering ofc! so ur involved in art for school I see, and art is a passion of mine I want to pursue. Im seeing a lot of people saying don’t do it regarding work purposes and that colleges and universities for art aren’t worth it, and people can make it without it. Although,, I don’t know people personally who have some relation to art. But being conscious about money just puts me in a dilemma- So I just wanna ask ur thoughts I suppose?

I hope ur week goes well 💛 and I’m excited for you and your opportunity to Paris, it’s very inspiring too

hi ! im more involved in the design part, so that can vary from pure art/illustration if thats what you’re interested in pursuing. personally, for me uni is very worth it since i work on a lot of projects for my portfolio, meet other people in the field, and also have experience building skills! its not the same for everyone, a lot of people may not prefer going to college or uni for it, but i was v interested in getting a masters in that.

i think if you find a good enough uni for it in your county, it can be worth a shot! i love learning and thats why i choose to continue studying, but im sure you can make do without it, depending on the kind of job you’re interested in!

as for the money, its v expensive but i applied for a lot of different scholarships and im working on a campus job as well. college scholarships are super helpful ! so if you have a good portfolio in art, you dont need to worry you can perhaps even get a full ride, or 30/50% of your fee paid off. and you can also apply for state aid/financial aid from other organisations, so if youre really passionate about uni i suggest you look into those options! i hope that was even slightly helpful just my opinion 😭

[hesitantadrien]

I decided to redraw an old fandom piece as an original, to use as a portfolio piece, because I'm really struggling to create new art. The only fandomy thing about it is what the character is wearing, and I've always liked the piece, so it seemed like a prime candidate for a redraw. It's essentially a bust in a style similar to art nouveau. Nothing groundbreaking, but it looks nice and I'm hoping it'll help me feel more confident in making something that is actually new.

It feels so strange though. I opened the file, made it mostly transparent, and went to start drawing a circle for where the head should be under the details... But it feels like im tracing someone else's work. Not in a "this is cheating" or "I feel guilty reusing my old art" way, because it's not and I don't-- I think this is a solid strategy to revive the very, very dead artistic drive I once had. The piece is just so different from my current "work" (or maybe lack thereof) that it feels like a different person made it.

Everything I've made, or more accurately tried to make, for the past several years has been made mostly out of desperation. I'm desperate to get into a school, get a degree, get out of my shitty job and into something less shitty at the least. It's killed my creativity over and over, I feel like the very few finished pieces I have made really do look and feel desperate and stressed, that it comes through no matter the subject. Everything recent is poisoned by the pressure of making something good enough to warrant scholarship, to so thoroughly impress someone I haven't met yet that they'll save me from my own miserable life.

This older piece was made because I wanted to make it. Because I thought it looked nice, because it was fun. I knew it wouldn't be for a portfolio ever, and though I wanted it to get social media attention, the stakes were exceedingly low. I wasn't happy with my life when I drew that piece either, but I remember making art all the time, I remember it being easier, something to do for fun. I say I remember it, because I know it was true once, but I don't remember what that feels like anymore.

This isn't burnout, this is something else. I'm 29, trans and too poor to transition, have living relatives but no "family" other than my partner and my best friend, and my life savings is $250 in a jar. I have no degree and seemingly no options, I'm more or less paycheck to paycheck. I work full time and my mental health is so horrific that there's little time for me to complete basic tasks, like eating and cleaning, let alone time to dedicate to practicing art and making new pieces I genuinely want to make. I filled out fafsa and qualify for less than 12k student aid, over 9k of which is just direct loans. I'm already in 10k student debt from being pressured to go to a shitty university fresh out of highschool a decade ago, and my credit score isn't great. I don't want more loans even if I could get them, but I don't have the talent or experience to get an art job without a degree. I don't have a real portfolio, my art is painfully obviously student level. I don't know what to do. I desperately need top surgery and I feel like I'm constantly putting off everything else in my life because I haven't "accomplished" either of these things, because I should be saving for one or the other, because everything costs thousands of dollars and I bring home like $400 a week killing myself slowly in retail.

I have a significant breakdown about my life almost every other week now. I'm really trying to go through the motions of what I should do to improve things, but it's exhausting. Instead of daydreaming about the life I want anymore, I just daydream about joining a cult so I wouldn't have to think anymore (I'm jealous of the Jesus people, it's a new low for me!) or think about really elaborate, convoluted ways to die (there are so many fascinating poisons!) I know I can't live like this forever, but I don't know how to make my life better fast enough. I really do want it to get better.

I guess if anyone sees this and has been in my shoes and lived to tell the tale, tell me what I'm missing. And for the love of god, don't say it's patience.

[decadentrot]

2023 🎉🎉🎉

Ok new year and I thought since this blog is basically an archive of my fandom art, I'd also archive some "milestone" art and archive my reflection for the last year. Basically, I love art and I've always wanted to one day publish my own original comic/graphic novel and I've had this dream art school that I've always wanted to go to and then senior year rolled around and... I didnt submit my portfolio. Partially due to financial reasons, but mostly because I just hated my art (like most artist) and so I decided to take a "gap year" to take online courses and "fix" my art, but then I just didnt have enough money to even finish the courses so i just really gave up yk. I got very demoralized about school in general and thought art would just be a hobby and I should consider getting a "real job" as many of my family members would say, it didnt help that all of my friends were leaving for college and I was stuck at home. And so in my loneliness, I then created this blog because I still wanted someway to do art and be creative and share stupid ideas about my favorite characters and honestly I really really really enjoyed making fandom art. And after getting out of my slump and getting much encouragement from my friends/dad and lots of nights staying up with my anxiety as company, I decided I really should just do it and submit the portfolio and if I get in I get in and I should not be afraid to get loans and not let my financial problems get in the way of my happiness and wants. So I talked to the admission counselor and finally submitted my Illustration (Entertainment Arts Track) portfolio to ✨Art Center: College of Design✨ and a couple months later I actually got accepted woooo

So I'm sharing my accepted ACCD portfolio to by no means flex my art, I mean the anatomy and perspective still needs a lot of work and my traditional art in general isnt the cleanest, but when talking to the admission counselor, she definitely did see my faults but she also pointed out how even if my technical work isn't as polished, thats exactly what school is for: to learn and get better! And to be surrounded by likeminded people who also have a passion for art (and make those industry connections!) And something more eye opening I learned from her was that art isnt suppose to be perfect and "realistic," especially in the entertainment arts industry, what matters more is telling the story and making compelling characters. While knowing every muscle of the human anatomy is useful, as long as you get the message and purpose across, its good! (I mean look at the origins of one punch man).

Corny message aside, for as much as I was stressed during the beginning of this year, I ended up really enjoying it after all. I'm still improving my art and I still have to worry about my financial issues and college, but overall I spent these last couple days with family/friends and doing personal art projects and I'm relatively happy with my art and my OCs. My SumRec comic will probably be postponed by like a week maybe cause I've been busy with family and friends and obviously I haven't been posting a lot of my fandom art due to RL stuff, but when I actually have alone time to work on it and im satisfied, then it will be posted !! So for anyone who read through this post, I hope you maybe get some enjoyment from my art portfolio and also enjoyed last year and I hope this new year will be even better !! (And if your an artist, keep going and creating !!) 🎉

Bonus: Not part of my portfolio, but during my junior year of high school, I wanted to actually complete an animation instead of a bunch of animatics, so I did! Its incredibly rushed and my old art is cringe, but it was my first completed animation of some very old OCs and their potential intro sequence if they had a TV showヽ(✿ﾟ▽ﾟ)ノ:

[frost-bites-slushies]

please.

please leave me alone im sorry for what i did i apologised i let you use me like a punching bag i left so you never had to see me again i left so you never had to think about me or see my face but youre still following me. youre still tracking me and im so scared. i still start to shake when i hear about you and i start to cry when i see your usernames because im so disgusted with myself and what i let myself do becasue i was selfish. im not stupid, i knew what i was doing but i thought i could have my cake and eat it to, i was just lonely and desperate for friends so i jumped at the first chance i had before i thought too hard about it. it felt so good to have a group of friends i could talk to and hang out with and express myself to even if i was being manipulative and using you in the process. i never asked for forgiveness because i know i dont deserve it, i never asked you to say sorry because i knew i was in the wrong, but i am so scared of you. ive had threats and insults and i deserve it but it still makes me panic when i see them. i never deserved to be your friend, i know how horrible of a person i am and i know what could happen to you because of what i did, but please. please. please just let me have something. ive done what you wanted and stayed away, ive done everything i could for you already, ive exhausted myself but its never been good enough. all i ask is you stop fucking watching me, i may have hurt you so much more than ill ever know, but im also hurt. i lost my friends, i lost my account, i lost my portfolio, i lost my following as small as it was, im scared to even step back into the fandom i was in before because im terrified of someone alerting you of my presence. im terrified that youre watching me and that i would have no idea, it makes me fucking paranoid and drives me to tears when i think of you.

please. please all i ask of you. leave me alone. you use to be the closest people i ever knew and i confided in you my fears and my sensitivities and everything. you should know how sensitive i am and how scared ive always been of being "cancelled", i purposefully didnt get my hopes up for starting a social media account because i was scared shitless that i would make one wrong step and get death threats because of it. i didnt make just a wrong step i know, i made a lot of wrong steps, i ran a wrong marathon, but im still scared regardless. youve put information and art i gave ONLY to you up for everyone to see, and im going to be scared as long as i have this user of someone stumbling across that fucking post. my friendships and what spaces i can be in all rely on a fucking algorithm that could reccomend that post to ANYBODY. youve made it so i could never grow under this name or i risk that post being spread further than it already had been, or anybody im close to possibly getting harassed because they fucking associate with me. youre forcing me to give up the online identity ive had for years or else im likely to be haunted forever by this. im not allowed to grow from what ive done because of a fucking post floating around. im genuinely just scared. i found out only now that youve been following me and im panicking. i dont deserve to be upset by this because of how much ive hurt you and how i betrayed your trust but i still am. im anxious and panicking and terrified and i dont know what to do anymore. im fucked and thats it, and i have no idea what to do. i cant have anything and i honestly dont deserve to have anything, but im still begging for something. please. please believe that im not fucking stupid and that ill be able to grow from how badly ive hurt you, please believe that ill keep my promises and never have you see my face or think about me ever again. please. please just leave me alone. please.

[plagueislost]

Hii, for the artist ask game: number 4 and 10 is something I'd love to know :3

i wrote A LOT for this ask, sorry! i wanted to do the questions justice, yknow how it is.

4. piece you wish got more love?

Ive found from experience that original art tends to not do very well on social media, which kind of makes me sad. It's not much of a problem for me (because most of the stuff i post is fanart anyways) but i can't help but think that part of the reason i rarely ever draw original pieces or make OCs is because of the lack of feedback i get on social media. I know tumblr is supposed to be the fandom website, and maybe id have a different experience on another site, but it is disappointing when i post something original that I'm very proud of and it barely manages to get more than 20 notes, whereas something i like less easily surpasses 100 just because of the tags i put on it. i think the most recent example of this is this piece, which admittedly did get quite a few notes for an original piece, but definitely would have gotten more had it been fanart of the same caliber. this is also not to blame anyone or make anyone feel bad about not reblogging original art (god knows im guilty of that too, and art piggybacking off the popularity of other works of art are of course gonna get more notes), its just something ive noticed from my time on social media.

10. how do you deal with artblock?

i dont get art block very often, but when i do, its ANNOYING. it mostly manifests in me having a bunch of motivation for a part of my process that i cant get to without doing the stuff i have no desire to do (does that make any sense?). like, ill have a strong urge to render an artwork, but no ongoing WIPs that are at that stage, meaning i would have to sketch and color and shade a whole new piece before i could satiate that urge, or do the steps out of order which could mess up the flow and end look of a project. when i get like this, i find its best to try and translate those desires into different activities and take a step away from art. for example:

if i want to sketch, but nothing comes out right digitally, ill find a scrap piece of paper and a crappy pen and make thumbnails until i cant think of any other iterations of the ideas in my head. if one of them turns out good, ill take a picture and transfer it into my software, but only go over it a day or so later so i can have fresh eyes.

if i want to color, but i have no sketches currently ready for coloring, ill go into my photo editing program, find some random old photos that i never edited, and post-process them until i get something im happy with.

if i want to shade, but have no colored artworks ready for that, ill usually do a study of a photo ive taken, because most of the time me shading is really me wanting to see how light and shadow interact in certain scenarios. i actually did a whole AP portfolio on that because i liked shading and lighting so much!

if i want to render, but ive got no pieces ready for rendering, i find its easiest just to find a tedious activity where i can be a perfectionist but also feel like im the smartest person in the world. this generally turns into me cooking some big meal because its constantly engaging but also not that difficult. i know its probably weird for it to not have anything to do with art but this is just what works best for me, and i get the bonus of a nice meal at the end of it!

if i get the more classic kind of art block where everything sucks and nothing i make is good, i find its best to go back to the media that inspires me to make art, and not worry too much about having made something by the end of it. generally the media that inspires me ends up, well, inspiring me, and i can remind myself that art is a voluntary practice that i do because its fun, not because i want something out of it. if it doesnt manage to inspire me, thats okay, i can just tell myself im taking a break and live life for a bit.

i hope that was helpful, and i really enjoyed answering these questions! if anyone else wants to ask a question, the artist ask game is here.

[invader-777]

How did you get into animation? Im 23 and feel its too late to get into it

HI HI HI!! So sorry I'm responding to this so late! I had work yesterday and I have been so tired out from the physical labor, on top of other personal drama I don't want to delve into.

To answer your question, I'm still trying to get into the animation industry, so I'm not a certified professional yet. Emphasis on YET. I will be turning 25 in 5 months and I still haven't had the job opportunity come my way. So if you think age has any factor in getting into the career: rest assured that age has no limit in this industry. To get further into detail, I'll add a read more about the intricacies that I've learned from the animation industry so far <3

So the animation experience varies from person to person. I've had friends who started their careers with big studios right after we all graduated art school by age 22. You have people like me who are still looking for a job in the industry by age 24, and show no signs of stopping. I've seen plenty of artists over 30 and 40 barely getting their foot in the door into the career. Don't let these young content creators or success stories of infamous show runners make you think you're too late to get started in animation!

As an example: J.G. Quintel ,the creator of Regular Show, took what I believe was 10 years to get started at Cartoon Network after graduating from CALarts, and spent those 10 years after graduating working retail and register jobs.

Consider your factors in life. For me, I grew up with a town that never favored the arts, so I thankfully had the financial support to go to an art school in California for a couple of years to expand and improve the skills I previously had. DO NOT THINK THAT GOING TO ART SCHOOL IS A MUST! Plenty of artists in this career have gotten successful without ever having went to college. Unless you think you need it and you have the money, then start researching where you'd want to attend, look at the intuition and alumni reviews and etc.

As far as portfolio advice goes, my professors have taught me one thing I keep in mind: ✨QUALITY OVER QUANTITY✨. You can have a small and dingy or big and fancy portfolio, but recruiters will not care. As long as you have the skill they're looking for, that's all that matters. Do not be afraid to draw something outside of your comfort zone - flexibility in your skills is a bonus. Anatomy and cafè/life drawings are a must to show companies you know how to draw humans and animals. Most importantly, try to cater to the specific job in the industry you want to aim for. If you're looking to only be a storyboard artist, show thumbnails, rough sketches, and your own animatics/storyboards projects. And vice versa appplies for the other positions out there.

My last pieces of advice: DO. NOT. GIVE. UP. This profession relies on passion, optimism, resilience, preservation, and determination. The second you give up, it's over. Obviously this doesn’t mean you can't draw for yourself or take a break; but do not get discouraged from being denied or ignored from the opportunities you apply to, that you don't see the point in it anymore. These, at this time, are extremely common, but they aren't a reflection of you as an artist or as a person. This is why you constantly need to practice as much as you can, thus going back to never giving up. That way, when you apply again, you'll be better than you were before, improving your chances of getting hired even more.

Do not worry about your age and thinking that it's too late for you. In this industry, it's never too late to start your career regardless of your age. Stay vigilant, do not give up, and always practice on improving your drawing skills! I hope this helps and I wish you the best of luck in your endeavor 💖 here's to one day working with each other🌸

[cookies-ribbons]

dear diary,

it's been a long time since i wrote on my blog and i came here with so much news to tell! will i feel like telling all of them? who knows…

let's start with the premise that i FINALLY finished school, graduated and applied for admission to the academy of fine arts in bologna in the faculty of graphic design… the places were very limited, about 25, and in total there were 200 of us. unfortunately i didn't pass, neither alessia :c, but i was already feeling this so i prepared a plan B: to do private graphic design courses! during july, august and september i had to prepare the portfolio to present at the interview and also a poster. not having a good computer before and i had to buy a new one: a mac!

im very happy i bought it and currently (it's october) im doing great and i dont regret at all to have switched from a windows to a mac! anyway i'll have to get a windows setup to play with, since its one of my biggest dreams as soon as i'll have enough money!

of the rest, im glad I finished school, this year i experienced it badly the school environment but not very badly. with one of my classmates i used to hang out with always bonded with others leaving me behind and i tried a confrontation with her but she was just yelling so much, so that i gave up even though i was feeling very bad about it. during this year i bonded so much with alessia, always a schoolmate now ex classmates, and shes the only one except for another girl and i still hang out with her. sad isn't it? we were all bonded… how did we end up not talking to each other anymore with the whole class? growth, supposedly. with that girl, i don't talk to her anymore because for my person and other factors she was too toxic for me, it didn't make me feel very good to be with her and she criticized everything i did.

but life goes on! i met a girl on december and we'll can call mk, with whom i later hang out with her sister also at the weeknd concert! on july 27, 2023!!!

needless to say, we flirted all the time but on this topic i should copy and paste from the personal diary i have on my computer because there would be so much to tell!

atm im in a gdr on instagram thanks to mk and now i have about 250 followers in not even a month?! its crazy. i've met so many people, especially a girl named cassie who is simp for my character elijah. it's very funny i admit it! there are a lot of nice profiles, im in the kpop gdr part so i see more jungkook than anything else AHAH

im a jungkook too, how funny lol

i would love to talk to X in the gdr just for the sake of seeing how he behaves since everyone, and i mean EVERYONE, tells me not to talk to him because hes toxic and manipulative. i love to get hurt apparently and my curiosity never stands still! i haven't followed him yet but maybe someday. if i make up my mind, i'll see about it although i hope he does first, i admit it!

for now these are the most important things i have to say, a mini summary of my 2023 although there are so many things to say, ahimè!

13 october 2023: happy birthday jimin!!