#now i have designs for when i draw more... fun... drawings of them :)

[forsaken-headcanons]

Time to throw tons of most random HC like the randomized anon I'm :3

John Doe have hoarding behaviour,the item he hoard the most is clothings, plushie and box in his room

1x1x1x1 read book with whistle occurrence(flower) to spend time

1x1x1x1 drink soda TOO MUCH,and he influenced c00lkidd to do the same

1x have claws,but he prefer attacking with sword (unless he got unarmed) and helps John Doe with trimming claws to avoid to being too long and torn out by accident(John Doe don't like to trim claws,1x had to do it himself)

John Doe claws are supposedly long,but too long will cause it to be unable to retract back properly and potentially hurt himself (he prefer getting claws shortened by attacking survivors or scratching stuff to trim it)

Bluudud and c00lkidd often draw art of themselves or something and show it at each other (art fight, except literally just them keep comparing who's drawing is better,and they kinda just get along and improved cuz of this)

The c00lkidd and John Doe art in one of the map is drawn by c00lkidd,cuz the spectre feels like to let the killers decorate the map abit. While whole most just put some image cuz they're not as interested,c00lkidd go wild and designed most part of the map(I forgot the map name)

c00lkidd have autism

c00lkidd watch object show alot and have an object show oc even

Itrapped is actually originally gonna scam Chance for his money,but then they got along too well and became buddies and Itrapped instead helped Chance now

Bomber share diet as his bomb,so Bomber eat gunpower and fuel/gasoline or whatever explosive chemical other than human food

Taph and Bomber keep giving guest 1337 war flashbacks cuz of explosive (Taph apologies a lot for it)

Taph and Bomber had interaction before forsaken,Bomber become insane manic cuz of forsaken events(I assume)

Taph got foreakened due to cycle of guilt/self blaming and anger/hatred to other when he got hated for doing his job to take down house (related to forsaken being metaphor of cycle of guilt/grief HC)

Taph might have undiagnosed mental illness,but he pretend to be alright when buildermen is there

Buildermen is pretty good with sword cuz Shedletsky taught him on it before (they swordfight for fun a lot before cuz they're friends)

Buildermen is pretty strong, enough to throw hand and attack killer actually(but not as good at fighting as guest 1337 + he rather stay safe since he isn't that brave to face off monster,he only attack as last resort self defense)

Shedletsky's Telamon clothings is the merch he sold that turned out to sell well (which is why there's more than one character having the clothing lol)

Shedletsky can do street dance,skateboard and do trick with skateboard too(had done tricks with his before too) he tried to teach buildermen before, but buildermen isn't as interested into it but did tried it out before

Same for Elliot too(I think he shows off it more after becoming popular like in his milestones skin)

Both Elliot and Shedletsky can rap,they had collab before (second reason why Elliot gets popular)

Jason likes desserts,fav is Tiramisu

Noob is good at singing(he made the classic "the noob song")

2x2 befriended all the killer, survivor, NPC and even kinda get along with Spectre,so he basically gets rent free living in there (literally that one person with no enemies)

Jane Doe gives everyone therapy,as an effort to get everyone out of the cycle(related to forsaken being metaphor of cycle of guilt/grief HC,also related to HC where Jane Doe didn't get into game cuz she moved on from the past but didn't 100% move on)

There's one time spectre accidentally let all four killers in one round,the survivors got so traumatized from this they didn't have round for a very long time cuz of it,Jane Doe was real busy in these time

Toothy deer is spectre's friend or just spectre's pet(not in a weird way,just similar since spectre is probably god-like existence, basically the spectre kept Toothy deer,but they interact each other like friends or god and follower way ofc) that's why you get killed for bullying him in-game

ajarbythedoor(that Egypt cat looking NPC incase you don't know who I mention) got removed cuz they meet the criteria to break free of cycle already,and is giving advice to help other survivor before spectre remove them out of there (related to forsaken being metaphor of cycle of guilt/grief HC) (I remember the wiki say they're removed(and I checked before,they are) but now I don't see it anymore,so idk unless I check it out in-game again)

Thats all,I had tons of ideas today lol

-randomized anon

(I can finally be yellow now yippee)

We're back to our regularly scheduled program of yellow randomized anon.

I will go insane tagging all this.

[justablah56]

they make me fucking sick

click for better quality since Tumblr hates when I'm fancy and use bigger canvases <3

[igamer12]

my htf humanizations \(^o^)/ girls and theys edition

^^^ original sketches! still kinda proud of them but there have been many design changes and improvements since then hahahah (especially in regards to giggles and lammy)

anyways!! additional info :-3 this is kind of an au but also i don't want to do much with it other than design the characters so idk lol BUT: they're supposed to be like. vague college students age-wise. i like to think doing childish things in their universe is just socially acceptable. at least in my au. also: petunia goes by she/they, giggles and lammy go by she/her, and flaky goes by any but mostly they/she/he ^_^ petunia is bi (with a girl preference), giggles is pan, lammy is aroace and flaky is nonbinary and questioning. also petunia and flaky are autistic now. hi

might make more in the future btw hehe :-3 i already have some ideas for splendid cuddles and toothy so they may be next

[chiropteracupola]

A May morning.

[moeblob]

(throws them into a modern AU)

So since Ymber wouldn't be a deity there are some things he lacks physically - such as no pointed ears and no bright blue undertones to his hair. Just the basic blue. (does he dye it in a modern AU ? who knows) Also while he doesn't have a collar to symbolize his servitude to humans I still think he should have a choker.

I had some help a while back brainstorming how there would be some form of "superior" dynamic could still exist and I really liked the idea given that he's a famous architect. (he does design all constructs for his city as a deity so it checks out - he likes buildings) And Deacon just admires all the guy's works and never expects to run into him but of course they do! Gotta have a very awkward "oh it's you I'm going to melt into the earth" and "I have no idea who you are but we should hang out".

Sooo Deacon still just really admires Ymber and feels like they're on totally different levels and doesn't understand why Ymber would want to associate with him since he's just a "boring human".

[whiteboardartstudios]

Goodbye, Gendaen

fan art for @mtqcomic

Thoughts and LONG ramble under the cut! (includes spoilers!!!)

A while ago (like last week maybe?) I realized that I've been following this comic for almost a year, and I still haven't drawn Mysta yet! I figured that with the recent end of Chapter 3 and that *huge* lore drop (I was NOT expecting that oh my goodness the theory wheels are turning in the void that is my brain) now would be a pretty good time to draw her! So that's where this came from! :D

I thought that it would be fun to draw Mysta looking sort of like a knight? Partially because it makes for cool posing and composition but also because I think that if she was in D&D she would be a paladin due to the whole "Hero sent by Destiny" thing (I considered sorcerer or warlock as well, but her moveset is mostly melee at the moment so I thought that paladin fits better. Plus this opens up the possibility of Gendaen being an Oathbreaker paladin, depending on how that whole situation with the Crimson went. (also now I kind of want to put the main cast of mtq in D&D even though I don't actually know a lot about D&D ToT. I think Eth would be a ranger maybe multiclassed into something magic-related, because rangers have a favored enemy mechanic that gives them advantages on fighting a certain type of enemy, which could be Crimson enemies for D&D Eth. Yele is (kind of obviously) a druid because of the whole dryad thing, and Zaïl is definitely giving rogue energy to me.)) Anyways, D&D-related sidetrack aside – hello??? End-of-chapter-3 lore drop? (/positive) I have SO many questions. First of all, what happened to convince Gendaen to switch sides? For someone who allegedly spent his entire life trying to cleanse the Crimson, it would've taken one heck of a worldview-upending revelation to get him to join it. With the information we currently have, it seems pretty clear that Gendaen isn't mind-controlled or corrupted or anything – not just because of the reasons Eth gave in page #169, but also because from all the interactions we've had with Nelun Soma'o/Gendaen, he seemed to be pretty chill? I pointed out in my first fan art post that it doesn't seem as if Nelun Soma'o is being built up to be a villain character and is instead more of an antagonist with a slight mentor role, and I think that still kind of holds up now. Gendaen definitely wants Mysta to help him and/or the Crimson with something, and as Yele said in that recent comic, things aren't really adding up. I'm still slightly suspicious of the Order of Learning as well (insert person pointing at conspiracy theory board meme here lol), since you would think that if Gendaen and Eth are really close then Gendaen might have told Eth about the whole Crimson situation, right? On Page #250 (which is marked as 150??? probably a typo but idk) Gendaen says that he didn't want Eth to be roped into this whole situation, which could be a reason for keeping him in the dark – though if he knew Eth really well then he might have suspected that Eth wouldn't just let him disappear and would go searching for him. Another possible reason (in my theory) if the Order is evil or something and Gendaen learned something that he shouldn't have learned, maybe he knew that Eth wouldn't believe him because of his loyalty to the Order? I may just be connecting random dots and calling it a picture here but *something* is going on and until we get more clues on what that may be, I'm sticking with this theory lol :P EDIT, I was rereading Gendaen's character sheet and it says there that he has a strong code of honor and fights for the underdogs (not the exact phrasing but it's close). 👀 does that mean the Crimson is in some sort of underdog position? 👀

Anyways back to the drawing a little, I gave both Gendaen and Mysta a sort of braid-like element in their designs to sort of tie them together a bit visually (Mysta's is on the sides of her head, which is kind of hard to see so I added a little ribbon to show that parts of her hair is tied back, and Gendaen's is in his golden hair accessory thingy). I think that there's definitely some sort of correlation between Gendaen's disappearance/switching to the Crimson and Mysta being sent to Sol Ybberia, and I also think that both of them are going to play an important role in whatever happens in the future, hence the braids (to show that their destinies are kind of intertwined, as the two Heroes of Sol Ybberia). I also thought that it would be fun to put Gendaen in a stained glass window instead of actually physically being present, because up until the Nelun Soma'o reveal, all the things we know about Gendaen are basically all from Eth's recollections of him, which for me definitely paints a bit of a "Character haunting the narrative" kind of vibe. I also think that with the Nelun Soma'o reveal, the somewhat glorified (for a lack of a better word – I think Eth might be a little biased when it comes to Gendaen, considering that Gendaen has been missing for about 5 years, if my math is correct? 5 years feels like a long time to me and I think that if a person important to me has been missing for that long then my impression of them would definitely start warping to how I want to remember them/who I wanted them to be and I might start unintentionally ignoring the things that doesn't quite match that image in my head. Speaking of/case in point, Eth's reaction to the Nelun Soma'o reveal!) image of Gendaen that we had got thrown in a metaphorical blender with our idea of the Crimson at the time, and it just makes things a whole lot more complicated in a very interesting way. (If you look at the bottom right of the image you can see Nelun Soma'o's cloak coming out of stained-glass Gendaen's cloak, which I thought would be a fun little detail to include). Hence, the stained glass is kind of the "perfect Hero who disappeared to advance the plot" Gendaen and we can see Mysta kind of splitting the glass with her Rotted Fork from a composition point of view, referencing that huge lore bomb she dropped a couple of pages ago and how that changes our (or at least my) perception of Gendaen as a character entirely. I really do like the plot twist, as I think it makes Gendaen a more 3-dimensional character with more complicated motivations and narrative significance, as before I mainly knew him as "predecessor to Mysta" and "one of Eth's sources of motivation", but now he my understanding of Gendaen also extends to things about Gendaen himself and not just about his role in relation to other characters (for example, "Gendaen is helping the Crimson for reasons currently unknown" or "Gendaen is planning something that involves Mysta??? and he's in the Void??? And apparently Mysta is supposed to jailbreak him out at some point in the future?" He definitely has something planned behind the scenes, I don't know what it is and I want to find out).

MORE THINGS about Gendaen (can you tell that he's my favorite character at the moment ToT), what's up with those last words? If I'm correct (and I think I am, I scrolled all the way back to the page where the gods were introduced just to check this ToT), Nomù is Compassion? How is compassion related to Gendaen's alliance with the Crimson? I mean, when you think of the Crimson, compassion definitely is NOT the first value that comes to mind. Right now it seems that to me, Gendaen's plan with Mysta and the Crimson and the Void is connected to Nomù somehow? (the "I won't disappoint you" is definitely interesting). I don't have a lot of thoughts or theories on where this might be going, I just thought that it was something interesting to metaphorically chew on for the next while. It definitely seems like it has some sort of narrative significance, at least.

There might be more things that I wanted to talk about, but I can't really think of them off the top of my head right now (it might be due to the fact that it's currently quite late in my time zone ToT I am sleepy) so that's all from me for now :D (Also dropping the version of the drawing with just the lineart here because I think it looks really cool)

I hope you have a really nice day and/or night! :D

*a starry rift in space opens up in front of me and I faceplant into it like it is a mattress* (gotta make that dramatic exit!) [Image ID: The first image is a colored and rendered image of Mysta from the Mysta's Terrarian Quest webcomic standing in front of a stained glass window of Gendaen. She is holding the Rotted Fork spear from Terraria, and she has a determined expression on her face. The stained glass shows Gendaen with his back turned to the audience, and one closed eye is visible. His cloak is flowing to the right of the image, where it emerges out of the stained glass as it fades from green to dark grey. Crimson vines, green trees, and white clouds surrounds Gendaen in the stained glass. Outside of the glass portrait, real crimson vines are creeping along the stone walls that the portrait is on, framing the portrait and Mysta in the middle. A red light source is shining down from the upper right corner of the drawing. End ID.] [Image ID: The second image is a work-in-progress version of the first image without any color and only some minimal shading, with all shades being in monochrome. Mysta's lineart is noticeably darker compared to the line art of the background. End ID.]

EDIT: Forgot to add image ids, they're here now TwT

[bamboorocket]

So uh... remember that Lancer crossover I was working on for Spookami? And how I put this tag on the original post?

Well that's actually happening for real now, because our GM is not only running a oneshot separate from our main campaign this weekend, but also very encouraging of letting us pull expy nonsense. Joke's on him if he think I'm not committing to the bit, though, so have the portrait I drew for the "Pilot" section of my character sheet.

Most refer to Waka in this AU by his callsign "Onmyōji". Those that don't usually just call him a pain in the ass.

[todayisafridaynight]

Religiously i think about one of my twitter mutuals pointing out how aoki's design is subtly asymmetrical while ichiban is more symmetrical

when i think of it, masato's design is fairly symmetrical as well isnt it.....

[stepswowdsen]

【KagePro】 KuroEne 🖤💙💗

I have too much power. I'm unstoppable 💥💥💥

Choose your favourite version of XX/6 🖤💙🐍🐇🫶

Ty to Feila for giving me the idea~ 💗

I think the first one looks the best in terms of positioning (how the images crop and fit in the frame)

I love the Playing Card chibi arts (so I originally did it with them), but it doesn't fill up the frames unfortunately. So I also did it with other arts too

Not right now ofc but I really wanna make plushie designs of them and my other top fave ships one day...

I have the video versions for all of these, but Tumblr doesn't let me upload more than one video per post

So I just uploaded the GIF versions.

Rambles

F: Imagine this GIF but XanLena

Me: Omg this would be so cute to do with XanLena…

F: You close the locket, they kith :3

F: LMAO DO IT

Me: THAT'S A GOOD IDEA OMG. I should do it with KuroEne's other official arts as well

F: LMAOAO YYEESS

...

Me: So tempted to do this with my ships

Put the meow meow mf on one side and their S/O on the other and then BOOM when the heart locket closes, they kiss!!!

(This was Feila's idea)

C: You should hahjtsh

Me: I'M A GENIUS

C: LOL

Me: KuroEne Kiss

Based on your ideas with XanLena earlier

F: THEY DID IT

THEY KISSED

THEY HITFHDHDH

Me: I felt :) the whole time while making these… I love them sm

Now all I gotta do is make these with other arts of KuroEne, XanLena, JuAli, IdaTatsu, and LimGuda. We need multiple versions of these for each of them

F: You definitely got an addiction but I support it 🔥

...

Feila suggested to make the GIF with XanLena, my KHR AU yume (Canon/OC) ship of XanLena (Xanxus/Selena) ❤️💜

So I took the opportunity to make them for my faves! I'll be posting the ones with XanLena, JuAli, IdaTatsu, and LimGuda separately!

Could you imagine plushies of them. Goddd I seriously need to make plushies of them in the future...

I want to have dolls of my fave ships one day where you can dress them up, so I can dress them in custom clothes and change their outfits from time to time :3

It'd be sooo cute for my OTPs to share a scarf together (if possible)

The best part about being able to draw for me is that I can fuel my fave chara/ship shenanigans 🤸 Yayyy!

Me making my KuroEne plushies kiss like barbie dolls 😚💘

And the same for my other ships!

[bobzora]

i think if i tried hard enough i could be an ocguy. if i really tried

[maliro-t]

what they don't tell you about art is there is so much trial and error that every time you do something you like you have to remember how you did it if you ever want anything to look like it again

[wildflowercryptid]

kinda want to play with the idea of drayton being more conniving in mjverse... 🤔

[peipakao]

made an opm ninja oc named petal!!

[occudo]

An incomplete list of TMA fics I adore

-beacuse of this ask

(If you liked the fics I previously recommended/made fanart for, I think you'll gonna like these as well, but you know, read the tags, know what you are going into)

Yesterday is Here by CirrusGrey @cirrus-grey

Time Travel Fix-it! Slow burn! So good! So much sass from future!Jon- I doubt I have to introduce anyone this amazing author, but if you somehow missed them till now, this is your time! I highly recommend all of their other fics as well, for example one of a more recent one, The Stranger I Know Best is also a lovely read.

enthralling by Prim_the_Amazing @primtheamazing

Vampire!Martin!! I have no words of how much I love this concept, this story, everything about this. I think I'm going to repeat myself through this list, but I also recommend everything else they've written!

to fill... my heart with music? by godshaper @godshaper so their Martin and Jon design are different from mine, also they made a way better art for this- but still, I wanted to include this really good fic in this list.

Do It All Anew by inkfingers_mcgee or @crit20art

You know the feeling when you read a book that makes you cry, and after that you recommend it to your friend? Well- there is no reason I mentioned this, I'm just so normal about this fic. Or any other fic from inkfingers_mcgee... like Strange Manner of what I made another fanart way back. Also, check out their art!

Anyway, here is Aamal- she is not going to cause emotional damage.

And they were sidekicks (oh my god, they were sidekicks) by arthureameslove @arthureameslove

A lighthearted series where Jon and Martin are sidekicks of supervillains- it's just a really fun fic, also recommend everyting from this author - I previously draw fanart here for an other fic of theirs Like a Lighthouse, Call Me Home

neither sad, nor sick, nor merry, nor well by saintbleeding @saintbleeding

To quote the aurthour: "Post-divorce Jon and Martin in a wedding-based romcom" It's such a comfort read, also has a Tim/Sasha wedding, and lots of cameos! I realised most of these authors I made fanarts for before- like this one for some kind of miraculous bind, this one is oneshot and a bit more serious in tone.

Give Me the Words by rakel @rakel-on-ao3

"Jon and Martin try to make the most of a bad situation in the Scottish Highlands. The situation is worse than they realised." You know that one post about wanting to write PWP, but it keeps turning into character study? Well, this one comes to my mind each time I see that.

i wanna find a home (i wanna share it with you) by heartshapedguy @transgenderboobs

So what would have happened if instead of the cot (tm), Jon offered Martin his own flat to stay? There is no way it's going to change their relationship, right? Such a good read, if you want some fluff, I highly recommend it!

Lucky Stars by magnetarmadda @magnetarmadda

Martin has a lovely family (except his mother) but still, he needs a fake boyfriend, and Jon comes to the rescue. It's one of the first fics I remember reading after I finished the series. It is such a comfort read of mine~

(+enjoy a rare tall Jon from me)

There are so many more fics that also deserve the spotlight, these are just the ones I read multiple times and/or didn't made fanarts for before. If you find something here you like, give them some love! Kudos and comments! They deserve it. (Also, just an extra disclamier some of these are PWP or rated T- just mind the tags)

I tried to link and tag everything, I hope it works.

[kianamaiart]

tattoo tour!

got some asks about my own tattoos! i've talked about em on my other blog but not here i think

opihi shell

this was my first tattoo! when i was little, my grandma would call me her "little opihi" because i'd stick by her side all the time and i thought it'd be an appropriate and meaningful tattoo to get.

________________________

team rocket rose

another tattoo i designed along with @/loinktattoos on insta. dedicated to my love for jessie, james and meowth. it's a rose with a blast off star and a "TR" in the leaf~

________________________

tsuta mon

my japanese side of the family's crest! my brother, mom and i all have it~

________________________

lignum vitae flower

a tattoo of jamaica's national flower to celebrate my jamaican heritage. tattooed by @/loinktattoos and designed by @/sablingart on twitter

________________________

doughnut

it's the doughnut from the kpop girl group twice's song "doughnut" LOL. it's maybe my favorite song ever (?). they also raaarely play their japanese songs outside of japan but i got to hear it live and it solidified my love for the song

________________________

arbok tattoo

much like how i love team rocket, i love arbok. i sometimes draw jessie with an arbok marking tattoo on her chest and i considered doing that too but doing it on my wrist seemed like a nice placement. plus i can make my hand look like a snake and i think that's fun

________________________

brushstroke tattoo

my first purely aesthetic tattoo and also my biggest piece! i found @/reina.asami's work on instagram and instantly fell in love with their style. a lot of their work centers around japanese culture and specifically japanese american culture. i had such a lovely conversation with them about being mixed and my experiences. we also talked about the irony of honoring our japanese heritage with tattoos haha

________________________

botan hanafuda card

one of my favorite games to play with my grandparents on my japanese side is hanafuda! i've always loved how pretty the cards looks and all the different flowers. each suit corresponds to a month and the botan is for june (my birth month)

________________________

bat

i like bats hehe. i had a tattoo themed birthday party last year where my friends made "kiana themed" tattoos and we put them on temporary tattoo sheets. but also @/loinktattoos was there to give anyone who wanted a real tattoo a real tattoo. and i got a bat designed by one of my best friends @/ghostbri, who shares my love of bats~

________________________

botan

i came across @/miyookstatto's instagram a while back and reaaaally wanted a tattoo from her at some point. problem was she was based in seattle. however! i had a wedding in seattle coming up and tried to see if i could book an appointment the day i landed and she happened to have a spot open!

________________________

wobbuffet

my most recent tattoo and maybe one of the most special. my brother and i have been wanting matching tattoos for yeaaaars but couldn't really think of anything to get. our love for pokemon was always something we had in common but he models and can't have anything copyrighted on his body. however, one of his favorite pokemon is ditto and i got the idea to just do its face because you could argue that it's just a smiley haha. so i decided to get just a wobbuffet face to match! what made it special is that we were able to tattoo each other! he did stick and poke for mine and i got to use a machine which was rad.

that's all for now!! i want more so badddd. definitely want a back piece at some point and would also love to get a little shooting star to commemorate making "i don't want to be a magical girl"

[vetyr]

hi, i ireally love your work and i don't know if you've answered this before but, what kinds of studies do you do or how did you learn color theory? i wanna get better at rendering and anatomy but im having trouble TT TT

Hi! Long answer alert. Once a chatterbox, always a chatterbox.

When I started actively learning how to draw about 10 1/2 years ago, I exclusively did graphite studies in sketchbooks. Here's a few examples—I mostly stuck to doing line drawings to drill basic shapes/contours and proportions into my brain. The more rendered sketches helped me practice edge control & basic values, and they were REALLY good for learning the actual 3D structure behind what I was drawing.

I'd use reference images that I grabbed from fitness forums, Instagram, Tumblr, Pinterest, and some NSFW places, but you could find adequate ref material from figure drawing sites like Line of Action. LoA has refs for people (you can filter by clothed/unclothed, age, & gender), animals, expressions, hands/feet, and a few other useful things as well. Love them.

Learning how to render digitally was a similar story; it helped a lot that I had a pretty strong foundation for value/anatomy going in. I basically didn't touch color at all for ~2 years (except for a few attempts at bad digital or acrylic paint studies), which may not have been the best idea. I learned color from a lot of trial and error, honestly, and I'm pretty sure this process involved a lot of imitation—there were a number of digital/traditional painters whose styles I really wanted to emulate (notably their edge control, color choices, value distributions, and shape design), so I kiiind of did a mixture of that + my own experimentation.

For example, I really found Benjamin Björklund's style appealing, especially his softened/lost edges & vibrant pops of saturated color, so here's a study I did from some photograph that I'm *pretty* sure was painted with him in mind.

Learning how to detail was definitely a slow process, and like all the aforementioned things (anatomy/color/edge control/values/etc.) I'm still figuring it out. Focusing on edge control first (that is, deciding on where to place hard/soft edges for emphasizing/de-emphasizing certain areas of the image) is super useful, because you can honestly fool a viewer into thinking there's more detail in a piece than there actually is if you're very economical about where you place your hard edges.

The most important part, to me, is probably just doing this stuff over and over again. You're likely not going to see improvement in a few weeks or even a few months, so don't fret about not getting the exact results you want and just keep studying + making art. I like to think about learning art as a process where you *need* to fail and make crappy art/studies—there's literally no way around it—so you might as well fail right now. See, by making bad art you're actually moving forward—isn't that a fun prospect!!

It's useful to have a folder with art you admire, especially if you can dissect the pieces and understand why you like them so much. You can study those aspects (like, you can redraw or repaint that person's work) and break down whether this is art that you just like to look at, or if it's the kind of art that you want to *make.* There's a LOT of art out there that I love looking at, probably tens of thousands of styles/mediums, but there's a very narrow range that I want to make myself.

I've mentioned it in some ask reply in the past, but I really do think looking at other artist's work is such a cheat code for improving your own skills—the other artist does the work to filter reality/ideas for you, and this sort of allows you to contact the subject matter more directly. I can think of so many examples where an artist I admired exaggerated, like, the way sunlight rested on a face and created that orange fringe around its edge, or the greys/dull blues in a wheat field, or the bright indigo in a cast shadow, or the red along the outside of a person's eye, and it just clicked for me that this was a very available & observable aspect of reality, which had up until that point gone completely unnoticed! If you're really perceptive about the art you look at, it's shocking how much it can teach you about how to see the world (in this particular case I mean this literally, in that the art I looked at fully changed the way I visually processed the world, but of course it has had a strong effect on my worldviews/relationships/beliefs).

Thanks so much for sending in a question (& for reading, if you got this far)! I read every single ask I receive, including the kind words & compliments, which I genuinely always appreciate. Best of luck with learning, my friend :)