#the things i do to make my artblog an easy to use resource for when i need to find specific things ive posted

[thelemonsnek]

Followup to this post, here's xyr team <3

[image id: a compilation of six pokemon (all official art) surrounding their trainer, an oc named Sol. The pokemon, going from left to right, are a honchkrow, a sneasler, a west sea gastrodon, a hisuian decidueye, a luxray, and an alpha rapidash. All of them are sized more or less to scale. End id]

[slimeyflowers-blog]

Beginner artist quick tips

Hey there glad you’re interested in drawing! It’s a super fun hobby and useful for story-making.

Disclaimer: This is a quick tutorial that helped me improve my art drastically and wish I knew when I was starting out. This isn’t the only way to start or go about it. I will detail what would have helped me if I had more guidance and support in my life.

RESEARCH THE FUNDAMENTALS

Start with basic art fundamentals like perspective, composition, value + contrast, textures, space + volume and colors. Keep it simple and make little projects for yourself. Keeping it simple helps w getting stuff done. These will also help fix up future drawing problems that a beginner and even professionals struggle with.

INCREASE PROJECT DIFFICULTY GRADUALLY +  WORK TO IMPROVE EFFICIENTLY

In the beginning it’s not as apparently, being new to everything means not having much comfort. Keep drawing for a bit and it gets easy to fall into the mindset that if I can’t draw it I won’t. Like put hands behind bodies or don’t add shadows because to heck with light! These are signs of getting TOO COMFORTABLE.

How to break out of comfort-zone?

Increase drawing project difficulty slightly. Work on improving 1-2 things until you can draw hands and add light. Work on something you REALLY want to learn, like story-boarding, develop projects around it and gradually adding new tasks and goals. This takes discipline to accomplish. Overtime it’ll get easy to figure out what needs work and how to get started on it.

TAKE BREAKS AND TIME OFF

Take breaks for 15-30 minutes after drawing for 1-3 hours. Every 45 minutes if your wrist is moving back and forth quickly like when using colored pencils or markers. Practice wrist stretch exercises and be mindful of the potential of art-related conditions.

On that same note, it can get really enticing to want to draw everyday without rest to get good ASAP. Drawing everyday is not only unrealistic but also detrimental to an artist’s health. It’s alright to not draw for as much time you need or want. Despite what some folxs might say that it’s absolutely important to draw everyday to continue getting better, it’s not true. Everyone has to take breaks eventually to avoid burnouts + art blocks. If something isn’t working take some time off and come back later.

Your health and sanity is top priority.

BE OPEN TO LEARNING + THINKING OUT THE BOX

This one is more advice that comes from art professor + me than online tutorials. As an artist I’ve found it super helpful to just want to learn everything. There’s so much to learn and endless tutorials. Take advantage of them.  

Even if it doesn’t make sense in a drawing context, skills and knowledge add up. For example, I took a culinary class that had NOTHING to do with art whatsoever but it was insanely useful. It reinforced my team-player and leadership skills, both which are highly coveted in art school CVs. I will be using this skill set to set up our college’s art club and place that into my art resume so in the future when I want to land a studio job I have that experience.

TAKE ADVANTAGE OF RESOURCES

There are a lot of resources and some of them aren’t easy to recognize. I’ll list some common ones that is usually recommended and then the overlooked ones that I have personally learned about.

Common:

Low-cost Art Classes

Art tutorials

Video tutorials

Favorite artists/stuff you like

Life drawing+studies

Online-reference sites/databases

Overlooked:

Museums +art galleries

Join an art club at local colleges( it’s fun to bond with other peers/friends on similar interests. As well as experience different art interpretations and voices that can benefit your own personal growth)

Libraries (travel brochures, encyclopedias, fashion magazines, so forth. Theres so much free reference sources and you can keep rechecking it over and over again)

Art history (this is a major one, learning history is A+)

Local artshows and workshops (a local art store I go to has monthly cheap or free workshops)

Art professors

Other artists

HAVE AN ART TAG OR ARTBLOG

If you can keep a personal blog and an artblog so that people have an easier time finding your work. It also helps to keep organized for personal reasons. Nothing worse than sifting through 1000’s of tweets to find art.

EXPERIMENT WITH DIFFERENT ART MEDIUMS

This helps with finding a style and way of doing things. There so much out there! Also makes it easier to test something so in the future put supplies together confidently. Here’s something I did in October that I will NEVER repeat. I was being “smart” and put black acrylic paint on first to reduce how much I would need to color with Prisma colorpencils, I quickly learned that it’s a terrible idea that I’m grateful to have learned. It’s also fun to play around with stuff when given the chance to.

HAVE FUN

Draw what makes you happy and like to do. Personal art is just as important as practicing fundamentals. There’s a lot to learn and tons of tutorials+artists with useful tips/tricks to learn from. Also it’s good to support and be kind to other artists. They will be more willing to help + encourage your growth and it’s more fun to have friends that share your interests!

:D