#this is genuinely my advice

[vstheworld]

my advice to young people entering the workforce:

when starting a new job, immediately identify the worst employee. work just slightly harder/smarter than they do.

follow for more tips on surviving late stage capitalism

[bunnieswithknives]

I feel bad for neglecting Hazel so much, I do have many thoughts about her.. and also a mermaid au that im probably not going to do anything with

[chalkrub]

thank you for a great art fight! here's some of my final attacks. had a blast, already missing it - see you next year!

[uncanny-tranny]

I love love love when trans women* give advice to trans men* about """manly""" things and when trans men* return that kindness with advice about """womanly""" things. I love the intracommunity commitment to supporting each other <<3

[hansoeii]

Hello! Hope you're having a great day/night! I absolutely adore your art, you are one of my favourite artists. I love the way you shade and do backrounds. Also everytime I get into a new show I immediately see your art for it??

I was wondering if you had any advice on drawing more realistically (backrounds, anatomy etc) but still keeping a style?

Hey hey!

Thank you so much!

I have a pretty good understanding of facial structures, because before I got into drawing more semi-realisticly, I heavily focused on realistic portraits. Here are some example, these are from around 2019!

(yes, I was really into danmei and kpop back then, haha)

I just always loved drawing/painting faces and it was all I did. But at some point I realized that I wanted to do more than that because just portraits felt super restricting. So it took me around 2-3 years to somewhat find my style. Thought it would be fun to show a little timeline! Advice will follow afterwards :)

2020

I began working on my OCs in 2020 and since I didn't have an exact reference to work off of, I struggled a lot. My art from this year is super wonky.

2021

Still wonky, but the Lokius obsession was the jumpstart into finding my style! My work from this year is all over the place haha, I was experimenting a lot.

2022

This first ofmd piece is pretty much the first drawing where you can see where my style is gonna go, which I think is pretty cool! This is the year I made the biggest progress cos I was drawing SO much. These two pieces are only six months apart. The one on the right was the first time I gave drawing a background a proper go, too! It was a good year.

2023

And this is where I am now! I'm still constantly learning and improving, but I'd say I have a style you can recognize now!

Now here comes some actual advice, haha:

What I highly recommend you to do is to study your favorite artists as much as you can! I have like 5 A4 sketchbooks all from 2020 that I filled with sooooo many studies, where basically all I did was look at artists I like and copy how they draw stuff, to try and figure out how to stylize certain things. Some of my favorite artists are Ami Thompson, Velinxi and TB Choi. But I also liked to just scroll through pinterest and study all the art I came across that I liked! For example, if I saw a really great drawing of a pair of pants I would copy it many times in my sketchbook and try to learn how they stylized the folds. Doing this for a prolongued period of time will naturally improve your own work! It'll be difficult at first, but you gotta push through, it's gonna be worth it!

I also highly recommend studying unique faces to try and avoid the same-face syndrome. Find some cool looking people and try to draw them as simple as you can! Maybe even draw a little timeline where you first draw them as cartoon-y as you can, and keep going until you end up with a more detailed, realistic drawing. Maybe in the middle of it you find a step that feels the most fun to you, so you can try to build on that! It's a great way to figure out what kind of style might be the best for you.

Here are some cool faces I found on pinterest!

I have a pinterest board with many more!

One REALLY important part of learning how to draw all kinds of things is to understand forms and shapes and how to manipulate them. I have so many pages in my sketchbook filled with just shapes that I drew from all kinds of angles without any references.

This is a great video on it:

6 Ways to Draw Anything by Proko

Learning how to do this is so crucial! Young artists often think they first have to learn all kinds of detailed anatomy before doing anything else, but all that's gonna do is make you tired and hate drawing. Shapes are where it's at! Once you understand how shapes work and which ones to use for certain parts of bodies or objects, drawing is gonna get so much easier! Once you understand them, you can get into details such as muscles and bones!

And honestly the most important point is to just absolutely love what you're doing! I wouldn't be doing this if it wasn't for the fact that I get extreme hyperfixations on certain media that turn me into some kind of beast where I can suddenly draw 10 detailed illustrations a week, haha. Just be passionate about what you do, find something you REALLY love and go crazy!

I really hope this was somewhat helpful! My inbox is always open if there's any more questions :)

[balleater]

despite being more often than not a "rules as written" fan over "rule of cool", i really do love me a good "rules be damned, i'll give you this awesome moment" call. like matt giving fcg the otohan kill despite what her hp was at or brennan giving cerrit an extra mage slayer reaction attack at the end of calamity. honestly, if anything, i think the fact they mostly play by the book makes these moments even better because it really has that extra weight towards those decisions to put the rules aside.

[jadenvargen]

nobody asked but the how to draw manga books that raised me cause i didnt have the blue one raise your hands up

[foldingfittedsheets]

I was waiting for my betrothed to finish up in the bathroom. I was debating whether to sit my bed up in a comfier position or just hunch over my kindle while I waited. And then the words, “The comforts of this world are not finite,” came into my head.

I have no idea what kind of extra dimensional being is dropping that shit into my brain but I sat the bed up to read in comfort and I’m gonna try to live more in the realm of: if I can be comfortable, I should be.

[scramratz]

I knew that Japanese futon I bought 2 years ago would come in handy

[basketobread]

would you guys follow his youtube channel. he does self help content. (vyper in the second image belongs to @ratscrap)

[wifihunters]

so due to steam sales i finally played subnautica!!

which, is a big deal since not only do i have severe thalassophobia i have like. the kind that makes me pass out at the sight of deep water. keeled over in an aquarium tunnel involuntarily. very annoying, given a lifelong fascination with the ocean/living in a location surrounded by water, so me and the ocean has just been 2+ decades of bashing myself against my body's random kill switch.

but i made it down to blood kelp/lost river so far! streamed it for my friends while playing full screen with the lights off for maximal effect (because by god i was going to either fight through it or faint trying and either way it would be funny for everyone else)

creatures dont scare me nearly as much as the vertigo of deep water, which is funny, since i have never been attacked by a leviathan, but i have gotten trapped in multiple trenches/cliffs at night where i would have rathered a reaper come try to merc me. also met a ghost leviathan before one of them.

plus, apparently i put my baby base in The location without knowing

but so far im super proud to have tackled something ive been wanting to attempt for a long time! turns out its a very fun game even though it happens to be a nuke directly to my psyche's achilles heel. its held my hand to naturally transition from "i REFUSE to exit the lifepod from the bottom at night" to "fuck this stupid slow sub im getting out and swimming home from 900m deep with nothing but the light of my thermal knife because i dont have battery for anything else"

[fippydarkpaw]

Obsessed with the frantic zeal this comment imparts on the readers. Like a hastily scrawled note you would find on an adventurers corpse, warning you of the dangers beyond should your hubris continue to send you down this path.

[smileyobrien]

STAR TREK: LOWER DECKS — 4.03 "In the Cradle of Vexilon"

[phuuca]

Close up of that Jack Howl image from the recent meme I posted bc it deserves its own post.

Rendering saves lives.

[uncanny-tranny]

The absolute biggest thing I've learned as a trans guy: there is nothing more masculine and manly than not caring about looking or acting masculine or manly. Growing your masculinity or manhood takes time and care - you have no obligation to let the world water your garden when you can do that just fine (and you can, even if it doesn't feel like you can!)

[whumpinator]

Hey writers! I need some advice.

So, it's well understood that the courtesy of online commentary is if you see something you like, say something they like; AKA, comment, comment, comment.

I'm just wondering if there's such a thing as TOO much. Like, is there a line between "enthusiastic fan pumped for your content" and "Standing at your window, huffing on the glass" and is that line underneath fifteen thousand words of praise, general analysis and fan theories?

Asking for a friend.