#this is probably the best likeness i've ever done of myself in charcoal before but that's not saying much

[creatediana]

"Self-Portrait, Skeptical" - a charcoal drawing (nay, a self-portrait even!) done between 1/02–1/09/2024

[solradguy]

How do i find the motivation to practice art? I have so many shitposts that’ll never come to fruition because my skills plateaued ):

No one else is going to draw my ideas and I'm too broke to pay someone else to do it for me. For better or worse, I seem to approach a lot of things from a "gotta do everything myself around here" angle haha

Honestly—and I won't lie to you—doing art studies is a real pain in the ass, I hate doing them. I never do them unless I've got major art block, and even then I still hate doing them, but it's like taking medicine and I know doing them will make me better. Every art teacher I've ever had's grilled me about this, "solradguy, you need to do 15 studies before the end of the week to get a full grade this quarter." Blah blah blah.

I guess for some people doing studies could be fun, not having to think about pose or composition, whatever, just putting lines down on paper and focus on your reference. One time, when I was still in college, I had to do a certain amount of studies in charcoal so I booted up Red Dead Redemption and drew landscapes or objects from it that I kinda liked. It was enough. I told my professor it was from my grandma's farm hehe

Art memes can be a good way to practice too, especially those ones about drawing in different styles or drawing a character in different outfits. They combine fun with tricking you into drawing things you might not normally draw. Emulating different art styles is the only art study method that doesn't make me want to fall asleep. Don't forget they're just art games though, and especially don't forget:

👉If You Already Feel Burnt Out Don't Feel Compelled To Complete Every Art Meme You Start👈

As you get better at art, you start noticing improvements less and less because they become more subtle. When you're really new to art, figuring out stuff like basic anatomy or shading is REALLY obvious because they're foundational parts of art. Hang on to your really old stuff and look at it every now and then and I guarantee you'll have improved way more than you thought you had.

I get the impression you've probably been at art for a while now, and I don't want to come across as patronizing, but sometimes refreshing the basics can help overcome a plateau too. Drawabox is usually what I recommend to people just getting into art, I really like their approach. Here's a link to their introduction lesson: drawabox.com/lesson/0 And here's one that skips to the actual art stuff: drawabox.com/lesson/1

While it's probably beneficial to actually do the exercises in the lessons, just skimming through reading them can be good too.

Something I've noticed a lot of my artists friends (and artists online) do is try to make every single drawing a finished piece, and I'm like "damn, no wonder art feels like such a chore." My sketchbook is 99% scribbles done in pen:

I use Pentel RSVP fine point ballpoint pens so if I make a mistake I'm forced to deal with it. Doing these rough sketches before starting a bigger piece is something I recommend with my entire heart. Just get a pack of shitty $0.99 pens and doodle like it's high school math class. I like the cheap pens because you can get faint lines drawing lightly and can coax them into darker lines with a bit more pressure (and if you lose/break one it's no big deal).

The best way to get better at art is to keep putting lines on paper. Even if it's just silly pen doodles, you're still improving coordination/pen control, improving construction of basic shapes, exploring concepts, and thinking about art, which will lead to more new ideas and further inspiration.

Sorry this is long and meandering haha Hopefully something here helps at least a tiny bit.

[fandomfluffandfuck]

Fuck it, I'M starting a new ask chain because I WANT TO 🧚‍♀️🔮💭this is the hobby fairy! 🧚‍♀️you've been visited and blessed with creative motivation and inspiration 💫poof💫 ! share with your followers a hobby/hobbies that aren't related to the main subject of your blog! then pass the love 💞 on to 5 of your favorite blogs!💭🔮🧚‍♀️

Aw, thank you, sweetheart! This is a really cute ask chain!

Other than the main subject of my blog, fandom and writing for fandom, I am a highly, highly creative guy that can always use more motivation lol!

I used to write a lot of poetry, back when I wasn't writing fanfic. I don't do it as often now, partly because I get my writing craving out elsewhere and partly because I'm in a much better place mentally now than I have been, like, ever. It's rough out here boys, let me tell you.

The best example I can give you of what my poetry is like - without digging through all the composition notebooks stashed away - is "Let Your Guard Down". It holds a bunch of the imagry I tend to use when I write poems. Additionally, I think it has that sort of poetic flow, and, of course, holds the theme of heavy angst that my poetry always has 🤣

Another hobby is ceramics. I play with it whenever possible (re: not as often as I'd like, but occasionally lol).

I can throw on the wheel but mostly I enjoy the sculptural shit. Throwing is meditative and sometimes I jump on and throw myself a set of mugs or bowls or something real quick but handbuilding makes me lose time like nothing else. It sucks me in. Probably because both it takes me forever to handbuild and because it feels a little like playing with mud, like when you're a kid.

I've put some of the progress photos of projects on here, this of my piece "chained to the bottom" and this of "burnt out" but here are some more-

Don't mind the aggressive watermarks. I've been burned by art thieves many, many, many times before. Click to enlarge/for better quality.

What I still do all the time though is draw!

Generally, if I'm not at school/doing adult shit I gotta do (ugh) and I'm not checking Tumblr for a few minutes or writing for an hour, I'm drawing. I draw, right now during the summer, for about six hours a day at least. Drawing has always been my escape. When I don't want to or didn't want to live in the real world, I went to art. I can make a new world there, or I can purge all of my thoughts to make the real world less heavy, y’know? Make yourself anew.

I draw in traditional mediums, lots of graphite and colored pencils, occasionally charcoal or watercolor or acrylic, usually striding for realism. It's the way my brain works, I like realism, romanticism, and surrealism. And I like traditional because, well, it's what I am most familiar with but also there's just something about the ability to touch and feel everything in it that I like. All the different tools *cough* for mark making from and the different paper weights and surface textures of different types of paper and the different erasers and- I could go on forever. I love the tangibility of working traditionally rather than digitally. I love it. Not just a stylist or two, a supportive glove, and a screen. To me, traditional just hits different. I totally respect digital though, the shit ya'll digital artists make is incredible and blows me away. I could never. Traditional simply scratches my brain the right way lol

And here are some Tumblr examples I've put out there already of my sketches/doodles: assorted Chris and Seb doodles for an ask, sub!Seb in a collar, Steve in panties and his shield harness, and Seb as Tommy Lee. And here are two examples of finished, fully rendered works (that tumblr is gonna eat the quality of, I just know it)-

(the left is done in graphite, the right in colored pencil)

Thank you for the ask!! I hope you didn't mind my information dumping about some of this stuff haha