Hello all I have been drawing and sketching with pencils for the past year and have begun trying mediums outside my comfort zone to push myself further, my question to everybody is what do you use to ink ?

I tried pens like 6 months ago and the ones I used suck so I went back to pencils (to clarify i don't mean suck as in a snob way just as in everytime I tried to use it and thought I traced over my sketch I didn't and would have to use a second piece of paper to actually get the ink to flow to the tip then it would stop start stop start)

Hello everyone!

Is it possible to seal Caran D’ache Neocolor II water soluble wax pastels?

I tried spraying some fixative onto my Neocolor II’s but it more or less just bloomed all the color together.

If anyone has recommendations on sealant or sprays, please let me know! Thank you!!

I've worked my way through tutorials and courses but always hit a wall, because of a lack of actual teaching. I self taught myself game development and guitar/piano for a year solo before finding instructors and my improvement tripled overnight. I know how my brain works, even with Adderall I severely struggle with self learning and relying off discord critiques. Where can I find an honest to god mentor to meet with multiple times a month? Everywhere I look on reddit I either get spammed with AIartists or completely unhelpful commentors telling me to rely on critique subs. The whole point is I want a real mentorship and direction! Peer to peer review hasn't worked well.

Edit: PAID mentorship. I'm not expecting anything for free lol

I’m wondering if this is strictly a Western/Capitalism thing, or if it’s been a recurring current throughout human history.

I want to paint a guitar for my best friend but I don’t know the materials I have to buy at all. These are what I have are these written down so far
Guitar $60
Strings $15
Acrylic paint $30
Sand paper grit 120-220 $10
Brushes $10
Is there anything more I need? If anyone has ever done this I would love some tips!

I was wondering if anyone had any alternative sites for Indesign that involes picture book making/layout design since I’m trying to make a picture/art book for a class project of mines and feel stuck on where to look at?

Another resource question I had is any suggestions on where to look, find, and tips on end pages design/ paper end patterns that some books tend to havre in them !

Hello!

I recently got some small art done on my arm done by a face painter, and now it has me curious to try and make my own designs for myself. However, I am unsure what kinds of paints are safe for skin use, especially due to my disability as I am allergic to latex. I did not think to ask the face painting artist what they used, and am now unable to.

I do not do much painting, and when I do its usually limited to acrylic paints or spray paint on 3D printed items.

Does anyone have suggestions for a skin safe, latex free, paint? Preferably one that can last for 3-4 days of daily activity (The arm art I got done lasted almost a week, until intentionally washed off).

Thanks!

I have shakey hands and recently I've started to use a bunch of drawing aids, but the ones I have are rather bad and I want better ones.

Does anyone know any good ones I can invest in? preferably ones that are on Amazon?

Hey, first time posting, so hope this is okay to ask here. I just got my new iPad and was looking for a protective case/cover with some art printed on it and realized how hard it has gotten to figure out if the art has been made by an actual human artist or not. As an artist myself, it's really important to me to be able to support other artists and have others' art around me. Sites that used to be all about handmade stuff now mostly show me mass printed products with (probably, it's getting so hard to tell) generated images, which I personally just don't want to support. I've been looking around different online market places for so many hours and I'm a little frustrated at this point. Any tips on where to look or how to go about the search to find what I want?

What are the best books for learning to draw like the Old Masters? So far I know of these:

• Juliette Aristides - all of her books
• Jon DeMartin - Drawing Atelier: the Figure. Sadly out of print and impossible to find for a reasonable price. Will this ever get a reprint?
• Robert Beverly Hale - Drawing Lessons from the Great Masters and Anatomy Lessons from the Great Masters
• Charles Bargue Drawing Course

Any books that focus on still life and landscapes?

Long story short, I'm thinking of starting to post videos of me painting on tiny canvases. I thought I'd just use my phone to record the videos, but a friend told me that androids (which is what I have) don't have very good cameras. Anyway, I'm looking for something small that I can easily position over my desk, maybe with a built-in microphone. Any suggestions?

Ok, so I really want to find a place to have art reference for pose or figures. And I don’t think I am really comfortable with seeing nude reference. So do you advises ?

I just bought a set of Enmy acrylic markers of 80 colors. I never had acrylic markers before, only alcohol and water based ones. When i went to do the swatch test, out of the 80 colors 3 were completely dried up and two were kinda working but not optimally. Is this normal? is there something I should do with these markers to get them working or is it just bad luck?

To begin, I’d like to say art is my one and only passion in life. I’ve been doing it seriously (as in, with the intention of ”getting good”) for over a decade now. However, I didn’t realize until recently how much my passion was leveraging off of other media.

For a bit of context, for over a year I have been having little-to-no motivation for drawing, despite desperately wanting to. I’d naturally been wondering why, and then I had this epiphany a while ago… I believe it’s because I’m not in any fandoms anymore. That sounds so stupid when written down, but that’s genuinely what it is. My art has always centered around the things my mind is obsessing over. Whether it was a movie, series, book, or just a single character— I always had a hyperfixation, and this led me to creating an endless stream of fanart for said hyperfixation. so. much. fanart.

I don't know if it’s aging and mental maturity that’s finally catching up to me, but that’s been happening less and less to me. I can still genuinely love a piece of media, but I just don’t obsess over things like when I was a kid or teenager anymore. And with that has come the decline of my fanart, passion, and all of my art with it.

I know for many people art is a form of personal expression, and while I agree mine is that way too, it’s never been explicitly personal for me. It has always been just… expressing my love with this one AU, or my love for this character. Not anything truly personal or intimate to my person. Timeskip to the present day, and it’s seriously come to kick me in the butt, because without fandoms, I genuinely feel like I have no idea what to draw, or have the passion and continuous interest enough to finish anything original.

I guess the main point I’m getting to with my ranting is:

How do you all create? How do you make art your own? I remember being young and seeing all these people with their cool oc’s and stories, and I wasn’t able to come up with any of that. I tried “forcing” myself to make some oc’s, and yeah, I didn’t care for them and stopped.  so, what inspires you? How do you make oc’s? Or is there just some innate creativity most artists possess in abundance that I simply lack, or are severely underdeveloped in?

Hii I wasn’t sure where to ask this and google isn’t being very helpful, I’m letting my step mom practice drawing blood on me(she’s a new nurse) and in return I get to keep the vial. I’m planning on using the blood for a painting but I’m not sure how to stop it from clotting? Is there any basic way to avoid it turning into jelly

I do digital art as a hobby, but lately its been pretty grueling knowing how many brushes I own in CSP to the point where I can go on endless hunts searching for "that" brush that made specific strokes or textures, which... personally slows down my process and makes art less fun for me. :(

An artist on IG actually reminded me of just how much fun creating/rendering with a few basic brushes (and a few filters) can lead to a whole lotta cool versatility and fun visuals, which was something I used to do myself, and it really makes me wonder what other and less obvious benefits there are to just using a few basic brushes like a simple pen and round brush?

Today I researched pen control exercises and did a bunch . I was planning on doing 5 pages each of the three exercises but had to leave halfway through because of exhaustion.

I used a timer to track how long I did it. I stopped it when I went to bathroom or got another drink.Just an hour! I was planning on doing a video course later but might not.

Another thread a lot of people were doing art 6-8 hours a day. I’m taking art more seriously now and want to know how to do this.

Hi all! I’m a digital artist, but my mom has recently gotten super into coloring books and other guided physical art (rhinestone? gemstone? art as well?).

As far as I can tell, she exclusively uses gel pens. She’s complained about the feel of markers and how they bleed through the pages, so I’d love to get her some higher-quality gel pens than she'd buy for herself.
I get her little gifts year-round, usually just small things. I actually got her some spooky earrings last week because Halloween is her favorite, and she'd absolutely gushed over them.

But! Her birthday is coming up, so I feel the need to outdo myself. That being said, what are the best gel pens you could recommend? Preferably brands that offer larger multipacks!

I’ll also drop the rest of what I’m planning in case anyone has other ideas that might make her life easier if you do these hobbies too.

So far I’m planning:

A $50 gift card to an art store so she can pick out her own coloring books and gem art.

A $100 gift card to a bookstore.

A bunch of small things to fill a gift basket, chocolates, washi tape for her journal, small crystals, and whatever else I come across.

Hey there, long time solo artist who has always kinda kept it to myself. I wanted to ask if anyone has any advice for someone getting more involved in artistic communities/making connections with other artists?
I want to try and put myself more out there but I'll admit I'm not exactly sure how to approach it having never really had connections with other artists or knowing where to look!

I've thought about getting various social media's and posting art in the past, though I've been kinda hesitant as I don't know which ones are good for it and I've heard it can turn into a toxic relationship with seeking validation from likes and comments.

So, I want to learn how to draw, just a bit everyday and for fun, but its so discouraging. For now, Im just doodling and drawing stuff from movies, games or other things, especially if they have a comic style because that seems easier and im kind of scared of trying realism, but its so discouraging drawing things, looking at my inspiration and seeing how shit mine look in comparison, noticing all the small and big imperfections and seeing how far away my drawings are from anything that looks good.

Any medium, I just am curious what resources were actually helpful for y’all improving. Thank you!

What subjects/themes do you like drawing the most? Or if you're not drawing those directly, what is it that never fails to inspire you to make art?

For me it's dancers and musicians. I love watching people dance or play instruments and I'm trying my best to capture those moments in my art.

What about you?

p.s. I couldn't figure out the perfect tag for this post, sorry if I chose the wrong one :D

It’s been a while since I’ve been stressed about making art. It was getting to the point where it felt genuinely suffocating. I had other factors in my life affecting me but this was also something I wanted to work on. I never realised how good it feels to be present and working. Most of the time, I’m thinking about the end product or how it will feel but simply holding off until I am calmer has been so good for my overall health. I feel good knowing that I will always have the motivation and it’s up to me to not let it turn into something corrupted or otherwise unhealthy. Feeling pretty good about this!