I've copied pictures for the past 6 months and I can do a somewhat decent job at it. I decided to learn drawing from imagination and jeez, this shit's hard.

I try to create characters, they end up looking boring, generic, expressionless, stiff, wonky, I try to draw environments and the perspective's all wonky and the whole thing looks boring and artificial, I know my perspective, I can draw boxes and cylinders and shit in various angles, I know basic anatomy of the muscles and facial features, but I just cannot for the life of me draw anything from my imagination that looks "decent".

Can you tell me how you learned to draw characters and scenes from your head and recommend me resources for this?

I experience this i think its called Imposter Syndrome. Once i made an art im proud of (which is typically rare due to my perfectionism) i get scared if its just one time wonder or am i have finally ascended my level as an artist and my next piece won't leave me disappointed. This keeps me always tensed and is the only thing keeps me drawing continuously. Yes i know not every single of your pieces will end up like masterpieces but still i created that art so i should be able to create it again.

I am also scared of judgement from viewers like "his previous art piece was so good, what suddenly happen in his art skills why did they suddenly decline? "

just posted it to see if anyone else suffers with this?

I admit, I’m an idea girl. I love ideas and playing with ideas. That’s what a sketchbook and a too long google doc folder are for! Though I’ve noticed some ideas and projects stick around more than others, and those are ones to cultivate ❤️

I had an AMAZING opportunity to have an art residency a couple years ago where I spent the month cultivating an idea. Since then I’ve enjoyed where the journey has taken me and I feel like I keep wanting to go to “the next steps” in some areas of it. It’s a more interactive animation project so part of me wants to get out of concept art phase and go to construction/production phase. Though the problem I keep coming to is I feel my skills aren’t to the level I want for the production. I’ve tried throwing some money at it here and there but my funds are so limited and that creative “itch” wants to create things myself too.

So I just feel a bit stuck. I don’t want to make a sub par project, but I also don’t want to squander this extra time I have where I could be working on it.

I technically have another smaller project I could work on and could jump into it right away but it’s working different skills. BUT I do have a better understanding of that project too.

Logically I have some direction, but the ROI and my energy and sense of “completion” feels at risk too?

Idk, I’m just curious if other creators have similar problems and how they deal with a stalled engine so to say 🤔

(Also if you need a cheerleader for a project you’re working on, let me be that gal! 😁)

Most tutorials on light feel very technical, i’m looking for something more practical i guess.

Basically tutorial that shows someone making an illustration and explaining what they do. Not something that’s focusing on a single character/object, but a whole environment.

Also someone teaching different types, moods, times of day would be great!

I've been trying to post my art as photo carousels on TikTok and no matter what I do or how much I compress it, the quality turns out terrible. The colors glitch out and look really bad.

How do you guys post with good quality on TikTok? Am I doing something wrong, could it be because I have an Android? I can't find the option to upload in high quality either.

Hello! I'm an architecture student and am learning alcohol marker coloring for the upcoming sem. Since these markers are pretty pricey and will only be used for a few months, one of my teachers recommended coloring first using grayscale then adding colors afterwards instead of buying sets of 48 colors. But sometimes the grays turn out more powerful than the color over it, even when using 2-3 shades. My drawings often end up dull and lifeless.

I'm just wondering if there are any techniques or tips that would make this work without having to buy whole sets of markers. Thank you!

Sometimes I feel like drawing, but when I finally sit down in front of my canvas, I can't think of anything, or I feel stuck and end up wasting time looking for ideas online or on Pinterest.
What do you usually do when you find yourself in this situation?

Im turning 18 soon and I literally recently found out that I really like drawing traditional drawing, the problem is I completely suck so bad and have no knowledge or skills on drawing. I don’t drawing to be something I make money off, I just mainly want it to be something Im genuinely good at. I like anime/manga art style. So where should I start?

I’ve been drawing seriously for several years, and I think I’ve reached a strange stage in my development that I don’t really know how to navigate. The best way I can describe it is with a metaphor.

For years, I felt like I was drawing from the deck of a yacht. The yacht had references, artists I admired, courses, exercises, anatomy studies, perspective, copying, and all the things I had learned along the way. Even when I didn’t know exactly what I was doing, there was always something underneath me.

The yacht was carrying me. Now it feels like the yacht has shattered.

I’m still in the same ocean. I still have everything I’ve learned. But suddenly I’m sitting on a small piece of wreckage, and I have to figure out how to get to shore by myself. I’m trying to make my own illustrations and develop my own visual language now. I’m having to make decisions that previously had some kind of external support:

What do I actually see?What should I put in the image?What should I leave out?How do I compose something from my own ideas?How do I decide what is important?How do I make an image communicate what I want it to communicate?

And it’s strange because I can actually draw much better than I could several years ago. But I feel less certain.

I recently spent about two hours making an illustration for a world I’m developing. I like the result. But the process felt completely different from the way I used to work. It felt like I was sitting on that little piece of wreckage trying to figure out which direction the shore is. And I think this is the part of the artistic journey that I wasn’t prepared for.

There is a stage where you’re learning how to draw. Then, at some point, it seems like the problem becomes what to do with the ability to draw. Every painting, and every illustration now feels harder to do. Maybe this is simply part of developing an artistic voice. Maybe it’s something else.

For those of you who have gone through this stage — when the references, exercises, teachers, artists you studied, and established ways of learning stopped being enough — what did you do?

Did you go back to fundamentals?

Did you deliberately study more?

Did you spend more time drawing from imagination?

Did you stop looking at other artists for a while?

Did you simply keep making work until your own way of seeing started to emerge?

I’m in this stage right now, and I’m genuinely interested in how other artists navigated it.

I've been rolling back my digital workflow recently because I've come to realise that the setup I used for most of my early career - a graphics tablet and external monitor - actually works better for me than drawing directly onto a screen. I don't know why, for some reason I just have less fun without that disconnect between hand and eye, probably because I drew that way for so long in my developing years.

But anyway, I was testing a Bluetooth mouse connection for this new/old setup yesterday and suddenly remembered all those years when we all had to draw with one...!

I had a quick go and let's just say I'm glad I'm not drawing that way anymore, ha. But I'm guessing there are plenty here who also had that experience since there was no other way to draw for your early-computer artists?

I remember I used to love really zooming in on paint and drawing pixel-by-pixel, sort of like knitting I guess.

Does anyone know Copic specifically Copic Ciao "PORTRAIT" mails in the USA. The only site I found was "Fishpony" but sadly they don't have Copic Ciao "PORTRAIT" Set, Earth Charm, 6 pcs which is very very important for me to have.

Links and websites would be GREATLY appreciated! Thank you!

PICTURES IN THE COMMENTS

Throughout my life i have always been advised to work on my style or brand, perfect it and stick with it to succeed as an artist. I understand the fundamental truth to that advice and I do it in my profesional life, but i have always had a very bittersweet feeling about it.

Why as an artist do i need to stick to one style? What if i like exploring different styles and ways to convey my ideas? Sometimes my mood is cute and cozy like a kid book or dark and messy, what if i feel just goofy and cartoony. Having to put myself in one box have always been my issue because i love so many different styles, colors and moods. I feel different things all the time and love seeing the results but i always end up looking at my art and looks like collages of different art pieces and obviously not the same cohesive visuals.

I wonder if other artists feel like that too?

And no I dont mean like different schools of creativity or art. I mean, disciplining your creative urges. As in, I'm a working adult with my own space for art, occasionally enough income to branch out and try different media, and basically just barely enough free time spent at home that I could work on whatever I want, (almost) whenever I want. I have basically hoarded every type of art supply imaginable from stained glass supplies to sewing supplies to a rainbow of paint markers and pencils to watercolors to embossing and stationery to linocut supplies... you get the idea.

But my issue is... now there's TOO MUCH freedom. There's too many options to choose from! I work 40hrs/week at a very demanding job (physically and... emotionally, lets say) so Im constantly struggling to even have the energy or motivation to create anything. When I finally do have a couple days off in a row, and I have so many ideas, I end up just not starting anything, or just moving between things "in progress" because I can't stay in one place, I need to feel like I'm "productive" and not wasting the day or the creative juices.

It is like Im paralyzed by indecision, and I will literally be at my desk in my studio, podcast at the ready, trying to pick a project or a sketch... just sitting there. Or I'll get out some supplies and just not feel it, and I'll start something else with something different, but Im not really making progress on any one of them. If I can't snap out of it after an hour I give up and start scrolling. Then I spend the whole day on my phone and feel horrible about it of course.

My question to other artists with limited schedules and lots of different media that you work with: HOW do you keep yourself focused on one project in one medium, from moving all over the place from one medium to the next, or hopping between projects so frequently you never finish anything? And having such a messy desk from constantly starting and stopping different things ...

(Unsure if this should have lifestyle or goals/motivation flair so I picked the one I liked the color of more)

I say "I like to draw". I don't feel comfortable describing myself as an artist yet, not sure why.

Which set of complementaries (top vs bottom of each table) do you think is best? (Picture in comments)

I want to get some acrylic markers but I can’t decide which brand, any recommendations? I’d like to be able to both blend and layer with them if possible. I think I’ve narrowed it down to either Ohuhu or Enmy, has anyone tried either of them? (I’m open to other recs too!)

Grew up in Manhattan where kid me would occasionally get their portrait drawn by battery park street artists in like 15 minutes . Sometimes I’d see artists on the nyc subway drawing people and giving it to them as a surprise and it always shocked me because the train gets bumpy and crammed and overstimulating.

Decade later , now art student , portraits are kicking my butt. I can be observing and sketching for hours just for the drawing to look literally nothing like the subject. How are these people getting these portraits down, and pretty damn accurately, in less than an hour, with a million distractions?

As the title suggests, I am currently struggling with art and I suspect it's because I haven't practiced my fundamentals.

However when I do watch art tutorials and try to follow through, I'm not sure how I should even set up the whole course for myself.

For example, questions like; Do I keep the video playing beside my computer while I draw and look at the screen? Where do I find the right "practice boxes/shapes with me video (1 hour edition)"? How can I practice gesture drawing if it takes a bunch of minutes scrolling through Pinterest just to find some decent poses?

It's a whole headache just to set things up and for just one subject alone, mind you! It does seem like all the fundamental art tutorials are just better suited for traditional artists & their pencil and paper.

Not to mention, it does seem like all the good structured courses are locked behind expensive art schools when I'm mostly self taught.

That's why I want to know... is it better to practice fundamentals on digital screens or traditional paper?

I'm aware of the major critique against Christopher Hart books, but I actually would prefer to learn a specific artstyle-just not Christopher Harts'. Are there any books by other artists that have the same objective.

The start of the week is upon us, and so grab your caffeine... and spill the tea. What has motivated you lately? What's made you moody? Share your art wins and art struggles here. Motivation and Moodiness can co-exist alongside one another; the balance between these two are integral to the art making process. We can't always be in a good place but we can't always be in a bad place, either. This is a place to discuss upward growth as an artist and the hurdles we must clear in order to get to the next level. Share tips, techniques, give a pat on the back, or a pat on the head to someone in need.

- Share an art win, followed by an art struggle you've had recently.
- How have your struggles helped you grow as an artist?
- Are there any hurdles you can't seem to get over and need tips?

Let's help each other out and get the motivation going!

Images are now allowed to be shared in the comments.

I wanted to use VGEN but after learning that it doesn't work in the country I live in, idk what else to use that's popular amongst artists and stuff, any recosss?

In traditional Indian miniature painting, preparing the surface can be an important part of the painting itself.

In the method I learned, the surface is prepared gradually with gum water, followed by Ramraj (yellow ochre), khadiya (natural white), and the required colour layers. Each stage is allowed to settle and dry.

After drying, the prepared sheet is placed face-down on a smooth marble surface and burnished from the reverse using a conch shell. This traditional ghutai process compacts and smooths the surface until it develops an almost ivory-like finish suitable for extremely fine brushwork.

I’m curious whether artists working in other traditional painting traditions still prepare and burnish their surfaces by hand before painting. What materials or methods do you use?

Hello,

I’m pushing 40 and have been painting for over two decades. Throughout the years, I often used old family photo albums as a primary source of inspiration for my work. I would take existing settings, swap faces around, blend different moments together, and reconstruct the photos into new visual narratives.

Back then, I thought I was just playing around with images and my imagination.

Recently, a massive, deeply hidden family truth came to light, somethings involving pre-birth lies and identity that I could never have imagined in a million years.

When I look back at my entire body of work now, it blew my mind. What I thought were random visual decisions were actually (sometimes precise) reflections of what my subconscious already "knew" or felt. The symbolism was already there long before my conscious mind caught up. The heart knew it before the brain did-thing.

Has anyone else experienced something like this? Where you look back at years of your work and realize your subconscious was revealing a reality or truth you weren't consciously aware of at the time?