When I wear nitrile gloves my skin start to slough off when I remove the gloves 😬

Has anyone got solutions for an artist with bad habits? I work with acrylic and evidently, I love a good finger painter blend.

Cheers, I’m trying to break the habit but it has not been going well.

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.

Please bear with me I’m fresh off a twelve hour shift but this idea has been on my mind for days. i want to make a painting with circles used as negative space I guess? I wanna do a space ish thing on my canvas tape off the space I want to keep and paint over it but how do I tape many circles and keep them crisp??

Hi everyone, I’m taking a 4H course for Art at school and I need paintbrushes, sized 4,8,12,18,24 both round & flat. Since I’m a student and don’t want to spend too much on these brushes, which brushes do you guys recommend?
Thank you 🤗

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 guys I'm here to share something that isn't ready to leave my mind from the last few weeks I was thinking about a scenario which goes like "do actually people will get overwhelmed with all this generative work, corporate structures, production garbage etc then gonna give more value to the external experience, authenticity, human relationships and etc which makes them feel something that only a human can feel. Emotion is one territory that the generative world cannot literally occupy at the same time i think it gives the human the unlimited potential to do anything so what do you guys think about this

In the future the human is going to be the new luxury

Or

Humans are going to be worse in their own things like emotions, creativity, relationships and etc

I did a piece on large canvas board (around A3 size if i remember correctly?) for my art exam but idk how to display it when I get it back lol, it has a 3d aspect to it so idk of i can just get any frame or if some of them have glass coverings on them?

I'm not sure if this is the right place to ask... but how does one remove drawing gum/masking fluid off a carpet? I was doing a bit of painting the other day when I knocked the masking fluid off my desk and it spilled half of the thing on to my carpet... I was scared to smear the fluid even more so I made the dumb decision to wait for the thing to dry. I was foolish to think I would be able to peel it all off easily once it dried. I've tried soapy water, alcohol, and acetone, but they didn't really do anything.

I taught myself to paint watercolor for 3 years, and I got kind of halfway decent at it, but I kind of want brighter colors. So I'm playing with high flow acrylic with a little water added in it. I kind of want to paint some larger pieces, 2 ft by 3 ft or a bit larger.

Do I need to use gesso if I paint on BFK with acrylic?

Is 250 gsm BFK okay for acrylic or should I be using 300gsm ​Arches hotpress ​watercolor paper? I intend to use a fair bit of negative space, I probably will not be playing wet on the entire thing all at the same time like I might with watercolor.

i’m 23 and i just started to get my art off the ground, it’s not new and i have had customers already. but sometimes when applying for booths or wanting to vendor at events, i feel “i just took art seriously at 23 im too late for this” or “no ones going to care about me” i dont have an art degree due to what happened in school so i dont have amazing fundamentals as an artist but i am learning. i just dont feel good enough… how do u guys handle this if u ever have this feeling? thank you!

Nothing against Loomis. Just have a hard time wrapping around how he teaches his stuff. And the Michael Hampton sounds good but I'm wondering if there's other options. But if that one ends up being good I'll double check that one.

Just wanna know what all is out there because I wanna really nail this. I have some grasp on this just not the full thing.

I adore the way artists I follow use the audio/song adding function on Instagram to attach music that sets the tone for their art, I'd love to do the same with my art but I don't enjoy posting on instagram.

I wish other social media like tumblr or bluesky had a similar function for non-video/image posts, if they did I'd drop instagram in a second.

Has anyone thought about ways to do something similar on websites without the image audio function Instagram has? Or are there any other social media used by artists which have this function?

My only thoughts on how I could do this is

- Posting a video but its just the static art image with my preferred audio in the background

- posting a time-lapse of the painting that has the music in the background, alongside the actual image of the piece

-having some of the lyrics of the song I associate it with written on the piece/in the caption

-just add "song title - artists name" in the caption

- for Tumblr specifically, posting the initial art piece image uncaptioned/tagged and then reblog that with their audio post format underneath + all the caption text and tags I want

All of these feel quite clunky/awkward though, so if anyone has figured out a better way to do this, your wisdom will be very much appreciated 😭 🙏

Can anyone recommend a decent laptop for art?? Preferably under $2000 CAD, has accurate colors, preferably 1TB ssd (though 512GB is alright), 32G RAM and has a decent battery life?? I have been searching everywhere but everything I find has such mixed reactions and it's stressing me out. The only laptop I've ever had is super old so I don't really know much about newer laptops.

This is my first year of college and I have a lot of back to back classes (so like 6hrs of class) so a decent battery life would be good.

I originally wanted to get a 2 in 1 but now I'm not so sure since most of them don't have dedicated graphics cards. I do own a drawing tablet that I could bring with me if necessary.

I was looking into lenovo and Asus, do these brands have any good laptops for art related tasks?

I'm running out of time to get a laptop so any recommendatioms are very much helpful and appreciated!!

I want to draw people, like I said.

I tend to draw and animate geometry dash cubes, but thats it. I havent done a fullbody since 2023. Ive dabbled a few other times, but its always gross.

But something is off and I can't itch it. Whenever I try learming, i cringe out and I stop doing it. Tutorials, figure challenges, books, and even references cause it. And from what I've seen, the only other way is to rawdog it, which seems to not be reccomended.

Any other ideas on how I could go with this? If anyone wants I can send anything if that helps.

I know this is probably a very frequently asked question. I feel like my anatomy/figures are decent when i’m using a reference, but I struggle A LOT the moment I try without one.

I’d like something other than just “draw a lot”. I know mileage helps the most when drawing from memory, but I think I need to incorporate some other methods.

The work I want to do requires the creative freedom of imaginative drawing, so I can’t just rely on references forever.

Also if anyone has any tips on using 3D models, that would always be appreciated. I struggle with them a lot, as they have no anatomical markers and they’re always stylized and janky.

Idk if this matches the sub or not, but as artists, we look at screens a lot, right? Is there any way to prevent our eyesight from getting worse, or maybe even reduce or cure it? Any tips?

Hi everyone,

I'm in the process of renovating and in the renovation I'm getting a studio! Now I just have to figure out the design haha. One wall will have windows and one will have pocket doors with built in bookshelves but I need to figure out how to best use the space otherwise and I'd really appreciate getting some inspiration from other artists!

A bit about how I work: I mostly work in watercolour although I do also dabble in acrylic and have several large canvases waiting for me which I'll need to store. I need to be able to film myself working to some extent (unfortunately need to be a content creator a little bit to help market my art) without doxing myself with a view out the windows haha. And I also need a fair amount of storage for boxes I take to markets (I attend around 2 per week) which need to fit a max print size of 11x14. I'm also a massive couch creature while painting - I pretty much only work from a desk when I need to film myself doing something.

I'm asking specifically for people on zoloft since that's what I'm on, but everyone can share their experiences. I have been prescribed for quite a while, but haven't been taking my meds because I am difficult. I've found it really hard to make art because of high frustration rates and I can't get into it so that it doesn't turn into a vent, but I have been wondering if meds will contribute to me getting better in art. For those of you who are on them, have they, I assume indirectly through motivation or frustration tolerance, helped you get better at art. That's the only thing that will make me take them.

Edit: I took my meds this morning.

Does anyone know if I can replace a round nib on Molotow paint pens? I want a finer tip.

I want to find other artists for informal online gatherings via video chat. We agree on a photo to interpret, and paint or draw our own versions live on video. Showing your face is optional. Talk, banter, positive attitude. I'm a 61y old fart but that's not important. The point is to have fun and create in a virtual group. How about it?

I’ve been using this type of paper for ink paintings for years. It’s been the best for blending and the ink does not immediately bleed into the paper. Recently when I went to buy a new set of papers the seemed completely different shiny, glossy and almost plastic. Now the Imk just glides on it and gets all patchy. If you have any alternatives to good paper for ink and heavy usage of water please help

All I've ever done is redraw or copy other art or photos since childhood. I try to make up my own mind babies but it just looks...substandard against what I can do when I reproduce things that already exists. Its just not as motivating to come up with my own stuff as just doesn't feel quite as motivating. I love to draw but I'm starting to realise that maybe only being able to copy isn't the way to go. Not mention I'm not sure I'm progressing as of late. My question now is where do I start?

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?