The Art of Arahmynta

~ Art blog for Arahmynta Sahdirah Duhamel ~ See my non-art posts and reblogs at Sahdirah.tumblr.com ~ Mexican Canadian artist living in the Seattle area. Call me an SJW and I'll be flattered.

[arahmynta]

Lots of life upheaval lately

I'll have to write a better update later, but suffice to say, I left my spouse and moved from the States back to Canada in January, and the last several months has been a matter of rebuilding my life and getting my mental health in order. I'm much closer to functional, but I'm not there yet, and I can't say how long it will take. The change is for the better, but there's an awful lot to figure out, and a lot of old demons to conquer if I'm going to be able to do what I've always wanted. Finding out I had ADHD has been huge, and after half a year, I might almost have the drug cocktail I need nailed down. But, having the ability to work consistently for the first time in my life doesn't mean I know how to use it, and I know that's going to be its own curve.

Hopefully some day, I'll be in a place where I can update this regularly and be proud of myself. Until then, I haven't left, and I'm not going anywhere.

Art is the job I've always known I wanted. One way or another, I'm going to get there, no matter how long it takes.

[arahmynta]

...Okay, maybe I can art. Oh yeah, and I'm illustrating the cover for a book. Meet Virsune, protagonist of Wild Core Chronicle: Fugitive Rising, by Elwin Grey, first book in the series. To be released... basically when I can finish this. This is heavily a WIP, fyi. The black outlines are missing a bajillon of details, and I'm not sure if the black's gonna be there in the final version or not.

[nipuni]

hello Natalia! i love your works so much and i was wondering what ps brushes do you use? sorry if that was asked before

Hello! thank you!! and it is no bother, I use Hannes brush set a lot, but not long ago I bought Kyle’s megapack and it is really fun, confusing but fun! so Ive been using that too, I love the oil ones

[arahmynta]

I’m more likely to remember to ACTUALLY download them if I post this here.

[arahmynta]

Morning sketch.

[jameszapata]

I purchased an iPad Pro + Apple Pencil last week and have been diving into the painting app “Procreate.” It’s honestly the biggest step forward in mobile digital painting that I have seen and is the sole reason I was even interested in the tablet.

Here are a couple of sketches of Moon from my fairytale Moon and Crow. I used custom brushes I made in Procreate.

Love,

James

[sahdirah]

This is actually exactly what I’m doing! Not that I’m anywhere near this good, but I love that Procreate pretty much does literally anything I’d want to do with painting. At this stage at least, I don’t feel like I need Photoshop at all and I won’t for a long time. It makes it so much easier for me to get myself to work when I can hold something in my lap, turn it in circles and move it close to my face, rather than absolutely having to be at my computer to be productive.

Also I love Moon and Crow.

[arahmynta]

Here’s an update on that painting. At this point it’s mostly just an eternity of strategic erasing left.

[sahdirah]

Decided to post a selfie cause A) besides the self-portrait, I think I literally haven’t posted one on Tumblr before, B) I saw someone else do it first, and C) I had already taken some that I like. Helps that I took off my glasses - I like the way my face looks much better without them.

Anyway woooo it’s me.

[arahmynta]

^Actually me.

[darrencalvert]

People often say to me: “You draw like some kind of inhuman machine.  If I eat your brain, will I gain your power?”  The answer is yes, but there is another way. The key to precise drawing is building up muscle memory so that your arm/hand/fingers do the things you want them to do when you want them to do them.  Teaching yourself to draw a straight line or to make sweet curves is just a matter of practice and there are some exercises you can do to help improve. If you’re going to be doodling in class or during meetings anyway, why not put that time to good use?

[lycanboots]

This is so important to mention to all artists. The reason PRACTISE improves drawing ability over time is it increases the literal, technical movement in your hands and arms through /muscle memory/.

[gorillaprutt]

THIS IS VERY GOOD, to all the people that like my lines. I do similar but less constructed doodles like these in my sketchbook all the time, it basically just teaches your hand how to move

[arahmynta]

Work In Progress: Skyhold I just joined a roleplaying group based on Dragon Age: Inquisition, and the rough character premise is that she's an artist who joins up in order to "fight" by boosting the morale of all these people making world-changing decisions. After all, if people are happier, or even healthier, if I can pull that off, the ripple effect on their actions goes out much farther than anything she could do on her own. At any rate it's a good RP group and it inspires me to draw, so I figure I ought to jump on that. This is the base layer of the castle, along with all the lumped-together fuzzy texture of the rocks and snow. Next step is to go in with a hard eraser and shape the fuzz into defined shapes of light and shadow. I think it'll work okay. I'll find out, I suppose. After that it'll just need mist and crows flying in and out. The plan is to use this as a conversation opener when my character is actually introduced to the others. I think this'll be fun.

[boondoggl]

to other mentally ill artists who are obsessed with getting better

- Finished Pieces TM are NOT the only works that matter. That half-lined sketch is good. That page of nothing but shapes and doodles is progress. If you’re doing whatever it is that you CAN do that day, you’re doing well

- take. BREAKS. as often as you need to. stop when you gotta. if you try to dig into tomorrow’s spoons to finish something, trust me, you’re going to hate yourself and whatever you’re working on later

- if you really want to, you CAN draw (or paint, or sculpt, or craft etc.) every day

- everything counts. everything. can’t draw for more than 20 minutes today? you drew. less than 5? you drew. take a pencil and draw three different circles on a sticky note. you drew. lay out your arm and trace whatever comes to mind with you finger. everything counts.

- if you drew SOMETHING today, you gained more experience than someone who did not

- draw whatever you want

- reward yourself for it

- don’t get so wrapped up in something that you forget to eat, drink water or sleep please. if you can’t make yourself care about what it does to your body, remember it WILL affect your productivity, which will lead to Bad Times, again, trust me

- you are SOMEONE’S art goals

- your art is good

- “this person doesn’t know me or my art, how do they know it’s good-” shh. doesn’t matter. its good

[drawbun]

How to Organise your Commissions

I thought I’d upload this here too!! full version

[arahmynta]

Names are complicated when you're not white

I originally wrote this in response to a post about PoC and people not pronouncing our names correctly, but I decided I want this to be on its own.

Just today I was at a check-in desk and had to give my name. The woman asked “And, I’m afraid to mispronounce this…” My husband chimed in “Arahmynta”, with the typical anglicized pronunciation I use (Air-ah-min-tah). She asked “Is that how it’s pronounced?” And I responded “Well, technically it’s Ah-rrah-meen-tah, but I don’t make people say that.”

And that light-sounding sentence rolled off my tongue so easily, but as I was finishing the sentence I felt a little sad. It’s not the woman’s fault - she was actively trying to allow me to acknowledge my real name, but even then, I felt uncomfortable owning it, because I’m so used to being embarrassed at the difficulty of saying my name.

In my daily life, I go by an anglicized “Mynta”, pronounced Min-tah. But since I was a kid, I wondered how it would feel to actually go by my full first name. I LOVE my name. I love how it’s spelled, I love how it’s pronounced. I think it’s beautiful. I like that it sounds Spanish when I say it. I’ve even, on rarer occasions, thought about going by Sahdirah, my middle name (pronounced Sah-dee-rrah).

I feel like it would maybe make me feel special and unique - maybe more like I’m being fully myself? But when I think about *actually* switching over, it makes me feel like I’m being pretentious. “What, you think you’re EXOTIC now?” I feel like a burden making people *write something longer*, or have to say a longer word. How fucked up is that?

I still like the name Mynta, it’s pretty and casual, but it’s still really a nickname. Since I’m working on getting to a place where I can make a living as a freelance artist, I will need to cultivate some kind of name recognition. “Mynta” works best for that since it’s nice and short, but even that makes me wonder if I’ll get less hits because it sounds too foreign, or because people trying to find me won’t be able to spell it.

I just imagine people typing into Google - “Minta? Minta artist? Minta painting? Why can’t I find it!” And that’s with the short form. How many people are gonna remember how to spell, and be able to find later, “Arahmynta”?

Honestly, I’m not sure why I ever STARTED going by “Mynta”. I remember being Kindergarten age, standing in the doorway to my parents’ bedroom (their dresser was at my eye level), asking my mom how to spell my name, and being taught how to print “MYNTA”. Were my parents already finding people had a hard time saying my name? Was tiny me having a hard time saying/writing it? Did they think it would be easier for me to learn a nickname? Did my nickname come about naturally?

I’ll have to ask my mom, because I honestly don’t know.

I think it’s too late to change now. After anglicized “Mynta”, correctly-pronounced “Arahmynta” feels long and unweildy. Is it weird that my own name feels formal to me now? Because I only get to use it when filling out forms. I don’t want it to be this way, I want to be able to use both in everyday life, but I’m just not sure how.

The only way I can see to have made it okay would be if I was taught to use my full name from the beginning, so that it would feel natural now. But then, what if my easier nickname is what’s allowed me to have other opportunities that I wouldn’t have had with a more difficult name option?

I don’t know. Maybe it wouldn’t have made a difference. But it just sucks that the name that I love nevertheless feels foreign to myself.

[my-gypsysisters]

This is a beautiful and difficult post.

If you want Arahmynta to be who you are as an artist, then go for it. No one can tell you how to craft your identity. And, as an artist, you have to be true to who you are. The art and the artist inform each other in a symbiotic way. Opening up the complicated nature of your identity will create more tension–sure–but artists are not known for making people comfortable. We’re known for revolution.

[arahmynta]

That's a fair point. I already had plenty of intent to make people uncomfortable with my art - or rather, aim for inclusivity and let those who hate it hate it. It wouldn't make much sense to have diversity in my art and then not allow it in my presentation of myself.

Thanks. :)

[flynneware-archive-deactivated2]

[collectivehistory-deactivated20]

[momateens]

“Beware of Artists” - Actual poster issued by Senator Joseph McCarthy in 1950s, at height of the red scare.

[fishingboatproceeds]

I love you, MoMA teens, and I so wish this were indeed an actual poster issued by Senator Joseph McCarthy but alas. It is not.

Nor did Joseph McCarthy ever say this, at least to my knowledge. Instead, the quote is adapted from something Belgian King Leopold I wrote to England’s Queen Victoria. He actually wrote, “Dealings with artists, for instance, require great prudence; they are acquainted with all classes of society, and for that very reason dangerous; they are hardly ever satisfied, and when you have too much to do with them, you are sure to have des ennuis.”

In addition to pointing out that artists tend to bring ennui and dissatisfaction to all those who interact with them, Leopold I is famous for turning down the chance to be King of Greece, “fearing that Greece was too politically unstable to remain a viable monarchy.”

Instead, he became King of Belgium, and today his great great great grandson Philippe is the king of Belgium. Greece, meanwhile, has no monarch.

[arahmynta]

Okay, written by a different shithead. Still, good quote.

[crimsontentacles]

Sometimes your artistic improvement is not only what your hands can do but also what your eye and mind can understand.

Few years ago I was looking at some works of my favourite artists and couldnt even comprehend how they are made. Colors, lightning, workflow - everything seemed so advance my mind was shutting off, just admiring the view but not understanding it.

Now - even if I’m not able to reach their skill or it would take me days - I can analyze and deconstruct all those “impossible” works. I can understand how they use light or color to achieve certain effects and file it for later use. 

Remember that your eyes and brain develop as well as your hand, sometimes at different speed. Looking and thinking about art has the same value as actually doing it. Have an artblock? Take some time to browse through your favourite works and instead of thinking how much you can’t do the same, try to understand how it’s done!

[kittenpawprints-deactivated2018]

THIS IS TRUE. It may not be so obvious at first, but I realized this when I took a break drawing for about a year. I came back and was a bit rough, but my style had changed and my understanding of anatomy and color had as well-just by looking at art in the meantime! This is helpful to ease any worries and the rush that is “You better be drawing all the time and working hard or you won’t improve!!!” mentality. You don’t have to draw all the time. Take a break, enjoy some art, and acknowledge your skills and be able to tell yourself “Hey-I can do that!” And if you DONT understand something, there’s always speedpaints to watch! You don’t have to apply your knowledge immediately in order for it to stick. The brain is a funny thing.

[arahmynta]

I go through spurts of not drawing for a long time, including a period where I drew virtually nothing for 1-2 years. But, I never stopped reading articles, taking in skillfully made art, and reading books. I was constantly studying, even though I wasn’t practicing. And know what happened when I started drawing again? I was very significantly better. Now, I would have been even better than that if I HAD been practicing all that time - but what makes you better is only... I want to say 20% the actual practice. What makes the biggest difference is your knowledge. The principles you learn and internalize, what you teach yourself to see - hell, half the point of practice is just to help you see the things you can’t until you’re doing them physically for yourself. Your craft doesn’t increase by doing the same thing over and over again. It’s the accumulation of knowledge, which is then put into practice. If you’re depressed, if you have no energy, if you can’t draw - don’t give up. Keep watching tutorials, keep reading books, keep analyzing art and examining the details. That alone will help you get better, and when you ARE ready to draw, you will find you’ve improved in the meantime.

[arahmynta]

Figured I'd post this work in progress - but shhhhhh. It's a present. :P Gonna be a badger smoking a pipe. First one's line art plus flat background, second is starting to get fur in.

[arahmynta]

Now there is a fur. Kinda. No shading yet. Or eyes. Still kinda cute tho.