Look, I Made a Thing.

A blog showcasing art I created to combat my depression. I started painting with water colours as a form of therapy and re-discovered art as a hobby in the process. Since this is primarily a way to express myself and keep busy every day, I won't pick and choose which of my works go onto this blog - I'm uploading everything I do, no matter how unpolished. This way, I'll always be able to look at this blog and see how far I've come, and how much I've changed not only as an artist, but also as a person. In that sense, this is every bit as much a personal blog as it is an art blog. So come watch me grow! :)

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Just experimenting with Sai, I guess.

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Also drawn during the homestuck reddit live stream, but mercifully there is not a single shred of cage anywhere to be seen. Whew!

I used coloured pencil for this, in combination with some water colours, and I’m a little upset that the colours don’t quite look like they do on paper... Tried to make things look closer to how they were supposed to look with some editing, but it didn’t really help. If anyone has any helpful tips on how to improve that, let me know!!

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I’M A VAMPIRE. I’M A VAMPIRE. I’M A VAMPIRE.

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I wasn’t doing too well last weekend, and this is a painting I did to distract myself. When things are particularly bad, I tend to do something abstract since it doesn’t require making a sketch and doing too much planning beforehand. I just jump right in and go with whatever feels right at the moment.

Maybe it’s just me and my currently rather sleep-deprived mind, but looking at this one right now, I can always make out two shapes opposing one another... Both heavily armoured and giving off a battle mecha vibe, perhaps? One on the right side, in the foreground, with a visor and a glowing, purple ball of energy forming between its hands as it peer overs its shoulder at its opponent. Do you see it? Maybe you don’t. But if you do, cool!

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And now, back to our regular schedule of trees, trees, and a few more trees just for good measure. My frustrations with digital painting were piling up higher and higher at the time, so I decided to go back to water colours for a bit. It’s a great deal more relaxing.

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Defender of Justice, 707!!

Sketch and (relatively lmao) finished lineart of Mystic Messenger’s Seven dressed as a maid, because all the cool kids are doing it.

I was getting pretty frustrated with that slightly more realistic style I used in the last thing I uploaded, so I decided to go back to my roots and do something anime-style. As expected, even that is kind of a pain with a tablet, but I think I’m slowly starting to get the hang of it.

I’ll post the coloured version once I’ve gathered up the courage to give it a try haha!

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Attempt number two at digital painting. I’m still in the process of figuring out how to properly use Sai and using a tablet is honestly Such A Struggle compared to water colours, and the result doesn’t really feel like ‘me’... But I’m getting there. I’m sure I’ll be able to develop a style that feels more natural if I keep practicing and experimenting with different things.

Honestly, I’m mostly just surprised at how much I improved between this and the first attempt. Got some good pointers from @vicipedia while working on this, so that probably helped a lot!

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Since I found an old tablet I bought several years ago but never really ended up using a lot, I decided I wanted to give digital painting another go. The first try years ago was... disastrous. This attempt? Still pretty much a disaster, since I had no idea what I was doing or how to utilize any of the tools Sai has, but still better than what I did before.

I got so frustrated with the tablet, and pretty much hated how I couldn’t do any of the things I would usually do when using water colours or pencils... I ended up rage-quitting half-way through, and this is the sad, sad, unfinished result. Though I guess it’s not that bad, for a first try.

I’ll be uploading my second attempt later today, and you’ll see a lot of improvement there!

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I was feeling stressed, and I suppose whenever I feel stressed, I end up doing these sorts of paintings. Very calming, can definitely recommend.

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Since I was doing a lot of portraits at the time, I figured it was time to try my hand at full-body paintings again. I also wanted to practice coming up with dynamic poses... But looking at it now, I think it would be difficult for a figure skater to keep her balance in that pose?! It looks elegant, but not too natural I think. Lesson for next time: actually look at references before coming up with a pose :)

Awkward pose aside, I actually like how this came out. Mostly I think I just really like her bodice... And those thighs lmao.

Totally did this before yuri on ice. But now that yoi is a thing that is on my radar... I might have to try my hand at figure skaters again haha.

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I wanted to get a better sense for shading, especially when it comes to faces, so that’s what I mainly focused on when I painted this. It’s sometimes difficult to properly think about how things are supposed to look when all I want to do is relax and paint whatever comes to mind, but I think the effort paid off. Compared to my earlier works, this one shows a lot of improvement! Still nowhere near perfect, but I’m not aiming for that anyway. I’m aiming for growth.

Anyway, I like this one. The lips look a little crooked to me and her face is kind of... triangular? But I don’t mind too much. Her face has character! Haha.

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I’m very fond of this one. It’s the kind of thing that feels great to paint when you just want to relax and look at some pretty colours to cheer you up. I feel like the white spaces I left make the colours pop even more... Maybe that’s just me, but when I’m feeling down, the last thing I want to do is look at drab colours. And so this was born!

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And we’re back to abstract colour splotches! What can I say, they’re extremely therapeutic to paint.

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Some quick sketches I did to get a feel for different face shapes and expressions. Personally, I like the bottom one the most. She has such an elegant facial structure...! Though I really should have thought a little bit more about how hijabs work. Doesn’t look quite right to me. Well, it’s only a sketch. I’d like to draw one properly soon!

I also need to stop drawing more men... Oops.

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Oh, boy.

Where do I even start...? Essentially, I was talking to @leonhardt-relatable about Devil May Cry 5, and how strange it is that one of the women appearing in the first few scenes of the game left her bra at Dante’s place. Bras are expensive as fuck, okay. And walking around without one is often just plain uncomfortable, so what kind of woman would just forget it at the place of some random dude she hooked up with?! There’s just no way that would happen.

So.

The natural conclusion here is that it wasn’t her bra at all. It was Dante’s. And so this thing was born...!

Considering it was my first time painting anything even close to this, I’m actually really happy with how it turned out. There are plenty of things I would like to fix, looking back on it now, and water colours so were not the right medium to use for this, but despite all of that, it turned out so much better than I thought it would?! Sure, struggling to get the abs right was a nightmare, and looking at the detailing on the bra still makes me cry a little every time, but...

Totally worth it.

I could’ve done without my brother walking in on me painting this and hardcore judging me for my life choices, but still worth it lol.

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I’m not even sure where this one came from, but given my tendency to default to painting trees when nothing else comes to mind, I’m side-eyeing these neurons reaaally hard. Either way, it was fun to do, and I suppose it’s only fitting I would paint the inside of a brain, given that I’m a psych major.

Plus, it looks cool. At least I think so!

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More oddly coloured trees! I’m really quite fond of this one.