Art and Illustration

[ashleywestart]

How I Learned To Stop Procrastinating

I’m not gonna lie, I’m writing this blog post to create a writing sample for a job I want (wish me luck!). I’ve been sitting here trying to think of what to write about, that doesn’t require a plethora of citations I need to hunt for. Then it dawned on me: Procrastination. Why Are You Procrastinating? Are you procrastinating because you’re lazy? A lot of new studies are coming out saying…

View On WordPress

[ashleywestart]

I'm Alive!

Wow. I can’t believe it’s been 3 years since my last blog post. So… here’s what happened in that time: I became a webcomic artist (that was actually what ate a good chunk of my time) I didn’t just get a new job, I completely switched careers. I moved from art to digital marketing. I went from working at an art gallery which was run by somebody who was psychologically abusive to working from…

View On WordPress

[ashleywestart]

5 Ways to Stop Struggling with Motivation as an Artist

5 Ways to Stop Struggling with Motivation as an Artist

Ask Yourself: Why Are You Not Motivated?

Getting to the source your problem is probably the first thing you need to do before you try any other trick to motivate yourself.

Are you motivated because…

You don’t feel good enough?

You have too many things to do and don’t have time for your art?

You can’t think of any ideas?

All three of these at once?

Once you figure out the most likely reason…

View On WordPress

[ashleywestart]

Yes, Make that Webcomic (5 Job Skills You Learn!)

Yes, Make that Webcomic (5 Job Skills You Learn!)

Want to make a webcomic, but with everything else going on, you don’t know if it’s a good idea? Turns out there’s a lot of valuable job skills you end up learning as a side effect of being creative! And no, I don’t just mean job skills you’ll need in the comic book industry. I mean job skills that would be valuable to any employer: multitasking, customer service, editing and copy writing just…

View On WordPress

[ashleywestart]

10 Featured Artists of 2020

10 Featured Artists of 2020

Amaranta Colindres

Amaranta’s animal artworks absolutely glitter with awe and beauty. Her pieces tell a surreal story through the geometric symbols and vibrant colors. The artist’s own passion for nature shine through in her brilliant paintings. #amarantacolindresart

Instagram:

Ariana Gill

Ariana Gill is an extraordinary illustration artist with a style that can truly teleport you…

View On WordPress

[ashleywestart]

How to Paint Something You Suck At

This isn’t going to be a painting tutorial, this is just something I’ve been trying to figure out.

I’ve written on this topic before. This can be attributed to any artist in any medium, but for argument’s sake, I’m going to be talking about painters. Both traditional and digital.

Many artists are good at painting specific subjects. Someone who specializes in painting horses may not paint…

View On WordPress

[ashleywestart]

Daily Digital Challenge: Day 7

Hey, everybody.

Didn’t post yesterday because it was my husband’s birthday. That being said, I still made him this for his birthday gift:

Okay, so let’s go over how this morning went:

60 Minutes Learning

Here are a couple objectives I want to reach with this challenge:

Character Design

Consistency with character design

Bad habit to break: making my heads too big

Before we delve…

View On WordPress

[ashleywestart]

30 Day Digital Challenge Day 5

Good morning, and happy belated Easter!

Before I begin, Days 1-4 are not here because I didn’t really have a clear goal or system in mind yet. I’m borrowing from my 3 Hour Workday Challenge, only geared at digital art.

Why Digital Art?

Why should you make digital art? What about the feel of the pencil in your hand, the beautiful shapes and lines taking form in a classical graphite feel?…

View On WordPress

[ashleywestart]

Art as a Spiritual Practice

Lent started a couple weeks ago.

For those of you who don’t know what it is, it’s 40 days where Catholics (and I know for sure Lutheran, but I don’t know so much about other sects of Christianity), commemorate the 40 days Jesus was in the desert. We usually give up something (typically something diet related) or we add a good spiritual habit. There’s much more to it than that, but that’s the…

View On WordPress

[ashleywestart]

Finding Joy in Art

Finding Joy in Art

Maybe the reason why I feel motivated to write a happy article is because of how happy I feel right now. As of this morning, I posted page 4 of Dragon Rider’s Dance on time! I realize I didn’t mention this in my last journal entry, but I’m going to be posting every Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Actually… let me go put that ON the website…

…

Okay! Done!

One of the reasons why the comic is…

View On WordPress

[ashleywestart]

Should You Draw Things You Hate?

Should You Draw Things You Hate?

You know what I hate? Buildings.

Can’t stand them.

The very sight of a building makes me sick.

Okay, that last part’s not true, I love old buildings. Old castles, old churches, old banks. I love being in them.

You know what I hate? DRAWING buildings. PAINTING buildings especially.

I don’t know what it is, but every time I have to draw or paint a building (which is not often), I…

View On WordPress

[ashleywestart]

So I Started a Webcomic...

So I Started a Webcomic…

Alright, so last blog post, I was going to try doing a digital art challenge to improve my digital painting skills, but right after that, I got a really bad flew, then went on vacation right afterwords. After all that, I’m finally back at 100% and getting back to my normal routine.

For over ten years, I’ve had this fantasy genre story about a dragon rider, his dragons, and the adventures they…

View On WordPress

[ashleywestart]

7 Day Digital Art Challenge!

7 Day Digital Art Challenge!

Focus: Character Design

Day 1: Black and White Self Portrait (Before)

Day 2: Practice Drawing Lines (or go to line boot camp)

From here on out, practice drawing lines for 5 minutes prior to additional exercises

Day 3: Writing a story/ sketching concept

Day 4: Line art

Day 5: Color

Day 6: Different Color…

View On WordPress

[ashleywestart]

2020 Self Portrait Project: Half Photo/ Half Painting

2020 Self Portrait Project: Half Photo/ Half Painting

I’m thinking about writing in the near future something to do with the philosophy of digital art vs. traditional art, but in a nutshell, I want to expand my knowledge and artistic ability as much as I can, so lately I’ve been learning more about how to add “digital artist” to my arsenal of titles.

Now any digital artist worth their salt knows that mastering masking layers is the key to…

View On WordPress

[ashleywestart]

New Project: Character Design Portfolio

New Project: Character Design Portfolio

Good morning and hello!

I’ve been keeping up with my daily art- and my one hour dedicated to “business” has been really helpful to get me inspired, figure out what about my art do I like that could also create an income. For the past few weeks, I’ve been teaching myself a “class” on character design- which means finding successful artists in the industry and learning what they do.

I do feel…

View On WordPress

[ashleywestart]

5 Reasons You Should Dance Every Morning!

5 Reasons You Should Dance Every Morning!

Good morning and hello everyone!

I don’t quite know what prompted me to do this, but I’ve started the day by turning on a silly song (lately, it’s been Melodika Bros’ cover of System of a Down’s Chop Suey, brewing coffee, grabbing a glass of water, and while the coffee’s brewing…

…and dance like a silly person!

I mean, it’s…

View On WordPress

[ashleywestart]

Coffee with Art: Drawing Hair

Coffee with Art: Drawing Hair

Good morning and hello!

I just wanted to share this:

It’s not super realistic. But I don’t care! It’s still fun!

I haven’t posted anything on this website in a short while, but I definitely have been keeping up with my 5am morning routine (only slept in once since I started waking up at that time again in December and that was only until 5:45!)

For those of you who might remember,…

View On WordPress