aaaaagh!
Art hobbyist
........
I treat this blog as a personal sketchbook. I draw cartoons a lot, but it's not necessarily appropriate for all ages.
............
If you need to contact me, you can send me an e-mail at:
[email protected]
After a very long time, this deck of playing cards I designed in 2012 is available as a real physical object. They are being produced officially by Fangamer! Follow this link if you're interested (site also has pictures if you just want to look)
I helped directly by lightly remastering my old 52-card set, as well as designed entirely new card backs, a joker and "rules" card, and the card box.
The original art is from long before Deltarune or even Undertale existed. (Link to my original tumblr post from back then).
For the new stuff, I was given carte blanche to draw whatever I wanted, so I took it as an opportunity to extrapolate the world of the card creatures a little more. My goal being "Well, how would I have drawn it back then..?"
Of course, the characters on the new Joker and Rules cards may be familiar to Deltarune fans...
I really hope people can have fun with these! Thanks for reading.
I'm a HUUUUUGE sucker for (this sucker) Rouxls Kaard and i just ADORE your redition for the card, may we see it full res??? (And other sketches of him if you have some...) thank you so much for blessing us with your incredible art I'm so glad i've discovered you!!!
I can share some of the sketches!
I have to admit I really struggled with drawing him. I think my original idea was "He can be... shuffling cards? I guess?" It wasn't really working though. It didn't come together until I realized it'd be funnier and more in-character if he dropped his cards and was struggling to pick them up quickly.
I briefly considered writing out some actual rules on the card, but it felt needless... In the end, despite the name of the card, its more of an alternative themed joker.
(I need to re-stress that I'm not involved in development of the game. These are only noodling sketches for a product design! It's essentially fanart, ok?)
Hello, Kanotynes.
It feels like you’ve been busy lately — I wish I could see your wonderful drawings more often. :(
I know many others have already asked similar questions, but I wanted to ask anyway.
A lot of people, and even you yourself, seem to agree on the importance of studying fundamentals and structure.
For a long time, I just followed my energy and drew freely, but to improve, I realized I couldn’t ignore their advice. So I started practicing gesture drawing, perspective, structure, basic forms, and so on — but instead of improving, I feel like I’ve been getting worse. I feel like I’m falling behind my peers.
In fact, sometimes it feels like the drawings I made when I was drawing freely were stronger — both energetically and structurally.
I’ve spent 6 years trying everything I could to break through this plateau, but I still can’t overcome it. It’s been really discouraging.
I’m not saying that the advice from professionals is wrong — I just think I might be applying it incorrectly somehow.
Have you seen students like me before, or experienced something like this yourself?
What do you think about artistic plateaus, and how did you overcome them?
You’re one of the artists I admire most. I’ve been appreciating your work for 10 years, and I’m finally asking you this question now.
Hi there! I've gone back and forth on this ask for a while now. I resolved a while back to stop answering art questions, especially general ones. I honestly don't think I'm qualified to answer them & feel like publicly answering questions on a topic only leads to getting more questions like that...
I've got to make it clear that I do not work in any art industry, I didn't go through any art school, I'm not a teacher, and I thankfully don't need to hustle to monetize my drawings online. I'm truly just an enthusiast. So, I can't give pointers at how to succeed under those kinds of pressures. I've been on "easy mode"!
Besides, a lot of my advice over the years has essentially been reciting advice I've heard from others.
All that said... I can still offer my own perspective. Please take this with a grain of salt and only use the parts that seem useful, ok?
I'm self-taught and I'd describe my approach as intuitive.
First off, I'm sorry to hear that you stopped drawing freely in favor of "studying fundamentals". For me, the purpose of doing exercises like that are to give you more tools to use in your free drawing, not to replace it or make the process more difficult.
For example, learning structure et al isn't strictly necessary, but it is useful when I want to position things in 3 dimensions. Whether you're going for full construction drawing or using rough-sketched rectangular prisms as placement tools.
You can learn to use a tool by studying it directly to an extent, but learning how to problem-solve in context of making a full picture is a skill in itself.
In my experience I split the types of drawing I do into two modes: Input and Output.
In the first mode I patiently take in information by doing studies of subjects I'm trying to learn, reading books on a subject, careful copying, loose gestures--anything you can think of. I might draw the same thing over and over, from as many angles as possible, trying to etch it into my mind in a way I'll remember. It can also help to write in words what I'm observing. It sounds austere to do something like 'studying' but I also try and think about my opinions & feelings about what I'm studying. What am I noticing? (Oh yeah, and light itself can be a subject just as much as persons or things.)
The Output phase is what I might call 'Free Drawing'. At it's core, just doodling. A big part of my learning-to-draw process is drawing something from memory, calmly looking over what aspects I find successful and what I want to refine, and then going back to my reference.
Here's another way to think about it. Imagine there's a little guy in my head. His name is Muscle Memory. I'm going through all these motions of study and practice not for my own benefit, but to teach this little guy about them. All of this so that maybe next time I'm doodling idly on a loose leaf of paper, he might just take over for me and produce some wonderful little drawings I would have never thought of on my own. He might not appear if I'm overthinking, but over the years I feel like we've gotten O.K. at working together.
Maybe that sounds fantastical, but if you've ever been able to do something easily without thinking about it then you might be familiar with the feeling... Can apply to anything, like driving, musical instruments, video games or simply opening a doorknob.
It can be easy to psyche yourself out in drawing. I never go into making a picture with too clear an idea in my head of how it's going to look. It falls short 100% of the time when I do. I find I get best results when I approach it like solving a puzzle. I'm terrible at meticulously planning a piece beforehand, but I like to come up with a few constraints and goals. Just a few examples:
What am I trying to say about a character I'm drawing? What's their body language & how do they hold themselves?
I want to emphasize the vibrant green-ness of some plantlife--how do I control the surrounding palette to accomplish that?
Maybe I want to pick a shape or pattern and build an entire picture out of that?
As for art plateaus... I can genuinely say I don't care about that very much. Improvement at a skill is going to look different at different stages of growth and require different things. Learning to write letters & spell is going to look different from learning how to write clearly which is going to look different from learning to use writing to accomplish something complex.
For my part, when I feel stuck like I've been doing the same thing for too long, I shift focus and try something else. I'll be honest about when something's boring me and chase whatever will thrill me.
I look back at my old artwork frequently and I don't really see growth in the technical quality of the drawings themselves, but I can definitely see shifts in my perspective as I've kept this hobby up through my life.
The asker expressed concern about falling behind their peers. I want to point it out because it sounds like a major point of stress. Who are these peers? Do you know them? Do they know you? Why do their accomplishments feel like a threat?
It's normal to have 'art heroes' when you're young & figuring out your taste, and sometimes a sense of competition can be motivating. But if this applies to you, I highly recommend assessing the way you're viewing your peers and whether its serving you in a productive way.
Now. I actually do have a One Easy Trick to this that's served me well... Here it is... I want to make pictures that are different than what my peers are making.
I love looking at other peoples' art. I love my friends' art. But theirs is theirs and mine is mine. Sometimes its humbling to see that someone can do a cool trick that you don't know how to do, but that's life...
I never let myself fall into wanting to draw like somebody else, but I gain a lot by looking at how other artists solve similar problems I'm facing. A good picture can teach a lot by helping me see something I never usually notice.
Anyway, wrapping up...
The feeling of wanting to learning new things and surprising myself is what keeps drawing interesting for me. I think if I ever felt like I figured it out once and for all, that would mean I'm bored and it's time to take up a new hobby.
That said, praise makes me feel awkward and the idea of "getting popular online" is horrific to me, so maybe my motivation is unusual..
Thanks for reading all this?!
