#fixed that

[somerandomdudelmao]

Correction anon

Raph called April “Aplil”

Oops..

[thyeternalhunger]

Vile way to hold a book

[endlesssummerslaycation]

Had an "I like pancakes" "so you hate waffles" moment on the FE subreddit today. This guy thought that because I forgot abt Nyx and called Elise the worst mage in the game, that I thought Nyx was better than Elise. And then they... downvoted me when I corrected myself? Like make it make sense

[loonyloopylupin96]

Listening to the DH audiobook and Voldemort has just found out about the Gringotts break-in and is trying to decide which horcrux to check on first because no one would know about the cave. Oh but Albus might.

Regulus has been dead at least fifteen years at this point.

So, a little life lesson from Regulus: take credit for your hard work (and make sure you finish it).

[wolveria]

[sickly-victorian-boy]

If anybody else wants to fill the void in their soul that was left when Dracula Daily finished, @dickensdaily started earlier this week! It’s Great Expectations, and it’s being sent out at the same rate at which it was initially serialized.

[oniongarlic]

Any advice for writers block but for visual art?

Ok, im gonna approach this from the position of a hobbyist, because professional art is a beast of a different colour [i can talk abt that some other time if anyone wants to hear it] also i realize i got a bit long winded about this, but bear with me. Also I’m going to say drawing a lot, but this can apply to whatever medium or technique.

So lets say i played a bit of tennis before in school and i really liked it and want to get back into it. I go out and buy a racket and some balls, and i show up on the local court brimming with excitement. I am going to be the Serena Williams of this tennis court, everyone will see my secret well of innate talent overflow like a geyser, nobody will be able to believe their eyes when they see my perfect first try spin serve. I launch the ball as high into the air as i can muster, i feel my secret innate talent balloon inside of me and the ball descends. I strike my racket at it with the full amount of raw force i can physically produce. The ball bounces at my feet. I missed my first shot. Completely whiffed it. The balloon of secret innate talent explodes and deep shame and embarrassment washes over me. I’m not Serena Williams. I’ll never be an amateur tennis player. I suck at tennis and I’m a failure. I go home and hide the balls and racket in the back of my closet and try very hard never to think about them.

So that sounds like a bit of an exaggeration, but that is how i’ve seen so many people approach art. There is this mythology around art that “You either have it, or you dont” and that the people who are really good were born with those skills. The mythology of “innate talent” is a huge toxic lie, for two reasons:

It makes beginners think that they cannot do it. People run into the first bit of technical difficulty and take that to mean that they are a failure, instead of recognizing that difficulty and multiple failed artworks is a natural and essential part of the process of learning an art medium. You will fail a lot. It’s part of the experience.

It discredits and erases the extreme amount of work that higher level artists have put into their practice. They have almost always spent years, decades, developing their skill.

While “innate talent” is not real, I’ll tell you what IS real. These steps listed below.

1. Commit to a regular schedule of practice

The first bad habit any artist has to demolish is waiting to be inspired to start practicing their medium. If you only draw when you have a great idea, by the time you start on your magnum opus your drawing skills are likely to have atrophied in the time you spent lying on your chaise longue searching your blank mind for an idea and the drawing will not be successful. Make time on a weekly basis to physically partake in drawing, even if you have no particular inspiration yet. In drawing ideas come from the hand, not the brain, and you’ll find yourself having FAR more ideas when your hand is moving on the paper than when you are sitting still, not engaging the hand and eye.

2. Set attainable goals

The best thing about art is the challenge of gradually building a skill, and it helps to create specific and attainable goals along your journey. This could be anything from increasing your stamina to draw for longer periods to achieving finer shading, to learning to draw faster. It depends on what you want to achieve, but always set yourself a goal that can be achieved in 10 works or less.

3. Change mediums OR stick with it

If you’re wrestling with your tools, now is the time to decide whether you want to use something else or not. If the end products you make at the best of your ability just don’t please you and the art that others have made in that medium don’t inspire you, try a different medium. What paintings/drawings do you like? Find out how those were made and maybe try making a picture that way. On the other hand, if you really love the end products made by other artists using the same medium as you but you’re just not there yet on the skill level, its time to dig deep. You will get through this difficult period and you will succeed if you work hard.

Special note for digital artists: try and also learn a traditional medium. Digital art is informed by traditional art, so it would help to be familiar with a traditional medium that is comparable to your digital style.

4. Draw something intentionally bad

If u are REALLY stuck, draw the ugliest drawing u can. I want to see like the shittiest picture of sonic the hedgehog and bart simpson riding scooters with pizza. Draw the “cool S” a few times. Just get some marks down on your page

5. Draw something from life

I don’t care if you have a cartoon style, you WILL benefit from drawing something realistically. It trains the eye, hand, and mind to work together like nothing else, AND the criteria is straightforward. Does your drawing look like whatever you have in front of you? Is the only question you have to ask. This is a good thing to practice when you dont have anything in particular that you want to draw, because by the time the idea occurs to you, your eye, hand, and mind have already been working together and will be ready for the task. Choose something simple to draw, an apple or something. It’s just hand training.

Special note for cartoon people: cartoons are distilled from realistic visual impressions of the world. You wont lose your style by practicing drawing something realistically. It will improve your cartoon style, because now you will know in greater detail what it is you are distilling.

6. Youtube

You can learn anything on youtube. Search up “how to paint/draw [what u want to draw] with [your medium]” and i can almost guarantee there is an artist on youtube with a video detailing exactly how they did what you are trying to do. Watch what other artists do and copy their techniques. A lot of us are learning art all alone now, as opposed to earlier periods in art where artists would all be in a big room together, watching their teacher and each other. This leads to some real artistic anemia because people are missing out on a huge visual component of learning art, which is watching a master do it. Watch youtube videos of what you want to do and mimic what you see.

7. Longterm goals

Time for my second section on goal making, this time those big juicy goals that take a long time to achieve. Make yourself a folder or collage of art from artists who make the kind of art you want to make. These should be like your top tier best of the best in ten years from now artistic inspirations. These works will inform what you need to practice in the meantime to grind your skill into a sharp point.

A final note about style copying:

Contemporary artists can be touchy about style copying, “stylejacking” as its sometimes called, so while you can and should learn techniques from other artists, it is best not to try to perfectly inhabit the style of a working artist. If your main inspirations are all currently alive, try to blend inspirations and techniques from ten or more of them. If the artist you are copying has been dead for 50+ years you can pretty much go ham. Within reason.