Salutations! I’ve been meaning to do something like this for a while, but now I’m getting to it.
I want this to be a thing that lets you connect to yourself through your creative activities. Be it art like the examples I’m going to provide, or other cool things you enjoy like play writing or fashion or sports. I am going to collectively call these things art.
So I wanted to do this because I see people getting down on themselves on their art and what they produce. It seems like its a chore and profession for them and not as enjoyable as I feel it could be if they were to think about it a different way.
I think the mindset is what matters most, are you having fun doing it, and are you happy you made it. It doesn’t have to be something that sells for a large sum or impresses a large audience. The biggest impression it should make is on you.
So what did I do? Well I treated myself to everything I like. I didn’t keep myself to this high bar that I had to impress everyone, I actually limited myself to only a few ctr-z’s. My instincts kicked in a couple times but i didn’t want to make this an illustration.
First I drew this flower. I love foliage, so the first think I wanted to draw was something I loved.
The next thing was something I liked to see but struggled with. This above view of a feminine face looking down. I like the way the eyelids, nose and lips flow and I also have a hard time with hair from this angle, making it look full and lively.
What better way than to make something I struggle with next to something I love. It can help give me confidence and it helps me see the beauty past any failures I may perceive of the image.
I was listening to a gameplay video while drawing and I drew an asset from the game. Simple and neat.I started with a box frame for the object and didn’t erase it afterwards. It feels nice.
Still life around me. Helps me grasp the world.
Random stuff. I like to do random words, shortening of words and number scrawling. It keeps my mind active and not stuck on one concept.
Hand squad. Keep practicing to gain that line confidence and shape commitment.
Grabbed a picture of a character I like and traced over it, then tried drawing it freehand with the image next to me.
Tracing can be bad if you try to pass it as your own work or gain profit from it. Tracing doesn’t demonstrate actual proficiency at an activity. As you can see my freehand is not like the original nor the traced. Understand that if you trace, your freehand isn’t getting better, only by doing freehand will your actual proficiency improve.
People can draw photorealistic without a photo, maybe that’s a better demonstration of how this works.
Made a random expression with my face and tried to draw it only by feeling my actual muscles. Cool exercise!
A friend shared something with me and I drew something inspired by it. Kinda indiscernible but what can you do!
Snabbed an image on social media I liked. Yeah I guess snab isn’t a word but it should be. Its easy to go on a spree of liking images from people who inspire you or from things that entertain you. Ideally I would have drawn this for the example but I didn’t wanna minimize my other figures. Draw things that you like or inspire you. Try to avoid comparing yourself or saying you can’t do something.
Drew a lil me.nice way to end off the page.Â
Here were the activities I did that I would like to make into a list that is easier to extract info from.
1. Draw what you love.
2. Draw something you frequently enjoy but
3. Draw something from videos you watch.
4. Still life at your desk
5. Random strings of letters, numbers, symbols and or shapes
6. Practice makes you better
7. Characters/scenes you like
8. Drawing expressions blind based off your own muscles and without a mirror or external image
9. Something someone who cares about you gave you
10. Social media
11. Draw your ideal persona, with the visage you want to exude
There, I did it! Gonna try to get better at this so I can provide some practical and helpful demonstrations or advice. I”ll improve with my writing as I do these more. If I were to give you a quote or message that is nice to end this off, try this one:
Your art is built on top of all previous art you have made.
Your very first drawing wasn’t terrible. Your experience using those tools, muscles, and thoughts were non existent. Its not that as you continue to draw you stop making mistakes and approach the best way to draw, its that as you continue to draw you learn more about what you want to draw like.
Give me some advice about this if you have any, I won’t bite. Share this if you think this can help someone. Tell me if I did anything right by you or if i was vague or unknowingly suggested an unhealthy mindset/activity.
Warmup to yourself