2w ago

One year ago!

It's been a year since I decided to invest in myself in art. Started with buying a PC connected tablet (pictured) and within a month or so getting a phone that comes with a pen. The phone has made a world of difference as it eliminated the barriers between my busy life and art. Join a conference call early, draw. Waiting at the doctor's office, draw. Watching something with my wife that she enjoys but I'm not excited about, draw.

Totally worth it and the art I've made on this little phone sometimes gets close to artists I admire and have wish I could be like.

If you're thinking you want to get better at art maybe eliminate barriers and do your art daily.

If you're a reader, the book Atomic Habits has a ton of great ideas. It's what inspired me to get the tablet and then the phone.

27 comments

Congratulations, Ballshapedman! That takes dedication. It's been fun watching your progress.
- Thank you! I can't wait to see what I can do in another year!

Side note, I just noticed the Yuzu logo is visible. I own a switch and buy all my games. They just run like crap on the switch and the hardware is pretty mid overall. I mostly play switch games on my Steam Deck, but the laptop (connected to the PC tablet) and desktop also have Yuzu on it as well.
- Psh. I doubt anyone here would have blamed you for playing on emulators regardless.
  
  That's a good point. I'm used to old people, probably not many of us here.

Awesome, great job! I've also been thinking about picking up drawing but I have so much else going on so I haven't really had time to prioritize it.
- Totally understand that. That was my life from high school through last year. All my kids being adults helped give me just enough time I thought I'd go for it.
  Though I haven't really picked up a guitar since which I miss sometimes. But I enjoy art more.

It's been awesome watching your art journey so far, looking forward to see your next pieces! Also eliminating barriers and just doing art on a regular basis can't be stressed enough, it's what got me back into drawing as well. Habits work wonders!
- 🔥🔥🔥

I do love your art and your dedication! Atomic Habits is on my reading list. Maybe I'll bump it up.
And you're using GIMP, too. I love seeing people use libre software for their everyday. It gives me hope that we can, one day, escape the clutches of corpo software.
- I don't use gimp much these days. Moved to Sketchbook by Autodesk so I could have the same software on my phone and PC. Phys gimp is way over my head.
  And thank you!
  
  I don't blame you. Sketchbook is pretty amazing haha

your posts are very motivating. Do you have specific resources you can share for someone who doesn’t know where to start?
- I'm still pretty new at this myself. Lots of good advice has been given to me here asking with YouTube.
  The biggest pieces of advice were paint all on one layer. Simplify the image and paint more and more detail in different phases. Should look like a blocky cartoon and slowly become this. And mostly lots and lots of practice and searching for other ways people do it.
- Oh one more thing, start with photos with pronounced highlights and shadows. They're easier to paint and block out the mid tones first, then shadows and it highlights.
  
  thanks a lot 🧑‍🎨

Looks good! Hope you keep going. Wish I could get myself to make something again :D
- Maybe try the 5 minute challenge? Do something creative for just 5 minutes. I use it for chores I don't want to do and before you know it the dishes are done.
  
  I barely make it out of bed^^
  But I put it on the pile of things to try to get out of the funk.

27 comments