✱ slowly trying to add more to this site... i finally went back and made the [sitemap] page. i'm really happy with the layout. blue and green is my favorite color combo, right next to pink and green.
✱ i wanted to talk about art again. i said this in my other post, but i have barely been drawing anything. still DESPERATELY need to update my art page that has not been touched in. 2 years. discord taking away hotlinking really messed me up (and that was on me). i think that's next on my list. file.garden is gonna save my life, i think
admittedly i spend more time (at least in recent times) just TALKING about art and how much i wanna draw more than i actually partake in the physical act of drawing. i'm giving myself a pass for this because of college. which, as i said before, i'm finally about to be done with. it's almost time for my art renaisssance
something i think about a lot, though, is how common the "i'm not getting any better at art and nothing is turning out how i want it to i hate art so much it pisses me off i hate drawing die die die i never want to draw ever again i hate everything" meme is in the art community.
and i guess when i say "art community" i'm talking about art twitter circles or something. and i guess any social media sphere where artists gather, but i'm mostly aiming this at twitter, since that's where i see the most discussions about it. and sometimes by "discussions" i mean people making tweet #8540948353405 about how much they hate being an artist and art and how miserable it is so be an artist. like ok man
i know not everyone is super serious all the time, and most of the time it is meant to be a joke (?), but idk i think i get tired of seeing that over and over again.the self pity and learned helplessness.
like i understand, yes art is hard. BECAUSE IT IS! it is a skill that needs to be built up over time. and it will get to a point where there's a plateau, and ya gotta study way harder. pick up the references and the anatomy books, do gestures, study art and get to the bottom of WHY you like it specifically, etc. and it's not always fun. of course you don't HAVE to do that, but if there's something in your art that's lacking and you WANT to improve it, that's the way to go.
i completely understand that there are people out there that do this completely for fun and only hold the passive desire to improve but for the most part are just like "yeah that'd be cool if i could draw like [really good artist here] but also i'm chilling", AKA hobbyists! and it is my personal opinion that those people need to be left completely alone (unless they otherwise ask for criticism).
the only time i'm like... dude... is when people constantly complain all the time (usually in a very obnoxious, repetitive, and public manner), and then proceed to do nothing about it and/or completely dodge any actual advice to rectify it. which i wanna make clear is the population of people i'm talking about.
there is nothing wrong with disliking your own work and being frustrated with it. every artist is at one point or another. but DAMN there is no need to constantly and publically flog yourself on social media while not. idk. doing the very things that could fix your issue (studies... practicing...)
it sometimes gets to a point where it's like "dude. do you even want to improve???" because within the time it takes some of these people to make 500+ tweets about how much they hate their art for reasons x, y, and z, they could've picked up the pencil and studied a reference, an informational video, an art book, or even just sketched something out and practiced. just ANYTHING to address the root issue
i'm not happy with my confidence when it comes to anatomy. specifically legs. i also think my art looks very stiff at times, and my internal, mental library that i keep in my cranium for poses is very lacking (because i do not reference or study nearly enough nowadays). i said 'this looks like shit' a few times to my practice drawings, googled some art books pertaining to those specific subjects, watched a few youtube tutorials that i liked, and moved on. like that's literally the key instead of going to twitter or instagram or whatever and talking about how ass my art is, how badly i wanna quit, and then posting a comic with the same formatting of
artist: i wanna draw
artist: [draws]
artist: [finishes drawing and picks it up to look at it]
[close up shot of the art. it is implied that it looks like shit]
artist: wow this fucking sucks i hate everything and art sucks i will never do this again why do i even try again [proceeds to not draw]
[ending shot of art piece on fire while artist walks off into the background]
1 GYUBILLION LIKES AND RETWEETS
random dude: THIS IS SO RELATABLE. FUCK ART I'D RATHER KILL MYSELF
and then proceeding to not draw for weeks and then repeating the process tenfold because well. what else is to be expected from a lack of practice and studying
i guess it just frustrates me so much because it just feels like at this point people wanna complain just to complain with the way they completely dismiss any advice or actual plan to address the issue they're having. like art is hard yes but it's also so fun and creating is amazing and connects people. finding something you're unhappy with, working through it by practicing, and then feeling the understanding come to you and then SEEING it on paper too is so so satisfying and i wish more people were willing to go through that instead of feeling helpless and running to tweet about said helplessness for the millionth time
also this does not apply to people struggling with depression-fuelled art ruts that prevent them from drawing i'm not talking about that. i just mean people that are perfectly capable of drawing, proceed not to draw, and then complain and complain about how they aren't improving the way they want. meanwhile they are putting 0 energy into improving. i think i'm just tired of seeing so much negativity surrounding art because this shit is supposed to be fun
✱ i started watching atla with my friend the other day. i have never finished it to this day, and i only know things about it in bits and pieces from whenever i'd catch it on nickelodeon. the movie releasing made us want to finish it (he hasn't finished it either. he actually never got past episode 4)
i love it so much i wish i'd watched this more when i was a kid. i wish they still made more shows like this
my bouts of nonstop drawing are usually due to me getting really obsessed with a show or game, so hopefully i can get really obsessed with atla and launch me into a huge spell of motivation to draw stuff
