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Question for Artists

watercolorwish

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Or anyone who just likes to draw.

Where do you find the motivation to actually draw? I haven't made an actual piece of artwork since summer and all I doodle are little Kirbys or stars on the sides of my paper at school. Why I bring up Kirby is because Kirby is super simple to draw and I think thats why I draw him like ALL the time, its the first thing I think of when I wanna doodle. (aside from me loving the franchise to death) I feel like I could be drawing him because I'm not confident enough and not motivated enough to draw anything else besides simple stuff (kirby, flowers, trees) when I really want to be drawing full portraits and pieces of art with people and backgrounds and stuff, yet I don't know where to start. I need advice. And is anyone going through this? Its suuuuuper weird to me idk :confused::confused::confused::confused:
 
Creating something is difficult lol, I believe people are born with more of apassion for creating something but everyone gets a block in their life sometimes, from various reasons.
Some tips I think can help/reasons why you get blocked
I used to draw a few art pieces then stop for months I wasnt happy with my skill level as an artist and would easily lose movitation, But I started doing watercolor 2 months ago and now I basically draw everyday, or atleast some small drawing. Some things I did I ended up watching a lot of art rant videos people did on youtube

Art isnt something you always get better at, it doesnt go up and never come down, You will have setbacks, you will make mistakes, you may be stuck for a while but thats okay, It happens TO E.V.E.R.Y.B.O.D.Y. But something we can agree on is that you will not get better or feel motivated/stay motivated for a long time if you dont try
You gotta work on the little things, Theres so many things but It helps to work on one thing at a time. poses, lineart, coloring, expression, color, and as you get better you will notice an improvement, Your art will feel more alive with different poses/dynamics, adding expressions adding height and etc, little things you can do. It really helps to watch tutorials on these things.
Color palette you can have a site help you generate one to help you start, but you dont want to become reliant so it helps to learn color theory.
Poses I would always use as a reference just to make sure what you're creating doesnt look wacky lol


1: I find that if I cant exactly envision what I want to draw I dont want to do it, Or If what i'm thinking about I cant seem to put it on paper correctly I dont want to continue with it, My solution is to use references if you dont already use them. Use them for pose, backgrounds, hair styles or something whatever you need, JUST do not use them all the time because you dont want to become reliant on them and you may find yourself copying the style too, Unless you're into realism art, then reference everything lol. But generally if you draw say anime/cartoon ish ( basically not realism) just use reference for poses or maybe if you're drawing a character for their outfit, you just dont want to reference to hard so you can still keep it in your style or drawing :3

2,Draw what you love, I feel really motivated to draw my favorite characters in funny situations, Ie: I tend to draw characters I love in sailor uniforms or pigtails.

3: Draw often make it a task you do everyday or so, you dont have to draw big pieces either, even doodling is something, if you doodle you should doodle often, I told myself to doodle atleast once a day if I dont want to draw a big piece ( like something that takes longer than a hour)
I suggest you carry around a sketch book and draw 1 thing you see in a day, it can be whatever, just draw one thing atleast, it will become a habit and it wont feel as tedious after a while, now I draw everyday and I actually want to draw everyday lol.

4: Change mediums like no joke, If you drawing digitally try drawing traditional, I went to watercolors and found myself wanting to really draw digitally because of what you can do digitally that you cant do traditional ( like if I make a mistake, I can easily undo, if I erase I may leave a mark on my paper, If I make something to small or to big I gotta erase. If I drew digitally can just crop out what I drew and resize it if I did it digitally. You will start to crave the medium you used before. You can also change up your methods, like For example Now i'm going to start drawing on paper, scan it and draw over it on paint tool sai :D

Hope this helps even a bit ^^
Heres something, I drew this like around christmas probably?, This is litterally the first thing I drew in like years that wasnt draw digitally
fhPhcaD.png

I did this yesterday
tumblr_ol8oztBR8E1rqverqo1_r2_500.gif

The 2nd picture looks better than the first because I learned a lot more about watercoloring, About using different colors to add shine or shade and stuff, adding a background, adding a bit of expression. Its not perfect and i still can improve but it looks nicer.
I found out what I like that look better.
I dont use a black pen to outline anymore, I use gray on smaller pictures, and outline with darker paint on bigger ones now
 
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Creating something is difficult lol, I believe people are born with more of apassion for creating something but everyone gets a block in their life sometimes, from various reasons.
Some tips I think can help/reasons why you get blocked
I used to draw a few art pieces then stop for months I wasnt happy with my skill level as an artist and would easily lose movitation, But I started doing watercolor 2 months ago and now I basically draw everyday, or atleast some small drawing. Some things I did I ended up watching a lot of art rant videos people did on youtube

Art isnt something you always get better at, it doesnt go up and never come down, You will have setbacks, you will make mistakes, you may be stuck for a while but thats okay, It happens TO E.V.E.R.Y.B.O.D.Y. But something we can agree on is that you will not get better or feel motivated/stay motivated for a long time if you dont try
You gotta work on the little things, Theres so many things but It helps to work on one thing at a time. poses, lineart, coloring, expression, color, and as you get better you will notice an improvement, Your art will feel more alive with different poses/dynamics, adding expressions adding height and etc, little things you can do. It really helps to watch tutorials on these things.
Color palette you can have a site help you generate one to help you start, but you dont want to become reliant so it helps to learn color theory.
Poses I would always use as a reference just to make sure what you're creating doesnt look wacky lol


1: I find that if I cant exactly envision what I want to draw I dont want to do it, Or If what i'm thinking about I cant seem to put it on paper correctly I dont want to continue with it, My solution is to use references if you dont already use them. Use them for pose, backgrounds, hair styles or something whatever you need, JUST do not use them all the time because you dont want to become reliant on them and you may find yourself copying the style too, Unless you're into realism art, then reference everything lol. But generally if you draw say anime/cartoon ish ( basically not realism) just use reference for poses or maybe if you're drawing a character for their outfit, you just dont want to reference to hard so you can still keep it in your style or drawing :3

2,Draw what you love, I feel really motivated to draw my favorite characters in funny situations, Ie: I tend to draw characters I love in sailor uniforms or pigtails.

3: Draw often make it a task you do everyday or so, you dont have to draw big pieces either, even doodling is something, if you doodle you should doodle often, I told myself to doodle atleast once a day if I dont want to draw a big piece ( like something that takes longer than a hour)
I suggest you carry around a sketch book and draw 1 thing you see in a day, it can be whatever, just draw one thing atleast, it will become a habit and it wont feel as tedious after a while, now I draw everyday and I actually want to draw everyday lol.

4: Change mediums like no joke, If you drawing digitally try drawing traditional, I went to watercolors and found myself wanting to really draw digitally because of what you can do digitally that you cant do traditional ( like if I make a mistake, I can easily undo, if I erase I may leave a mark on my paper, If I make something to small or to big I gotta erase. If I drew digitally can just crop out what I drew and resize it if I did it digitally. You will start to crave the medium you used before. You can also change up your methods, like For example Now i'm going to start drawing on paper, scan it and draw over it on paint tool sai :D

Hope this helps even a bit ^^
Heres something, I drew this like around christmas probably?, This is litterally the first thing I drew in like years that wasnt draw digitally
fhPhcaD.png

I did this yesterday
tumblr_ol8oztBR8E1rqverqo1_r2_500.gif

The 2nd picture looks better than the first because I learned a lot more about watercoloring, About using different colors to add shine or shade and stuff, adding a background, adding a bit of expression. Its not perfect and i still can improve but it looks nicer.

this is like 10 replies in one, thanks so much for taking the time to write this!

Thanks so much for these tips damn I barely knew any of this...I kinda just bought paint tool sai and a tablet and just drew but this was really helpful I'll totally find myself looking back on this. Thanks so much :)
 
No problem !
Theres lots of youtube artist But, I can suggest 2 artist I like to watch, they often make videos.
https://www.youtube.com/user/xLeslieLuMarie/featured this girl is lovely, She makes a lot of videos explaining about various problems artist may have and stuff that may happen in your life but shes really fun <3 shes self taught, she draws in your " cartoon/anime" i use those terms loosely, since its their style of drawing

This artist I can describe as a little bit more "salty about topics" lol but shes generally knows what shes talking about( she went to art school and stuff so she can offer a bit more knowledge about poses/ expression and stuff ) she draws in a half cartoon, half real style
https://www.youtube.com/user/hollyistotallycool
 
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I had this problem today. Just a few hours ago I sat down and made something. It took about an hour and a half. I felt like I hadn't posted anything on my art blog for a while, and I didn't wanna feel like I was neglecting it, so I posted it, and just checked now to find it has has gotten a lot of attention.

What I'm getting at is that, you've gotta think about the end reward. In my case, getting more recognition and perhaps gaining new followers. My motivation is always what I will be able to do next.
 
**** these essay long responses yo i get inspiration from things i love or have deep feelings for simple as that
 
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My lack of inspiration is the reason I have a shop on here... being it people are paying me a few tbt per piece makes me draw, and then I find myself, when I don't have requests, actually WANTING to draw and then I do things for myself. It's just hard for my to MAKE myself draw, but when I owe people because they're paying me for it I can force myself to do it.
 
my motivation comes from the drive to defeat my enemies
 
"omg that pokemon/nintendo character looks so cool I wanna actually get off my butt and draw it!"

-literally all I draw :p
 
Firstly, the usual suspects: "youtube tutorials", "references!", "draw every day!" "learn basic anatomy!". Do those.


Along with that:


If you want to get better then you've got to push yourself. Do it incrementally, don't trying going from Kirby doodles to photo realistic portraits of our lord and savior Donald Trump, but push yourself and don't be afraid to fail. You're going to fail, a lot, but "success is built on a foundation of failure" (if that's not an existing quote, I call dibs). If you just stick to what you're good at then your Kirby's might end up looking majestic as hell, but your backflipping Metaknights aren't gonna be too hot if you avoid doing anything more complicated than Kirby...Aim for those majestic backflipping Metaknights.

Learn how and when to be critical of yourself. It's important that you can look at something you've done and say "this bit here looks like ****, I totally ****ed that up", but it's also important that you can look at something and say "that looks better than the last one! I'm gonna do another!".
It'll keep you motivated when you can see where you've improved rather than just where you've failed, it'll also stop you being the mopey artist who's always sad and has no motivation even though they've come a long way...Nobody likes that guy...So many people focus on their failure rather than their success, don't do that.

Grouping the last two points into one metaphorical example: Don't be 'that guy' who always draws characters with their hands behind their back because they tried hands once but they looked like deformed sausages, so they just wrote it off as something they simply can't do. Draw those god damn hands, even if they look like weird manky spiders, and congratulate yourself when they finally resemble a hand in some way.




Another thing: actually 'learn how to do things'. I'm not just reiterating the above there, I mean actually learn how a certain thing is fundamentally done. Go onto any video tutorial on Youtube and read the comments, I guarantee you will easily find a comment asking to do:
- something the 'channel' has already covered in another video but on a very specific character instead
- something the 'channel' has literally just covered in the exact same video but on a very specific character instead
- essentially a step by step tutorial on their favorite anime character doing a specific thing totally unrelated to anything talked about, suspiciously written almost like they didn't even watch the video

I watch Mark Crilley's videos, I just like watching the guy draw, it's comforting, but his video's comments are full of that. He had a video about how to draw hats and there was at least one comment complaining that he didn't show how to draw a specific type of hat, with others asking to draw their favorite 'hatted characters'...Even though he kind of actually did in the video, he gave all the 'tools' required to be able to draw that hat.

Morale of the story: Learn how to apply what you learn to other areas. It'll help way more in the long run if you can do that rather than relying on online tutorials for literally every little aspect of what you draw...Yano, instead of asking for a step by step guide on how to draw a rectangle when you already know how to draw a square.



Also, reinforcing what Luxanna said:
Draw what you love
It's what I do. I've been drawing the same (slowly expanding) handful of characters almost exclusively for like 2, 3 years...Comparing a doodle of the exact same character from back then to now is like night and day though, and I've learned how to do so many things by taking what I learned with those characters I'm comfortable with and applying it elsewhere.

For myself, learning how to do 'new thing' is a lot easier and I'm a lot more comfortable when I'm doing that 'new thing' with a character etc I'm comfortable with, something new on something that I know I can already do. Once you can do it with that character, (as I said above) you can then apply that elsewhere. It's somewhat like staying in a comfort zone, but also still pushing yourself.

I suggest you carry around a sketch book

So many people suggest it, so few actually follow through with it. Mine is always in my bag I take my bag basically everywhere and a lot of things I've 'gotten the hang of' or just improved on just because I was sat around bored with the opportunity to draw, so I did.

Sat at home and there's a crap movie on? Grab the sketch book. Sat in work with a hand free? Draw whilst I'm saying "I understand" to an angry customer over the phone. Go to the pub and everybody is being 'social' on their phones? Pull out the sketch book and draw them all getting hit by a car a cat.

It's not a necessity, but limiting when/where you can draw by the materials you need only being available in one or two places can be a real pain if you're just in a place where you can or you just suddenly get the urge to do so.
 
I'm going through motivational issues myself. I was practically drawing every day for years since I was a baby (a literal baby, I started drawing at 8-months-old), but the last year or so I've barely drawn one thing a month.
I have a couple tips:
1. Stick to a rigid schedule. Even if you get extreme art block, draw uninspired things, at least it'll get you drawing. Like just say something like "at 5:00 PM, I have to draw for at least an hour", give yourself strict schedules and limits.
2. If you aren't confident, instead of trying to make something that looks good, try to make something that challenges you or that is creative. As someone who has gotten to a point where the things I draw generally look good, I often draw pretty pictures of pretty people standing there and doing nothing of interest with no backgrounds, so I've recently decided to give myself the freedom to stop making things look polished and perfect as long as it means I am creating things I find interesting.

IDK if either of those things help you but that's my best advice!
 
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