Introspective Onlooker
In Search of a Coherent Worldview
For as long as I can remember, I have had a deep fascination with the concept of illustrating one’s thoughts, ideas, and imagination on paper, on a canvas, or even on a tablet. In fact, for years, this has somewhat been an on-and-off hobby — one which I believe I’ve spent very little time practicing on. Aside from the not-so-helpful Art class I took in high school a lifetime ago, what little I actually learned were from lessons on the Internet, but even then, I still find it hard to get myself motivated to draw.
I get a bit green when I see others from this forum, as well as from other strings of the Web, because it makes me wish I could draw as well as these artists do. I would love to draw the characters I created and customized in Animal Crossing and Splatoon — I even want to make comics about those two franchises, one day. The AC games, with their focus on “living a life different from this one”, would be ideal for creating my own narratives with my characters and their lives. I even have some interesting ideas to adapt Splatoon’s general storyline across all three games into something that, while following the canon, spices up plots of each game, and fleshes out the Agents we play as.
It’s not that I’m not able to do this, but it’s going to be badly-drawn, and I don't know how the comic format is set-up. It’ll take who knows how long before I can create art which meets my standards, though maybe that’s not the correct approach, anyway. Regardless, I seem lost at times, because there’s still so much I want to accomplish in my limited time on this planet. I have other life goals I want to strive for, places I want to go, and generally learning about the world among other things. I may be stretching myself too thin; I often feel I waste too much time being unproductive.
I will use this thread to remind myself not to lose interest in this craft and update it accordingly. I have two sketchbooks: one that’s nearly completed:
And one that hasn’t been drawn in yet, despite me having it for a little longer. Let’s see how I can hone my skills in the next few months. It might help influence others in a similar rut that I’m in at the moment of me typing this, or it could be an amusing story about an amateur’s attempt to become an artist. Who knows?
SN: Since this is my 250th post, I used it as an excuse for not being active for over a week because I wanted to spend some time on my sketchbook (as well as pretending that 250 posts on a forum is somehow significant), and while the things I’ve drawn during that time frame aren’t fantastic or anything, I’m still content with at least a few of them. Here’s a Metroid I drew back during the 35th Anniversary of the eponymous franchise:
![IMG_20210806_225958[2].jpg](https://www.belltreeforums.com/data/attachments/367/367618-9bf3b15c5779fcc5234795ab3b1f1a4e.jpg "IMG_20210806_225958[2].jpg")
Now, here’s some more doodles of the creature a year and a month later:
I get a bit green when I see others from this forum, as well as from other strings of the Web, because it makes me wish I could draw as well as these artists do. I would love to draw the characters I created and customized in Animal Crossing and Splatoon — I even want to make comics about those two franchises, one day. The AC games, with their focus on “living a life different from this one”, would be ideal for creating my own narratives with my characters and their lives. I even have some interesting ideas to adapt Splatoon’s general storyline across all three games into something that, while following the canon, spices up plots of each game, and fleshes out the Agents we play as.
It’s not that I’m not able to do this, but it’s going to be badly-drawn, and I don't know how the comic format is set-up. It’ll take who knows how long before I can create art which meets my standards, though maybe that’s not the correct approach, anyway. Regardless, I seem lost at times, because there’s still so much I want to accomplish in my limited time on this planet. I have other life goals I want to strive for, places I want to go, and generally learning about the world among other things. I may be stretching myself too thin; I often feel I waste too much time being unproductive.
I will use this thread to remind myself not to lose interest in this craft and update it accordingly. I have two sketchbooks: one that’s nearly completed:
And one that hasn’t been drawn in yet, despite me having it for a little longer. Let’s see how I can hone my skills in the next few months. It might help influence others in a similar rut that I’m in at the moment of me typing this, or it could be an amusing story about an amateur’s attempt to become an artist. Who knows?
SN: Since this is my 250th post, I used it as an excuse for not being active for over a week because I wanted to spend some time on my sketchbook (as well as pretending that 250 posts on a forum is somehow significant), and while the things I’ve drawn during that time frame aren’t fantastic or anything, I’m still content with at least a few of them. Here’s a Metroid I drew back during the 35th Anniversary of the eponymous franchise:
Now, here’s some more doodles of the creature a year and a month later:
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I understand how frustating it can be because I am on the same boat and it is hard to disconnect from that feeling. What I have been trying to do is not expect much of me and just do sketches. But it is hard to convince yourself. I think it's fine to see tutorials to understand anatomy but I would recommend you avoid those. If you are in need of orientation and if you have the resources you can pay to have a private art teacher like I once did he/she can personally and physically teach you how to improve. Private one on one and not a class, because unlike a group class the teacher will be focused on your mistakes and sucess and will guide you personally. When I say physical and present I mean that, I don't think online distant course will help you much at the start. Use whatever resources you have at your disposal that you feel that are helping you and most important of all don't rely too much on them. There are rules sure but sometimes you want to allow yourself to be freed from those rules so drawing doesn't become a burden. Do you feel you draw like a child? Then embrace that and draw like a child. Who knows? maybe there are some pearls of knowlegde you get to learn by yourself during that process. A balance between your own time to draw freely vs researching is important.
bonus perk: it makes you draw stuff you might not consider yourself, thus pushing you out of your comfort zone which helps you learn to adapt and think creatively!
