dhampyresa (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
dhampyresa) wrote2019-01-08 12:12 am
dhampyresa) wrote2019-01-08 12:12 am
:(
1. Swimming: Today: 900m. (Was aiming for 1k, forgot that the actual swimming part of the swimming pool closes 30mn before the pool part.) Past total: 51 000. Current total: 51 900 / 585 689.
2. I just signed up for Chocolate Box, an experience that was... emotionally fraught. It's Not The Exchange, It's Me. I changed some wording in my letter and now I feel like a huge asshole -- also like my DNWs are completely unreasonable and I am a shit person for even having some in the first place.
3. I'm really fucking down about my art right now. Case in point, I reread True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys over the week-end and instead of being motivated to Get Better TM, I just... sat there in a daze, consumed with envy and despair over Becky Cloonan's inking skills. Fuck, idk. Maybe I should just stop. It's not like anyone would miss my stuff anyway. I try so hard to get better but I stay in place and people much newer to art than me are already miles better and I bet they're laughing at me for even trying -- you can't polish a turd, after all. Not even by drawing everyday.
2. I just signed up for Chocolate Box, an experience that was... emotionally fraught. It's Not The Exchange, It's Me. I changed some wording in my letter and now I feel like a huge asshole -- also like my DNWs are completely unreasonable and I am a shit person for even having some in the first place.
3. I'm really fucking down about my art right now. Case in point, I reread True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys over the week-end and instead of being motivated to Get Better TM, I just... sat there in a daze, consumed with envy and despair over Becky Cloonan's inking skills. Fuck, idk. Maybe I should just stop. It's not like anyone would miss my stuff anyway. I try so hard to get better but I stay in place and people much newer to art than me are already miles better and I bet they're laughing at me for even trying -- you can't polish a turd, after all. Not even by drawing everyday.
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I like the inclusion if the "reasonable" caveat, lol
At this point I feel like I have no idea what any of that even means.
Becky Cloonan's Inktober 2018 output.
Good for you.
Hit me.
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Cloonan's oracle cards are really beautiful! Thanks for sharing. I can see why comparisons could feel destructive--I know that feeling. I look at watercolorists all the time and have to remind myself that I have been doing watercolor for like...a year or so. There is a learning curve!
What that means: "your people look like people rather than stretched people with weird heads." :p This is an achievement! It took me years to stop drawing people that weren't stretched with weird heads.
So one thing that might be helpful in adjusting a drawing-everyday regimen is to look at (a) celebrating your strengths or (b) shoring up your weaknesses. This is an idea I got from an interview with an artist in an issue of Imagine FX, which is a zine for digital sf/f illustration. Basically, you want not just to draw but draw in such a way that you target some specific aspect of art, whether that's something you're already good at and enjoy, so that you build up your joy in drawing again, or something that you know you're still learning, so that you get in practice. The artist in question suggested taking things one month at a time, so that each month you try something different. For example, one month might be figure, another month might be color, another month might be negative space. Or you could do it in a more fun/fannish way, just as you did with your Jeanne d'Arc series! He literally says that when he started his "one-month habit" drawing practice, he spent one month drawing different doodles of Wonder Woman because she was one of his favorite characters.
Anyway, this is something that I have been endeavoring to do on and off, although I'm pretty bad at structure and doing things every single day, and given that you already pulled off a Jeanne d'Arc challenge series I'm betting you'll be better at it! Make a list of things that you would enjoy tackling for thirty days at a time (Jeanne d'Arc! Hannibal! Tanith! kittens! inking! hands! seriously, whatever works for you). Again, you're drawing everyday, so you're mostly there! But I wonder if you might see some benefit from additionally targeting your practice.
All the same, every artist is different, so if you don't find this suggestion helpful, please disregard, and good luck with your art.
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I don't know if I could do 30 Taniths, though! Which might be a sign that I should try anyway. When I did Joan *eyebrow waggle* I didn't really vary art styles, just took a merry romp through history and hagiography, so Tanith might be a way to practice different styles.
Thank you again! <3
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It was terrifying and messy to begin with, but no question it's improved my figure drawing enormously and certainly my speed and confidence too!
Thought I'd mention in case you'd like to try.
no subject