I've been lurking here/on Xelfereht's discord for a while so I figured I would finally join the forums and maybe do the sketchbook thing.
I live in a small town with no real art to speak of so I've just been learning on my own via books/internet courses until recently.
Coming from mostly pencil sketches and cartoons, I tend to lean pretty heavily on line so I'm consciously working against that right now by painting things.
I enjoy long walks on the beach, video games, and ending sentences without
I don't know how to describe myself, as a new artist or an old one. I have a BS in Visual Art from SUNY New Paltz, but it was very generalized and more about theory and concept. At the time, I didn't really grasp the basics in my drawing courses and painting classes. I hand more interest in Craft and Theory. My portfolio never coalesced because I just did the assignments. And I didn't really understand that assignments don't equate to portfolio pieces. Although I was inspired by and really enjoyed experiencing museums and galleries, for myself I never felt like I fit into the maker side of gallery aimed fine art, which my school did very well, but I didn't know where that left me. I finished up school while I was growing my family.
So after college, I spent the next ten years keeping house and raising my kids and just being human. I kept sketching, although my style and understanding were stagnant, about the same as my high-school level, and mostly focused on still life— nothing wrong with still life! Or high-schoolers! LOVE them both— I just wasn't growing. I am (mumblemumble) years old. My kids are getting bigger, but caring for them and keeping house and preparing meals is still the primary focus of my every day efforts. To do art, I steal the in between minutes and I stay up way too late.
About 2 years ago I started taking online classes through Paintable.cc, and within months I got very excited about improvements in digital painting. I will continue on with them, but now I am feeling like I also need to improve my sketching, my understanding of forms in space and especially the figure in motion and perspective, and I want to learn to attain that sense of flow and play in my line work.
I want to become an illustrator and possibly also a comics artist (I also love to write).
Like most, I struggle sometimes with motivation, especially when I am trying to grow and run into development walls that I need to climb but make my creative muscles hurt. But the feeling on the other side of the hurdle is addictive. So I'm hoping to make some friends to interact and strive with.
Hello!
I'm not sure how to properly introduce myself so if this is a complete mess... I apologize in advance.
Though I usually prefer digital art and animation I do love most of the traditional art mediums I've tried, my favorites being plain ol' pencil, markers, colored pencil, acrylic, and watercolor. My greatest enemy is oil paint but I'm trying to patch things up with it.
I'm hoping to get a job as a concept artist for LucasFilms someday, or as an artist for Funko. I would also love to illustrate children's books and perhaps even make a comic book or two. As of now I'm in my final year of high school and really trying to improve my art.
That's all I guess, I look forward to seeing everyone's work!
Hey, I'm new here (registered a LONG time ago though), Thought I should introduce myself as an effort to not completely suck at being social.
So I'm 30, did some work in illustration, designing and concept stuff. Right after I write this I'll do my best to post a sketchbook, browse the forums a bit, try to be helpful and actually talk to people instead of drawing and painting all the time in my cave
Along with composition and colors, networking is my biggest nemesis, but I'm super motivated to change that.
i see there is and option to add attachment to this post so I'll add something to grab attention
My name is Monica and I'm 23. I went to college and fell off the internet, but in that four years it seems like the online art communities that I enjoyed went into decline. I'm hoping to find a new community that I can be a part of.
From age 11 to until I graduated high school (18 years old) I basically lived and breathed art and the internet. I knew about crimson daggers and lurked through a lot of the first live streams. I got decently good at drawing for my age, but the price was that all other aspects of my life, health, and interpersonal relationships atrophied into nothingness. When college rolled around I went the OTHER way and became a real life social butterfly ("lmao computers???? idk how those work") at the expense of my artistic productivity. I felt a bit like Jekyll and Hyde. Now, I'm hoping to find some balance.
I'm holding down a full-time job overseas (ESL teacher: not glamorous, basically broke), but I'm not getting any younger and if I really want to go freelance with illustration + graphic design, the best time to start building a portfolio is now, right? I've thought long and hard about what I want to do with my life and art is the answer I keep coming back to.
My interests are definitely in illustration and graphic design, but I know that a solid drawing foundation is very important. I want to get a sketchbook up and running that has all kinds of life studies. I've got a (physical) sketchbook filled with doodles, but I haven't drawn from observation in about a year.
What I really need is some comrades: in real life I'm basically going at this artist life alone, and after losing my other online communities it's kinda lonely.
Hello everyone i am edd . Almost two years ago I found art and i fell in love with the process of creating (or at least trying haha) to create . Since then I started to pursue it despite everyone some of my loved ones telling me that I should keep pursuing engineering and in the future creating my own business around that. I tried to ignore them, but some of there words hurt me back then (but just because i let it). I kept going and after a while those opinions stopped.
So, at this moment I am stil studying computer science, still have one year left. At this moment i am trying do as much as I think I can.
I have been in the ups and downs , the joy and the frustrations all of you know of the artist's journey. So, hopefully I will meet amazing people here that are trying to get good aswell or just enjoy creating.
Cheers for everyone out there (who is reading this and who is not ) pursuing the path of an artist, because it is not an easy task to do. Although, it is totally worth :)
Cheers!
P.D. I will try to upload every single thing that i do on the skechbook section. Happy creating !
I'm 21 and currently live in the UK. Used to study Biology at a University in London but I decided to withdraw 2 years in, as I didn't enjoy the subject anymore and had a strong desire to pursue art instead.
Like most of you here, I'm currently trying to put in the time and effort to become a better artist and hopefully in a few years, become a professional Concept Artist/Illustrator - whether it's Environment or Character Design, I'll have to find out which I prefer later along the road.
I'm not a total beginner but I think I'm still quite a novice at drawing and digital painting, so I'm currently trying to do various different studies every day to improve in the majority of fundamentals as fast as I can.
Decided to join this forum so I can have somewhere to upload and document my progress over the course of a few years, until I get my first freelance job. But also to receive much-needed critique and harsh feedback so I can improve - so honestly please don't hold back in telling me my studies are shit and what I need to improve on.
I'm mostly a hobbyist artist but the past year i began to take commissions rather seriously and want to improve from there. I mostly do 3D environment stuff for some indie visual novel teams and draw some anime styled characters for myself... I've heard of crimson daggers before through dave rapoza level up interview by fusroda but only joined now, after coming across bobby chiu's interview of dave rapoza...
My biggest issue atm is that I always try to learn fundamentals of 2d art but a couple of months after, I burn out, focus on my day time job instead, make excuses, play video games, do 3d instead because its my comfort zone, write stories, do other stuff, watch youtube, comes across an art video, then gain interest in art fundamentals again. the cycle repeats.
the past year, i found out I have a heart disease. Suddenly i have this fear that the unfinished characters, stories, and worlds i have created will haunt me even after death... Its weird but its a legitimate fear...
Additionally, my commissions were going steady and most of my clients encouraged me to capitalize on my 3d skills and learn how to paint over my works so I can offer a more diverse set of styles for them to use.
tldr. since a lot has happened to me last year, for 2018, I want to take it seriously
I've come to this place to improve my skills and routine. You all seem very nice so I'm guessing this is the right place to go to •ᴗ•
Im 29, live in Austria and work as a Software-Tester as my fulltime job. I've been painting for a few years now because it gave and gives me some sense of progress in life. I started out painting landscapes digitally and am currently finishing up on an online figure drawing course. I'm very open to criticism and honest feedback. Here's my insta (https://www.instagram.com/reikhard_paints/)
My name is Mauro, I'm 21 and I'm an artist from Argentina.
I'm currently studying Computer Engineering but somehow along the way I ended up with a hobby relating to a deep fascination with 2D animation, storyboarding and Concept Design.
I have been checking out the forum and I love the sense of community and feedback this place has and am excited to start being a part of it!
About me:
I'm completely self taught and started learning about 3 years ago.
Right now I'm mostly focusing on Gesture Drawing and Anatomy to improve.
My artistic level (I think) would be that I know how to copy very well and also use reference to base my art off of something. I'd love to be able to draw more from my imagination though and not have to rely so heavily from reference but I don't know exactly what the next step should be. Up until now I always felt like I have been moving forward but now it feels like I'm slowly going into a rut of some kind. If anybody has any feedback or advice on what to work on, I'd love to hear what you think. Any studies or drawing exercises would be incredibly helpful as well!
