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Reigniting my love for art
a year ago
This is more of a personal journal, and it's quite long, but I want to express how coming back to drawing furry has rekindled my love for art.
I've been a furry since I was a teen; back then I would draw furry art (Quite badly by my current standards) and I remember very clearly how much I enjoyed it, and how I would admire big artists and wanted to be like them one day. However, as years went by I began taking my artist career "more seriously" and drifted away from furry art, though in retrospective, I didn't really need to do that.
Even though I never really stopped liking furry art, I did stop drawing it myself. I would focus on drawing humans and creating characters and stories to share with the world as I worked my way towards college, where I would study animation.
As I took my art more seriously, I lost the spark that made me love what I do, I stopped thinking about what I wanted to draw, and focused more on what I NEEDED to draw in order to catch people's attention, and to be better. I've been very hard on myself and my art for years. I was afraid of stepping out of my comfort zone because I always wanted to draw the perfect drawing, so I would resort to drawing the same characters over and over again.
I eventually finished college and did become an animator like I wanted, and that's when I realized that, even though I focused so much on being the perfect artist, I wasn't. My art lacked something others had, but I couldn't tell what exactly.
My then-boyfriend, who is an excellent artist and is one of my best friends nowadays, is a big source of inspiration for me; he manages to create and imagine things that I simply can't come up with, and I naturally leaned a lot on his work to improve mine. But once I realized my art was lacking something, I started looking back at my path as an artist, and I eventually came back to my furry artist years. Then I noticed a sort of innocence in those drawings, a kind of sincerity that made me understand that I was drawing just for the sake of it, for myself, not worrying about what others would feel.
Having realized that, I took some time to remember and talk with myself. Do I hate drawing humans? No. Do I hate my current art? Also no, I'm just bored of the same thing over and over again. Then I asked myself, What do I actually want to draw? And I remembered the younger me. I didn't feel like drawing Wildon, my old sona, I wanted to draw something new.
I tried so hard to draw like a new person, to avoid falling into my current ways. I didn't want to be the perfect artist, I just wanted to be me, so I tried to draw in a slightly different style. I grabbed different brushes than the ones I always used, and began sketching furries, applying the anatomy and general skill I acquired through the years, but trying to not let that guide my hand. In the end, I managed to create Butch, my pink wolf sona. In a style that was a little different to the one I had back then, I was proud of myself for it and I noticed I actually had fun drawing for the first time in years. So I did it again, and again, trying different things every time, and that's why you can notice some variations in style in my first artworks. I was having so much fun! I texted a friend of mine, also a furry, and showed her my work, she loved it and said it had a different vibe to what I usually do. My then-boyfriend said the same, he said it felt like I was drawing more loosely. I stopped drawing humans entirely for a couple of months while I got comfortable with my furry art, and then, when I decided to go back to the other side of my art, the non-furry one, I realized some of the stuff I learnt drawing furry transferred over to ALL my art, furry or not. I was more free, and I wasn't scared of messing up anymore, because that's what makes art beautiful, learning from our mistakes.
I've grown a lot as an artist this year, I love my style and I love what I do. I still aim to improve, but I no longer draw only for others, I now also draw for myself, and that's what I was missing for years.
Butch and Wildon helped me find myself again. I won't stop drawing furry art because it's genuinely fun and I don't care about what other people could say about it.
If you read all the way to this point, thank you for hearing me yap, I don't usually express myself this openly on the internet, I hope something of my story is useful for you :)
And if you like my art, know that your support means a lot to me; because now more than ever there's a part of my heart in every work.
Later!
I've been a furry since I was a teen; back then I would draw furry art (Quite badly by my current standards) and I remember very clearly how much I enjoyed it, and how I would admire big artists and wanted to be like them one day. However, as years went by I began taking my artist career "more seriously" and drifted away from furry art, though in retrospective, I didn't really need to do that.
Even though I never really stopped liking furry art, I did stop drawing it myself. I would focus on drawing humans and creating characters and stories to share with the world as I worked my way towards college, where I would study animation.
As I took my art more seriously, I lost the spark that made me love what I do, I stopped thinking about what I wanted to draw, and focused more on what I NEEDED to draw in order to catch people's attention, and to be better. I've been very hard on myself and my art for years. I was afraid of stepping out of my comfort zone because I always wanted to draw the perfect drawing, so I would resort to drawing the same characters over and over again.
I eventually finished college and did become an animator like I wanted, and that's when I realized that, even though I focused so much on being the perfect artist, I wasn't. My art lacked something others had, but I couldn't tell what exactly.
My then-boyfriend, who is an excellent artist and is one of my best friends nowadays, is a big source of inspiration for me; he manages to create and imagine things that I simply can't come up with, and I naturally leaned a lot on his work to improve mine. But once I realized my art was lacking something, I started looking back at my path as an artist, and I eventually came back to my furry artist years. Then I noticed a sort of innocence in those drawings, a kind of sincerity that made me understand that I was drawing just for the sake of it, for myself, not worrying about what others would feel.
Having realized that, I took some time to remember and talk with myself. Do I hate drawing humans? No. Do I hate my current art? Also no, I'm just bored of the same thing over and over again. Then I asked myself, What do I actually want to draw? And I remembered the younger me. I didn't feel like drawing Wildon, my old sona, I wanted to draw something new.
I tried so hard to draw like a new person, to avoid falling into my current ways. I didn't want to be the perfect artist, I just wanted to be me, so I tried to draw in a slightly different style. I grabbed different brushes than the ones I always used, and began sketching furries, applying the anatomy and general skill I acquired through the years, but trying to not let that guide my hand. In the end, I managed to create Butch, my pink wolf sona. In a style that was a little different to the one I had back then, I was proud of myself for it and I noticed I actually had fun drawing for the first time in years. So I did it again, and again, trying different things every time, and that's why you can notice some variations in style in my first artworks. I was having so much fun! I texted a friend of mine, also a furry, and showed her my work, she loved it and said it had a different vibe to what I usually do. My then-boyfriend said the same, he said it felt like I was drawing more loosely. I stopped drawing humans entirely for a couple of months while I got comfortable with my furry art, and then, when I decided to go back to the other side of my art, the non-furry one, I realized some of the stuff I learnt drawing furry transferred over to ALL my art, furry or not. I was more free, and I wasn't scared of messing up anymore, because that's what makes art beautiful, learning from our mistakes.
I've grown a lot as an artist this year, I love my style and I love what I do. I still aim to improve, but I no longer draw only for others, I now also draw for myself, and that's what I was missing for years.
Butch and Wildon helped me find myself again. I won't stop drawing furry art because it's genuinely fun and I don't care about what other people could say about it.
If you read all the way to this point, thank you for hearing me yap, I don't usually express myself this openly on the internet, I hope something of my story is useful for you :)
And if you like my art, know that your support means a lot to me; because now more than ever there's a part of my heart in every work.
Later!
