As I've been drawing over the last four years or so I've found my interest in art growing as time goes on. I'm starting to want to push towards working on creative things more full time some day rather than as just a hobby. Currently I'll just be working on time management to try and push the time I have for art after work closer to full time hours while still improving. I am going also work towards opening for commissions by the end of the year. Aside from that I have some interest in things beyond just commissions but most of those drawings and ideas are just being gathered in some 3 ring binders where I have been organizing my ideas.

I do have a few questions for other artist, watchers or anyone who wanders by.

For Artists

How helpful is practicing different media? I've often considered adding digital art to my routine but I still don't find it as enjoyable as traditional, is it a good learning experience?

Any recommend books or learning experiences? I want to keep improving, and to if possible grow even faster but I'm not sure where to go from here or what the limits of intuitive learning are.

On paper size, is 11x17 worth the cost? I use 8x11 paper currently and have tried a few different kinds, but 11x17 size scanners are somewhat pricey. I could afford one but is it worth it? Does the bigger paper let you get more detail in drawings and larger compositions or is the idea that a larger page would allow that more of a skill issue on my part.

Pencils and pens, I'm always picking up different things to try does anyone have some recommended tools? Currently I am trying out drawing with uni-hi b pencils. The have a nice solid and dark lead that does not crumble or snap and draws smoothly compared to the cheaper things I usually use and that makes me wonder if my choice in budget supplies is limiting?

For Watchers

Do you like sketches and doodles? I only upload a fraction of what I make, I could upload more sketches but I don't know if anyone wants to see them.

Would you like to see more digital art?

Do you prefer only finished works? If so maybe let me know why?

Are you interested in seeing study or process related art? I am planning on doing some proper study in the following months, the process stuff is more like my thumbnail pages and doodles. I'm not sure anyone wants to see this stuff though.

Finally on requests. Would people like me to keep these listed and organized? Currently I am sort of casual about them but will probably need to get organized as I work toward opening commissions.

Just a quick post to let everyone know I've not disappeared, just had a rough couple weeks at work and in life. Mostly due to end of year stuff at work and the usual family troubles but I am working through both.

If you're waiting on a request I've not gotten a lot done the last few weeks due to issues but should be getting back into things over the next week and posting more regularly again soon. Sorry about the delay.

So second year on this site, so figured I should post a sort of yearly update. I uploaded more this year than last despite having no backlog to draw from. I did get close to uploading one finished drawing a day but due to work and family issues I was not quite able to make that. I did actually finish more drawings than that, but some were requests by people who only wanted them posted on personal discords and such. Overall I got substantially more done despite all of the problems I've had. Past this rambley paragraph I'll be organizing things a bit more.


Employment Not a good year for this one, work remains understaffed and while I am well compensated the long hours makes it challenging for me to keep productive in terms of art once home. Financially it's a viable career, I don't hate it but it's not what I really want to do.


Family and friends Even worse here, both of my living grandparents have died this year and my family has dissolved even further and are now bickering over the estate and will, I want no part in this. Beyond that, my mother has been committed due to her mental issues with among other things schizophrenia.

As for friends, I've never had many and have even less at the end of this year compared to last. I am grateful for those who still like to talk with me. There's no drama to speak of, maybe only because I try to avoid conflict. I've wished almost everyone I parted ways with the best, there are a few people who gave me too much anxiety in the end to deal with and I've just let things sort of peter out into silence. Cowardly I know, but at least things ended without conflict.


Art Mostly happy with the progress I've made. Aside from finishing more work compared to last year I also started using more kinds of media including digital. I did want to start work on a comic or graphic novel, but after 3 starts ranging from 10-15 pages of storyboarding I put it on hold due to life and having to figure out what I want to do going forward.

Requests Still open as before. Contact me on discord or in notes.

Commissions Maybe next year, but for now still requests only.


The Future I think over the last year I've come to terms with the reality of my situation, why I am not progressing as fast as I'd like to and why I keep failing at some of my more ambitious projects.

The ugly truth of the matter is I'm holding myself back, this is just a fun hobby for me that I've taken up for a few years. If I want to grow and advance faster, if I want to start making more than just one off doodles and harebrained stories that I never post I think I will have to start taking things seriously.

I guess that's all for me for now. The year's been pretty terrible but I've struggled through it, I've come to terms with my artistic failures and I think I know what I want to do going forward.

I wanted to try using ink until I used up a whole pen's worth and finally managed that this evening. It lasted way longer than I expected, I kind of like the effect and think I will keep using ink but I am curious what others think about the look of the drawings vs the older doodles with all pencil.

I know I have a fair few requests sitting about while I churn out practice doodles, so I just wanted to let those people know I have not forgotten about them and will get them done before too long. I've just been spending the last week or two more on learning related stuff and experimenting.

Maybe it's just my perspective but I don't feel I've made all that much progress in the quality of my drawings over the last year or so. I have made some progress on doing them faster but not confident in my own quality progress anymore. This is a problem because I want to do more but I also feel like I have so far to go from where I am and being competent enough to accomplish my goals.

Not sure what I'll be trying to learn and improve, just struck with an overwhelming sense of inadequacy in all things.

Beyond that I have the ever ongoing struggle of dealing with loneliness and failing to meet new people. I enjoy talking to people about art and hobbies and love rp but for whatever reason always fail to connect with people or in other instances run into people that just make me to anxious to be around. In part because I know even if I am fairly stable I remain emotionally frail so people who are too pushy over anything tend to cause me to get anxious over being used and just sort of shut down.

Either way, just a sort of downer update about how I'm fine and I know I'm a screw up.

Just a quick journal letting people know I've not disappeared and have just been ill for the last few days and with weekend being most of my art time I've not finished much this past week.

Mostly well by now, still a slight headache but should be back to drawing again soon.

Well I've been on the site for one year now, during that time I uploaded roughly five drawings a week although some of those were from backlogs or sketches. Uploading and interacting with people on here hasn't been much of a social success, but some people are nice and it's been good to get a bit more feedback on my art than just posting things to a few discord servers. I do have a few thoughts on a variety of related subjects but I suppose I'll break them down in case anyone actually reads this.

Uploads - I don't upload even a fraction of the art I make, I'm not sure if I should upload more or less. For what it's worth there's some odd 1200 scans in my folder and less than 300 of them were uploaded here, and for each of those scans there are probably 4-5 drawings I did not feel like scanning. On top of that I do writing, and have been learning both digital art with a tablet and blender on the side but have uploaded almost none of those here. Not really sure what to keep up with but I'll keep up with the current pace of traditional art for now.

Improvement - As usual I don't think I've been improving as much as I should and keep meaning to put more time into my art. I'm not sure how well my work is for some one trying out art as a hobby for three years now with no classes or training. It's still fun to make things at least.

Requests - Yes, I still take and do these but I'm increasing wondering if there are people who just scrape upload titles for the mention of requests and then spam artists with mails. I only suspect this due to having a fair few requests come in that don't really fit what I do from people who sometimes don't even know I do traditional art. It always makes me wonder how? Like how did they come to the point of asking me for art without ever actually seeing any of my art..?

Commissions - No, I'll do free art work and even trades but I have a full time job and don't need the stress of obligation that taking money for my work would give me.

Social aspects - I can be reached on discord but you will have to ask for that in a note. I'm still interested in meeting new people and do enjoy discussions about art among other things, even the occasional rp, but due to work I'm often not around compared to others and this can make things hard for me.

Not really sure what to close out with.. oh well.

Got a set of nicpro drafting pencils to try out, no new .4mm but a new .3 to compart to my mr. pen pencils . A few others to try for sketching and such too to see how much of a difference if any they make.

It snapped right along above the threading where the grip screws into the rest of the pencil, no idea why though. Maybe I reassembled it with too much tension after clearing a jam. Not exactly my favorite tool but probably my most used for rough sketches.

So there might be fewer of those as I'll probably be using my .3mm all the time again. I do like it more but that slender lead goes fast, also strange that the .3mms are all budget pencils very cheap but have outlived several higher quality pencils despite heavier use. I'm going to put that down to the simpler construction, they're one solid piece with a threaded tip so short of stripping that or wearing out the springs nothing can go wrong.

So I found the setting to disable showing my favorites publicly which means I can now did through some of the lovely artist's works that I've watched so far without and show some appreciation while still maintaining some modesty so I think I'll be trying that out and looking through some galleries this weekend.


Update
I.. also just found out if a journal title is too long it will cut it off and use ellipses even if it's cutting off two letters for three periods. That's a little derpy but oh well. Shorter title now.

Still going to keep uploading from my backlog but might finish fewer drawings over the following week due to work. Not sure what to do once I finished the backlog, just upload doodles as I finish them? Anyway hope people are liking my drawings.

Starting to get to the point of uploading more recent art and trying to upload at least one my daily sketches as well but some will probably be too bad to upload at some point.

Not sure if I I should upload all or even most of them there are several hundred older doodles I've made since I started drawing. If nothing else I'll finish up putting my favorites here and then decide what to do. Thanks for watching and liking my drawings.

Still not finished with last year's drawings much less this year's. I'll be trying to upload my practice doodles and more recent art as I make it to avoid making an even larger backlog. Hopefully some people are enjoying that art, happy to hear any feedback or suggestions.

I still have not got around to messing with watching and browsing yet either but I'll probably be dropping by to watch and say stuff to the wonderful fluffs out there at some point.

Even with only scanning some of my drawings I guess it all piles up after a while. Done uploading for now, hundreds of drawings to go but I'll probably not upload them all. Guess I'll work on the backlog again some more tomorrow and eventually get up to some of my more recent drawings.

I've been meaning to make an art account somewhere, I've just not gotten around to it for a while. Not much else to say, I've been drawing for a bit more than two years. I have no formal art training, this is just a hobby to try and meet new people with shared interests.