Being alive is so cool!

I'm gonna say this as a person who struggles with the executive function.

Not working feels like death, which is why I'm writing this. Working even includes free time learning, one of the greatest pleasures I experience. Growth. When I was reading an article about practicing rather than using tutorials, I felt a feeling of fear. It was good information. It also is another version of what I try to do often and wasted a lot of good time learning nothing, doing.

Sometimes, all the determination and goals in the world won't help you. Brain structure matters, and if you can't mentally supply yourself with the structure that many humans are born with some capacity to do, you could break down trying to do it the normal way and end up thinking that you have to depend on tutorials. (which provide a goal, short, don't cause panic attacks or a risk of self harm when you feel overwhelmed by the world and its glory or are getting to the point of feeling like you need to understand everything at once.)

I recently was in that state - I still look at tutorials, though now it's more to comprehend concepts that confuse me and would take years that I don't have to come to myself (slow processing/lack of internal organization. These words are 'forced' (aka large in number because it'd take me like a month and a ton of research and proof searching and self. Ritical analysis to ensure that this was factual lmao for me to actually be comfortable saying any of this)

ANYWAYS

I was recently in that state and came across a tutorial which explained an approach to drawing an eye.


And they included the importance of doing research, facts about the human eye, and done in short, consider simple sentance-. I wasn't overwhelmed and got the point.

The thing that was different was that the tutorial gave me a method to approach studies with. Rather tha. Being lost and flitting back and forth as I try to forge a mental guideline, I found a series of steps that I can use to outline my actions not only when I draw, but when I observe, when I study.

It was something as simple as - it was by um.. Frick. https://www.deviantart.com/moni158/.....tips-186431312

This. It was ages ago and I don't look at it a lot. It's the concept of tutorials as a way of helping you see or understand or approach your study without getting absolutely terrified and shattering that really intregues me.

As someone who wants to know everything and also is... Yeah, I tend to get absolutely lost when approaching things. Even just doing 'dog noses' can end up having me rocking back and forth if I don't have an external structure and support etc etc. Not talking about school, either!

For people like me, if any of you are, a way to do what's advised here without getting too lost and afraid to function, is to do.

Find small, short, completable exercises.

Pay attention to the basics. Fall in love with the basics. Discover what the basics are, and the basics of those basics.


https://www.makingcomics.com/2014/0.....arm-exercises/

Might be fun.

Find the things shared. If you're looking at drawing cats, begin with the very basics. Find skeletons (photos of them) and some information on specific parts. If you have a cat, or a friend does or you see one in a store, touch them if you can, interact. Keep in mind what you just recently learned. Touch the paws. Grow certain in the knowledge that what you just acquired as data works. Also the basic shapes of bodies approach as well, and then break down those basic parts into a more swallable and comprehensible chunk. (eg eyes/eyesocket/cheekbone/nose/jaw/ear space/placement).

If you think in the way of someone who needs this sort of structure, you might not need the list of those parts after comprehending the concept. Be because it's a way to classify and swallow what you see as a connected mass.

Swallow information. Move quietly and carefully. Have fun, if you can. It'll be overwhelming to consider this, but you'll probably notice-particularly with the basics--that what you learn is revolutionary/can completely help in you learning stuff further that would have been harder or more confusing otherwise.

Love is important. I know a lot of artists can work without love or work through boredom(the feeling of being trapped, not learning, feeling still, wanting to get away, feeling restless, being aware of every minute as of passes by, growing angry, maybe confused. Idk.) you're not weak if you can't.

Love and appreciation are emotions which nrgage the restlessness and cause a sort of curiosity. Curiousitu for the sake of Curiousity, not to 'get better'. Experience for the sake of experience. It's scary to face that level of slow effort, it takes a lot of deep breathing, and paying attention to what atmospheres you can handle and or are invigorated by best. Appreciation for the sake of it and enjoyment of the art does embed the information a lot more than a clinical viewpoint. When every movement you make matters to you emotionally and mentally, and you're hyper aware of the moment, this approach can help embed information with meaning. And help hope, of course!

I guess in the work personalities/color personalities for work and school I'd call it green-orange, since that's what I am at least. Someone who lives for data and understanding why something works, how it works, what the peices are and needs to know 'why' - green--and also feels most alive when they're doing the thing they love, which is also often their job. People who spend hours at the batting range. The thrill of learning and doing is inescapable pleasant and it's painful but good. It's the feeling of being alive.


There are different types of art and different types of approaching art study. Even drawing from life takes a series of different stances. Try to separate these in your mind. There's drawing from life for the sake of experiencing drawing, drawing from life with the intention of comprehending parts and or furthering information gained in another part (like skeleton shapes). There are so many different types of drawing from life and approaching it. Then there's figure drawing which is also called gesture drawing tough it can help to hold those separate internally because there are so many ways to approach life drawing/poses. There's contour, light and dark, movement, mass, exageration/emotion/exprrssion. There's tons of different approaches to different types of art too, and... Oh God I'm too hungry and tired, the rest of this was written before I wrote this



I'd say again, when paying attention to the basics, exercises can really help. This doesn't mean abandon knowledge.

An example is: I went to art college, I heard from people, I read in textbook after textbook after textvook about the horizon line. Tried it from Betty Edwards drawing from the right side of the brain bit about van Gogh.

It wasn't until I was doing something that wasn't really with that intention - that I was drawing what was around me when I was outside(in the almost countryside with roads and sidewalk and spaced out convenience stores) -

when I ended up applying or even understanding the horizon line and the vanishing point to extents, and even perspective within a viewfinder (since eyes do have a limited area of view when you don't move your head)

And later on, a similar experience. When an exercise was asking me to draw cubes in 3D space, I reached again for the horizon line, as lines were being used to express ovals as flat circles in 3D space so it was related. MYbe the exercise mentioned the horizon line? My mind doesn't remember.


Have a private sketch book, as tons of sites will tell you. It's important as an artist, I feel and many do, to remember why you see yourself as one. It's because you, maybe, interact with the world that way. Recieve the world that way. Mess around. Express yourself, or don't. Draw what you're curious about. Draw things around you.

Battle your conceptions.

I still think reading books and getting information is good! Tons of info! It's fun!


just sometimes even when you try your hardest, if your brain works a certain way, absorbing information the way others does isn't possible. That doesn't mean your route is any less work--lmao I expect it's more work because it took me this long to figure this much out. In my 26th year of life LMAO.

You can improve the other way, but it's not as fun. (Fun: the feeling of pain and fascination and wonder and like. Just experiencing when you're learning or doing something that's growing you. Often accompanied by panic, fear, or anxiety and the physical urge to scream.)

You lose control of an arm and break your laptop. You lose interest. You get angry at everyone around you. You start to hate art. You start to draw over and over and not absorb the information because you don't know the why, and then you try to find the why and are distracted that way because you want to be thorough. If you're pushed hard enough, it leaks into almost all the faucets of your life and the work you put into controlling yourself in public begins to crack.


And this is true with anything. Drawing from reference, researching in depth, etc. The issue isn't that you're incapable of learning. It's that you absorb information at a different rate and in a different way. Your mind needs something actionable and explorative in order to absorb the information. You want to explore it in a million ways.

Don't worry. You're not dumb and you're not incapable. You're not lazy.


It sounds so cliché, but even people who aren't like this need inspiration and care and experiences. They need meaning and feeling to feel alive and learn.

Find where and what you have pleasure in. Do things in private without sharing.

Explore the why behind art and that you want to do it. What about it you enjoy. What draws you to it. Complexity of line? Colors? Movement?

Its scary and helpful to know that reality is the best starting point, because drawing different styles will make more sense when you know why or what's going on. I hunger for the day I can do that.

As a person obsessed, I can warn you against, spending ages doing research that you forget, spending hours trying to find anatomy books or copying notes from them. I don't have the answers but I've tried too much adcixe that really would work for others and had it keep winding up nowhere.

Not warn in g you against RESEARCH. But like.

My hobby is compiling resources. Ive looked at some of the best books in the things I'm interested in. I've seen so much, and even spent ages drawing what was around me. And I didn't absorb a thing.

I think the key is understanding. And it's the kind of understanding that comes from--well as above. Doing. Exploring. Having experiences.

Have your own life, your own hobbies, your life away from art, your life away from rp or video games, your life away from socializing or attention. Have time to do different things and appreciate it. Give everything it's own space so you don't panic. Remember to fit in relaxation time.

You can give the best to the world when you're at your best. If you're like me, then that's probably what you want to do.

Part of the issue is, that so much is happening in the brain. So let's even it out so that it has more room to stretch.

Okay, gotta go! Also, for people who CAN do what MOST or MANY great artists do, this is... Not for you. Maybe it is? Maybe it could help, idk.

The perspective I understand least is the perspective of someone who views a day they didn't experience exploration and stuff as a relaxing day. I'm usually at my worst if I have 'only lazy' days, cause it's food for me to explore.

Like I've been depressed lately because I haven't been able to work or stud y as much as I want because I don't feel safe, secure, or okay. When I'm stressed my brain doesn't have the space to create or gain enough new information. I'm looking forwards to when I finally have the energy to work again.

If I had money enough to survive and eat and see my friends, then I'd probably work most days, for free, until the day I died. The days I took off to travel and read and experience things would feed back into my creations. I live to create. It's not about happiness as much as warmth and knowing you you've contributed. Youve given your best, contributed to another's happiness and contentment, and also managed to use your brain and your abilities to the best you can, that day. That's heaven.

If you don't relate, that makes sense. Many people can do and experience a world completely different from other people, just as cool in its own way.

I think everyone could benefit from this stuff, though! //

Maybe a lot of people can already organize that stuff in their head and understand it unconsciously or need a different level of break down... I've noticed I find a lot of instructions others understand to be vague or confusing HaHA;.

Ohhh!! Or maybe there are hybrids.

OKAY scrambles way