no new piece of art this time, just the yappings of a girl who can't sleep :)
February is almost over at the time of writing this! And wow has it been a month. I think this has been my buissiest month this year when it comes to doing art. From roughly the beginning of the month till yesterday (when i finished the monotype thing), I've done 6 polished pieces in the span of 23 days!! That averages out to a little more than 1 piece per 4 days. In actuality, each one of those were completed in the span of 1~2 days each. I also have 2 more commissions lined up which are gonna be dope most likely.
That's all to say, I've noticed that I've been getting both better and faster at drawing.
It's a little crazy to think that it took me at least a month to complete each of the illustrations in my original art post, and now I can do something of far better quality in just a day.
A while back, I remember reading somewhere a post or message from Deka (goated artist btw, my favorite one on the site actually), talking about the importance of working fast, and simply putting out finished work. At the time, I only really took it at face value, but I've only really come to properly appreciate their words now.
Each piece of art I create is not only an attempt to create beauty, but it is also practice. With each piece of art I create, I learn something new and bring that experience towards future pieces. And by working fast, I am expediting and intensifying the practice. Once my skills stacked up to be able to put out a piece in a day, I was able to carry that experience with me and start making many more pieces within a rather short timeframe.
The very first piece of art in this thread is dated 2023. Specifically, it was from the summer of 2023. June or July maybe. The first UUbers banner was finished in November. Some might notice that those two're the only pieces dated from 2023. And that's cause, there really just aren't any other finished pieces from that time period. And before 2023, art was barely a presence in my life. I wasn't drawing. I'd pick up a pen and try to make something, but it would inevitably turn out different from how I wanted it to, and I would quit without even a proper sketch. I was so obsessed with the final product, that I became blind to the necessary steps and practice that would be required first. There's more I could yap on about old me, but idt it's super necessary.
It's incredible what simply doing art on a frequent basis does for a person's skills. What prompted me to start writing this in the first place, was noticing the improvement in art in a manga I'm reading. the art started off a little shaky and imprecise, but slowly took on more shape until it's come into a much more natural state.
Smogon was what ultimately broke me out of the cycle of never practicing, cause I didn't like how it looked. And I'm honestly so glad for it. Doing art here at Smogon is a massive part of my life right now, and is basically my sole outlet for doing art. Working with the Smogon yt in particular has been an amazing experience, as it has challenged me to make high-quality art on short notice, within a particular set of constraints. It has also been a great experience beynod just the art, and I've loved meeting all these new ppl. Big shoutouts to
RADU and
Mr. Uncompetitive for teaching/helping me learn to edit videos. There's already a video half-commentated and fully edited by me... all that's left is to find a way to weasel my way into commentating the videos that get hand-drawn thumbnails :snicker:
Anygays, that's all from me I think. Tthx for hearing me out and I wish you all a good morning, good afternoon, or good evning, depending on when you're tuning in~
Oh and in case there's some obscure anti yapping rule that says I'm not supposed to excessively use my art thread for non-art purposes, here's what I consider to be my first digital illustration
. It'll show up in the week 1 thread i recon