moredhel Those scales must have taken time! You handled the hue shifts neatly, it does read as vibrant flames. And the amethyst snake is lovely, the tiny story behind it makes me happy.
If my wife heard this. She is totally against throwing away anything. I used to recycle everything I made, but now we have sort of a growing archive.
Haha, so is my mother with art/old school or university works, but I have no use for all that stuff nor any attachment to these. Lugging all of it around when moving is a pain and hey, I did throw it in the recycle bin and repurposed some as sketching paper. It has to count for something.
MollyVampiric Adding to Mirasol's and catbird's great advice you can also do some staring exercises when you can't or doesn't want to draw. Look at art you love and ask yourself questions: What is it about it you like? Why do you think this detail works? What's the artist representing with that color/line/brushwork/parrot/whatever? Is it an interpretation of a natural phenomenon or what? This is a mental exercise to complement actual drawing; it works for some people because drawing and painting aren't purely motor skills, there's a lot of deconstruction and rebuilding it to your liking in the process—the thing we know as style.
Whatever you do it's important to balance taking risks and enjoyment so you don't get overwhelmed. Break subjects into bite sized bits and pick only a couple of risks at a time to really focus on, mixing them with things in your comfort zone. Everyone has their own tolerance to struggling with new things and I find it important to figure out how far you can push yourself before getting too frustrated to proceed. Eg if you're comfortable with flowers and want to do a values study it's better to do one using flowers than trying your hand at motorcycles.
Annuil *blushes* Thanks! I learned art on the Internet.
I really
really like to see people's sketchbooks, you can glimpse how they deal with their own hurdles, get ideas for new approaches and studies, etc. I used to lurk a lot in a place with may sketchbooks but I don't know where to find this kind of community now. I also like to take my time to ask questions about the art or photo I'm seeing, formulate theories then research to see if they check out. It's a fun type of challenge that helps in advancing your foundational knowledge, though not ideal if you don't balance this theoretical approach with developing your motor skills
(which I don't tend to do ofc).
I had two brushes with formal art education in university, and to expand on them a bit: They were unfortunately mismatched to my skills at the time. One class went through the fundamentals like "this is a color wheel, mix these colors to create one; draw those dead plants, can you see that core shadow?" at a time I was daring stuff beyond this, the other was a gestures one in which the teacher took our names then left us alone with the model for the rest of the class. That was it for the entire semester. No guidance or basic anatomy or anything beforehand. I get the point of being looser with your sketches, but that felt terribly wasteful to have access to live models and lack the foundation and confidence to get them onto paper. Yeah to this day I still mourn getting so little out of this one. :'D
