helpful art stuff side

i realize that not everyone knows these characters, so how can you judge whether or not they look like who i intended them to look like. good point. should've drawn more universally beloved superheroes or something. i did TRY drawing people from other shows or movies, but unfortunately i'm sick in the brain and had to draw sunny. anyways, for reference:

when i'm drawing a character for the first time, i usually have to give it a couple of tries before it starts looking even remotely like them. here's the very first rough sketch of ryan versus the one i ended up painting over:

who the hell is that first guy. that doesn't look like anybody, let alone the real person it's based on. try again!!!!!

during this sketching phase i've also moved away from drawing from a single picture. when you look up a character on google or pinterest or whatever for a reference, you're going to get the same images that everybody else is getting. i think that will inherently make your rendition feel stale. anybody in the fanbase for that media will have seen the image you're drawing from, like five hundred times. using a variety of pictures to composite your sketch, or sketching while watching an episode or something, immediately helps the drawing feel more like yours.

as for trying to capture a likeness. i personally am not interested in realism or accuracy, ever. i always assume everybody will just get the gist. for these drawings, the things i found myself focusing on initially was the face shape (especially the cheeks, jawline, and forehead) and the size of eyes and noses. i feel like once you've got that, you're almost all the way there.

after that, i picked a few key characteristics and made sure i accentuated them enough to be recognizable, without leaning too hard into caricature. hopefully. maureen's defined eyelids, ryan's undefined chin and jaw. maureen's toothy grin, ryan's greased down hair.

it also helps to add in personality and characterization into the drawing. for example, maureen ponderosa is always looking up at dennis very sweetly and innocently. so i emphasized her eyelashes and gave her big pupils, a feature i normally don't add to characters. ryan mcpoyle is one of the grossest, slimiest characters on the show, huffing spray paint and drinking warm milk. so i added a lot more gray to his skin and tried to make him more droopy looking in general.

once i get the sketch and basic colors underneath it, i start painting on top and stop looking at the references. i'll go back and check once or twice if i feel like i've lost sight of the character, but at this point i'm more interested in making it my own thing. i let my hands do what they want and start really stylizing. i may lose a lot of the actual actor in this process, but i feel like i gain more of the character.

this is my favorite part, the most fun part. it's easier when you're drawing characters from a cartoon or comic or something where there's an established way of drawing things that you can either mimic or distort. trying to do this when drawing live action isn't the way to go, in my opinion. my most versatile piece of art advice is do what you want forever and ever, and that applies to stylization of characters too. don't try and force the character into "your style." try not to have an "art style" at all.

whatever works for you works for you, and i'm not against having a specific way of doing things, far from it. but i think it kinda makes your art stiff and uninteresting when you go "this is how i draw noses. these are the different eye shapes i use. i color with this technique and shade with this technique." then it's like. well i know this is dee from always sunny because she's the blonde woman, but i don't see any dee in there.

and this is speaking from personal experience, i used to try and force characters into my "style" or i'd focus too much on making them look exactly like the actors. and they just never ended up... dynamic. they were flat, didn't have all the quirks that make every human face weird and beautiful. all of the drawings themselves looked the exact same. one day i am going to redo all of my teen wolf fanart.

look at some of my dees:

there are some similarities, some details i add every time, but i'm not worried about making my drawings appear consistent. i also wasn't worried about making her look exactly like kaitlin olson in any of these.

however, in these drawings i did want dee to look more like the real person behind the character. even still, they're stylized totally differently. it's a balance! how many features of the actor do you want to factor in, how much do you just want to do your own thing? like, now i've drawn dee so many times and in so many different ways, i feel like i have My Own Dee. she's got kaitlin's big eyes and blonde hair, but i don't really know what else. and that's fine!

first of all, if you're looking for advice different from "grow your socials," then you have come to the right place! all the advice i can give about being an artist online is how to specifically NOT grow your socials. i'm at a place where if i get like four followers in a day i start feeling a little queasy. never grow your socials!!! do not engage!!! isolate yourself as much as possible!!!!!!!!

just kidding. okay, so, advice for starting to share your art online! i think the most important thing, honestly the only thing, is to distance yourself from the numbers. and that's easy to say, especially for me who's posting on only one (dying) social media site, but i get that it's a bit harder to actually put into practice. i remember my first drawing that got 100 notes. oh man was i stoked!!! and i vividly remember how it felt the first time a drawing got 1000 notes. it was huge, i was so excited! so many people telling me they liked my drawing! i was at dinner with my family and kept sneakily pulling out my phone to check my activity page.

it's not a bad thing to be excited about getting notes. it's just that none of my drawings after i hit a thousand notes got, like, more than ten likes. and that felt bad. i don't want posting my art to ever feel bad. and i don't want that for you. you can still care about the fact that people see and interact with your posts, but there are a million different ways to become obsessed with metrics and they all suck for you. it's very easy to gamify sharing your art. i remember when my friend in high school was making her first art blog and she told me that she had looked into the best time to post on tumblr, i.e. when people were the most active. i remember that time, i have no clue if it's still accurate, but i've had to break myself out of the habit of posting at "ideal times." i've had to let go of all these different little tricks and tips to "grow your audience," and only after doing that is when i actually started to get a real response from people. i do recommend, if you have a laptop or computer, posting from desktop and deleting tumblr from your phone. if you have friends on tumblr or like seeing cool funny stuff all day i guess that's not realistic advice, but something to consider!

maybe this is the most obvious advice in the world. but i also know that there is an expectation out there to Constantly Be Active, Build Your Brand, Maximize Engagement. if you make a living being an "online artist," then, yeah, you do have to promote yourself. you do have to get eyeballs on your work. my reluctance to post anywhere but tumblr is fine now, but i am constantly fantasizing about quitting my job and focusing solely on art. will i be able to make a living if i'm not posting sponsored reels on instagram? not to denigrate those who do, i understand and respect why they have to. or, even, enjoy doing so! there are artists who make incredible work and are also great at being an influencer. they may have to focus on the numbers, but if you're just starting to post you shouldn't put that pressure on yourself.

being on tumblr less in general has helped answer the question i had to ask myself: "do i genuinely like sharing my art, or do i actually just like watching the number go up?" if i didn't post on tumblr literally nobody would see my drawings. am i okay with that? sure, i'd obviously still be drawing, but i do like sharing my art! i'm back to posting more regularly on tumblr because it's fun! i like having an outlet for my drawings, reading people's tags, and getting nice and interesting messages. eggtober in particular is something i've come to be really proud of, in a weird way? the amount of artists who create stunning and creative work just because i, on a whim, decided to host an egg drawing event??? it's amazing! so, yeah, i personally have ups and downs about being an online artist, a lot of which i didn't even get into. but i'm happy to have this space. i'm excited for you to build your own. doing your own thing in your own unique way is the only way to go about it.

as for drawing while working, man, ALL i think about at work is the art i want to be making. this is where i start feeling Really Dramatic and Tortured. i'll sit there in front of my computer bringing nothing but junk into the world near tears over how BADLY i just want to be drawing. or handbuilding. or printmaking. or literally anything creative at all. and i feel so selfish! like, why do i think i should get to play around with clay all day instead of.... having a job that MEANS NOTHING????? that's what gets me the most! it's so POINTLESS and STUPID and NOTHING!!! and i get home and i'm so tired and my eyes are fuzzy and my wrist hurts like crazy and i'm sick over how much slop and waste is being shit out every second and i don't draw. i try, and maybe i get an hour of productive creativity, but then i go to bed. i read these stories of artists who have a full time job and then stay up all night to create, write novels on the weekends, and i think whyyyy can i not do that. why do i go to bed at 8pm or drink until i pass out. why do i only draw little doodles instead of working on bigger, more interesting projects during the weekend?

you say that i wholeheartedly draw what i like whenever i like and i appreciate that. i wish it was true. i have so much art i want to make, art that makes my hands itch when i'm at work. the thing is, i'm not challenging myself creatively right now. i'm treating my art the way my job is forcing me to treat it: as a hobby. a secondary activity i do to unwind from work. which does make sense, and i'm glad to have the outlet. to be clear, i am glad to have a job and a safety net, i don't want to complain about that. well, i do, but, anyways. i know the answer is just to change my life, but that's what i need advice about haha.

it's all about finding the time. i like to work on drawings while i have my morning coffee. i try to sketch a little on lunch breaks. i also can't recommend not having friends or any real responsibilities enough. it really frees up your weekends for drawing time. it's also about not forcing yourself. i don't want creativity to feel like a chore. there's so much more i could be doing, that i WANT to do, but sometimes i come home with a terrible headache and a hand that, if i hold it in a couple positions for more than five seconds, turns purple. just straight up turns purple. anybody who uses a mouse and holds a pen all day know what that is? as i'm typing this paragraph, my right arm is tingling and my hand is looking more and more corpse-like. get back to me.

i don't mean to be such a downer. i have fun making the art i make! i don't feel sick to my stomach over having thousands of followers on my art blog.... anymore, at least. if i could give advice to sixteen year old me who was just starting to share art, i'd say post and go. people will see it or they won't. they'll reblog or they won't. make what you want to make when you want to make it and only share what you want when you want to. don't worry about it.