#siphispeaks

This isn’t a question but I really do love your art. I want to eat it. Nom nom

Aw thank you! I'm only like 70% of the way there myself lol, and I'm sure it's different for everyone, but for me, I think Step 1 was actually just realizing that I don't have to post my OCs.

They don't exist to be content — I made them for me, and it's my choice to share or not.

With the pressure lifted, I can evaluate whether I want to post them... and I've found that the answer is yes! ( 'v')

More specifically: "Yes, but only after you process a bit more, so make an animation about it and then we'll talk 🔫"

This changed posting from an obligation to a personal desire, which has made it easier motivating myself to step outside my comfort zone.

Still scary! Probably always will be! But doing it for the right reasons will make it so much more fun ᕦ(òvóˇ)ᕤ Have so much fun that it balances out the fear!

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Other things that might help:

This is Tumblr, no one will see it :D And if they do, yay! And if they don't, thank god! And if they're mean? Lol they're a tumblr user haha cringe (jk but fr disregard non-constructive criticism, esp from strangers online)

Start small, like showing a friend irl, or posting just a doodle with no explanation. Or stay small, even. There's no need to get all the lore established unless/until you feel like it, so don't overwhelm yourself with perfectionism - focus on the fun!

Right, so this is how I was feeling about drawing with pens:

So not feeling great lol. But hey, how was I supposed to know where to put all my "confident lines" if I wasn't allowed to get the basic shapes down first? So I tried doing a pencil sketch like I usually would. I went from armature to final-ish line in pencil... and then I had to draw over it with pen?

The finished product turned out fine I guess, but I felt like I'd ruined a good sketch by adding more lines on top.

It was at this point that I caught up on GinjaNinjaOwO's videos, and they just so happened to be getting back into sketchbooking too.

Enter: Highlighters

I was so excited to try blocking out my drawings with highlighters instead! Let's go! And-

Ah... Yeah I'm still pretty stiff and out of practice with figure drawing, so pose and placement are giving me some trouble. But I can already feel a difference, even if I can't see it yet.

I remembered hearing about this site called "Pose Maniacs" a bit ago, so to exercise the old figure drawing muscles, I decided to give it a try.

This was the page that changed everything for me.

I mean, admittedly it doesn't really look all that special, and of course it's not the pinnacle of my capabilities, but it was finally starting to feel like the mistakes weren't as big of a deal, and like the successes were more than just "lucky accidents."

I've been hesitant to post sketchbook stuff because I like not having the pressure of making every page perfect - the whole point of a sketchbook is to practice and make mistakes somewhere safe, right? Learning to enjoy drawing again by making things just for me. But at the same time, it's nice to share things you enjoy! And if I'm gonna share any sketchbook stuff, I feel like this is where I should start.

Feels kinda like walking on stage without any pants on, but I'll try not to take myself too seriously lol. Sometimes a clown's gotta get pantsed to put on a show!

Drawing has always been kinda sculptural to me in a way that's scared me off from using pens.

I like being able to block out shapes and then carve into them with an eraser, but then I always feel like I'm fighting to get the "right" lines down over and over again, because it doesn't match the shapes in my head. Being pulled between shape and line like that, I can often end up in a place where I'm unhappy with both the shapes and the lines of a drawing.

I've always heard that if you want to have more confident lines, you should practice drawing in pen. Of course, it's a bit difficult to have confident lines when everything about holding a pen makes me less confident, but everyone has to start somewhere!

Here are some of the better doodles that came out of that. (I was also experimenting with a different style so it looks a little different than my usual stuff but I figured it would be a good one to start out with)

Some of them turned out okay, some of them not so much, and one of them I drew with black pen on top of black nail polish lol (featured in the video below cuz it doesn't show up in pictures) - just playing around and trying not to care too much about the outcome

But overall I didn't really feel like I was getting anywhere. (Until I happened to catch up on GinjaNinjaOwO's videos and I finally started feeling like I was gaining some momentum! More on that later tho this is long enough already lol)

the wip file in question: