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ive noticed a lot of young artists are way too hard on themselves

is it a million

is it TWO million

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omg dont be ashamed at all!! Hands are generally tough to get used to, lots of artists struggle with it! so dont be ashamed i feel you.

and I actually have made a hand anatomy guide before in fact! If you want to get better at drawing hands I def recommend you learn the basic anatomy first. Please check out the ones I made, I try to make it simple and easy to understand:

Artistic Anatomy: Hands Part 1

Artistic Anatomy: Hands Part 2

There’s my guide to the anatomy, but here’s some more tips that I’ve noted to myself that I’d like to include

First off, I’d like to just note on the fingers: if you pay close attention to your own hand, you may notice the fingers are ever ever so slightly curved inward. It’s a very subtle detail, but I noticed that, despite how slight it is, it can make a hand look more lively, and less stiff.

Second, the “M” on the palm! Your hand moves in many ways, and because it does it creates creases in your hand. The most prominent creases appear to make an M shape; this is handy to remember for what I’m going to talk about next. (It also could be a “W” I guess, or to be more specific a “ )X( “; just think of it in whatever way helps you remember!)

SO now that you see the M, draw your hand as a basic blocked shape and add your details. As you do, you can see that the M divides the palm into four basic parts!

When the hand moves, parts A, B, or C of the palm, alone or in different combos, will create the general poses that the hands do normally. These parts are the parts that move, with D being stationary, no matter what!

Here’s a chart of all the possible combos. Once you have down what part of the hand moves for a certain pose, you can change up the fingers and tweak it a bit to do what you need to make it more specific!

This is simply my method of drawing hands. God knows there are hundreds of tutorials out there by other artists, but personally, this way helps me the best (after learning the anatomy first). 

This way I can divide the hand and combine the parts in any such way I need! 

Hands take a lot of effort to grapple, and you need to practice them a lot, especially foreshortening of the hand; that’s really something you need to learn through your own studies. Look at your own hands, draw hands from life, from magazines, shows, comics; just draw hands! You’ll eventually figure out a method that works best for you. So to get better at drawing hands; draw hands!! And don’t stress over it, have fun with it!

“good enough” and “fuck it”

“good enough” is when you are working on something and are happy with most of it but can live with a few imperfections, useful when needing to move on from sketch to inking/coloring or what have you.

“fuck it” is when you absolutely hate what you’re doing every step of the way but you post it anyways, very useful during art blocks.

both are useful to help you move on and not obsess over making it perfect, because art is anything but perfect, even photo realistic artists probably see imperfections that someone else might not catch 

for all the artists following me

draw fast. it’ll look messy for a long time but you’ll improve faster than if you spend 4 hours on every drawing

if you draw in pencil and have a habit of erasing all of your mistakes, try drawing in pen or marker. i know it’s scary but it’ll help in the long run (i’m speaking from experience)

try different methods and mediums but don’t worry about mastering any of them, just have fun

if you’re not rich, buy art supplies from the dollar store, not the art store (seriously. i go through a sketchbook about once a month and i’d rather spend $4 on one than $15)

there’s no wrong way to learn. you can copy other people’s art if you want to, just don’t post it

DO NOT worry about having a consistent style. do not. just draw however you want

if you want to make original characters then do it. don’t worry about if they’re original, or a good design, or if they have an accompanying story. make sonic ocs. do it. it’s fun and it’s not hurting anyone

try not to kill your back. stand up and stretch once in a while

make a folder and save all of your favorite arts for inspiration 

draw from life. draw your dog. draw your teachers. draw your desk. draw your own hands (seriously that’s the best way to get better at drawing hands)

in general, drawing from life or a photo is better than drawing from a diagram

draw whatever you want. draw youtubers if you like youtubers. draw undertale if you like undertale. when i was a kid i drew nothing but shadow the hedgehog and horses. everyone deserves to draw what they want without being mocked, and if people start making fun of you, block them and keep drawing

don’t expect to get any notes at first. don’t let it discourage you. if you want validation go show your art to your mom or your friends or your teacher or your grandma

Doodle. Don’t even think about how good it is, just turn your brain off and doodle figures, faces, hot dogs, literally anything.

Use coloring books. Either of subjects you either like or things you want to practice coloring. (It’s something that people think is childish, but when you think about it it’s a really quick and cool way to practice color.)

Buy a bunch of stickers. Put them in your sketchbook covers. Slap them on pages and draw around them. Even tiny visuals like that can get the creative flow going.

I know this comparison has been done to death but thats because its a good one so let’s look at some Ghibli couples

this, my friends, is an example of an animation style. yes, all the women have pretty much the same craniofacial structure. but look at who also does: the men!!!

now, here are some examples of animation that certainly has distinct style, but is still guilty of sexist character design

how can I tell, you ask? let’s break it down.

1. all lead Disney women fit into the exact same big-eyed tiny-nosed heart-shaped craniofacial structure

2. all the lead Disney men don;t

there all done its that simple

in case this is still not making sense for some of you I have created a fun visual guide to help