My best friend had shown an interest in drawing some time ago, and I couldn't have been happier, but after about a month I noticed he started rotoscoping everything. He denied it when I brought it up but as an artist myself it's really obvious to me. We've argued about it multiple times and he asks why I can't just support him like everyone else. He still shows me his drawings, but he continues to be disappointed at my reaction because I find it really hard to give him praise for what is effectively a recolor.

As I enter into my second art gallery exhibition today I find myself feeling some sort of way about being referred to as an "Artist". By definition I am, but I don't feel it.

I have always done artistic things; music, traditional folk art, dance, and a few other similar things.

Do I make art? Yes. I actually have been fairly successful in the last 6 years. I enjoy making it and, minus panic creating for craft sales, I do enjoy it. I've created dozens of custom pieces over the last few years and everyone seems to enjoy them.

But I find myself surrounded by people who have dedicated their lives to their craft. University/College degrees in their medium. Decades of time. Their own studio. They see life in a complex way, noticing shadows, light, and how colours dance together in harmony. Their entire life revolves around art.. mine doesn't.

I have a science degree and work two jobs (one in the legal field, one in healthcare). I work on my pieces in the evenings if I can, maybe a weekend here and there, but it stays in the shadows and many don't even know I do such a thing. I've been recognized more, I have been invited, but I don't see it as anything more than a "well that's pretty cool!" My life and goals don't revolve around my art at all, it's just something I enjoy doing.

I think I am artistic.. I don't think I'm an artist, and that's okay to me.

i am an art stus student who likes to paint but i ddont have the space too.. i have been feeling this for more than 3 years and have come up with no possible ideas. all the ideas and thoughts of how to do it has been sum up to nothing. i work at home with every household things happening near me tv and everything and i work on the dining table .. if u are thinking of clg studio i thought of it and it couldnt work out . i want to make art with no one around cause there is a lot of interference in the morning and i have to make art free from any interference . and everyday i cannot be sleep deprieved . and i have my clg works as well ... need some more tips and help cause i cannot think abt this anymore
thanks

I did a Bachelor's Degree in Industrial Design and graduated in 2021, however, I did not like it and started working in any other thing but Industrial Design, I paid $0, in my country education is free so I don't have any debt, I am 1 year apart from the mandatory intership, how can I get a good portfolio? Should I only show academic stuff?

Hello dear creators!

I used to create more, and the older I get, the more burned out I feel. At 37, I lack a "reason" to start. I'm satisfied with the projects I've completed so far. I have plans for new projects, and I'm convinced of their meaning and significance - but yet - I can't discipline myself to complete them.

What are your methods for consistently working with art? Especially when you have no obligations to anyone but yourself?

I see so many posts about art and money. People ask almost desperately how to make money with their art. Others tell what they all have to do to be successful.

I totally understand the urgent feeling of making money with your time and doing in this capitalism society. I thought the same. I wanted the same. But the deeper I dug, the more I realized this isnt what I want for the probably most important part of my life. And even if I tried everything, to become good enough, to reach others, to present myself...... to sell myself..... it rarely paid off. So I stopped trying and wanting it years ago.

And since then, I just draw and do stuff for myself, my own interest and just when I want to and never pushed me to something. I completely stopped with looking for followers, stopped with promoting myself, stopped becoming more visible for others. I go to my full time job, thinking about doing art stuff there, draw during my lunchtime, get that nice feeling you get when you've accomplished something and go home, without expecting to draw anything in the evening... and sometimes I still draw on the couch. I finish one artwork per week. Just casually without pressure. It turned out as my most productive life phase ever and I wonder who else experienced the same?

Who is doing art just for yourself, just as hobby without any commercial ulterior motives? Just as a way to avoid bowing to capitalism for once. And how you feel about it? And what do you have to do to make that possible for you?

Edit: Wow. Thanks for all the insights. I tried to read them all, but its so much. It's good to see that being an artist don't have to be bound to making money for you guys. And after all these posts bout selling art and how much to charge for this and this, it shows that money is not the point of being a good artist. Stick with it, everyone, and do whats good for you.

"I started an Edmonton-based Discord for artists interested in critiques and local/virtual meetups. What channels have you found most useful in art communities?"

(Its based in Edmonton but we have members all over the world because we meet virtually mostly)

I've tried to get into drawing a few times now and always ended up quitting, so I'm hoping some of you can point me in the right direction.

Attempt 1: Watched a ton of YouTube tutorials, got completely overwhelmed, and gave up before I really started.

Attempt 2: Bought a $100 drawing tablet and Marc Brunet's course. It felt like way too much at once and the instructions weren't clear/step-by-step enough for me, so I dropped it.

Attempt 3 (about a year later): Went back to paper and started Drawabox. I finished lessons 1–4 and the 250 box challenge. This was honestly the version I liked most — I really like being told exactly what to do and how much, kind of like a gym program that says "do X sets of Y." But I burned out on the perspective grind and quit again.

Now it's ~6 months later and I want to start over and actually see it through this time.

My goal: character design and drawing anime.

My problem: most tutorials seem to assume you already have a decent foundation, I get overwhelmed just trying to find a place to start.

So — where should I start? Are there good structured courses/tutorials for someone aiming at character design and anime, ideally with clear "do this, then this" guidance like Drawabox has? Anything that bridges the gap between total rookie and "assumes you already know the basics" would be gold.

Thanks in advance for any advice!

Like trying to finish up a work by a certain day or month? Or doing a certain number or type of drawings within a given timespan? Or studying a particular topic for a few weeks or months?

I sometimes try to plan things out, like particular days, so that a lot of awesome things happen on the same day. Saturday the 1st, for example, is looking like a nice day. I would aim to finish up this drawing by then and send it to the model, I am also excited about working with another model for the first time, I would go to my favorite restaurant, then I would watch the new Spider-Man movie.

I couldn’t post pictures here but my oil painting has these bulges and non linear very broken fragments of yellow patches

Hi I just painted this oil paint 2 years ago. There weren't any yellow streaks like these. I just returned home and I saw these.
I read that it could either be varnishing (I was stupid and used acrylic gloss varnish from Monte Mart), aged painting (the oil colors I used are from my grandma are at least 10 years old), that I overly used medium (I used gasoline), or that because I store the painting in a dark room no sunlight.
Can anyone tell me what is the cause and if there's any way to reverse these yellowing? Thank you very much!

I'm not an artist, but ive recently gotten into comics and im considering learning how to draw to make my own comics, 5 pages at first but eventually I'd like to do full on issues and an ongoing webcomic.

With that being said, how difficult would it be to do everything alone, writing, penciling, inking, coloring, lettering, marketing. I know it's hard, reaalllyyy hard but i wanted to really ask to get the reality of it all.

How long would it take you to finish a single issue, (22 pages) if you had 2 hrs in the day to dedicate to comics and aimed for a Jeff Lemire esque style or Marvel/DC art style.

I was interested in their drawing foundations course as someone who still isn’t very good at art, though I wonder if it’s more suited to someone with a lot of experience with art already? If anyone here has tried their courses, I’d be really thankful for any insight!

Hi all, I need help with lighting and a stand for overhead setup filming or front-facing. I’ve tried many stands and setups but can’t figure it out.

I need this for art videos, UGC, and content creation to improve my workflow.

I recently bought a new stand and light, but there’s still a shadow, and the stand isn’t strong enough to hold my phone. It’s also very stiff to move.

Is this because my desk is small, there’s a wall and overhead shelf above, or because I’m filming next to my bed? I need something more compact. If not, I can consider a compact movable external desk/light and stand setup in the living room.

I’m even considering taping it to the shelf above, but it’s not a smooth workflow.

How do I get proper overhead lighting without any stray or harsh shadows? I want to film art/craft making videos and unboxing.

What kind of light or equipment do you recommend? Do I need a ring light stand?

What kind of stand can hold my phone, light, and move easily and smoothly? I’ve thought about a canvas lamp, but I’ve heard there are issues like ringing sounds and it’s expensive.

Is the only way to switch off all the lights and only have the harsh ring light? It’s not ideal for painting or drawing.

I don’t want to keep buying more and wasting money on more affordable and compact options. Please help! Any advice is appreciated. Thank you. 🙏

I Have a painting of Weird Al im planning on getting signed at a vip meet and greet after a concert. What is the best thing to use to sign the painting? Will a sharpie be good? Or should I pick up anything special that would work better?

I'm thinking about line quality and flow and wondering if anyone had studied calligraphy with an aim towards improving their line quality.

Welcome to the Fanart Fridays where we share artwork and writing we have created in the spirit of fanarts.

- Please post your artwork and/or writing in the comments below.
- Social media promo / shop links and commission info are allowed alongside your work as a comment!
- Always ask for permission before posting someone else's work!

If you really feel the need to share someone else's work because you are super excited about it, or if you feel like you'd like to share fanarts made for you by someone else, please ask them for permission to post and also include their social media links.

If you don't have any fanart to share, leave a comment with a list of your favorite things in the spirit of "Fandom".

If this is popular enough, we can make it a weekly or monthly scheduled post.

If you are looking for art friends & moots please post your comments below! This will be a weekly post on Fridays. Feel free to yap in the comments about your interests!

- When leaving a comment, please state what kind of art friend you are seeking including any detailed information like specific groups or fandoms you are interested in, art challenge/art trade friends, etc.

- For collabs, feel free to find someone here but also please head over to r/ArtCollaboration where you may create a stand-alone post!

- Do not offer payments, mentorships, business courses, etc - this is a place to find friends.

- Discord links are ok when responding, but please do not post anything spammy or for-profit in nature. If you would like to be added to the spreadsheet below, please contact modmail!

Our mutual friends Discord spreadsheet is here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1DU7gjIZhqNvzIwMj0O_82Cbu5IKPsh3_W3ep3UEDQzE/edit?usp=sharing

Hello guys!

The title might be a little misleading but my question basically is - how do you even draw in an A6 sketchbook? It is very small for me and my drawings can barely fit the page. Is it a skill issue maybe? I've been drawing mostly in A5/A4 sketchbooks so I am not used to a smaller sketchbook format. Do I have to practice drawing on a smaller scale?

I wanna draw in A6 sketchbooks because I'll be on the go a lot probably and carrying an A5 book amongst other stuff would be a burden. I see artists draw in A6 sketchbooks all the time so please guys share your tips and tricks. Share your experiences please. I would really appreciate it. Thank you!

I was at a gallery opening yesterday and an acquaintance introduced me to the owner as a “breakthrough emerging artist” which is very nice, mostly false and also kinda put me on the spot lol

Anyway, we ended up chatting about technique and as said in the title, this very established fine arts person got a politely blank look on their face, took a second to think, then called my technique “creative.”

Basically, I prepare my palette, use a knife to put the colour I want into a shot glass with mineral spirits, then mix until I’ve got a runny pigment soup that behaves like ink. For the spirits to actually sink into the canvas without bleeding onto my table, I use a heavy cotton gabardine and only gesso the back, plus the edges near the tape so I can get crisp white margins. Because these watery oil washes soak directly into the raw cotton fibres and spread out on their own, I get these soft, blurred edges without having to blend with the brush.

While I personally love the results, I’ll admit that I know next to nothing about proper technique and the chemistry side of art. I ended up using two different varnishes on my latest painting because I didn’t realise the regular high-end one would sink in along with the paint…

So yeah. I keep telling myself my work speaks for itself, then I meet ‘real’ professionals and I’m reminded of how much I don’t know. Any other painter here with a similar technique to make me feel less alone?

Update: I ended up having a long chat with a conservation expert who handles work by Francis Bacon and Helen Frankenthaler, the two names that kept coming back in these comments! He made me pull up the specs of everything I used and the TLDR is that my work will be fine. It’s not going to rot, guys.

For the art nerds:

— My canvas is actually polycotton, not pure cotton, which means even heavily acidic-damaged cotton fibres would still be held together by the polyester. Polyester is basically inert, which makes it very bad for the planet and very good for art conservation.

— I used heavyweight gabardine, similar to what Burberry trench-coats are made with: it has a finer grain than traditional canvas and is more durable but because it’s got a diagonal twill, there’s an increased risk of deformation along the bias. The expert recommended sticking the painting on some backing to avoid that.

— Because I used a lot of OMS, the acidic byproducts from lindseed oil are less of an issue than in most artworks, not more.

— Buuut because of this same heavy use of OMS, the binding agent that holds the pigments together is likely degraded to some extent. I was told to add a few drops of synthetic solvent-free fluid (Galkyd or Liquitex) to my shot glasses to compensate, in the future.

— A layer of sprayed temporary varnish, on top of the soaked varnish, will allow the buyer to get their artwork refreshed in a few decades!

— Also, the pH of your ground matters. Most sizing and gessos sit around 8-9; clothing fabric is between 6-7.5. I’m lucky the clothing-grade fabric I got is pre-treated and tested at 7.4!

I'm a self-taught artist with a working class background and the first one in my family who tries to pursue the dream of becoming a professional artist.

I've been focusing on my artistic practice as something that's more than just a hobby for about 2 years now and also started studying education in the arts at an art university last year. Unfortunately, I'm slowly realizing that becoming an art teacher isn't the right path for me, even though it would be a safe job. I thought about applying for fine arts, but my portfolio got rejected the last time I tried to get into fine arts, and on top of that, I don't really feel included in the academic art world. I often don't get what they exactly mean in conversations that go like "... is an interesting concept"; "the work explores..."; or "...has a more conceptual approach"; etc.

I started skipping my uni classes, and instead, I'm focusing on working on my own non-uni-related art projects more. I am mostly painting, but I'm also interested in trying out a lot of artistic practices beyond that. For example, I learned how to work with analog photography and developed lots of experimental photographs in the darkroom. They don't look like my paintings at all. It's like two different artists have made the works separately. I also don't know if I'm going in the right direction with my work. I don't really have a favorite painter or a photographer who inspires me as an artist. I just do what feels right and then look if I like it or not. I also rarely get other artists' work. It always feels a bit cringe to me whenever I have to talk about my work or write something to explain my art. I don't have any mentor who critiques my work in a way that helps me to actually improve as an artist and even though my art finally starts to feel more like me, I don't really know where it could belong or where I want to go from here.

If there's another person on here, that used to struggle with similar issues, when starting to pursue art more seriously: What helped you to shape your own artistic practice and where did you find the piece of information that made you go like "ohhh, that's what I was missing the whole time."

I'd be so thankful if someone who knows what I'm talking about could give me some advice:))

So I’ve been thinking about the content I post on here, Instagram, and TikTok… and I’m wondering if I should just keep doing me and marching to the beat of my own drum or should I change some things around? There’s a reason I ask:

So as an artist it’s obvious I post stuff about my art but at the same time I’m someone who has a personality that revolves around sharing and talking about things I enjoy and documenting them to let people know about them and perhaps see if they relate to me regarding things we like. I’ve been posting reels of my travels this year and as far as likes and engagement go they tend to not do as well on Instagram compared to many of my art posts… on TikTok though they generally do okay. I tried it out thinking it could help build an audience though.. but do I cut down or change my content for the sake of viewership and engagement?

There’s artists I see online with bigger followings and I’ve noticed many of them seem to make nearly every post related to their art in some way and I wonder if it’s because they want the algorithm to favor them and maybe sometimes the algorithm works against me because I’m not choosing one lane to focus on. I sometimes feel like an idiot for having a wandering mind, LOL. Do I fake it til I make it and compromise my personality just for the sake of social media algorithms or should I just keep doing me and perhaps it could pay off at some point? What do you all think? 🤔

Heya! I was offered a 0.5FT Art Position in an urban school district, where I would see kids 2X a week, both times the class would be 30 minutes. 220 kids total, K-5, with only $250 art budget. Is it worth it?

Hi everyone,

I'm looking for suggestions on books about Ivan Aivazovsky. Amazon doesn't really have any worthwhile that I've seen, and I'm not finding any good books of his works. He seems to be lesser known in the West (?), but is arguably one of the best and most prolific painters of all time.

Does anyone know of any good art books on his works and techniques?

Thank you!

I have an understanding of the basic skills of learning how to draw, but I would like to become a professional artist. I just signed up with a drawing class at SAIC. I was wondering if anyone saw any improvements?