this is the sloooowest realization to really internalize but it is 10000% true!!
There are a lot of things I could say about this, but honestly the best analogy I’ve ever seen for this problem is this comic
Seriously, my own jealousy comes and goes all the time, but the two cakes comic has saved me with a smile every time
I don’t know if it’ll help knowing this: but I also lost a lot of my personal art momentum due to my last job, and I’ve been in the same boat! It takes a lot of training to get back in the swing of things, but the most important thing to remember is that art is not about inspiration, it’s about habit!
Here are some ideas to help you get kickstarted:
- Remember that small sketches are okay! Doing post-it doodles, keeping your hand active, doing rendering studies, anything, literally anything is good
- Make it a habit to draw at least ONE thing a day. Like the things I listed above, any sketch is a good sketch. The most important thing is to keep your art muscles active
- Switch between big illustrations and small sketches. Big illustrations take time, don’t rush them! But also don’t run yourself ragged on them– use small illustrations and sketches to relax from your big commitments
- Any time spent on a big illustration is good. Even if you only spend half an hour cleaning up the rendering on a fingernail or a strand of hair– those minutes pile up in the long run and are not a waste of time
- Keep a sketchbook and don’t worry about making it pretty. Literally, I have pages full of nothing but scribbles. Pointless scribbles. Again, the idea is to have something on hand that you can use to keep yourself active
- If you do end up not drawing or scribbling something for one day, it is not the end of the world. Things happen, forgive yourself, try again tomorrow
Let’s work on this together!
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This is a really great question! This is an important thing to think about, and here are some of my opinions that can hopefully get you started:
- Pull from your own experiences: When has someone you loved (hero) made a mistake that really hurt you? When has someone you disliked (villain) done something sweet to you or revealed a really good reason for acting the way they do?
- Also keep in mind the difference between what makes someone a hero or villain. Heroes and villains are both flawed, but a hero will ultimately apologize and/or improve, while a villain will eventually make excuses and continue hurting people. This step isn’t immediate, a protagonist can struggle to improve for their entire story, but ultimately what makes them someone worthy of being the main character?
- This last point is more of a personal preference, but I think the goal isn’t (and shouldn’t be) to make sympathetic villains, but realistic villains. As a writer, your job isn’t to force sympathy onto anyone. Creators actually don’t have 100% control on who audiences will like– embrace that. Your goal shouldn’t be to write a sympathetic villain, but one who makes sense and has their own sense of logic and reason.
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For beginner artists I always suggest you draw only the things you like and want to draw. And do a lot of it!
Art, regardless of medium, is about passion and having fun. The more you indulge in what you LIKE to draw, the more of it you’ll naturally do. And this is an aspect of drawing people often ignore, it’s a physical activity. There’s muscle memory involved with drawing, there’s motor function involved.
Yeah we get annoyed with non-artists saying things like “I can’t even draw a straight line!” but there is truth in that! There’s a certain amount of precision that we develop through using our hands and fingers so much. It’s why a lot of traditional art schools make the students draw circles over and over again. This skill and precision isn’t something to ignore, but it’s also something that doesn’t have to be grueling. That’s why I suggest people indulge in what they like, to physically get USED to the activity of drawing.
Beginning artists, training your hands to be more efficient, by drawing the things you like, is absolutely the most important thing.
You naturally discover specific things to work on over time– improving your style, learning how to draw trees, or animals, or clothes etc. But until you feel the urge to learn these things, just enjoy and create for the hell of it.
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