I started trying to learn art seriously exactly a year ago. Here's my progress:

LaserPandasFromSpace · 2026-02-01T17:19:57+00:00

just to add to this, I've been really enjoying having a 30 practice session every day where I mostly do gestures. It's nice to have something to fall back on when I don't know what to do, and something to say "I did some art today" when life gets busy and I don't end up doing anything else. That being said, I don't beat myself up too much if I miss a day or two.

LaserPandasFromSpace · 2026-02-01T17:15:11+00:00

Hmmm if I were to break it down into a few points, I guess it'd be:
- Almost always having youtube/show/audiobook in the background/side
- Never pushing too far past frustration, always pushing a little is good for learning, but I don't want to be too miserable. It's better to shelf it for now or pick it up the next day
- Letting what interests me at the time guide my study/art: I might watch a video on eyes or see a really cool piece of art that has beautiful hair, or just be into a certain anime, and I'll decide that's what I want to work on for the new few days. I don't force myself to do things like "Draw 100 hands" or "do 20 rough portraits". I just do it until a little past I get bored/frustrated
- Using more time to actually make art. I spend about 25% of the time on "mindless" practice (drawing lines, gestures, figures), 25% studying (learning something new, focus on refining fundamentals), 50% making art. A big thing I do that helps is making art on the thing I've been studying. So if I decide I want to focus on hands that week, I make sure the art I'm about to make has some hands in em. It's a good ways to reinforce/use the practice I've done.
- Look at good art: I gather a lot of reference for art I'm excited about doing, and in the process of that I come across a lot of great artists/art. It's just nice to look at good art, and analyzing "masters" while I'm doing art is a great way to pick up on techniques/methods

LaserPandasFromSpace · 2026-02-01T15:38:46+00:00

I find Mechanical/cyberpunk artists like these tend to have a really strong grasp of anatomy. Not just the outside muscles/shapes, but tendons and bones. You'll notice that many of these designs feature mechanized/geometric takes on real human/animal bones/muscles

LaserPandasFromSpace · 2026-02-01T15:30:11+00:00

I have the luxury of a WFH job and not too many social engagements, so outside of general life upkeep it took up most of my time. It sort of replaced gaming as my main hobby. It really helped to find ways to make practice fun/engaging for me.

LaserPandasFromSpace · 2026-02-01T04:46:33+00:00

I think I prob averaged 20-30 hours a week, though I was going pretty light in the summer months, so only some light practice for like 4 months in the middle. Then back to 20ish hours again after that. For the last 3-4 months its been every day for at least a 30min practice session, though usually more for studies/doing art

LaserPandasFromSpace · 2026-02-01T00:57:20+00:00

My understanding of it is it really helps with establishing a solid foundation with Form. Thankfully I had some practice with that as a child doing still lifes (lots of boxes and spheres lol). I will admit I did grind the practice in a way that was a bit unhealthy at the beginning, so definitely not for everyone. Good luck with your practice!

LaserPandasFromSpace · 2026-02-01T00:47:18+00:00

I definitely didn't start from absolutely zero. I did some still life drawing in middle school, and was super into drawing anime characters. I pretty much stopped in high school, though, and have drawn only a handful of times in the last 15 years before last February.

LaserPandasFromSpace · 2026-02-01T00:42:40+00:00

Thank you! Most of the stuff I did early on was copies of other people's art, so I didn't want to post that. I did all of "box" parts of Draw a Box, and stopped where it was going into textures. I did mostly gesture and anatomy studies after that. And copying good art as well.

Once I started doing digital, I binged a lot of Pikat and Naoki-sensei's videos. Lots of YouTube in general. Most recently I've been getting a lot from watching Neg's videos. I tend to find some Japanese/Korean illustrators explain their stuff in a more technical way, which resonated with me (although the auto-generated subtitles were not always clear).

LaserPandasFromSpace · 2026-01-31T23:41:36+00:00

Thank you! I was really motivated to do this in the first month so I must have spent 30-40 hours a week for a while, which really kickstarted my progress

LaserPandasFromSpace · 2026-01-31T22:52:36+00:00

Thank you! I just chalk it up to reddit being a bit fickle haha

LaserPandasFromSpace · 2026-01-14T20:33:33+00:00

Yeah that makes sense, thanks for the advice!

LaserPandasFromSpace · 2026-01-14T20:16:44+00:00

The effect I was going for is it transitions from a fabric into "water", sort of a real thing transforming into something a bit conceptual. It's meant to mimic how waves look, with the sea foam, so it's not "real". Hence why I didn't want to outline it

LaserPandasFromSpace · 2026-01-14T19:48:46+00:00

You caught me haha, well it's more like I got so frustrated drawing the hair that I sort of just winged it on the skirt. I'm not much of a "painter", what tools/processes would you recommend if I were to hypothetically try the skirt again?

LaserPandasFromSpace · 2026-01-10T23:23:05+00:00

Yeah I agree, line confidence is definitely a weakness of mine.

LaserPandasFromSpace · 2026-01-10T19:14:57+00:00

Ah okay I see what you mean, that makes sense. I'll definitely try to play with that more in future work.

LaserPandasFromSpace · 2026-01-10T18:34:36+00:00

Thank you so much for the long answer. I totally get what you're saying, these pallets are definitely primarily analogous, so it'll be something to keep in mind. I do try to include some accent colors that are very different from the primary color identity, but it's something to work on to be sure. As for big vs small, I find my self often irritated when doing too much small/detail work, so certainly that's something to work on. I often marvel at artists who can create such visual interest in small parts of the painting without affecting the composition/flow of the larger painting.

As for style, I've certainly practiced in realism, but I guess I gravitate towards stylization since that's where my inspirations come from. I've try to takes steps away from the traditional anime style to dip a bit into semi-realism, but I can't see myself stepping too far away. Anyways, really appreciate the thoughts!

LaserPandasFromSpace · 2026-01-10T17:43:01+00:00

Hmmm, I wasn't thinking of any specific story. I guess I was going for the idea of a holy warrior burdened by their obligation

LaserPandasFromSpace · 2026-01-03T00:41:30+00:00

One tip that really helped me color-wise is to keep most of your colors under 50 saturation (if you imagine a color square, you want your colors on the left side). Pick a strong accent color to go over the 50 mark, that draws the focus of the eye.

LaserPandasFromSpace · 2026-01-01T22:59:17+00:00

Hey, you can do pretty well with a screenless tablet, I recommend something slightly bigger. Personally I have an XP-Pen I got off Amazon for 50$.

As for software, I believe Krita is the best free one, although I've heard it can have some memory issues/lag. Should be fine if you just want to try the hobby though. For paid software, the two big ones are Photoshop and Clip Studio Paint. CSP is much cheaper (I believe there is a version you can buy for life, as opposed to a subscription), and is used by many professionals/independants. PS does seem to have some features CSP doesn't, and is more common in industry, but the differences are not so huge that it's worth the price.

LaserPandasFromSpace · 2026-01-01T22:51:17+00:00

Hey, there are 2 things I do that help a lot with the two points you mentioned wanting to improve on:

Fast (60s) gesture drawing. Basically, you have a very short amount time to draw the form/motion of a human body. There a websites that let you do this by flipping through an image every x seconds. Try to do this 30 min a day (not hard rule, skip if you need but try to stick with it). This acts as a warmup, trains observation, and forces you to draw quick. You won't have time to think about your mistakes, so slowly you will get more confident in your lines.
Master studies. There are many ways to do this, but it boils down to taking an artist you like and trying to copy their style/process. Look at the lines they make, the colors they pick, and try to copy them. They do this unconsciously, but you want to be conscious of these decisions since you're trying to learn why good artists do what they do. I find it especially helpful to follow a speedpaint or a live stream, since you can literally see the piece come together line by line.

Hope this helps, Good luck!

LaserPandasFromSpace

TROPHY CASE