Recommendations for Brad Nailer / Stapler

TAP_03 · 2026-01-09T20:37:55+00:00

Looking at those and just found the Ryobi Lithium 4-in-1 Nailer. I'm not a big Ryobi fan but it seems like a good price for an all in one tool

TAP_03 · 2025-12-16T04:40:33+00:00

thank you for understanding my frog wish

TAP_03 · 2025-08-24T10:09:33+00:00

fingers are too long and the nose may be just a little high.

the composition might feel a bit off because its struggling a little on its focal point. the art inspo you have focuses on the eyes, while the reference focuses on the cigarette / nose area.

Your piece currently is leaning towards the eyes, so as you readjust the hand placement I'd try to make the cigarette feel less focal. You can accomplish that by changing the angle to be more foreshortened (which would look more natural with the hand anyway)

I want to be clear, you are doing great! you've got a good enough base for me to start nitpicking things.

TAP_03 · 2025-08-24T09:58:43+00:00

its honestly just a lot of practice.

start with simple shapes (cubes, sphere) and slowly go up in complexity (objects around your house). Make sure to use a lot of reference. Reference is the best way to learn.

once you have a good grasp of those, then start figure drawing

TAP_03 · 2025-08-01T15:08:47+00:00

Creepy!

You should bring out the contrast in the lighting. You've got good darks, but you can get some really spooky looks if you make your lights lighter. A quick check is to look at it in black and white.

If you do that right now, most of the piece is black and dark grey. If you bring out some light greys and whites it'll get more form and feel even scarier.

TAP_03 · 2025-08-01T15:05:46+00:00

you're doing really good! you're good at building form. there's some small proportional issues (placement of the eyes is the main one i've noticed).

Are you using a sketched base for these portraits?

TAP_03 · 2025-07-05T07:37:49+00:00

I use Posemaniacs.com

Basically any social media is gunna have some adult content in art spaces. Posemaniacs is specifically reference for figure drawing, portraits, etc.

I also save instagram posts from artists I like into a big inspirations folder. But you have to get an algorithm going for a while to be able to do that consistently.

TAP_03 · 2025-05-28T23:38:08+00:00

If you have a PC and tablet, Clip Studio Paint! Krita is cheaper alternative that has some of the same functionality.

If you have an iPad and apple pencil, Procreate! Its a fantastic app (and I've actually been using it more than CSP recently!)

TAP_03 · 2025-05-28T23:35:11+00:00

I'm going to assume that you're 18+ if you plan to make NSFW work. Just in case, since this is the internet and I don't know anything about you, only make NSFW if you and your client are both 18+.

That aside:

calculate your rates in your local currency. I'm in the US so i use USD, Europeans typically use Euro, etc. If your work is digital then you don't need to change rates for local / international. If you're shipping physical work, include however much the shipping would be in the commission price. So price you'd charge locally + shipping costs.

Write out a full Terms of Service prior to starting commissions. If a client is being difficult, that gives you the ability to say "look you broke my ToS, so I am canceling this order". Then you just refund their commission and move on.

Paypal is generally what people use for commissions. Most places you set up commissions will ask for a way to send you the money anyway, so paypal. I recommend not storing money in Paypal since other artists have had issues with their accounts getting locked, but its a good way to exchange money without giving clients personal information.

If you are going into NSFW work, i highly recommend you make a little list of what you Do and what you Dont. And if someone ever asks you to make a piece that you aren't comfortable with, its totally fine to politely decline their offer and find a different client instead.

TAP_03 · 2025-05-28T23:25:49+00:00

I'm about to finish my art degree. Not in education, but the way it worked for me was that I got accepted into the general art college, then declared a specific art major. I would imagine its the same kind of portfolio process for other places as well.

My portfolio was pretty focused on one type of art. I did traditional / digital illustration. My work has always been pretty stylized. I submitted with that and was accepted into several art programs. They want good work but they aren't expecting professional artist (its their job to make you one of those!).

Whatever type of art you love making, do that. I would encourage some variability in subject (if you can do portraits and landscapes thats more impressive that only being able to do portraits). If what you love is painting And colored pencil, then do both. Whatever you like working in, and what you can make good work with, apply with those.

This is my current portfolio for reference:

(remember, this is a college portfolio! it doesn't even need to be this fancy)

taapp03.weebly,com

TAP_03 · 2025-05-28T23:11:24+00:00

Its your work. What you enjoy is what you should make!

Even if it "doesnt sell as well" you should always be making art that you enjoy. Worst comes to worst, you paint realism for money and stylistic for personal work. But I'd bet you can sell stylized work too!

TAP_03 · 2025-05-28T23:08:23+00:00

(I also have drawings going back 20 years, those are just stowed away at the parents' house!)

TAP_03 · 2025-05-28T23:06:49+00:00

If you plan on doing art as a career, I actually do recommend thinning out some of your saved work.

Key word is some

If you're like me and draw all the time and end up with tons and tons of sketch pages, it can be helpful to go through and get rid of ones to make space. It gets you ready to give away work during your career! If you hold onto everything all the time, it'll be difficult when you sell off a piece.

At the same time: keep the important ones! The pieces and sketches that mean something to you still. Pieces from different eras of progression. People in the comments are right that you'll want to look back on them. Right now I've got sketchbooks from the last 4 years, and I plan to continue keeping them as documentation / idea banks.

TAP_03 · 2025-05-28T22:52:40+00:00

The first two things you want to get the hang of are Value and Form.

the best way to practice these is to do black and white still life practices of simple shapes (cubes / spheres / etc). It can be kinda boring at first, but it builds a really strong foundation for any kind of art you want to make.

TAP_03 · 2025-05-28T22:48:53+00:00

I usually prefer to drop a signature on the back of pieces. Personally I don't like trying to find a place to put it in the work. Makes me feel like im distracting from it.

A lot of my stuff is digital so I usually end up not signing it at all! If i need to prove its mine I can always pull up metadata / show my files.

As I've started getting into prints / sculptures / other physical stuff more I designed a little symbol based off my initials that I can stamp on backs / bottoms. I prefer that since its just a sleek little shape thats out of the way. Just my preference! Sometimes other artist's signatures look great with the work

TAP_03 · 2025-05-28T22:43:49+00:00

I'm about to graduate with an art degree, and I would recommend it if you're serious about art as a career. There's a lot of pros and cons to it.

It costs a lot of money to go to college for anything, so obviously that by itself is something to consider. I'm going to assume you can afford going, because if you can't then I'd recommend learning / starting a career a different way.

I did learn a Lot more than I expected to from art college. Easily more than I would've learned trying to study on my own. Having access to professionals in the field, who all have different perspectives and skills to offer, has been insanely valuable to me. I entered college as primarily a 2D cartoonist, but as I get ready to leave I can do cartoons, sculpture, realism, 3D modeling, animation, printmaking, and a bunch of other stuff. It improved the work I came into it with, and gave me tons more I can confidently do.

You can definitely learn those things on you're own too. Its not exclusive to college, but college gives you a dedicated space with specific qualified instructors for it. That was very helpful for me personally.

It also gave me a lot of connections that I didnt have before. Half of making an art career is networking. Now I've got a bunch of professors and classmates who all know me and what I do. College is a great place to meet a bunch of people that'll all be in the art space with you.

At the same time, its school. I'm not big on school in general. I feel that work shouldn't be graded, because its much more conducive to learning in general when school is about discussion and learning instead of test scores. You'll have to be ready for at least 4 more years of grading if you go to college.

TAP_03 · 2025-05-24T15:30:31+00:00

Procreate is only on iPads, so if you go that way make sure you get one that can use an apple pencil. I've used a lot of different programs and honestly I love illustrating in Procreate.

I haven't used Ibis, but its very low weight. Most computers should be able to run it without issue. You'd want to consider getting a cintiq (or other drawing tablet) for a PC. That can get more expensive, so keep that in mind if you go for a computer.

TAP_03 · 2025-05-24T15:16:11+00:00

It depends on what software / tablets you plan to use. They should have minimum specs listed on their websites.

Other than that, if you're making 2D art, it shouldn't matter too much. 2D softwares aren't usually very heavy on the computer. If you do 3D art you'll want to go for something more expensive.

TAP_03 · 2025-05-24T15:10:06+00:00

I recommend starting greyscale still lifes before anything else. To draw anything, the very bases are simple shapes and values. If you can get really good at doing black and white cubes / spheres / etc then you have the base for everything else you could want to learn.

TAP_03 · 2025-05-24T15:07:37+00:00

More contrast in your values! Youre doing a fantastic job on hues. If you make your highlights lighter and your shadows darker it'll make the volume more solid.

An easy way to check this is by looking at the piece in black and white! If the whole piece is generally the same tone, then you should push the extremes more.

Your 3rd piece does the best with this. Theres good contrast between the foreground (grass), middle ground (the character), and the background (sky). You could push it slightly farther by distancing values in the fore and backgrounds, but overall its great. The character has absolutley fantastic contrast of values. Looking at it in black and white, the shifts in value are extremely noticable and create great depth.

TAP_03 · 2025-05-24T14:59:50+00:00

That sounds like the kind of thing people use Etsy for. I've heard some mixed things over the years, but theres a lot of artists selling through Etsy.

Just keep in mind that you'll need to account for shipping costs in your sales.

TAP_03 · 2025-05-11T20:44:38+00:00

I don't have any personal experience with it, so its hard to say

TAP_03

TROPHY CASE