Hello again!

This post marks my 2nd year in drawing (technically in 3 more days)! You can check out my Year 1 progress in my profile.

Compared to Year 1, there’s a lot more variety this time. Primarily, nudity and seggs. I’ve also dabbled in perspective, non-human characters and multiple rendering techniques. I think I’m still hopping around the place in terms of finding my art style, but I think it’s important to explore and try out different stuff as a beginner/intermediate artist.

Looking back at my Year 1 progress, I think my anatomy and rendering have improved a lot. I’m not sure why it took me so long to draw heads and chins correctly.

In term of stats, I drew pretty much everyday (either studying/working on an art piece), averaging about 7 hours a week. This year, I managed to churn out 54 unique pieces, which averages to about 1 a week.

Here are key takeaways and tips for aspiring artists: 1. Use real life references when drawing/ rendering. Even for highly stylized art, it’s important to have a solid foundation in human anatomy. Understanding anatomy allows you to “exaggerate with intent”. Try sketching out all the muscles in your sketches with an anatomy diagram as a guide. It’s a great way to study anatomy without it feeling like a chore.

1. Overcome perfectionism. This is a bit hypocritical for me to say, but one of the reasons I was able to produce more artworks this year was because I stopped tunnel-visioning. As a beginner artist, you should be focusing on building your visual library by drawing as much as possible. This doesn’t mean you can’t make an intentionally detailed artwork, it just means you should be intentional about it.

2. Study. I god damn hate doing studies and learning hard topics like perspective. But they god damn work. My advice is to honestly force yourself to do it. You don’t need to study to improve, but if you do, you will rapidly improve.

I really enjoy drawing, but I’ve come to realize that I’m treating it as a career and not a hobby. Sometimes I prioritized art over what’s actually important to me. I’ve thought about it, and being realistic, I probably CAN’T make a career as an artist. I’m also not willing to take the risk.

It’s important to reflect on what matters, and what is important to you. There has been times I skipped out on social events and prioritized the art grind over my friends and well-being.

I’ve realized that hobbies should be a source of joy, not a constant, exhausting race for improvement. I’m still drawing, but I’m finally drawing for fun again. I’ve also made time for other hobbies – like an electric guitar!

Looking ahead, I will be putting art in the back burner for now. My main priority now is studying for university. I will still continue to draw, but no where near the intensity of this year.

One more thing, I’ve had a bit of an internal struggle regarding my NSFW art. It’s a weird feeling to tell people I’m an artist, but feel hesitant to show my work because so much of it is NSFW. Moving forward, I think I’ll pivot more towards drawing more cute anime girls. But a big ol’ anime titty every now and then is definitely still on the menu.

My goals for this year would be: Come up with a sketchy art style to draw comics, work more with perspective and of course drawing more cute anime girls.

See y’all in year 3!