Confessions Of A Teenage Artist

You have had your doubts, and suspected it but here's the facts. I usually stay up until 6am every morning, during that time I am drawing.

I go to sleep until about 12pm in the afternoon and back up and into the day! I spend so much time drawing people tell me I have no life.

Personally I don't think 8 hours drawing a day is bad, to be honest I cut my drawing time in half of what it used to be.

Yes, I use Sharpies for my inking when I draw. A black permanent pen (or maker for larger spaces) works well for my inking when I want to keep the lines from smudging, it also gives my art a more clean look. As any pen will do over the use of a pencil.

I have a little more experience now and actually prefer to you a Micron pen, but my budget doesn't allow for that, so Sharpies are still my inking pens.

But the drawing you see here is something I did with my sharpies.. and I think it turned out pretty well. One disadvantage to Sharpies is not only does the black color fade over time but it is also purple if you get it in the wrong lighting... any lighting.

But the best thing I can say is to always start where you are, don't rush into pricey tools if you are not sure where you stand with your drawing and if you cannot afford it. Remember that though a lot of us would like to blame our skill level on our tools, you can't, a good artist can make a good drawing no matter his or her tools.

I spend a lot of my time on a social website for artists, called Deviant Art.
The people there call it dA for short!

It's a website where you upload your art to your gallery space, you write a short description on it. After your art is uploaded then people can search for art using key words, if your art comes up the person can look at it and even leave a comments and add it to their favorites.

Here's the Website! deviantart.com
Here's my page! kitty-girl456.deviantart.com

I learn better from youtube videos then books in a lot of cases

I like to be able to watch someone draw as it gives me personally a better idea of what I am doing. However no matter how many hours of video you watch of someone drawing or how many hundreds of books you read there is no substitute for hours and hours on end of sitting down and practicing.

My favorite youtubes are by Mark Crilley when I'm doing manga, but I don't watch them as much anymore. Like I said practice is the best way for you to learn, but keep in mind that if you don't know or understand how to draw something you should still go and study it or no matter how much you practice chances are you will not improve.

I am often asked how I could possibly stay awake for 24+ hours at a time, well, I can't give you an answer to that entirely, it's just the way I am. But I do drink coffee, lot of it.

However, even when I'm not drinking it, I still can be up for those long periods of times.

So it may not be the healthiest thing to do according to some people but my days consist of several cups of coffee or more. I'm a totally coffee addict. I love it.

So The fact is I have very little patience. And when you want to draw, that is something you just had to buckle down and learn.

So sometimes when I'm drawing I will start to speed up while drawing and when you do this 9 times out of 10 you'll end up making a mistake. And most times it's a mistake I cannot fix. We don't want that. Why work really hard for the first hour and then the second hour rush through the rest of the drawing and ruin it?

You have to watch what you are doing and if you find yourself speeding up, stand up stretch your legs, walk around and come back in ten or twenty minutes and start again. That's what I do.

So I admit, When I get frequent with my blog posting, usually predictable you know I'm not posting!!

No, I love to upload all my art at once, and set up several blog posts and "prepost" them, cool feature blogger has.

I just tell them what date to post it on and it does it for me, there or not... so if I ever get frequent or predictable, EX. "posting at 8:00am everyday" you know I'm using the "prepost" feature... not to worry I'll come back!

I think it is simply amazing what people can do with their computer, and respect that, and I say if you like it, keep it up. Personally I think it's much harder to be a traditional artist.

You only get one shot, there is no "undo" or "redo" in traditional, it's one chance... that makes it much more difficult among other reasons.

That is exactly what I thought a coupe years ago, while I do still think it can be harder to be a traditional artist, there are no special effects or undo buttons, I have also learned a respect for digital art as I have gotten my feet wet in it.

I never thought paper was actually important and people who bought fancy paper that was so expensive I thought were quite silly, but as I have drawn more and more I have gained a respect for the different types of paper, and learn that there really are differences.

Although, with my budget I still work on regular paper, again the tools do not make the artist. But if you feel you are to a point you want to start looking at more professional tools, I can tell you paper really does make a difference.

When I am working on a particularly difficult drawing or pose then I often take several hours if not days to get it right, some times I can't get a certain part of the pose to look right, the proportions are of or the anatomy of that is a little awkward looking.

My tip here is to always leave a drawing in the pencil stage for a few hours if not a day before inking, this way you can look at it again with fresh eyes, loose hands and it might just CLICK, and you see why that looks odd, you realize that person has two left hands!! - Of course I cannot honestly say I am much of one to talk, I often like to finish the whole project ( including inking and coloring) within a hour or so... not leaving much time to use those fresh eyes and loose hands huh?

I thought that I needed to have fancy pencil to make my drawing look good, though I said they made me nervous and i didn't want to use the fancy pencils because of it. You know what this did? This allowed me for years to convince myself that the way i drew was my pencil's fault not mine. How silly is that?

One thing that you really have to drill in your head is that it's not the tools it's you. And if you are hearing this at first blush it may make you mad. It made me mad a few years back. But it really is true. I regular pencil will allow you to draw something fantastic just as easily and as fancy one. Although there are advantages to the fancy ones don't get me wrong

I did this regular pencil. As I do with all of my drawig at this point.

Ok, so I'm guilty, a while ago now I did believe that an artist's talent lies in their supplies, but it really doesn't.

I suppose for a long time I spent more of my time complaining and moping that I didn't have the "artist supplies" I wanted, yes my eraser was (and still is) pink, and my paper was cheap and my pencils were not right. After believing that this was my problem, (I convinced myself that was my problem... that's why I couldn't draw).

Soon after I did some research and I found an artist who had similar supplies as me, Crayola colored pencils, regular pencils, pink erasers and cheap paper. I looked at their art and was astonished. They where so much better then me, they really knew how to draw.

After accepting that it really was I lacked experience and practice not supplies, things became much easier. I found out that I needed to work hard and become involved in my drawing, get obsessed with getting better not just mess around.

I support Artists before Supplies! ^^

Does my mood affect the quality of my art?

FACT.
My mood definitely affects the quality of my art, when I'm upset or sad my art always has a "cheap" looks to it, even when trying my hardest.... I have plenty of proof on my blog of this.

I always listen to my mp3 player when drawing if my mood is anything less then fantastic, my music always raises my mood, preventing any less then quality art.

I am never without my art supplies!

FICTION.
I sometimes bring my folder with me, which contains a pencil, eraser, pencil sharpener, inking pen, and paper.

Normally I do not, as much as I love to draw, my life does include other things.

I Draw Because I Have Nothing Better To Do, AKA I'm Bored.

FICTION.
I draw because I love it, it feels natural to me and I enjoy it more then you can possible know... I enjoy it more then Walmart enjoys picking pennies out of your pocket... that might compare.

I have plenty of things to do, I am not limited in my options just because I'm home schooled, if anything it makes me have MORE options.

I sometimes get bored, but I usually go play a computer game or write a lens at that point.