this post was submitted on 10 Feb 2025

104 points (98.1% liked)

Art Share🎨

4977 readers

420 users here now

This is a friendly community for everyone who wants to share their art with the world! Everyone is welcomed 🎨

Rules

AI Art: While we appreciate AI generated art, there are more appropriate communities to post that type of art to. Please keep posts to non-AI generated art only. This rule includes AI art that was then manually manipulated (e.g. drawing on top of something generated by AI).

Nudity: Nudity is and has always been a part of art, but it may be something that some users don't wish to see or cannot view in certain circumstances (e.g. at work). If your work contains nudity, please mark it as NSFW. Work that contains nudity that is not marked as NSFW will be taken down. As long as the NSFW tag is used, we welcome nude subject matter.

Spam: Please do not spam this community. Self promotion is fine if you just want people to be aware of your work, but blatant attempts at spam will result in the past being removed and possibly a ban. If you aren't sure if what you are posting is spam, please contact the moderator first.

Conduct: Be nice, and don't be a jerk. Constructive criticism is OK, but don't be mean. Encouragement is always welcomed.

founded 2 years ago

MODERATORS

TheGiantKorean

Zombiepirate

104

One year ago! (lemmy.world)

submitted 1 week ago by BallShapedMan to c/artshare

27 comments fedilink hide all child comments

It's been a year since I decided to invest in myself in art. Started with buying a PC connected tablet (pictured) and within a month or so getting a phone that comes with a pen. The phone has made a world of difference as it eliminated the barriers between my busy life and art. Join a conference call early, draw. Waiting at the doctor's office, draw. Watching something with my wife that she enjoys but I'm not excited about, draw.

Totally worth it and the art I've made on this little phone sometimes gets close to artists I admire and have wish I could be like.

If you're thinking you want to get better at art maybe eliminate barriers and do your art daily.

If you're a reader, the book Atomic Habits has a ton of great ideas. It's what inspired me to get the tablet and then the phone.

top 27 comments

sorted by: hot top controversial new old

[–] iarigby 2 points 6 days ago (2 children)

your posts are very motivating. Do you have specific resources you can share for someone who doesn’t know where to start?

[–] BallShapedMan 2 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Oh one more thing, start with photos with pronounced highlights and shadows. They're easier to paint and block out the mid tones first, then shadows and it highlights.

[–] iarigby 2 points 6 days ago

thanks a lot 🧑‍🎨

[–] BallShapedMan 2 points 6 days ago

I'm still pretty new at this myself. Lots of good advice has been given to me here asking with YouTube.

The biggest pieces of advice were paint all on one layer. Simplify the image and paint more and more detail in different phases. Should look like a blocky cartoon and slowly become this. And mostly lots and lots of practice and searching for other ways people do it.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Congratulations, Ballshapedman! That takes dedication. It's been fun watching your progress.

[–] BallShapedMan 5 points 1 week ago

Thank you! I can't wait to see what I can do in another year!

[–] BallShapedMan 7 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Side note, I just noticed the Yuzu logo is visible. I own a switch and buy all my games. They just run like crap on the switch and the hardware is pretty mid overall. I mostly play switch games on my Steam Deck, but the laptop (connected to the PC tablet) and desktop also have Yuzu on it as well.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Psh. I doubt anyone here would have blamed you for playing on emulators regardless.

[–] BallShapedMan 4 points 1 week ago

That's a good point. I'm used to old people, probably not many of us here.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Awesome, great job! I've also been thinking about picking up drawing but I have so much else going on so I haven't really had time to prioritize it.

[–] BallShapedMan 6 points 1 week ago

Totally understand that. That was my life from high school through last year. All my kids being adults helped give me just enough time I thought I'd go for it.

Though I haven't really picked up a guitar since which I miss sometimes. But I enjoy art more.

[–] MINDistortionTV 4 points 1 week ago (1 children)

It's been awesome watching your art journey so far, looking forward to see your next pieces! Also eliminating barriers and just doing art on a regular basis can't be stressed enough, it's what got me back into drawing as well. Habits work wonders!

[–] BallShapedMan 2 points 1 week ago

🔥🔥🔥

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I do love your art and your dedication! Atomic Habits is on my reading list. Maybe I'll bump it up.

And you're using GIMP, too. I love seeing people use libre software for their everyday. It gives me hope that we can, one day, escape the clutches of corpo software.

[–] BallShapedMan 3 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

I don't use gimp much these days. Moved to Sketchbook by Autodesk so I could have the same software on my phone and PC. Phys gimp is way over my head.

And thank you!

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I don't blame you. Sketchbook is pretty amazing haha

[–] BallShapedMan 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

For what I do it's great. But I think I'm already pushing the software to its limits.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Makes you feel good to be able to say that, doesn't it? Lol I know it would make me feel good

[–] BallShapedMan 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Yes and no. Drives me nuts when it crashes or doesn't save the last 5+ minutes of work or refuses to save anything until I kill and restart it.

But it's cool that my art is complex enough to make this software cry!

I have considered I need to use my desktop PC instead of my laptop or my phone. But then I'll never do my art. But if I did a commission (if that ever happens) and needed it to be high resolution then I'd probably figure it out.

A Samsung phone vs a laptop with an RTX3050 (mobile) vs a desktop with an RTX4090 are all very different grades of performance.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

The not saving / crashing thing would make me drop that faster than than anything. I'll accept lags and such, but to crash or not save, that's too much. If the program can't properly save or be stable, I would lose all trust in it, and will never use it again. That said, it's very hard to find the same software that works on mobile and desktop, so, maybe I'd stick it out...

I hope commission work starts soon. Just don't let it destroy your love for the art or the process itself. My friend gave up on her long love of photography, because of commission work. She said that it lost that "spark" and she started hating it. Just don't let that happen to you. I absolutely love your style, and would love to see it get big.

[–] BallShapedMan 2 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Fantastic advice and I'll keep that in mind. I'm sure at first I would be so excited that someone asked that I'd say yes no matter what but that's probably a mistake.

Thank you for that! I don't want to hate this.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Looks good! Hope you keep going. Wish I could get myself to make something again :D

[–] BallShapedMan 1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Maybe try the 5 minute challenge? Do something creative for just 5 minutes. I use it for chores I don't want to do and before you know it the dishes are done.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I barely make it out of bed^^

But I put it on the pile of things to try to get out of the funk.

[–] BallShapedMan 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Seriously, I wish you all the best getting through the funk. It's not fun being there. Hopefully you find your way out and get a lot of delightful days!

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Thanks for the kind words.

[–] BallShapedMan 2 points 1 week ago

🫂