i get you!! it’s definitely a different feel than when you draw traditionally. i will say i have mostly gotten used to it now, just like i’ve gotten used to other art media in the past, but the control i have over my lines when i use pencil on paper remains unparalleled… there are some ways to make it feel a bit more like traditional media though!!

first, you can invest in a special screen cover that gives tablets a paper-like feel. it gives you more grip and control on your lines! however, it also wears down your pen nib quicker, and i’m not fond of the feeling against my fingers, so i don’t personally use it. but i have art friends that do :)

another trick is to adjust your digital brushes until they have more traditional properties. simply turning up the pen pressure sensitivity-related opacity range will make a big difference already, but there’s a little more to it. for this i’m straight up going to link you to a reddit comment because it is 7:30am where i am and i havent slept yet and i wouldnt be able to explain it as well as this person anyway: https://www.reddit.com/r/ProCreate/comments/16z4pdr/comment/k3cq0r9/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=mweb3x&utm_name=mweb3xcss&utm_term=1

(this comment is for procreate specifically but a lot of the terms they use to describe brush properties are fairly universal in the digital art world i believe!)

wahhh thank you for sharing, it’s interesting to hear other perspectives and experiences!! 💕

i am sure there are indeed cases where people have a natural affinity for something more than others yes! i do still think a big part of that could be training, even if there is not a lot of active drawing involved. it just might look a bit different for each person. for example, i have had multiple long breaks from drawing in my life, but i found myself being a lot better at drawing when i returned to it nonetheless. i think it’s because even when i don’t draw for a while, i still really enjoy looking at and thinking about art. i care for it! i can’t turn that part of myself off. in my spare time, i study other people’s works (and not always with the purpose of learning! often simply for fun, too!), i value pretty visuals so i spend time on decorating my room, i like watching movies and discussing cinematography and visual media in general… i engage with a lot of things that indirectly make me develop my personal taste, my art skills and my general art knowledge! it’s just that a lot of it is Fun to me because these are the things i personally value in my life, which makes it seem so much more natural and less like work.

still, i do get what you’re saying, and once again i agree; some people might just be naturally better at things than others :) but to become a true master (which i do not consider myself yet btw 🥲), there is definitely some work involved! most importantly though, i think that the fact that some people are naturally good at picking up a skill does not negate the fact that each skill can be learned!! i can imagine it might be a lil demotivating when one is close to someone who can pick it up faster though 🥲

which is why (lil extra tangent here, not necessarily relevant to your message anymore, sorry) i would also like to greatly encourage people (especially beginners in art) to not only look at really good artists online, but also look for less popular ones, and join art classes or clubs or forums that are more accessible and involve people with a lot of different skill levels! it’s important to not always see the perfect popular artworks that everyone retweets on your timeline bc it gives you an unrealistic (and less varied) sample group. most people in the world are not that good!!! we are not meant to constantly see people that are so much better at everything but that is kind of what the online world has caused to happen. i think i’m pretty good at art but even i get nervous looking at my timeline sometimes!! so i can imagine it’s even more intimidating when you’re just starting out and you’re already comparing yourself to all these people that are much further ahead 😵‍💫

so go look at mediocre/bad art more!!!! not to pat yourself on the back and feel better than other people, but to feel better about the concept of making something imperfect and still finding things to love. (this part was not an order for you specifically btw dear anon… just for whoever reads this and needs to hear it i guess) ❤️

while i don't subscribe to the idea of being born with talent, i feel like... perhaps some people do have a slightly bigger interest in certain things, or a small natural advantage in being able to pick up on them? some people seem to get the hang of language systems faster than others, some people understand the logic behind certain mathematical equations easily (i am not one of those people), some people have a great eye for detail, etc. HOWEVER! this does not, in my opinion, automatically make people talented. talent is never something that just gets handed to you as you exit the womb!! even if you have a slight advantage that is useful when learning art (steady hands, eye for composition, etc), it is still something you will have to practice to get better! and if you DON'T have an advantage, i don't think it's automatically impossible to get good.

i feel like in my earliest drawings you can see that i definitely had an eye for detail from a young age; i would often include tiny things that were important to me. for example, when i would draw myself, i always included the lil mole in the middle of my neck, even when i barely knew how to hold a marker. so apparently i liked paying attention to detail, and was able to copy things from real life easier bc of that. that was a slight advantage, perhaps! however. the drawings themselves still looked like those of a 3 year old. bc i was 3 years old!!! i only got better at drawing because i kept doing it! i loved doing it! i had a lot of interest in art and looking at art and studying art and developing my art. i have drawn SO many ugly anime girls with fox tails and their hands hidden behind their backs to get where i am now.

btw i don't think art is something you need to learn when you are young in order to get good at it. SO many people don't start developing a creative hobby until they're much, much older, because they suddenly have more time for it, or look for a change in their daily routine. and those people still get really good, sometimes! and sometimes they don't! and that's okay too! as long as they're enjoying it.

now, what you're saying to me sounds slightly conflicting. you say you want to start drawing, but you also say you don't want to waste your time. but if you like drawing, how could it ever be a waste of time? do you want to start drawing because it seems like something you'd have fun with, something you're interested in? or do you want to start drawing just because you want to be good at it? both are totally okay answers btw!! but for the second option i think you're gonna have to accept that it will genuinely take some work.

it took me 29 years to get where i am now. but i am certain people can do what i did in way less time than that if they're dedicated and have the means and energy! you don't need decades to become really good at art. but you do definitely need a few years, i think. however, in order to simply get better than you are now, you don't need long at all! bc every drawing you make contributes to you learning your craft, especially if you try to draw very consciously, or follow tutorials and guides from other artists. see it like a muscle you train at the gym. it's not gonna get bigger all on it's own! sure, normal daily use might keep it active at least, but in order to get the best results and the biggest gains, it takes focus and dedicated practice.

luckily, there are SO many useful guides and roadmaps out there for people that want to get started with art! please make use of them! figure out what you are most interested in getting better at, and focus on that. accept that you can't learn everything at once. accept that your art might not look exactly the way you want it to for a while. that is okay! you are learning. with time, you will be able to find beautiful things in your own work, not only because you simply get better at it, but also because you will feel more aware of the effort you are putting in. that is, if you're interested :) if you don't think this is for you after all, that is totally fair too!

finally i want you to know that handwriting has NOTHING to do with art, my handwriting is absolutely horrible when i'm taking notes or writing casually :'))) also i really appreciate you reaching out! i hope i was able to be of some help in some way.

don't be sorry, i love chatting with people about stuff like this!! the blend tool can be super nifty for certain things and i'm sure some people use it a lot more for their specific art styles- i just prefer more control with mine. with a smudge tool you're more likely to lose edges and textures that make the face feel more 3D/tangible, i think. besides, perfect gradients can look very "digital" bc they don't usually exist that perfectly irl, and recently i've been more into digital art that still has traditional art vibes!

additionally, the smudge/blend tool is not always great for your colors. when you mix red paint and yellow paint irl, you will get a very vibrant orange color. however, when you smudge between red and yellow on a digital canvas, it will not turn orange, but create a bit of a muddy halftone to bridge the colors together (unless you are using specific drawing programs that have this functionality). this isn't always bad of course, but i am very particular about my colors, so i prefer blending manually and being able to add all the vibrancy and color variety that i want :) and it also challenges me to think more actively about how i want things to look, making me learn more!

the way i blend is simply by picking transitional colors manually. i will first roughly put colors on the canvas to resemble the general shapes and shadows, and i will keep zooming in and putting more colors and strokes on smaller areas to add more definition. then when i need to blend two parts together a bit more, i pick a nice color that lies between the two areas i need to blend together, and gently go over the transition with my brush. i always make sure to have a brush with opacity on pen pressure sensitivity for this! that way, i can press harder on areas where i want the colors to be strong, and then go very lightly over the surrounding areas to gently melt them together. i hope that makes sense! it's really all just about working from big to small first, and then deciding which areas need blending at all.

this is only how i blend for the style i've been using most; in other drawings i will depend more on crosshatching to "blend" areas together bc i use brushes with less opacity sensitivity, for a more traditional, rougher look :) but whatever technique i use, i always manually make transitional colors between areas if they're too harsh next to each other, rather than using the blend tool! i'm not saying that's how you should do it too, but it's simply what i prefer hehe

i use references a lot yes! i find drawing easiest when i already have some sort of visual in front of me, even if i end up changing a lot. i also love to combine multiple references to make something feel new!! i have some photo editing skills so i sometimes like to frankenstein a few pictures together to make my own unique reference :) ideally id love to be able to draw without a reference, not bc i think it's "better" but bc i think it would give me more freedom to draw whatever i want without feeling stuck in reference searching hell every time :'))

relying (mostly) on a reference for lighting is definitely easiest for me, but i am able to add my own lighting in a drawing when i need to. very often, reference pictures dont have the lighting or coloring that i want anyway. what really helps with being able to add any type of lighting or shadows is knowing how the planes of the face work. you'll have to see what you're drawing as a 3D object rather than a flat drawing, and figure out what places will catch the light, and where the edges of these places lie, in order to create structure. if you wanna get more familiar with this, i suggest looking up the asaro head! there are super useful tools out there that show what planes of the face catch light in different lighting settings. if you can learn this, you can apply it to any face you paint, from any angle :)

i think i have answered somewhat similar questions in the past but it's been a long while and i really don't mind answering again <3

i've been drawing since very early childhood, i've simply always enjoyed it! scribbled in all my notebooks when i was in school and doodled on the back of my hands if i didnt have a notebook... when i was in high school i would spend pretty much all my time outside of school either drawing or playing minecraft lmao :') so practicing came very naturally to me because i just really really liked drawing and looking at other people's art, and i wanted to be better like them!

i did have a slight "break" from drawing when i was in university because at the time i thought i wasn't going to do anything with it on a professional level, so i just focused on my studies and finally building up a social life. but after i was done with that i decided that not drawing made me miserable and i got right back to it :) and then getting into skz was what finally made me draw as much as when i was a teenager again!!

i have to say i almost never truly practiced in a very orderly way and that's something i find myself regretting now... i think i do know a lot about the basics of drawing, color/light theory, how to make a composition appealing and how to draw realism, because that was always what i naturally had an interest in and focused on. but whenever i now try to do something else i feel like i'm 14 again and i need to figure out how everything works, which is so intimidating!! and it's so tempting to just stick to what i feel comfortable with... but i really want to broaden my skills and get more comfortable doing other styles, and relying less on references. i just wish i had done that when i was still young and had all the time and energy in the world for it lmao

one of the things that did really help me get better at art was watching other people do it. i've never been in any art classes so i just looked for teachers on the internet! there are so many useful youtube channels out there with loads of tutorials on anything you can think of, and besides that i loved watching speedpaints or livestreams from other artists bc that way i could study how they approached art. i'm a very visual learner in general so i've always loved zooming in on other people's works or taking pictures of painting details in museums, in order to soak up all the information i could.

as for blending/rendering techniques: i'm sure you've noticed i change these up quite a bit sometimes! i honestly feel like i'm still very much searching for a technique that i truly feel comfortable with. when i get lost in a drawing i almost feel like i'm meditating and i can easily over render stuff by endlessly blending things in... which isn't a bad look necessarily, but i feel like it causes the work to lose some visual interest. so i've been trying to keep myself from smoothing everything too much, and i've actively been trying to add more texture where i can! i'm still trying to find the right brushes for that, too :')

that's not really an answer about my technique tho, hmm... i think my technique can be compared more to sculpting a statue rather than making a drawing. i find it hard to do linework and it's easier for me to throw colors on the canvas as quickly as possible and start creating likeness that way... i think of my drawings in a very 3D way, so i find defining facial features with just a line VERY hard (which is also why i find anything that isnt realism very difficult!!!); i need the planes of the face to be visible asap. so yeah i usually do a sketch to get the general proportions right but then i like to go in with rough colors on a fairly zoomed out canvas, making sure to add lots of small color variations by exaggerating what i see in the reference, and then i will just zoom in more and more as i go to define smaller areas. i like to make sure the areas that have most visual interest (like the eyes, nose and mouth) are rendered the most because they catch the eye of the viewer and i want them to look good even when zooming in. but i also simply enjoy drawing those features the most so i spend more time on them anyway.

finally, while i am still looking for the perfect brushes, the things that are mainly important to me are that i almost never touch the blend/smudge tool (because i have more control over the exact definition and amount of blending when i do it manually with brushes) and that i don't like using brushes with soft edges, for the same reason. i like to be very conscious in my blending decisions and for that precision i need brushes with slight texture and pretty hard edges.

i feel like i have mostly rambled a lot but i hope that was an interesting answer for you aaa :') always feel free to ask more, or ask about certain more specific things if you feel like i've left some stuff untouched!! i really love getting questions like these and getting an opportunity to talk about art 💕

ough anon i'm sorry 😭 the thing is, i used to be pretty liberal with the block button for all sorts of reasons (i currently have 974 accounts blocked kdjfhsdkf), so i probably don't even remember why i blocked you! i mainly used to block if someone following me was a minor, if someone was a 🌊 stay, if i saw people saying or interacting with things i deemed harmful or going too far against my own ethics, etc... but for example i also used to simply block a lot of sfw accounts that followed me, and recently i stopped doing that! in fact i have barely been blocking anyone at all bc it feels both super awkward and almost entirely useless with the new block feature anyway, so you've just had bad luck i'm afraid :(

if you wanna tell me your acct name by sending me another retrospring message i can look up your profile and see if i can unblock you, or see if i can let you know why i'd rather keep you blocked. i won't publish your name either way, dw!

hi anon!! the thing is, i Have been in love and i Have had sex, but i'm not a korean male idol taking it up the ass from another korean male idol (sadly)... yet i've still written about that!! and there are so many amazingly talented fic writers out there, creating the most delicious smut for us to enjoy, that are literally ace irl! writing simply doesn't have to be about things you have direct personal experience with, imo.

of course, if you don't want to be insensitive or inaccurate about certain topics, experiences, dynamics etc that you are unfamiliar with, i recommend doing some research. when i write i'm constantly looking things up, because i like being as accurate as i can be (without sacrificing my own fun). and if there's a specific thing you don't know much about but you have friends or moots that do, then please ask them about it!! a lot of my writer friends approach me occasionally to vibe check parts of their stories, to see if anything seemed off or out of place (i would say i do this the other way around as well but i have not been writing a whole lot these past months sadly)... we are a thriving creative community and we should make use of that! :)

either way, i personally think that if you want to write something, you should just... do that! enjoy it!! like there literally isn't a rule that says you aren't allowed to write accidentally toxic relationships or inaccurate smut. i mean honestly a lot of the fics i read contain interactions that would be considered extremely toxic irl, and smut that doesn't represent reality a whole lot either... like hello. douching only gets mentioned in like maybe 3 out of 100 fics, half of the fics out there don't make characters use lube for anal and have them walk away unscathed, stds simply dont exist in most fic universes, etc... and i am not complaining at all! it's fiction and you can do whatever you want with it. if you're worried about how other people might react to your writing, you could always add an author's note to warn them that there might me inaccuracies!

most importantly, just focus on what you wanna write! i'm assuming you have an idea you're very excited about and that's why you want to write it in the first place. why not simply lose yourself in enjoying the process of that! ❤️ creating is super fun, just write for yourself at first! and if you want it to be accurate or perfect before sharing with the public, ask a friend or another writer for help :)

hello my dear anon 💕 thank you for coming to my inbox and letting me know how you feel, i really appreciate that!! you're very kind 😭

i'm grateful to hear i have inspired you to set such a noble goal for this year, and i want you to know that i'm cheering you on, even if i don't know who you are!! i think seeking connections with other people and being able to be open and vulnerable with them (in whatever way is comfortable for you) is SUCH an important part of life, even though it can be scary to start out with. i find being vulnerable scary too, but i also realized a long time ago that if i can't be vulnerable and hopeful and excited, i simply become deeply unhappy! so now i often just actively try to be vulnerable and positive despite my fear, and as a result all the people who have stuck around seem to really like that about me, and have less trouble sharing personal things with me as well. so your community will hopefully kind of build itself once you start showing who you are and what you like to see :) and giving kindness often gets kindness in return 💕

also i'm sorry to hear you've been feeling awkward when we interacted! but i personally don't really believe in "missing shots" i think... becoming friends is something that can take a long time, after all! plenty of my irl friends were people that had been in and out of my life for years before we started actively becoming friends, we simply needed a catalyst. so there's no time limit on these sorts of things, the only limits are whether or not you're a match with each other, and if you're both willing and able to put in the work. now, i don't know who you are, so i can't make any promises about becoming friends of course! but please at least don't feel anxious around me bc you feel like you missed your window, there is really no need :)

i really hope you find these connections and friendships you seek, and i hope you know that i always appreciate the people i talk to and share moments with, even if they're just passing through in my life!! have a very happy 2025 please 💕

goshh anon i'll share my tips but to be fully transparent i have to tell you upfront that i have SO many stranded wips in my collection :')) so unfortunately this is simply something everyone deals with sometimes! but here's some of my own methods and experiences anyway, i hope they can help you out somewhat 💕

for me personally, i can usually (not always!) tell i'll be happy with a piece within roughly the first 2 hours of working on it. even if i still have a long way to go to finish it, i'll notice how confident i feel about the result, or how much fun i'm having, or i'll have a very clear vision of what i'm working towards, and i'll know "oh yeah, this will be a nice one". i might still feel some hesitation when i'm almost done but that's just my perfectionism kicking in; those first few hours are really the most important and reliable tell for me.

most of my stranded wips were works where i did not have that feeling; i'd stubbornly keep working on it for hours and hours but still not be excited about it. now, sometimes when i have that feeling i still continue despite it all, and the art turns out pretty good in the end! but in those cases i'm never sure if it was worth the pain of getting there, bc i'm usually truly pretty miserable when working like that, and i know that sometimes starting over will get me right on track immediately.

i think when you're feeling stuck it's good to sit down and make an objective estimate of how much time you'd still have to spend to make the drawing look nice. how much do you need to change, what parts specifically will you need to work on, is it just about facial features looking off or are you dissatisfied with the entire color scheme, etc. really take time to have a critical look and take it all in and make a list. don't to this while you're trying to draw; try to see it as a separate exercise (maybe dont even look at it in your drawing program but simply in your picture gallery). doing it this way removes you from the equation for a bit and can help in not getting too distracted by insecurities and frustrations about your own skills. after this, you can decide whether all that work is feasible and worth it.

for example, this one time i'd been working on a jisung portrait commission for a few hours already and he really wasn't turning out the way i wanted it to. the colors looked dull and his face wasn't looking like his face and the angle wasn't satisfying. i knew i'd have to work on it for at least another 3-4 hours to turn him into something i'd be happy with. i also knew that when i work on a portrait and it goes well, it sometimes only takes me about 4 hours total. combined with the fact that i knew the hours i'd spend on the portrait i already started would be hours i'd be feeling miserable, whereas starting a new one could make me feel hopeful and excited again, i decided to drop the wip and start over, with a different ref! and i loved the result (it's the one titled "claimed", if you're curious) :)

it can be a painful choice when you have already spent a lot of time on a work, but that should be no automatic reason to then keep punishing yourself by not letting go. besides, when you start over you do have the advantage of already having tried it once before, meaning some things are bound to go more smoothly this time!! so it's never wasted time, it was simply practice.

on the other hand, sometimes i'll feel mentally very stuck on a drawing, but after some reassessment i realistically KNOW it's really 80-90% done and probably not actually looking that bad to anyone who isn't me. in that case it's not always worth it to give up, i think! sometimes taking a little break or working on another piece can help a lot already, but usually i just show the wip to my friends or my priv to get some validation and that also helps a lot :') when you can't convince yourself something is looking good but 6 friends are yelling at you that they love it, it strangely becomes a lot harder to keep looking at the drawing in a purely negative way...

but even when you decide not to give up, there will still be the matter of actually having to work on something you're not enjoying atm. there's different ways i trick myself into doing that. one is creating pressure; for example by sharing the wip with people and telling them i'm aiming to have it done by the weekend/in a few days. this way i'll have a deadline, and i might plan some moments in my calendar when i'll actively want to work on it. sometimes i'll even tell a friend i plan to work on it that night and ask them to check in on me. in that case i'm kind of treating it like work!

the other way i sometimes trick myself is to actively take away pressure and NOT treat it like work at all. in that case i'll sit at my desk while watching a fun video or hanging out on twitter, and i will subtly put my tablet on my desk as well. maybe i'll even open procreate. maybe i'll even open the canvas. this is all done in a very casual non-committal way... simply having my tablet there with the canvas open doesn't mean i need to work on it, after all!! but usually at some point after i've put everything in my field of vision like this my brain will go "oh you know, might as well work on it for a few mins now that i've got my tablet here anyway...", and then i do! and i won't try to think of having to actually Finish the drawing, i'll really just try to treat it like.. idk. like i'm knitting a scarf and i just want to add some rows. i'm not thinking about the ending, i'm just adding a bit of work to a project, and if i happen to start feeling excitement again that's lovely, but if not, then at least i'll have added onto it a bit! and it'll be less work for me next time!

in the end, we all work differently, so it really comes down to trying out what will work for you specifically, by trying different methods whenever you feel stuck. and please don't overlook the value of asking for help or validation from friends! or asking another artist friend for advice on how to make something look better! a pair of fresh eyes might be scary when you feel vulnerable about your work, but sometimes someone can help gently pinpoint a problem area and as soon as you change that you're like. oh! suddenly i feel excited to work on this again! you really don't have to do it alone, it'll only make you a better artist in the end :)

i am sadly still not someone who is able to consistently push through my mental hurdles, so even with all these methods mentioned, things don't always work out for me. but as the years continue i do feel a bit more familiar with my patterns at least, and it becomes easier and easier to estimate when it's worth it to give up on a drawing or not, or feel more at peace when something is taking me a bit longer. i'm sure you will get to that point eventually as well, if you keep at it! i'm hoping i'll continue to grow as well :) (stares at my two almost done wips that i've been intending to finish for weeks now.... i'll get to it eventually.... aghghh)