I did a bit of digital art before. I got intrigued but lost by all the options that digital art software offers. I can say that I feel ready for that step. It was a challenge before, and it will be a challenge now. In the past two weeks I got consistent and I got to the point where I create and draw on a daily basis. I put my ideas on paper and it doesn't matter if I think its good or bad. I've started to think more of it like I have an idea and I will draw until I get at least one drawing on paper that I'm happy with. Sometimes even more than one.
I've spent the most of this morning setting up my Genius WizardPen 5x4. I'm running windows 10 on my main PC and I had some trouble with pen pressure option. It seems to be a reoccurring "feature" that bothers a lot of graphic tablets but I've managed to overcome that "feature" error and fix the thing it in the past hour. It was extensive googling session and trial and error process. Like it always is.
Something I doodled late last night and earlier today - yes, it became a habit
That old piece of tech is so dear to me. I got it around 2006-2007 from a group of friends for my b-day. But it wasn't for any b-day. They bought me that magic thing for my 54th b-day. I was 28-29 at the time and we all laughed at that. Now, 10-11 years later I look at that thing and smile, remembering all of them and how happy and enthusiastic they were by doing that super silly thing. As I recall, the sketchbook I'm using for my challenge I got from them as well, on that same day. What a bunch of fools! I like them all. They are my fools! They got me where I am today. Thank you guys!!
For my digital art I'm using Krita, which is free. I find it to be adequate for all my needs related to digital art (and I started using it after watching a video on Youtube made by Sycra). I haven't used Photoshop for years and I no longer remember what's possible and what's not. Krita just has everything I need.
Last time I used Krita and WizardPen was when I created these monsters and few other things (you can browse my deviantart gallery). It was back in 2013 when I was overwhelmed by all the options, styles, techniques and other various things related to digital art. I was blindly lost, to put it simply and I could not hold my ground. I felt more and more desperate and lost day by day. I didn't have the habit of drawing, putting ideas on paper was more difficult than now and I ended sketching ideas and deleting them for days and days and I got nowhere. I used to do a rough sketch, clean it and make a clean outline. If I was not happy - I scratched it all and started all over again. Sometimes I got to painting and then I was lost as there are so many ways to do it. It was hard and on more than one occasion I forgot to add a layer and ruined the image. I undid all the errors but I became unhappy and deleted the drawing. I started all over again and it was that vicious circle again and again. Now I can say that I lacked confidence, I had no idea of what I was doing, my motivation was poor and I wasn't ready for that.
I believe I'm ready now. I've created a lot of drawings in the last ten days and I did it consistently. I'm playing with lots of ideas and I'm not happy until I get them on paper in the form that makes me happy. Even if the form doesn't make me happy I finish it just to see where it would me take me but I don't waste time on that. I finish it as much as possible. I analyze it quickly and try to see what went wrong with it and if possible why. I do more than one iteration and if I'm still not happy at least I got it out of my system and that's it. It doesn't haunt me anymore. Now I try to learn from my mistakes and move on. I don't sulk, overthink about it and become sad because my idea worked in my head and was crappy on paper. I don't think I was ever capable of that kind of thinking before. Something happened and I'm not quite sure what. I only know it was not long ago, probably with this sketchbook challenge. I've evolved and that makes me extremely happy.
