Second update if the day. Had to leave for a bit but came right back after I was done. I'd do more if I didn't have to be up at 3AM for work tomorrow... I think I've worked on this for 6 or 7 hours, not counting planning or the one I had to scrap. Wild.

This painting is turning me into the Joker. I had to restart from scratch once already and I'm learning just how many gaps I have in my pallet. Also why did my camera pick up every single grain of the canvas..? WIP obviously

When making comics, do you prefer to work out your story/dialogue/pacing through traditional scripting? Or do you prefer to do it more visually by doing sketches and storyboards? I've found myself going the storyboard approach 'cause I struggle with words, but I've found it kinda difficult when planning out larger storylines and behind the scenes lore stuff.

Man, I remember watching Marco Bucci a bunch because his stuff was genuinely helpful, but then he started taking a bunch of Betterhelp sponsorships that I just couldn't get behind (at least I think it was him.) I haven't checked back to see if his stopped in a bit, maybe I should.

Don't get me wrong, I love me some good art books (Scott McCloud's Understanding Comics is probably my favorite of what I've read) and getting direct feedback will always be 1000000x more helpful than any tutorial, but there's just something about the accessibility of the video format that makes me mourn how it's been watered down.

With reading and getting feedback, you need full attention to read the words on the page and to converse back to whoever is helping you, but with the audio of video tutorials you can learn to draw, while drawing at the same time! Audio is the best way to learn something passively from my experience and that's honestly how I learned most of what I know today. I listened to a bunch of art YouTubers talk about art in the background while I drew and eventually absorbed a lot of that information without too much headache. It's a great format that's been flooded with a bunch of nothing burgers, and that makes me kinda sad.

I do think that going to YouTube for help still has value to it. It's how I learned to draw in the first place and there are still some good channels out there (Sinix Design my goat.) Honestly, most of my ire for this kind of stuff is a recent development. I don't remember the state of tutorials being this dire when I was starting out. I think it was really 2022-2023 that the shift towards content > help really started on the tutorial side of the art space

I actually haven't encountered any AI generated art tutorials. All of these tutorials are very obviously real people drawing and talking, it's just they seem to put content creation first and art second.

After mostly getting advice from talking with people here on NG art BBS, going back to YouTube tutorials has made me realize that I'm just not getting anything out of them? At first I just attributed this to me growing out of the basic stuff and not needing to be handheld on those topics anymore (which it is to some extent,) but the more I think on it, I feel like a lot of tutorials have been tainted by social media content creation.

I struggle to find videos covering higher level concepts above basic fundamentals. Half the time they're sensationalized as "How This ONE FORGOTTEN ART TRICK Improved My Art IMMEDIATELY!" or "Trying FORBIDDEN ART TECHNIQUES From CHINESE ARTISTS On REDNOTE" and the like, when they just cover drawing boxes or using references or something else basic. I go to the uploader's channel and it's all the same thing. Tens of hundreds of videos with different hooks, but all with the same advice. They also usually sell some sort of course that they shill in every video. That's if the artist even knows what they're talking about - the other half of the time it's someone who, at best, knows what there doing intuitively but can't properly articulate what they actually understand into words, or at worst, someone who really doesn't know much at all that mumbles without a script through the whole video and gives bad advice.

I get that tutorials targeting beginners need to exist and are what gets the most views, but I'm getting tired of [Title: Why Your Illustrations Always Fall FLAT] "Hey, do you see this blue color next to the yellow? It's actually grey!!! It just looks blue because it's next to a warmer color!!! Buy my course BTW"

If it weren't for Wii VC, I never would have played Sonic 2, Mario 1, 2 and 3, Mario Kart 64, etc. I think that VC was the best way they could have re-released old games short of full-on physical releases. The E-shop made it particularly accessible to anyone and was 100% responsible for a lot of the generations that grew up on Wii/3DS/Wii U getting into retro gaming and rejuvenating interest in older lesser known titles. I think it was a win all around

First post of the year yay

Unsure. I haven't checked out the snapshot yet myself, and I haven't seen anyone say anything about either.

Found a pack of these on my shelf that I bought at some point. I didn't really end up using them besides swatching them until now but these are really fun to work with!!! They're a really creamy water-soluble wax stick that feels like a really soft crayon. You can blend them with a bit of water or just your finger. Biggest complaints are that they're really transparent and they WILL smudge all over the second page of your sketchbook (and your hands) if they haven't dried enough.

Overall they're pretty fun to work with. I checked Amazon and you can get that 24 pack for 24 bucks USD so they aren't too expensive.

I haven't really seen any other art supplies like this before. It's like those oil paint sticks but they're made of crayon instead of oil paint. Is this a standard type of art supplies you can get from other brands? Or is this more of a gimmick medium? Makes me wonder. Had anyone else heard of these before?

Some examples of stuff I made with them (very) quickly.

New baby mob models and hinting at craftable name tags yippeeeeeee

Honestly, fair point. I kinda do draw a lot. I've drawn almost every day for the past 8 years, actively to learn and passively just to keep my hands busy. I on average fill a 60 page sketchbook (both sides of the pages) in 2-3 months, sometimes less than that, I think my fastest was just over 2 weeks? Slowing down and just living life a bit in other areas would probably help. Though I'd have to find something else to keep my fidgety hands busy while I relax.

To elaborate on the stress part - that's mostly a thing of the past and not a result of drawing. Being a teenager kinda sucked and drawing my blorbos was my main outlet, which I did I did so much that I fell into the muscle memory trap this thread is about. I am doing better in that regard!!!

I know that the way to fix the entire issue is to break the habit, but the part I was having trouble with was the breaking the habit part. I've been trying to diversify for years at this point and it's helped me improve in a lot of areas, but said muscle memory immediately overpowers everything I've learned in that time the moment I'm not 100% focusing. I think the closest I got to breaking it was when I was trying out a more Kim Jung Gi approach to drawing, but I was advised to stop doing that and go back to the fundamentals instead. I'll keep trying to widen my scope and keep up with studies anyway, though. They're kinda important.

Also, I don't really find joy in only being able to draw one specific thing well. That's part of the problem honestly. The "drawing the same thing over and over again" was mostly a result of being stressed all the time and finding comfort in it. It wasn't really something I fell into willingly.

Woahgg, I really like the colors for the shading. I'm a sucker for bright colors and it's really expressive!! I hope you enjoy being on NG more!! It's always nice seeing more artists joining and interacting.

(Though side note, if you want to post art in the forums, typically you do it in a thread dedicated to only your own art rather than starting a new one for every piece. Just a bit of housekeeping. Have fun!!)

I've noticed that when I'm drawing just for fun, I tend to lean into drawing things in a very specific way based off of my muscle memory (mostly characters standing around at a 3 quarter view or straight on - my ability to draw different subtle angles in character work is the thing impared the most) There was a few years of my life where I didn't really experiment with much and just drew the same things over and over again, which has resulted in this. I'm getting more and more annoyed with this habit since it sometimes creeps into my larger work if I let my guard down too much. I've never had to break muscle memory like this before and I don't think I've heard anyone else talk about this issue at all. Any ideas of how to fix this?

I think it really depends on the the series and the new studio in question. Getting a new studio in to develop a new game for an old series can be a really good way to revive an old series that was unceremoniously shot out back, though some series would be better to be left alone if they reach a natural ending point. This subject is a bit familiar to me specifically being an Advance Wars fan since AW kinda had this exact scenario happen. They remade the first 2 games 20 years later with Wayforward developing it rather than IntSys and it turned out a really mixed bag depending on who you ask about it. It all really depends

Happy to hear that they managed to make controller input work well! I still don't think I'd be able to play on console myself though lol. I would lose it without Move It and Road Anarchy and about 20 other mods I rely on

The one thing console Minecraft had going for it was on the old console versions had online minigames you could play without connecting to a big server. I spent a lot of time playing spleef and whatever the elytra one was called on my Wii U back in the day lol. I miss the music they played. Everything else was subpar at best though. I've actually played the dreaded Minecraft for 3DS before as well *shudders*

Just got off playing some Cities Skylines (The first one) and couldn't help but remember that there are actually people out there that play that game on console. I couldn't imagine having to use controller inputs and having NO Steam workshop and NO mods. It genuinely sounds miserable trying to work that out. I guess that some people don't have full PC setups but I know there are some people out there that enjoy playing some games on console more than PC. Are there any console ports that you don't get the appeal of?

Update:

Found them at Walmart. I didn't realize this before, but they come in at least 2 sizes. I ended up getting more of the larger size to match the markers I already had. This set has some nice pastels in it. I dont have many pastel Poscas so they'll be some nice filler for my collection. I've lost my receipt but I think it was ~20$ for the pack

Using some graphite for once. I really internalized that "Never sketch with a pencil, only use a pen" advice and exclusively used gel pens and ballpoints for a long time. It's nice to finally be allowed to make mistakes without being unable to fix them.

I'll ask a mod for opinions on questions like this in the future then. I have a habit of asking questions into the void and hoping someone who knows what they're talking about answers back lol. Though I guess this time it worked out. Thank you

No, they do not

He definitely wouldn't be mistaken for a woman. Outside of the obvious he's pretty masc in appearance and presentation

I guess for context it'd probably just be shown in an artistic sense if explicitly at all. I'm not much of a porn artist and don't have much interest in doing such

I have an OC that I like to draw whose a guy, but do to a condition of his (Kleinfelters syndrome) he has noticeable enough boobs that I was wondering, would they technically count as nudity? Probably a silly question but I just want to make sure I rate my submissions correctly in case it ever comes up. Also just kinda curious of what other people think

Goobers I need to work on more