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Please be patient with me, I have an extremely hard time with self expression agony-wholesome

I am not good at like, observing a thing and putting my interpretation onto paper. I try a lot, but it never meets my (probably impossible) standards. This really started to frustrate me recently, so instead I started just drawing interesting shapes and filling them with patterns. The image attached to this post is an example of one.

But now I have these little sketches that look cool to me but feel unfinished. I don't know how to develop them any further. If I try, I feel like I ruin them.

And then it dawned on me: I don't have a fucking clue what I'm doing. I've been trying out art as a fun hobby for the past 2 years. I read a couple of textbooks and took notes, I've filled a few sketchbooks, painted a little, and had a great time. But I can tell I'm still shit and I want to be good. How do I do that? I guess I have a few main questions:

-What should I spend my extremely limited practice time on?

-How can I incorporate the things I like about others' art into my own? Do I just straight up try to copy them?

-Some people I've asked irl have said it's just a matter of time. I haven't been creating long enough to be good yet. Is there any truth to this? Am I just impatient?

Here's some more of those weird sketches if you're interested. I can also post some more uh... grounded? art for comparison?

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[-] lurker_supreme@hexbear.net 1 points 2 days ago

Thank you for this, I really think I was lacking perspective and everyone has been so nice and understanding, I'm gonna cry for real

Plus theres that thing where people who like art and have a good eye for it and can appreciate quality stuff, usually develop that discerning eye early in life, and so by the time you are trying your hands at stuff, especially if that happens later in adulthood, you have very advanced critical eye, and very UNadvanced skills because its still new and developing

Haha, this feels like almost exactly what my situation is.

I've been sticking to what I know but maybe I need to try new things. Thank you for the suggestion to try out new mediums.

Metalworking is so cool, I hope you make that crown, I would love to see it when it's done.

[-] QuillQuote@hexbear.net 2 points 2 days ago

You'll be the first one I show it to, if and when, comrade! :D

same to you, keep it up and keep showing your stuff! No matter what you do, just keep making things :3

this post was submitted on 06 Aug 2026
49 points (100.0% liked)

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