Documenting my process of learning digital drawing

[PhantomUnderYourDesk]

Update as of 26th of February 2025 - PC upgrade and comfy digital + traditional art~


Uhm... Yes, this thread still exists, I actually thought about it lately and meant to update it for a while now. Just made some blueberry tea and am recovering from a cold - it's more like an open diary than solely focused on my art journey (despite it still plays a big role).


So, as of the beginning of February my graphic card utterly broke after it has been serving me well for some years (TvT ) It...was noticable that it was nearing its end, given it took longer than usual for it to load CSP-files and Youtube; games that were no issue before began to lagg to the point of being unplayable. The timing was quite lucky indeed though - as with 2025 I have found a permanent job that I'm fine with and that pays enough for a living, so despite some hesitation I took the step and upgraded my whole PC to a decent new graphic card and a second hard drive. Also took the opportunity to update to Windows 11 after 10 has served me long enough.

In hindsight, it was an absolutely RIGHT step to take and definitely worth the money! Everything, from Clip Studio Paint over Steam to Youtube, boots and loads so much faster now, yes!! I love it indeed. It's a massive boost in quality of life! Bonus points for its fancy RGB-lights. Currently I'm enjoying its capacities via a playthrough of Persona 3 Reload (I already played the original P3 including FES, so I do know the dark story already) and preparing for my first playthrough of Baldur's Gate 3 (aka working on creating my character, which I've already invested more though and time than I initially thought I would).



The only downside, art-related... There's no way or need to sugarcoat it, I have been so smart (not) to forget to backup my collection of custom brushes and most of my settings of Clip Studio Paint, so it's all lost to the abyss. The last cloud-backup was from 2022. That's, well, not optimal and it hurt to realize, but it's maybe not too bad or sounds worse than it actually is: because yes I did have a huge collection of custom brushes downloaded from the Assets, but most were brushes I downloaded for one specific drawing/purpose and then rarely (if ever used) again. Most of these I can re-download, even if it takes a while and not all of these might be available still. I'll work on it, slowly and steadily.


Now onto drawings I'm currently working on~


First one is something I started on the whim, since Creator's Collective Theme of the Month (in addition to Pokemon of the Month) has been chosen to be 'Gijinka'. This made me remember this WIP I once creted in my sketchbook - it's undated, but I guess around 2018 maybe? It's NOT my design, but I remember loving it because 1. yay pirates!! and 2. Sylveon-Gijinka not depicted as a cute girl in a lolita dress. The original design belongs to cynphonium @tumblr (link to the original post here). I'm very rusty at drawing in an anime-style, but I'm enjoying the process nevertheless!

artwork 1

Semi-related: I noticed that when it comes to digital art, I tend to enjoy the step of working on the width of the lineart, aka making it thicker and thinner at various spets. It's tedious and takes me longer than doig the actual lineart lol, but I think(??) I do like because I can focus on small details and it adds soooo much to the overall vibe of the drawing. Downside is that it happened more than once already that I was working on this step, then got distracted with a different idea for an artwork, and started working on that instead while original artwork never gets progressed. Aka another art project saved as a WIP (^^; )


Second is a casual drawing I started on a whim one calm Sunday evening while watching my unhinged hololive-oshi Shiori Novella playing Crime Scene Cleaner. It's an adopt I bought from one of my inspirational artists online aka Chot/cyberdaydream@bluesky! Love his creativity and silly art, and it's been a goal of mine to buy one of his designs at some point AAAAAAAA I'm hecking happy that this time I made it!

ACTUALLY this piece was meant as a calm lowkey comfort drawing, but it somehow developed into a full-blown illustration when I started adding phrases I associate with this character. I don't think I've ever done some much handlettering, it took me quiiite a while. 

artwork 2

Scanned because I might digitalize this drawing at some point. Abstained from erasing the pencil lines because I like the casual vibe they're giving the drawing.


Concering my health and new appartment, things are developing in the right direction I think. Had an appointment with a clinic that went relatively well (and that I'm proud of having made it), and my couch + bed got delivered today. I hope that by the time summer arrives, I'm fully moved in.


That's all for now!~ Sending positive vibes and a tender ghost-hug to my OTP Windos (miss you so much, my dearest), do take care, Phantom out.



EDIT: Bingo Card for funnsies, kudos to Hidekuni @bluesky for sharing, another artist I admire and look up to.

...I feel called out.