Documenting my process of learning digital drawing

[PhantomUnderYourDesk]

@Lord Windos, mind to clear your inbox pretty please? I just wanted to send you something but was met with the error that your PM quota has been reached.

[PhantomUnderYourDesk]

Update as of 20th May '23


I meant to try out drawing lineless using a watercolor-ish brush I've downloaded from the Clip Studio Assets, taking the current Pokemon of the Month on the Creators Collective as a model. I...certainly enjoyed doing quite a lot on the whim and just how I felt like it, it's nice for some random drawings just because. But it's obviously and too much of a break in my regular way and style of drawing.

Electric bug noises

Speaking on drawing and doodling stuff on the whim and just because, last Thursday I found myself drawing an adoptable I got in, like, early 2019 according to my sketchbook (At least that's the earliest dated doodle of it I found.). It's still one I cherish and hold dear as it's actually a design by one of my biggest inspirational artists online.

Spoiler and trigger warning for light cursing, nothing nsfw though

I might or might not put in more effort and actually digitalize and color that sketch - that'd be one thing I'd certainly find easier than coloring it manually, I don't think I even HAVE that many various shades of pink and purple in markers to properly do so.

[PhantomUnderYourDesk]

Update as of 20th May '23 - Art fight, Eeveelutions and ClipStudioPaint 2.0!~


Uh... Been a bit since I've updated this. Either way, got news!

First of, after quite a while Clip Sudio Paint V.2.0 has been released in the meantine! (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧ Actually I'm on V.2.1.2 by now even!! My bought lisence of V.1 hasn't been supported anymore, which meant I needed to pay a small fee - users who bought a V.1 before got a huge discount - to properly upgrade and acticate to the latest version. The whole progress was...not that optimal and sort of more complicated than necessary (or at least it was so to my brain), but eventually I made it work.

What especially caught my attention of V.2 is some new feature called 'Shading Assist', which allows you to sort of auto-shade a flat-colored drawing. Or moer like gives you a reference where exactly shadings and lightnings can/might go. This sounded highly intriguing and useful to me, given I, uh, still struggle to properly and fully understand where exactly the shading and highlighting go to achieve a realistic and natural look. It's not a replacement for shading, definitely not - duh, it's only a helpful tool. One that I'm eager to give more uses.
Resource A for using Shading Assist
Resource B for using Shading Assist


In fact, I've already very roughly gave that tool a try - when creating drawings for annual Art Fight! I've been away for like the first week of July so I couldn't join right away when the event started, but somehow I was kinda hyped to participate when I haven't in like two or three years. Especially since now I could do both; practicing digital art WHILE ALSO creating cool gift art! I joined Team Vampire, by the time of writing this blog post I dunno yet which team won. But eh, me feels vampires are much more cool than werewolves.

For this year's Art Fight I aimed to only concentrate on creating attacks (aka gift art) of either feline, sparkleanimal and Eeveelution characters, with them being from people I know via discord or who I follow on twitter/X as being highly optimal.

.......In the end, I didn't get to create as many drawings as I potentially wished to or managed to. But that's...alright, I am trying to not be too hard on myself there or beat myself up too much due to this. Like, I have a fulltime job, I'm more often then not mentally exhausted, I'm super-picky about my artworks and tend to get lost in details, executive dysfunction is a thing etc. - I highly admire those people who create like a LOT of attacks and/or attacks featuring MULTIPLE characters. I happen to just not be one of these people. Plus near the end of Art Fight as a huge shady issue came to light, where donations to the site went into the owners pockets and the mods working for free, which resulted in many mods quitting (as far as I know, it's been resolved now though, and the owner quitted and transfered ownership) - which kinda killed my eager to participate in the event more... But that doesn't mean that I created nothing, I'm actually very lowkey proud of the drawings/attacks I did create! They're attached to this post, safer and easier than uploading and linking/embedding them (since art theft is a thing), even at the cost of having to reduce the file size.

Basically, that's what perfectly summs up my art fight experience:

Plus, it was very enjoyable to work on these digital drawings while re-listening to a Harry-Potter-podcast by a german Youtuber (where she analyzes and humorously comments on five minutes of the first movie in each episode) and follow missed streams by my newly-discovered favorite VTubers of Hololive English (timezones prevent me from being present when they actually go live).


Now for what to do or draw next... I'm probably going to figuratively lean back and follow some activities/hobbies besides drawing that kinda have been left hanging as of lately. Like, reading some new manga volumes or an English graphic novel, play some games - I really should check in on my cult in Cult of the Lamb, or do some dungeoncrawling in Explorers of Skies - and if any, do some comfort drawings. Promised to create the new boss icons for Primal Shadows, so that's the next art thing I wish and want to tackle. I've like said it once, twice, multiple times and be still amazed af by it every single time, but it's still baffling to me how much progress in drawing I made: Basically I never ever dabbled into digital art as I found it way too complicated an overwhelming, and now I greatly enjoy it. It's all autodidactically acquired, somewhat and mildly proves that I DO have a talent for autodidactic learning if the topic intrests me and/or I am passionate about something.


That's all for now!~ In the following are my art fight attacks/drawing.
Explicit trigger warning for some blood and healed sh scars on the Umbreon character on the second image, but according to the owner of the character they inevitably belong to the character aka please do not remove them.

[PhantomUnderYourDesk]

EDIT: Fixed some spelling and grammar errors in the above post. Edited in a meme I knew I had saved or marked somewhere, went anxious when I forget where it was during writting the post, then found it back out of the blue. It was in the gallery of my phone. All along.

Comfort drawing sketched out and scanned by now. Started working on the icons for PrimalShadow.

[PhantomUnderYourDesk]

Update as of sometine at the End of October'23 - Enjoying the spooky art season my way~




It's spooky art season with Halloween just around the corner, and I'm here typing this stuff up while sipping iced tea and occassionally snacking on some Reese's pieces. ...Actually lemme repeat that, it's spooky art season yay!~ Now guess who hasn't drawn like one thing for inktober, nuketober, spooktober or any other various annual art events.

Spoiler

That's right, it's me.

But...that's okay, I don't feel as bad or useless about that as I feared I would; plus I have some other stuff I want to draw, don't enjoy overly general prompts that one as an artist can interpret as desired, and have my boundaries + limitations about creating art. Basically I just draw what I want when I want for comfort.

There are so many many variations of the original inktober floating around online, with prompt lists to match almost anything one can imagine. You can even create your very own personal list! I guess my favorite one is cringetober though:

Prompt list here, TW for it being quite rainbowy and eyestrainy

Link/Source: https://www.deviantart.com/notthatalex/a...-986029735

I can't help it, I'm an early-2000s-kid who grew up with neopets and cartoons and I embrace expressing oneself via art, however cringe or weird said art may be. I am the manifestion of 'I am cringe but I am free'. Or so I feel at times.

What I also noticed about me+my art is that somewhat contrary to what dark and emo things I remember drawing in my earlier teenage years, I at times kinda enjoy drawing colorful creatures and sparklefur with lots of details thrown on them just because. When I see a colorful OC from an artist I follow online, I get a subconscious feel like 'I like that, I want to draw that!'. That goes somewhat - or more like kinda to very - contradictionary to pessimistic, introverted and reserved IRL-me who wears all black and preferes not to talk unless needed.

...And that's okay, I guess. Maybe my inner world is a lot more colorful than my view on the outside world, maybe I just enjoy creating artwork to match that, I don't know. But any form of art is nothing more than a means to an end if put in a simplistic way, or as Gerard Way very fittingly once said: "Anything can be art. Anything can be self-expression. Now take your weapon and run with it"

^^^

Footage of me when having a desire to draw like ten things at once, but then getting to create exactly zero at the end of the day

Basically I somehow at times feel like

Context

Hayao Miyazaki as a person is a pessimisted and grumpy-as-heck old man and the creative head behind Studio Ghibli (well known among fans for its colorful and imaginary anime movies), while Junji Ito is a bubbly cinnamonroll and also the creator of some of the most dark and scary manga volumes ever. At least that's the impression I have from them from seeing some interviews and documentations.

...As of earlier I've colored-in a template from a casual art contest from an UK-based community focusing on mental health and cute stationary to brig some joy in an otherwise scary world, of which I am getting a monthly box of stationary sent. The template was just black outlines + the writing, the vampire frog in the corner was added by me as I missed that character on the template. It was very comforting coloring in the checks and lots of fun playing around with effects of ClipStudioPaint to achieve a spoopy vibe, and I'm very very timidly proud of the finished product.

Big image ahead

Here's also a fox base I drew just for me, of which I am planning to make use of to draw some sparkledoggo-ish adopts and OCs from a sfw-furry-artist I follow on twitter/X. He at times posts various various adopts of all vibes, and it's amazing to me how he's able to come up with so different and creative designs just like that.

Pls don't ask how much research and reference-studying it took me to get that sitting pose to look as natural as possible, because it was A LOT. I struggle to get a four-legged creature in a sitting pose just right with how the legs bend, but me feels I somehow DID get it look natural, as I was told so when I asked for critique on that pose.


That's all for now I guess, Phantom out.


EDIT 1: Pls be safe out there, the world's a very scary and erratic place with basically two wars going on right now in Ukraine and in Palestine.

EDIT 2: It's mildly infuriating how the pumpkin spice you can buy at the stores tastes nothing like the one used at coffee shops, but I still kinda enjoy the one I've bought as an addition to coffee, porridge and basically anything sweet.

[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.