breakinglight11 | I am trying to draw (Reply)

I have been making an effort lately to take the time to draw again. It's something I pick back up from time to time, but haven't been very good at doing it consistently at any point in my adult life. I used to be somewhat good at it as a kid, but it's been so long since I practiced regularly that I don't really have any skill anymore. But I like doing it, and I think I need some hobbies that are more kinetic than intellectual. Particularly lately, with me feeling so exhausted and anxious, I'm trying to make a habit of it to help chill out. It's creative but low-stakes, rather than many of my other artistic pursuits, which are very important to me and a lot of my emotional well-being depends on them going well. I think I need that.

I like to draw people, animals, and clothes, though I'm not good at proportions. For a while I was drawing a lot of actresses in red carpet pictures I liked— Taraji P. Henson, Janelle Monae, Zoe Kravitz. Recently I drew Saoirse Ronan because I liked her dress. I recently shifted over to copying other people's cartoons. I'd like to be good at a realistic style, but I find imitation of cartoons. This week I drew an artist's representation of Martin Crieff from Cabin Pressure, and another's cartoony version of Erik Killmonger. Martin came out slightly better, though Killmonger looks too friendly and soft. Neither are great, but they're not garbage either, which is satisfying in a small way. I do want to push my skills, but it's also satisfying to actually draw things that look okay, so I get some pleasure out of my half-decent copies resembling the originals. And since I'm mostly doing this to feel a little better, I think that's okay.

If you'd care to follow my progress, I'm posting everything to my personal Instagram. I'm not very good, but I'd like to improve, so hopefully this will help me track any growth I make.