uh⁸

Fanart shipping Simon and Evelyn is fine as long as it doesn't contain NSFW/Suggestive innuendos/Revealing Clothes
I don't online date
I am not my OCs (I don't have a persona, so I'll occasionally just use Simon to talk. Sorry if that's confusing )
I'm clarifying this because I don't want it to seem like I'm shipping myself with Evelyn

Art tips further down, by the way. Hope they help!
I have no other socials besides @Uh⁸_StudyAlt, so if you see my art anywhere else, it is not me posting it.
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Hey, you.
Yes, you.
There are people out there that care about you and are willing to help you when you're feeling down or worse. If you're feeling suicidal or depressed, please reach out to trusted ones or call the suicide lifeline number for your country.

In the US, it is 988.

Please be there for those you know who are struggling and visit https://988lifeline.org for more info.

Your life is worth living.

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I take down and repost my art to fix mistakes way too much

I draw people
Did I mention that I draw people
Oh, I also draw people

P.S. I draw people
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When you see art styles that you like and want to develop your style to look more like them, here's some tips!

--IDENTIFYING WHAT YOU LIKE--
Identify what parts of the art you like specifically and try to add it to your own works

--HAVE A GROWTH MINDSET-- (this point is a bit long compared to the others, but it is the most important one.)

I've found that my art has improved much quicker when I look at an art piece I like and think "How close can I get to their style/the parts of their style that I like?" rather than thinking "Wow, they're so good... I could never reach that skill level. Even if I tried to copy it, it'd turn out terrible"

Try to replicate it in a study anyway! You won't learn how to do something unless you give yourself the chance to try!

Believe it or not, I have countless awkward looking pieces from when I thought like that, simply because I was too afraid and self-criticizing to let myself just mess around and try new things!

If you look at my very first posts on my account and compare them to my most recent ones, you will see just how much my art style has grown because I went out of my comfort zone and did new things.

--DIFFERENT LIFESTYLES, DIFFERENT PROGRESS SPEEDS--
You may see people posting their art online and feel bad once you notice how fast they improve with each post compared to your personal progress. I've felt the same way on occasion.

What you need to remember is that different people will have:
-Different amounts of free time to study art.
-Started art at different ages.
-Different abilities to absorb and retain information.
Learn at your own pace and keep art enjoyable for you!

--DON'T FEEL PUT DOWN BY MORE SKILLED ARTISTS/
FINISHED PIECES DON'T TAKE 2 SECONDS TO MAKE--
- Keep in mind that the art you see online and look up to was not spontaneously popped into existence.
Often times, even those cracked speedpainting professionals you see everywhere will have thumbnail sketches, or even just change the layout 500 different times till they like it, so don't feel put down if you don't know what to draw

--I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT TO DRAW MOST OF THE TIME--
Actually, almost all of the art you see on my account is the result of me erasing about 10 sloppy sketches before finding an idea I like, and that's on a good day lol.
Also, a lot of my favorite pieces I've made were the ones with the worst ugly stages. Often times, I will erase the face and redraw details multiple times because the angle looks wrong, or the style doesn't match the other parts of the drawing. This sometimes leads me to taking a few hours on one drawing if I have enough free time.

--GOOD SHAPES AND SILHOUETTES MAKE YOUR PIECES EASIER TO UNDERSTAND AND NICER TO LOOK AT--
-Shapes, shapes, shapes! Simplify the subject you are drawing into basic shapes when you begin laying out the drawing and slowly build up detail as you go smaller

It doesn't have to be Picasso levels of geometry, but having sharp, coherent shapes (no matter how messy the line art/sketch) seems to really help sell the piece and make it more coherent/appealing to viewers.

--PLEASE DON'T JUST DRAW BUSTS, MAKE YOUR CHARACTERS DO SOMETHING, EVEN IF IT'S JUST MILDLY INTERESTING--
I'll probably sound quite hypocritical here, but it's also a great idea to have your subjects doing something, thinking about something, or even looking at something instead of simply drawing the same bust shot over and over.

What I (try to) do is set up some vague plot to the drawing I am making before I draw it so that ideas for extra details come more naturally.

EX: character A is eating ice cream next to character B
What if character B wants some? - They keep eyeing the bowl while character A pretends not to notice

What if character B is scared of ice cream? - They sweat anxiously and lean slightly away from the bowl while character A is confused

What if character A lets B have some, but they have only one spoon and B is a germaphobe? - character B gets a fork and a knife like they're eating a steak and character A laughs

I think you get what I'm trying to say here.
Just one small detail about a character's likes and dislikes (or anything, really) can change the context of the whole drawing and make it more entertaining

Maybe even include some humor! Make the viewer curious about the characters! Show your character's personality through poses!

--GOOD COLOR PALETTES CAN REALLY HELP SAVE YOUR PIECE--
-Don't be afraid to mess around with color palettes, we all start somewhere.
Trust me, my old coloring was horrendous before I started experimenting with it.

--LIMITED PALETTES--
-I've found that trying to limit my pallete to (shades?) of red, yellow, and blue has helped my colors harmonize a lot more

--LOWERING CONTRAST ON PALETTES SLIGHTLY-- I like to kick down the contrast (if my colors look off) to make the colors harmonize more by either using the contrast filter, or simply clipping a solid-colored layer (with low opacity) over my coloring layer. Mess around with it a little to figure out what settings you like
(Keep in mind, high contrast palettes also look good! Keep making them if that's what you're working towards. I just struggle with making them look right and I'm very lazy.)

--CLOTHES ARE NOT SKIN-TIGHT 24/7, SO MAKE IT SIT ON TOP OF YOUR SUBJECT--
I've noticed that in some beginner artist's works, they will draw, for example, a t-shirt, and make it so that it's skin tight around the body.
Unless you are purposefully drawing a skin-tight t-shirt, or clothing in general, make it hang off of the character's body. Make the clothing have thickness that shows it sitting on top of the skin.
The clothing should feel like it is a separate object from your character's body and it should interact with it (folds/creases when a pose shifts, gaps between a shirt-collar and skin, etc...)

--CLOTHING WEIGHTS/THICKNESSES--
Also, a bit extra, but a light raincoat will get flapped around by the wind much easier than a heavy winter jacket, so it could be a nice little detail to add.
(This effect especially stands out when your character's hair blows in the wind, but their jacket moves only a bit)

--THICK CLOTHES AND HOW THEY FOLD--
Also, thicker clothing tends to wrinkle?/fold less, and when it does, the creases are much thicker looking. So, a raincoat will have more, thinner folds/creases compared to those of a thick winter coat

SCULPTING
Also, sculpting with ordinary clay has really helped me to learn the structure and anatomy of faces
Bakeable clay is nice to work with if you take a long time to sculpt and don't want it to dry out while you work on it

I think I'll leave it at that for now, but I hope this helped!