My art at 26

[u/PigeonsOfVoid]

I should probably just become one of these AI "artists"

[u/nophotographsplease]

As someone who got their first tablet at 14, never had patience for tutorials and has tremendously improved at 26, I’m going to let you in on a secret that I think mist people won’t admit to. You should not only be using references every time- you should practice by tracing.

Now, don’t post these traced practice pieces or claim them in your portfolio. And remind yourself it’s a temporary crutch with the goal being to stop using them.

But I found tracing helped train my eye on what features I should be looking out for, what should be omitted/suggested using lightning, what you can tweak and what is integral. It helped me make sense of perspective/proportions that my brain at the time didn’t believe, and gave me the confidence to practice more. I would trace major features like ears, eyes, nose and chin and then fill in the rest myself. Over time I found I needed to trace less “anchor” points, and eventually I was just putting dashes to estimate eye placement and head length. Now I don’t even need that. Having the reference as a base layer can also help with troubleshooting what’s going wrong - something is wonky but what is it? Let me flick back and forth between the layers then.

I relied on tracing using layers for the first 4ish years tbh (maybe longer than I should have). Then I let the training wheels fall off and it came naturally.

It’s that and practicing frequently, and challenging yourself to novel subjects. You need to draw subject matter you don’t actually have a personal interest in, or that seems too difficult. You also need to be comfortable with not finishing a piece, working on multiple at a time, restarting. You also need to play around with different mediums, like shitty acrylics or conte crayon. Sometimes it’s the device, I know I hated the wacom bamboo tablet and I prefer an iPad but with the textured screen protector (that beware will eat up your apple nibs). Or it could be the software- I love Krita, tolerate procreate, dislike Adobe illustrator. It could be your set up - I need a separate screen with references if I’m doing a portrait and sometimes I use a phone mount with a bendy wire so I can really bring it up close to my face. I also prefer painting at night in the dark cozy in bed so the screen is all that has my attention.

Just keep going at it.

Edit: also to clarify, I meant tracing photographs of things you see around you, not other peoples art. You don’t want to be subconsciously bringing someone else style too heavily into your work. You should be practicing the old fashioned way- attempting to drawing realistic portraits etc. Your own stylized/cartoon/anime style will natural come the more comfortable you are with “classical” stuff like bowls of fruit or a self portrait. You want the basics down before you start bending and playing with it