Figuring out art

The first thing you need to know about me is, I'm not good at art. Both my sister and my mother have always been good at painting, drawing, and crafts in general. But for me, lets just say its never come easy. A long time ago my mother tried teaching me how to draw. After a few hours of drawing, erasing, and redrawing; all I had was a barley recognizable cat. I was so hurt by my horrible first attempt that I actually stopped trying for a while. A few years later I tried leaning from an online art program. I found it very confusing but kept at it. After about a month my "cat?" has turned into a slightly more recognizable cat. I was so angry with my lack of talent while my older sister just did a good job without even trying. So after a few years of honestly just giving up, I thought I would just attempt to teach myself. I mean there was no way I could get worse.

The first thing that I did when I started to each myself was to decide if I wanted to do digital drawing or normal on paper art. I realized that I had already tried traditional art so many time and couldn't do it, so this time I would try digital art. The next hurtle was deciding how I was going to actually do that. I first did a little bit of research and found an art program that had good reviews and wasn't expensive. I ended up with a free art program named Krita, there are probably better programs out there but it was free, so why not. I messed with all the tools that I had never seen before and looked at all the color options to see what I had. I was then given the advise to try and redraw my old art to try practice. I found that drawing digitally was a lot easier for me then drawing traditionally. I of course am not perfect yet; not by a long shot. But I do believe that I am getting a lot better. I was also told that I was at a disadvantage because I use keyboard and mouse and not the tablet and pen, but unfortunately I don't have the money for the equipment.

One of my biggest problems was drawing hands. My first few attempts very much looked like the hand turkeys you would make in grade school. But I was determined. I did nothing but draw hands for a whole month. I took pictures of my own hands to use as references and just practiced. Practicing on hands helped me not only with the hands themselves but a few other things I needed work on as well. One of the things that it helped me with was the use of skin colors. It took a lot of mixing and playing with different textures, but I finally got a good skin texture and color for my hands that didn't look so weird. Drawing hands also helped me with shading and working with shadows. That's definitely was a big thing for me because doing good at shading helps make the picture look not so one dimensional. I do have to admit I still have a lot more practice, but if I can get hands down; I can do anything.

The thing that I learned over the few months that I have been practicing and teaching myself was that I should just have fun. When I was trying to learn how to draw when I was younger and then again a few years ago I was trying to learn for the wrong reason. Back then I wanted to learn because I wanted to prove that I could do what my sister and my mother could do. I wanted to prove something for other people and not because I thought it was fun. I think now when I draw I do it because it's relaxing and genuinely fun for me. I don't try to push myself when I'm not in the mood and I only draw what I want. It might seem weird but I learned that I'm not going to get anywhere if I do things for the wrong reason. I'll continue to practice and try my hardest, but most importantly I'll continue to have fun. Maybe one day I'll be good at art.