Do you draw?

[maninahat]

I was thinking about the stuff I used to do as a kid that I don't do now, and one of those things was drawing. I did it all the bloody time. I would be handed giant wads of recycled paper from my cousin's workplace, (usually covered in stranger's confidential tax information) and draw for hours. It was never anything any good either, I usually drew robots or arsenals of guns for video games I had made up (it was the 90s), which no doubt perplexed anyone looking through them.

Was this a thing any of you did? Did any of you never get out of the habit? Colouring has now become this thing that's acceptable for adults to do, but doodling seems to be that bit rarer.

 

[Zhukov]

Used to.

Never got properly good at it though. Got to a point where I was getting frustrated with my inability to get my imagination down on paper but in order to improve I would have had to practice in a disciplined manner, which I wasn't willing to do for the sake of a pastime. Plus the practice can be frustrating on its own.

I think I still have some of my work floating around online.

Yeah, here we go, here's a few I actually liked:

Spoiler

(The last one is so small because it was intended to be a forum avatar.)

 

[Bob_McMillan]

I used to, and people said I was good at it.

I neglected it though, and I'm not that great at it anymore. On occasion, if I'm inspired, I can make something that doesn't look garbage.

 

[Casual Shinji]

I used to draw a shitload and I was pretty good at it, but the motivation has sort of left me with age.

 

[bluegate]

Used to draw a lot, neglected it and now whenever I try and draw something and it doesn't resemble what I envisioned it to look like, I just throw it away, I hardly ever get a finished drawing on paper anymore because I choose to throw them away all the time.

For a creative outlet I drifted towards the digital and mathematical, programming to be more precise, because I like how rigid and reliable it is, if, for example, I wish to draw a 100x100px square on the screen, I just have to write up some certain lines of code and there is my square, no deviations, no uncertainties, nothing.

Drawing a square with a ruler, however, no matter how careful and meticulous, there's always room for error.
And this isn't just about drawing simple squares, for example with drawing character faces, drawing the same character hundreds of times and having to have the character keep resembling itself...

 

[Glongpre]

Used to.

Never got properly good at it though. Got to a point where I was getting frustrated with my inability to get my imagination down on paper but in order to improve I would have had to practice in a disciplined manner, which I wasn't willing to do for the sake of a pastime. Plus the practice can be frustrating on its own.

I think I still have some of my work floating around online.

Yeah, here we go, here's a few I actually liked:

Spoiler

(The last one is so small because it was intended to be a forum avatar.)

Man, those are really good! You should keep at it. Is that second picture a common raven? It's spot on.

OP:

I doodle. I would say I'm getting better at a snails pace because I only do it occasionally, usually in boring classes. I took a fitness related program, so I can draw muscled bodies pretty well. But faces and hands (and feet!) are a struggle, haha. I usually stick to humanoids, and usually put a helmet on them or something so I don't have to draw the face. I have started an environmental program, so when I doodle I usually draw animals.
And they are all classy animals, with top hats and tobacco pipes, haha.

My work is pretty mediocre. Zhukov's is like 10 times better than mine.

 

[Saelune]

I drew alot, but never thought much of it. No one encouraged me until much later. I wish I took it more seriously sooner. I did eventually try to take it more seriously, and took a few art classes to do so. One teacher said I have alot of potential, but no discipline. The classes did not go how I wanted though. I will never be a professional artist, but I do still want to hone my hobby. I got an art tablet recently, but I am having trouble with the technical aspects of it, but I really want to improve.

 

[Eclipse Dragon]

Yeah I did, I still do

Not enough though, never enough, in fact,

Spoiler: I should be drawing right now.

Obviously, I didn't draw this.

I do mostly graphic work for companies, which leaves me pretty drained of motivation by the end of the day. Instead I just want to play a video game or spend time with friends or family, leaving little room for the type of drawing that actually makes me happy. Getting started is the trouble, when I actually do sit down, my brain remembers "Oh yeah, you had fun doing this at one time".

Spoiler: Here are some simple dragon head shots I did for fun from Flight Rising, a web game I play

 

[sageoftruth]

I did, sort of. Real amateur stuff, and I didn't post any of it online. I got started through a class on drawing comics, and later I got myself a tablet and Manga Studio, but now I feel too intimidated to try it.

It probably didn't help that I recently dropped out of a drawing class I'd signed up for. I'm trying to convince myself that I can still learn to draw, even though I couldn't bear to draw pots, cups, and fruit using charcoal (charcoal sucks btw).

With my current commitment to writing and my new addiction to Bloodborne and Nioh, it may take awhile to rekindle that hobby, but I do have nights where I look forward to getting back into it.

If I wasn't at work, this thread probably would have convinced me to go do it right now.

 

[Neurotic Void Melody]

As in just pencil drawing? Not as much now. Kinda do whatever affords me the most versatility and desired effect. Pencil hasn't been useful to achieving what I want for a while. But still okay for planning. Find biro pens better for doodling mindlessly or bold looking imagery. Have been more experimenting with collaboration of various colour, especially bright neon signs in midnight rain. Shimmering reflections, defracting light, natural behaviours of physics playing with what aesthetics technology allows us. Monochrome detracts a lot from that.

Yeah I did, I still do

Not enough though, never enough, in fact,

Spoiler: I should be drawing right now.

Obviously, I didn't draw this.

I do mostly graphic work for companies, which leaves me pretty drained of motivation by the end of the day. Instead I just want to play a video game or spend time with friends or family, leaving little room for the type of drawing that actually makes me happy. Getting started is the trouble, when I actually do sit down, my brain remembers "Oh yeah, you had fun doing this at one time".

Spoiler: Here are some simple dragon head shots I did for fun from Flight Rising, a web game I play

Top-hat dragon is my fave, very good stuff!

Edit: oki, as it isn't restricted to one type and feel less messed up now, might as well add a couple of recent attempts. Doing an edit instead to not draw attention (lol accidental pun) so much.

Spoiler: Most recent

Was just supposed to be a satire of an American nightmare, as it is a US location, phone cam washed out some colour and reflects some unwanted environmental light which is annoying. Not 100% as am doing somebody else's demand for a birthday pic, but after that, will get back to doing the necessary bits that are annoying right now.

Spoiler: Something else

Giraffe tattoo idea. Got a better lit version somewhere, but not too bothered with it right now.

Spoiler: Other stuff lost to the winds of time due to not being the most stable of bears previously. Have nothing else to do right now but embarrass oneself

Called it "the feast before the maw of oblivion" cos why not, am a ****, it had some intergalactic intentions of being stuck between a rock and a hard place. Or a black hole and an eternally devouring machine. Tomato tomato.

Really should've taken better lit photos before disappearing these from existence.

An initial thought pic of a story about a single high tech solar city housing the last of human civilisation on a mostly dead planet, throwing out anybody unable to meet certain high standards of the society within. But some discarded outdated/ancient AI survives outside mysteriously helping the exiled survive the brutality of nature and sort of hang on as a community just about, with a few weird sacrifices that may not be sacrifices depending on how people view what they cannot yet interpret.

Uh, somebody wanted a tattoo of the shape, that's it really.

Spoiler: Not so content with these, but some obligation to compensate for past stupidity and loss is there

Umm.

Somebody wanted the vague details done, was not as pleased as they were. Time sink problems occured.

Seemed like a good idea at the time.

Crap, just remembered where this one is. Or...Was. not sure. Oh well.

 

[the December King]

Sure. And I used to draw up video game ideas and stuff on old wads of scrap too!

These are all sketches, done during RPG sessions over the last few years (the pics take an hour or so, not years), and later digitally enhanced:

Spoiler: a Glaistig SootheSayer (NOTE: NSFW)

Spoiler: AlagHar, Leader of the BlackScale Naissance Movement

Spoiler: STRK Heavy Ordinance Unit

But not so much for myself anymore, and sadly most of what I used to do for work got automated.

EDIT: updated post for optimal image scale

 

[COMaestro]

I used to doodle quite a bit, and every now and then the bug bites me and I'll sketch out a few things. I feel I have some raw talent, but never spent the time or effort to develop it into something more. I find I do this quite a bit with my hobbies, where I'll go on a kick for a while with something, then get distracted by something else and move on to it. Between drawing, painting, writing, reading, video and board gaming, watching the occasional movie or television show, and then things that are just part of life like working, raising my kids and spending time with my wife and friends, I just feel I don't really have the time (or motivation) to fully pursue any one hobby, so I just dabble in a bunch of them.

 

[Izanagi009_v1legacy]

I do draw sometimes, mostly for weapons I would like to have in a game or tabletop RPG

my designs aren't the best though, samples below:
Warframe weapon concept 1 [https://forums.warframe.com/topic/714595-paradoxical-corpus-greatsword-concept/#comment-7985031]
Warframe weapon concept 2 [https://forums.warframe.com/topic/713839-karna-the-solar-frame-vasavi-shakti-concepts/]

 

[Elijin]

Only at lunch time.

Rarely ever achieve anything though.

 

[Fijiman]

I used to doodle a lot in high school, but I basically haven't drawn shit since then. I really want to and have any ideas, but I just haven't bothered to sit down and actually draw something despite having time to.

 

[Souplex]

I tried drawing once, the survivors envied the dead.
Never again.

 

[Casual Shinji]

I used to draw a shitload and I was pretty good at it, but the motivation has sort of left me with age.

Same. I drew obsessively until I was maybe fourteen. It gives me no joy now.

Well, with me it wasn't until maybe a year ago that I stopped. Before then I'd been drawing the last 20 years of my life, only to suddenly not give too much of a shit anymore.

 

[Baffle]

I do not. I traced a graph the other day, and even that looked shit.

 

[OManoghue]

Actually yes!