Sorry, running a little late this week, but why waste a title, right? Somewhere in the world it may still be Friday, too! XD It was a super-nice day yesterday and I decided to just be outside most of my day. :)

This week I said I would talk about what I draw, what I like to draw and how I draw..........as well as what's easy for me to draw and what's hard for me to draw. So, let's dive right into that. This will be a shorter journal, but I encourage everyone to ask me questions about my art, because I love art--as it says in my little user page blurb about me. :D

It's hard to tell what I was doing first--art or writing, to me the two hobbies are pretty much similar in my universe. I've loved drawing and writing from a pretty young age. Most of that could probably be attributed to my local Library and the programs my parents took me to at them when I was little. As someone who works at a public Library now--many of these creative and stimulating programs still exist. If you're young, look into your local Library and see if they have writing or art programs--if you're older with kids, check out your local Library's programs. It will open up new worlds for your children that many schools (who are abandoning the arts) are not doing anymore.

I am the best at pen-and-ink artwork..........I actually really love inking stuff more than the sketching and the coloring. While you can omit the coloring part, unfortunately you still need to do the sketching/pencils before the inking. laughs Unless you're a master inker who doesn't need a sketch..............I am not that person, I still need a sketch to ink from. XD Nowadays, I do buy more professional brand art supplies--so, what I currently work with is a mix of Faber-Castell PITT artist pens (real India ink is used in these--so they are a darker black than most other artist pens) and Sakura's Pigma Micron pens. The tips tend to be different on both brands, which is why I use them interchangably..........like I prefer the PITT .05 pen much better than the Pigma one. I've also started to use this brand of brush pen, with Japanese labelling--I discovered them at AnimeExpo in 2015 and found out my local Hobby Lobby carries them.

Beyond pen-and-ink..........I'll use a mix of many other kinds of coloring mediums. My top go-to's are colored pencils and markers--I am quite willing to try any brand. But the ones I use most are Prismacolor (for colored pencils and markers) and Copics (markers). There are plenty of cheaper art markers out there now, some better than others, but most are good for people starting out with a quality item. For the best quality though, in markers--choose Copics, they are the best for a reason. Digital--I can't do lines digitally, but I import my hand-drawn lineart into CLIP Studio Paint and try to color some things digitally, when I feel like it--I owned this program when it was Manga Studio and I enjoy it.............but I'm not made to do digital art, so I prefer handdrawn at all times. I'm trying, slowly, to get around to trying painting again--I used to do a lot in my Middle School and High School years, until everything happened (see previous journals or summary next paragraph).

A long time ago, I used to draw pretty realistically--until High School's events happened. I stopped drawing for nearly a decade and lost my skills. When I came back to drawing, I couldn't draw the way I used to. I had also gained some light arthritis in my drawing/writing hand--so, I had to come down to simpler and quicker styles of art, which resulted in the cartoony/anime style I use now.

I like to draw animals the most--with humans and robots after that. Backgrounds and vehicles are a skill I need to improve upon. I'm not good at drawing robots, but I found a way to improve by actually drawing a human pose first and then building a robot body around the human one--I'm still not the greatest robot drawer, but it's better than I used to be. I'm really good at drawing classic style My Little Pony characters--that's probably what I'm best at drawing. XD

So, that's about it on art and me--I encourage you to ask any questions on tips I can impart. Brands of markers or pens or whatever I use and I can give you a mini-review. :)