It's her!

i've returned to my ongoing challenge of figuring out digital art, and i think i've finally made notable progress. i spent years frustrated with myself because i wasn't able to engage with digital art in the slightest - the tools weren't intuitive, the brushes didn't produce marks like i wanted them to, and i could recreate anything i made digitally with exponentially more skill in traditional media.

a few years ago, i set myself a month-long challenge to practice digital art regularly, complete pieces, watch tutorials, and learn how to use these tools. i gave up two weeks in, deciding that what i could do digitally was so far from what i wanted my art to look like that it wasn't even worth the effort to learn to work like this.

but i think a large part of the problem wasn't me. i was using krita at the time because it was free, but it really had no features that made it appealing to me. i was also working on a laptop that was barely hanging onto life - again, because i obtained it for free - and it would sometimes take over half an hour just to turn on. i had a whole routine of other tasks i could do while i waited for my laptop to turn on so i could draw. in short....it sucked! you don't have to wait for colored pencils to warm up for 30 minutes before you can use them! i went back to traditional.

i have a nice new laptop now (!!!) after seven years of battling my old one and hating every minute of that time we spent together. i also started using rebelle 5 because i got it on a huge discount a few years ago (but only started using it now lol), and it's miles ahead of krita in what i can accomplish with it. i have a massive disadvantage when it comes to digital art in that video tutorials make me want to tear through walls, so a program that i can figure out without having to watch a single video or actually learn anything is a plus. half the things i did to finish this painting i learned by accident. and i enjoyed it! the process was fun!

anyway!! very long-winded way of saying that i learned how to do digital art! this piece isn't perfect, but i'm infinitely happier with it than with any other digital piece i've done before. it's nice to look back over five years of struggling and realize that i've learned a skill that i thought was impossible for me to grasp.

so I finally drew something (i.e. a new sona design) and felt like posting it here too after remembering
hello cohost, I do things... sometimes...
(in hindsight that loincloth was pretty mid and I think I'll drop it from later pics I do with this guy)

quickie frosty lass