Art Improvement Post - a Thank You! (Patreon)

I want to preface this post by thanking everybody for supporting me and helping me on my art journey thus far! I would not have made it this far without you and you'll soon see how much I've progressed.

I normally don't like to think about improvement or my past, but it's the end of another year so I was curious to compare my old work to my latest. 

Males, especially were a bit of a disaster for me early on, so I wanted to compare my drawing of a male from this week vs. 2019. These were drawn using the same tools and tablet:

What the hell is that nose? But, the improvement is pretty cool, huh?

My self-learning art journey has been a very bumpy one. I didn't get to really start until I was done university and working on my own. There was a lot of abuse from my narcissistic Asian parents which saw me miss out on any chance of attending an art school. (They forced me to get a classical music degree from the most prestigious university here, but it means nothing to me - I'd use that piece of paper to start a bonfire if there was nothing else) 

I bought my first graphics tablet after I had gotten my first job, which is a disgusting tale of exploitation of music teachers for another time. I picked out a HUION KANVAS 22 2019 on Amazon. It's the same tablet I've been using up until now, and besides the resolution being a little low and it being a little glare-y, I have had no other complaints and have used it daily. I also started getting higher quality glasses around this time for my terrible astigmatism eyes. 

When I first started, I did a lot of bad drawings trying to get my ideas down on paper. I did everything from trend-chasing, bad fanart weekly, joining art fight, and doing lots of requests and raffles. I did quite a few cheap commissions too, for far less than what my time was worth and always undercharged or gave discounts and even used sites that blatantly took advantage of artists like ArtistsnClients (30%+ of your earnings stolen in random made-up fees, anyone?). I am ashamed to admit I was looking for some sort of validation as much as I was looking for my own improvement. For most of that first year, I thought it was already too late for me to just start getting into drawing. 

It wasn’t until the Covid lockdown in 2020 where we started to work from home that I found myself with 2-3 hours extra a day from not commuting and a bit less anxiety compared to in-person working. So naturally I spent that on drawing and learning. I started my Chadtow account in mid-2021 after having improved a little more. I had given up trying to find validation because it wasn't coming and I decided to just draw what I wanted to. 

I found myself with more pocket money after opening this Patreon and doing commissions, and was able to purchase more resources, brushes and books to add to my knowledge that I couldn't afford before. I will always be grateful for those who like my artwork and want to help me improve! From here, it's going to keep expanding, and the quality of my work will continue to improve.

On a smaller scale, the improvement since about this time last year is also visibly noticeable: 

The improvement doesn’t stop here though! There’s loads to do and loads more to learn. There's a huge amount of things still to be explored. I'm excited to see how it will evolve further from here and I hope you'll stick around for the next part of this bumpy ride! :D 

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As always, thank you for your support! 😺