#artists do such hard work

[bluebellhairpin]

well now I'm kickin dirt again.

#i really wanna spend this money on an art com and put it back into the community #keep the goodness flowing and all that #but all the artists i know who have this coms open are still too expensive (rightfully so too. they look so worth every cent) #however i am a little bummed out about it #bc it means that moneys just gonna sit until spotify pulls it all outta my paypal account #and im not gonna have it there for a com like i want #it a little silly to get held up about it but i am sad i cant support other artists bc i really want to #i wanna give someone a reason to create something and still get something back from it #artists do such hard work #and its so hard to make a break and make a living off your art #i wish reblogs felt like enough but i wanna give them MULA #(while also selfishly getting a nice little picture to glue to the wall beside my bed) #anyway im gonna go either sulk or continue to stalk my mooties who've gotten coms to see if i can find someone who was hidin from me

[dovesick]

endless night

#animal art #animal comic #penguin art #comic art #artists on tumblr #just a comic about emperor penguins #(they are emperor penguins but yellow didn’t go with the colour scheme loool) #(i tried to make it work just trust me lol) #i keep forgetting to upload here woops #sometimes i don’t wanna draw anthros #i’ve been wanting to experiment again #i have a couple pieces planned #but i also wanna do more horror #rlyyyyy hard to decide lmaoooo

[inkskinned]

the thing about art is that it was always supposed to be about us, about the human-ness of us, the impossible and beautiful reality that we (for centuries) have stood still, transfixed by music. that we can close our eyes and cry about the same book passage; the events of which aren't real and never happened. theatre in shakespeare's time was as real as it is now; we all laugh at the same cue (pursued by bear), separated hundreds of years apart.

three years ago my housemates were jamming outdoors, just messing around with their instruments, mostly just making noise. our neighbors - shy, cautious, a little sheepish - sat down and started playing. i don't really know how it happened; i was somehow in charge of dancing, barefoot and laughing - but i looked up, and our yard was full of people. kids stacked on the shoulders of parents. old couples holding hands. someone had brought sidewalk chalk; our front walk became a riot of color. someone ran in with a flute and played the most astounding solo i've ever heard in my life, upright and wiggling, skipping as she did so. she only paused because the violin player was kicking his heels up and she was laughing too hard to continue.

two weeks ago my friend and i met in the basement of her apartment complex so she could work out a piece of choreography. we have a language barrier - i'm not as good at ASL as i'd like to be (i'm still learning!) so we communicate mostly through the notes app and this strange secret language of dancers - we have the same movement vocabulary. the two of us cracking jokes at each other, giggling. there were kids in the basement too, who had been playing soccer until we took up the far corner of the room. one by one they made their slow way over like feral cats - they laid down, belly-flat against the floor, just watching. my friend and i were not in tutus - we were in slouchy shirts and leggings and socks. nothing fancy. but when i asked the kids would you like to dance too? they were immediately on their feet and spinning. i love when people dance with abandon, the wild and leggy fervor of childhood. i think it is gorgeous.

their adults showed up eventually, and a few of them said hey, let's not bother the nice ladies. but they weren't bothering us, they were just having fun - so. a few of the adults started dancing awkwardly along, and then most of the adults. someone brought down a better sound system. someone opened a watermelon and started handing out slices. it was 8 PM on a tuesday and nothing about that day was particularly special; we might as well party.

one time i hosted a free "paint along party" and about 20 adults worked quietly while i taught them how to paint nessie. one time i taught community dance classes and so many people showed up we had to move the whole thing outside. we used chairs and coatracks to balance. one time i showed up to a random band playing in a random location, and the whole thing got packed so quickly we had to open every door and window in the place.

i don't think i can tell you how much people want to be making art and engaging with art. they want to, desperately. so many people would be stunning artists, but they are lied to and told from a very young age that art only matters if it is planned, purposeful, beautiful. that if you have an idea, you need to be able to express it perfectly. this is not true. you don't get only 1 chance to communicate. you can spend a lifetime trying to display exactly 1 thing you can never quite language. you can just express the "!!??!!!"-ing-ness of being alive; that is something none of us really have a full grasp on creating. and even when we can't make what we want - god, it feels fucking good to try. and even just enjoying other artists - art inherently rewards the act of participating.

i wasn't raised wealthy. whenever i make a post about art, someone inevitably says something along the lines of well some of us aren't that lucky. i am not lucky; i am dedicated. i have a chronic condition, my hands are constantly in pain. i am not neurotypical, nor was i raised safe. i worked 5-7 jobs while some of these memories happened. i chose art because it mattered to me more than anything on this fucking planet - i would work 80 hours a week just so i could afford to write in 3 of them.

and i am still telling you - if you are called to make art, you are called to the part of you that is human. you do not have to be good at it. you do not have to have enormous amounts of privilege. you can just... give yourself permission. you can just say i'm going to make something now and then - go out and make it. raquel it won't be good though that is okay, i don't make good things every time either. besides. who decides what good even is?

you weren't called to make something because you wanted it to be good, you were called to make something because it is a basic instinct. you were taught to judge its worth and over-value perfection. you are doing something impossible. a god's ability: from nothing springs creation.

a few months ago i found a piece of sidewalk chalk and started drawing. within an hour i had somehow collected a small classroom of young children. their adults often brought their own chalk. i looked up and about fifteen families had joined me from around the block. we drew scrangly unicorns and messed up flowers and one girl asked me to draw charizard. i am not good at drawing. i basically drew an orb with wings. you would have thought i drew her the mona lisa. she dragged her mother over and pointed and said look! look what she drew for me and, in the moment, i admit i flinched (sorry, i don't -). but the mother just grinned at me. he's beautiful. and then she sat down and started drawing.

someone took a picture of it. it was in the local newspaper. the summary underneath said joyful and spontaneous artwork from local artists springs up in public gallery. in the picture, a little girl covered in chalk dust has her head thrown back, delighted. laughing.

#writeblr #warm up #this is longer than i wanted i really considered removing that part about myself and what i went thru #but i think it really fucking bothers me that EVERY time i talk about being an artist #ppl assume i just like. had the skill and ability to drop everything and pay for grad school. #like sir i grew up poor. my house wasn't a safe space. i gave up a FREE RIDE TO LAW SCHOOL. for THIS. bc i chose it. #was it fucking hard? was i choosing the hard thing?? yes. #but we need to stop seeing artists as lazy layabouts that can ''afford'' to just ''sit around and create'' #when MANY - if not MOST - of us are NOT like that. we have to work our fucking ASSES off. hard work. long and hard work #part of valuing artists is recognizing the amount we sacrifice to make our art. bc it doesn't just #like HAPPEN to us. also btw it rarely has anything to do with true talent. #speaking as someone with a chronic condition i hate when ppl are like u have it easy. like actively as i'm writing this my hands r #ACTIVELY hurting me. i haven't been posting bc my left hand was curled in a claw for the last week #this isn't fucking luck. after a certain point it's not even TALENT. it's dedication & sacrifice. #''u get to flounce around and do nothing with ur life'' is a narrative that is a direct result of capitalism #imagine if we said that about literally any other profession. #''oh so u give up 10 yrs of ur life to be a doctor? u sacrifice having a social life and u get SUPER in debt? #u need to work countless hours and it will often be thankless? well i wish i was that lucky'' #we should be applying that logic to landlords ONLY #''oh ur mom and dad gave u the money to buy a house? and all u did was paint it white and rent it? huh.''

[ionomycin]

My favorite pieces this year

#artists on tumblr #thank you so much for another year #as long as i can keep doing art #i'm super grateful #got to work on some cool projects #tried to push myself to socialize more #it's hard #super mega hard #but i met a few new people and made friends i think?? #got to play d&d finally #trying to learn how to make friends as an adult lmao #after just focusing on drawing my whole life #shoutout to my plants as well #holding together my mental health through the winter #it's my 3rd christmas in germany #glad to spend another one with my partner in gay

[fiendishartist2]

redraw of this post from bunnyfarm's release

kofi|instagram

#my last piece kinda disappointed me just bc i feel like i can do better #idk i think my style is taking a turn and im not sure how to work w it yet. i like messy art that looks kind of childish?- #-if that makes sense #but that kind of clashes w my way of drawing and i also have like no energy or creativity left bc of school </3 so its hard to draw #at least stuff that i really like that are like fully rendered and not just doodles or character standing w white background lol #so i took inspo from an old piece of mine to make this and sort of update it and i really like it!! i think my colours are way better #in the original they were kinda washed out i think and this is a lot more striking #me when primary colours #my art #digital art #artists on tumblr #the walten files #twf #bunnyfarm #sophie walten #jack walten #felix kranken #twf spoilers #tw eyestrain

[excali8ur]

Weird dream.

#art #tmnt #tmnt original iteration #tmnt au #tmnt au leo #leo #teenage mutant ninja turtles #tmta #artists on tumblr #Hi I came up with an AU idea like. Last November #*Oops October actually #And I'm only just posting about it on main. I'm so good at this #Tbf I'm quite happy to just work on it slowly I've got a lot of plot points to iron out anyway #Also I'm primarily doing this for myself #So sorry if the stuff I post doesn't have much substance to it. This mostly only exists inside my brain #Only thing I will share is that I've been referring to the setting as Teenage Mutant Transgender Allegories in my head lmao #They're not explicitly trans. But they may as well be because I am projecting Hard onto this #The turtles are also. Kind of dicks to begin with. Less so Donnie but he has other problems to deal with #The whole thing is about growth and learning to change. So yea #And obviously family too. This is TMNT after all. #ANYWAY. I WILL STOP RAMBLING IN THE TAGS NOW. #Gonna go through my drafts and post the other stuff I made before this one so it's at least in the right order even if I am posting it late

[artharakka]

Beautiful, But Broken

#bg3 #tiefling #tw blood #c: Viivi #so I redid my bg3 character because I wasn't feeling durge that much. So now my sibling does durge and I regular tav Viivi #(changed her to tiefling for funs) #at least I meant to do regular tav but uhhhhh things have gone very unfortunately very fast #anyway. Viivi is an artist; she does painting sculpting poetry and some prose. Experimenting with this and that #unfortunately she is deaf which made making connections a bit hard in the fine arts world #fortunately she has a patreon with one very generous patron (she's fey warlock)✨ who has bestowed some gifts of charms for her #which have opened doors of many art galleries #She's not a fighter so although she is confident in her own lane she is also very aware of her mortality #so she avoided any fights she could #which might have saved her but also got her into the mess of her lifetime #you see she couldn't fight the entire goblin camp and their leaders. She would've just not survived that. So she convinced them #that she is a True Soul. She is good at convincing people. It worked. They thought she is on their side. Good #Halsin also though Viivi was on their side. Halsin attacked Viivi's party. Now Halsin is dead. #So Viivi and her group were still alone deep within enemy fort. Viivi made new plans. She frees the prisoner who says he will warn the grov #Good thinks Viivi now they know to flee. I will go to Minthara and tell we got the information from prisoner of the grove location #she will trust us and we walk off #when we get back to grove they have not fled and Minthara is at the gates #Minthara wants Viivi to sound the horn. Zevlor wants Viivi to sound the horn. Viivi asks Zevlor to please tell this plan in detail. #Zevlor says just blow the horn already. Viivi does that. Minthara thanks Viivi for leaving the gate open as planned #Zevlor does not thank Viivi for that. Viivi is confused as she did not leave the gate open. (for real the damn gate was left open) #So I did a Massacre. #now Karlach is gone Wyll is dead. Lae'zel is also dead #but apparently Minthara is ready to be very loving and sincere with Viivi. The most helpful person she has met in very long time. #Viivi might love her #so that is how she's doing.

[salamispots]

making a little comic with the little sea angel/sea butterfly friends 👀

+ some sketches when I went to the aquarium (again hhsh)

#artists on tumblr #sketchbook stuff #decided to let the other story/drawing cook more #will get back to that another time #went to new york aquarium for the first time! :O #wouldn't mind going back to draw more since I went with fam and it's kinda hard to draw #when there's people waiting/wanting to go do other stuff #also I'm a dumbass and finally know why my dip nibs weren't working #or I knew you were supposed to get the oil on the nibs off but it wasn't working till I saw a youtube vid #that mentioned something acidic/rubbing alcohol/saliva #and some nibs I had were super stubborn so I used lemon juice and it worked mHSHSA #windsor and newton fineliner my beloved

[bigcatbulges]

Source - mamenokoooo

#gay furry #gay furry pecs #gay furry bulge #gay furry pits #gay furry belly #artists twitter above #missy elliot was so right if you do have a big elephant noise let me search it (and find how hard i gotta work it)

[embroid-away]

Thunderbolts (2016), No. 7 Variant Cover by Marco Checchetto

a Marvel Trumps Hate ( @marveltrumpshate ) 2021 commission created with embroidery floss, watercolors, fabric, and fine glitter paint on aida cloth in a 10" bamboo hoop frame

A lot of life happened between the commission date and now, but I'm very proud of how this turned out, and I know that 2021 Rebecca wouldn't have been able to create this, so the time was worth it. (No offense 2021 Rebecca, we've just grown as an artist.)

Bonus for details and ✨sparkles✨

#hand embroidery #winter soldier #kobik #bucky barnes #Bucky & Kobik #marvel trumps hate #mixed media #textile art #thunderbolts #comics #marvel comics #embroidery #the watercolors were especially hard to do bc my brain isn't a fan of browns and blacks and bucky very much is #neutral colors and guns are apparently my artistic weaknesses #BUT the work and effort was worth it 100000% #my work #MTH commission

[kikicolors]

:/

#it makes me furious #especially when they use the my art tag along with ai art #its not ur art its thousands maybe millions of other artists' hard work ur profiting off of and somehow not feeling shame over? #imagine genuinely being proud of that #its completely unregulated and theres no rules #people are using ai art for their childrens books/illustrated novels and selling them on amazon #its so disgusting #i understand doing it for fun but you didnt 'make it' and you shouldn't profit off of it #artists on tumblr #Artists of Tumblr #Illustration #Digital Illustration #digital drawing #animal art #horse #ai art #anti ai art #arrow #arrows #animal portrait #equine #artists #art #digital painting #no to ai art

[artandbrimstone]

hello there tumblr idk how many of you remember that silly little animatic ive been working on for uhhhhh four months but IT IS COMPLETE

here is the full thing but i would really appreciate it if you hyped it up on youtube as well!!

#it only took four months three jay redesigns me catching up to riptide and a lot of fighting with adobe animate #ngl i dont like how i drew jay towards the start but we get there in the end i think #im so excited to post this ive been working on it for so sos os so long #also tried my best to do some cool sound design stuff but good sfe are hard to find :( #art #my art #jrwi #artists on tumblr #just roll with it #jrwi fanart #jrwi riptide #jrwi show #animation #animatic #jrwi animation #jrwi animatic #gillion tidestrider #jay ferin #chip jrwi #jrwi chip #jrwi jay ferin #jrwi jay #chip bastard #gillion fanart #gillion jrwi #jrwi gillion #just roll with it gillion

[linolinoing]

dream job 🔫

#remember that one makeup artist who quit working with bts after falling in love with jimin #yeah that's me with chris #skz #stray kids #bang chan #bangchan #bystay #staydaily #channiesnet #by01ino #I had a vision OKAY #did i fail? yes #so what #SUE ME #all three of those videos are so hard to colour #the billboard one had a whole fucking sepia effect on it #why are we still doing that billboard huh #I'm literally just a girl #anywho none of these match and it's okay by me #(no it's not but what can I do)

[lil-lemon-snails]

He's just trying to make you feel better 🧸👋☀️

#nothing I was drawing tonight was working out so uh.... #*drops this and runs* #fnaf #five nights at freddy's #fan art #fnaf security breach #fnaf sun #sundrop #fnaf sun moon #fnaf daycare attendant #security breach #artists on tumblr #drawing his head at an angle is so hard how are people doing this #snailems art tag

[timetravellingkitty]

SAPPHIC ARTISTS TO LISTEN TO

(instead of writing your 69th essay about how Taylor Swift is a closet lesbian)

Starting off with my holy trinity:

Rina Sawayama (she/her, bi/pan): if you follow me you're probably aware of what a huge Rina fan I am. Lots of pop and rock, with a chunk of her earlier songs being R&B. Her debut album SAWAYAMA (my favourite album of all time!!) was her major breakthrough moment as it received critical acclaim and her sophomore album Hold the Girl made her the highest charting Japanese artist in the history of the UK. Known for her musical versatility, she made her acting debut in John Wick 4. I recommend: Cherry, Frankenstein and Bad Friend

Janelle Monáe (she/they, bi/pan): pop, funk, neo-soul and psychedelic. They have an entire series of concept albums about an android named Cindy Mayweather (her ALTER EGO?!) as she commits the crime of falling in love with a human. Lots of social commentary. Her album Dirty Computer comes along with a narrative film and a book taking place in its world. She's starred in movies like Antebellum, Glass Onion and Moonlight. I recommend: Electric Lady, Django Jane and Pynk

Raveena Aurora (she/her, bi): Experimental pop, R&B and soul. Her second album Asha's Awakening is a concept album following the journey of Asha, a Punjabi space princess, as it explores Aurora's South Asian identity and past relationships. Such a beautiful and soft voice to die for. I recommend: Headaches, If Only and Kathy Left 4 Kathmandu

Moving onto some other artists I like:

Boygenius: a band comprising of three sapphic women- Phoebe Bridgers (indie darling™), Lucy Dacus and Julien Baker (the first two are bi while the third is a lesbian). Indie, folk and alternative rock. Very melancholic. I urge you to check out their individual projects too (especially Phoebe's, I love her Punisher album). I recommend: Emily I'm Sorry, Satanist and True Blue

Kelela (she/her, queer): R&G, electronic and alternative R&B. Her debut EP Hallucinogen covers the beginning, middle and end of a relationship in reverse chronological order. Her second album Raven showcases Black futuristic art, which I fuck with. I recommend: Contact, The High and Bluff

Zolita (she/her, lesbian): dark-pop, R&B and electropop. She incorporates witchcraft into her music and mvs. She literally has an EP called Sappho what more could you want? I recommend: Holy, Ashley (the sapphic Speak Now) and Bedspell

Victoria Monét (she/her, bi): pop and R&B. She's written songs for artists like Ariana Grande (7 Rings) and Chloe x Halle (Do It). Go stream her Jaguar EP you will thank me later. I recommend: Touch Me (erotic sapphic song), Cupid and Love U Better

And finally some honourable mentions (can't make this post too long now can I): mxmtoon, Michelle Zauner, Arooj Aftab, Sir Babygirl, Dodie, Chloe Moriondo, Lauren Jauregui, Baby Queen, Sara and Teagan, The Butchies, Sofya Wang and Melissa Etheridge

#god works hard but i work harder #anyways. im going to sleep this took way too much time #sapphic #lesbian #bisexual #pansexual #music #NO I AM NOT TAGGING EVERY ARTIST HERE DO YOU WANT ME TO FUCKING DIE??? #or actually #rina sawayama #janelle monáe #raveena #boygenius #kelela #zolita #victoria monét #okay but i'm not tagging the honorary mentions that's way too many #music recs #anti gaylor

[sergle]

how come you don't draw the ppl / characters you have the hots for

there's a certain kind of artist that can do that... a better type of artist................. and an artist who can stand to look at the reference material for more than a few seconds at a time.

#i can't look at someone i'm TRULY attracted to for very long before needing to basically walk it off and this is not a joke #but also there are a few Types of artists and one of them is the type where most of the work is self portraiture #or like. self adjacent. hence all the art. of. fat women. that i make. sort of more of my likeness #but also if you do a bad job drawing someone you think is hot then it's sort of like well. maybe i should consider killing myself #sergle answers #sometimes you don't want to. BESMIRCH. something that you like. by not doing it justice when you draw it #weird coming from me bc I used to draw EXCLUSIVELY fanart but also I wasn't thinking about it that hard at the time