Art Is Hard

03 Apr 2025


I have been drawing for a long, long time. Ever since I was a kid I knew that an artist was something I wanted to be and I started to draw and learn in earnest. Fast forward 15 years later and I’ve come to a horrifying realization: I don’t know how to draw.

Can I combine shapes and lines to form a somewhat coherent image on a screen or paper? Yeah. Can I occasionally stumble into a decent drawing every once and a while? Yeah. But can I draw with a consistent level of quality and confidence, even when I’m drawing a blank? Am I good at a technical level? No.

When it comes to the fundamentals in art, I’m severely lacking. The few art classes I took in college weren’t drawing focused. It was more pottery, sculpture and art history. So when it comes to drawing, I’m completely self-taught. I learned through speedpaints and studies. By simple art tutorials by people like Preston Blair (I used to be more of a cartoony artist than anime. Something you can probably tell with my style.) And I could coast by with that…to a point.

Now that I am here in the vtuber space with so many talented and hard-working artists, I can’t help but find my art to be…lacking. Incredibly lacking. This goes beyond the fact that I have a simple art style while everyone makes detailed and beautifully rendered pieces for their oshis. I struggle with actually making fanart. I get frustrated and feel like I’m stalling. This especially hurts when I wanna draw cool stuff for my oshis but I physically can’t.

So…I’ve made the decision that I gotta stop being intimidated and I need to go back to basics. That means I have to learn the fundamentals.

The only problem with that is that I don’t even know where to start. I have a lot of books, physical and digital, on the fundamentals. But when it comes to actually learning, I don’t know what to work on first. I need to work on everything. I can only hope that I can figure it out with time.

This may be something that I blog about more frequently. It’s something I’ve been putting off for a while. I think I’ve plateaued enough with my art that I need a boost to move forward.

Here’s What I Plan On Studying

All these fundamentals are things I struggle with. Every single one. With a bit of hard work and discipline, I can hopefully improve in all of them.

I hope you’re ready for lots of posts filled with rough studies and practice photos…


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