Art question!
Did you ever have something you felt really propelled your art skills forward?
For me it was the Pokemon TCG Illustration Contest for 2022. I tried so hard for that. Didn't make it past the first round of judging, but I was so proud of my work. And I think I became a much better artist because of it.
@ziphi yes but it’s weirdly specific. Since I had to relearn using a badly crippled hand, when I started drawing as an adult, and even had my brain click over into thinking more spatially, I still held pencils in this death grip. Sometime in the mid 20 teens, I watched a video of Iain McCaig drawing, where he swapped out how he held pencils pretty continuously. That shook up how *I* was holding my pencils and opened up a lot more fluidity.
@ziphi This was just magic. I got better at holding my pencil lightly and at different points, but by comparison, he was *all over the place* with where and how tightly he kept control. It was less like watching a drawing develop and more like watching an Olympic athlete.
@Leucrotta I should work on the way I hold my drawing tools. I have one way I do it, and while it's not holding me back or anything, I'm not able to comfortably switch to other ways of drawing. People who hold brushes and pencils lightly from far back and still produce good work are like sorcerers to me.