At 3/27/25 12:43 AM, Thetageist wrote:I’m sorta feeling better now, but I wanted to post anyway so that I would get responses for the next time I get these thoughts.

Sometimes I wonder why I even stay here if I’m not really needed and don’t have a purpose on this website. My prime of popularity is already past me, I’m not as well-liked as I used to be, and I don’t have much to do anymore except post art and sit around on the BBS. Am I just useless now? Irrelevant? Worse than irrelevant?

At 3/24/25 09:25 PM, RedNSpice wrote:One of my biggest problems I have had is when I was able to spend more time on art I had a lot of artists friends on twitter and it was really fun and that kind of community experience motivated me so much! but that discord server died about when I went to college, and while I still made art it wasn't as often, probably a big burst of art in the summer and winter breaks. After college I got back into my illustration work and haven't been able to find a community or group of artists like that again and it has kinda dampened my mood. I got nobody to critique or exchange content with :T

At 3/27/25 02:20 AM, SpicyShark wrote:You ever want to post something but you know that art threads barely get reactions and don’t know where else is appropriate to post them? Thats how I’ve been feeling when I gave up on my art thread. It’s like the having a job vs not having a job meme

At 3/27/25 12:43 AM, Thetageist wrote:I’m sorta feeling better now, but I wanted to post anyway so that I would get responses for the next time I get these thoughts.

Sometimes I wonder why I even stay here if I’m not really needed and don’t have a purpose on this website. My prime of popularity is already past me, I’m not as well-liked as I used to be, and I don’t have much to do anymore except post art and sit around on the BBS. Am I just useless now? Irrelevant? Worse than irrelevant?

At 3/27/25 09:16 AM, Thetageist wrote:

At 3/27/25 12:43 AM, Thetageist wrote:I’m sorta feeling better now, but I wanted to post anyway so that I would get responses for the next time I get these thoughts.

Sometimes I wonder why I even stay here if I’m not really needed and don’t have a purpose on this website. My prime of popularity is already past me, I’m not as well-liked as I used to be, and I don’t have much to do anymore except post art and sit around on the BBS. Am I just useless now? Irrelevant? Worse than irrelevant?

Yeah, back to the same feelings now. Aside from friends that I can still contact on Discord, I get the feeling that nobody would really miss me if I left.

At 3/28/25 11:21 PM, MTKKT wrote:If possible, I'd like some advice on artistic style. I always feel nervous when drawing and struggle to express myself freely, which often makes my work seem generic. I really want to create something bold and amazing instead of just playing it safe, but I can't seem to overcome this mental block. Any tips?

At 3/28/25 11:39 PM, Template88 wrote:Bold and amazing require more than what you can trivially summon up in an afternoon. You're young, and youre skilled, I can tell from your art that you have what it takes to perform the physical part of the art. You need to start thinking now, not about something as trivial as what style youre drawing in, but what you want to evoke in the person beholding your art.

You have power over the person who is looking at your art, not complete control, but almost all of it is yours. What do you want to make people feel? How does how you feel relate? How do you get the reaction out of people that you want? How intense do you want that feeling to be? I find that its easiest to get the audience to feel something that you feel yourself, because you understand what it takes to make that feeling appear in front of you to show to others.

What feelings have you picked up in your life that you can channel into your art? Force people to feel?

At 3/30/25 06:19 PM, FunnyPlush wrote:

At 3/28/25 11:39 PM, Template88 wrote:Bold and amazing require more than what you can trivially summon up in an afternoon. You're young, and youre skilled, I can tell from your art that you have what it takes to perform the physical part of the art. You need to start thinking now, not about something as trivial as what style youre drawing in, but what you want to evoke in the person beholding your art.

You have power over the person who is looking at your art, not complete control, but almost all of it is yours. What do you want to make people feel? How does how you feel relate? How do you get the reaction out of people that you want? How intense do you want that feeling to be? I find that its easiest to get the audience to feel something that you feel yourself, because you understand what it takes to make that feeling appear in front of you to show to others.

What feelings have you picked up in your life that you can channel into your art? Force people to feel?

Oh man that reminds me that I've been wanting to portray stuff like wonder, nostalgia, and maybe sadness for a while now. No idea where to start other than using a lot of blue lol :P

At 3/30/25 06:37 PM, Template88 wrote:

At 3/30/25 06:19 PM, FunnyPlush wrote:

At 3/28/25 11:39 PM, Template88 wrote:Bold and amazing require more than what you can trivially summon up in an afternoon. You're young, and youre skilled, I can tell from your art that you have what it takes to perform the physical part of the art. You need to start thinking now, not about something as trivial as what style youre drawing in, but what you want to evoke in the person beholding your art.

You have power over the person who is looking at your art, not complete control, but almost all of it is yours. What do you want to make people feel? How does how you feel relate? How do you get the reaction out of people that you want? How intense do you want that feeling to be? I find that its easiest to get the audience to feel something that you feel yourself, because you understand what it takes to make that feeling appear in front of you to show to others.

What feelings have you picked up in your life that you can channel into your art? Force people to feel?

Oh man that reminds me that I've been wanting to portray stuff like wonder, nostalgia, and maybe sadness for a while now. No idea where to start other than using a lot of blue lol :P

you can approach art often times a lot like how you approach cooking. look at a recipe (use a reference) study people who are successful at what you want to do, copy their recipe and add your own ingredients to suit your taste.

At 3/30/25 08:22 PM, FunnyPlush wrote:

At 3/30/25 06:37 PM, Template88 wrote:

At 3/30/25 06:19 PM, FunnyPlush wrote:

At 3/28/25 11:39 PM, Template88 wrote:Bold and amazing require more than what you can trivially summon up in an afternoon. You're young, and youre skilled, I can tell from your art that you have what it takes to perform the physical part of the art. You need to start thinking now, not about something as trivial as what style youre drawing in, but what you want to evoke in the person beholding your art.

You have power over the person who is looking at your art, not complete control, but almost all of it is yours. What do you want to make people feel? How does how you feel relate? How do you get the reaction out of people that you want? How intense do you want that feeling to be? I find that its easiest to get the audience to feel something that you feel yourself, because you understand what it takes to make that feeling appear in front of you to show to others.

What feelings have you picked up in your life that you can channel into your art? Force people to feel?

Oh man that reminds me that I've been wanting to portray stuff like wonder, nostalgia, and maybe sadness for a while now. No idea where to start other than using a lot of blue lol :P

you can approach art often times a lot like how you approach cooking. look at a recipe (use a reference) study people who are successful at what you want to do, copy their recipe and add your own ingredients to suit your taste.

and how would I find said reference? looking up "sad art" on google or something?

At 3/28/25 11:21 PM, MTKKT wrote:If possible, I'd like some advice on artistic style. I always feel nervous when drawing and struggle to express myself freely, which often makes my work seem generic. I really want to create something bold and amazing instead of just playing it safe, but I can't seem to overcome this mental block. Any tips?

At 3/27/25 01:57 AM, GenTrigger wrote:

At 3/24/25 09:25 PM, RedNSpice wrote:One of my biggest problems I have had is when I was able to spend more time on art I had a lot of artists friends on twitter and it was really fun and that kind of community experience motivated me so much! but that discord server died about when I went to college, and while I still made art it wasn't as often, probably a big burst of art in the summer and winter breaks. After college I got back into my illustration work and haven't been able to find a community or group of artists like that again and it has kinda dampened my mood. I got nobody to critique or exchange content with :T

I feel this deeply. I hung around an overall apathetic community for a while and in hindsight I'm really glad I fell out with them since the experience of people being around and not really caring about my work was maybe worse than just having nobody around at all.

It helps so much to have people to bounce ideas off of and gas you up. I think a lot of people like to put on a brave face about doing art for themselves, but also as humans we're social creatures and need that validation from time to time.

At 4/1/25 05:14 PM, LiquidFreakStudios wrote:> Barely over 100 followers in nearly 5 years on Newgrounds
> Artworks average about 80 views, used to regularly get hundreds of views
> Most of my friends I met on Newgrounds left for other sites
> Hated by most people left on the Newgrounds forum
> Have never had a single artwork front paged, probably never will
> Descouted 2 years ago without any reason given, still unscoutable to this day
> Mod won't reply to my DMs asking about it
> Incapable of growing a community outside of DeviantArt, despite all my efforts
> Typecast into drawing only "cringe" art as a result
> All my efforts into improving my art quality and expanding into animation wasted, because only my own few followers are capable of seeing my artworks anyway

Yeah, I'd say I'm pretty discouraged. Could do with some support...

At 4/1/25 05:14 PM, LiquidFreakStudios wrote:> Barely over 100 followers in nearly 5 years on Newgrounds
> Artworks average about 80 views, used to regularly get hundreds of views
> Most of my friends I met on Newgrounds left for other sites
> Hated by most people left on the Newgrounds forum
> Have never had a single artwork front paged, probably never will
> Descouted 2 years ago without any reason given, still unscoutable to this day
> Mod won't reply to my DMs asking about it
> Incapable of growing a community outside of DeviantArt, despite all my efforts
> Typecast into drawing only "cringe" art as a result
> All my efforts into improving my art quality and expanding into animation wasted, because only my own few followers are capable of seeing my artworks anyway

Yeah, I'd say I'm pretty discouraged. Could do with some support...

At 4/1/25 05:14 PM, LiquidFreakStudios wrote:> Barely over 100 followers in nearly 5 years on Newgrounds
> Artworks average about 80 views, used to regularly get hundreds of views
> Most of my friends I met on Newgrounds left for other sites
> Hated by most people left on the Newgrounds forum
> Have never had a single artwork front paged, probably never will
> Descouted 2 years ago without any reason given, still unscoutable to this day
> Mod won't reply to my DMs asking about it
> Incapable of growing a community outside of DeviantArt, despite all my efforts
> Typecast into drawing only "cringe" art as a result
> All my efforts into improving my art quality and expanding into animation wasted, because only my own few followers are capable of seeing my artworks anyway

Yeah, I'd say I'm pretty discouraged. Could do with some support...