u/StructureCool8338

So for a majority of my life, like most people, I was self-taught. But it wasn't until about two years ago. I got a tablet! Very exciting because I always wanted to learn how to do digital art, for my entire life I have been mostly drawing with pencil and paper. It's what I'm used to and what I basically mastered, and i learned hyperealism on my own.

So it wasn't until about a little over a year ago, that I started taking digital art seriously! I wanted to learn and grow my skill, and I wanted to learn how to use color theory. Because I always had this intense fear that I would ruin my art with color, so really? I've spent a lot of time in the last year, just focused on learning color theory. But I also wanted to find my own kind of cartoonish style because all I've ever known as hyper realism. And I kind of settled on a semi realism look.

So any art I do is just for fun. Literally that's it, I don't wanna make a career out of it or sell commissions. It's just for fun! I'm learning to hone my skill for fun so I can make fanart of characters that I like.

And I do like sharing my art online, I don't care if it blows up or gets popular or whatever or whatever, I just like talking to people about it because I really enjoy it.

But then I feel like a lot of people try to give me advice, and while I usually am open to advise, most of it feels very passive aggressive. Like someone on tiktok, was being bitchy and going; "you should focus on the anatomy it would drastically improve your art", and sure, while shifting from hyper realism to a more cartoonish look things won't look 100% and atomically correct(I'm trying to figure out where to put the cartoonish aspect so it doesn't look 100% realistic). The character I drew isn't an anatomically corrected, he has forearms a massive mouth on his stomach and a low-key disfigured face.

And then just now I had someone telling me that I shouldn't be focusing so much on lighting and should focus on perspective(and I'm like? Why does it matter which one I focus on first? I thought art didn't have any rules and I'm self-taught so it's not like I had a teacher to tell me this. I'm already balls deep in my own way and how i want to learn, i can't really shift 180 to something else.)

And unfortunately, there's no one in my life that I can really talk to about art :/ which is why I post to social media, cause I like finding new art moots, but as everybody knows social media is also filled with a bunch of assholes. :/ and sometimes I can't tell when people are being assholes, so when someone tells me one thing and I think they're being sincere, I tried to explain to them why I did something a certain way and then they come off as super aggressive, and I'm like oh? So this is a troll, not a fellow moot. :(

I'm genuinely someone who gets very stressed out, and art makes me feel relaxed. So it makes me want to just delete all my socials again, cause I feel chronically online, getting upset over jerks who either don't understand my art and are not willing to listen, or trolls trying to rile me up.

This is like a rant, I GENUINELY don't know what my family's fucking problem is with my guinea pigs getting salads.

It started with the male guinea pig Tahno, I made him salads. My dad was like why are you doing that? I told him for extra vitamins. And he just kind of made some joke and rolled his eyes. I was like ok🤷‍♀️ whatever.

And then I got the girls, Desna and Eska, and then every time I gotta make them their salads, my family goes, "Man they eat better than we do!". And im thinking like, "Well its just a small portion of fruit, a veggie, and leafy greens." But again whatever.

And then my dad starts wanting to fight me about not giving them salads, saying that they don't need it and they should only get the pellets and hay and that shouldnt waste money cause I am not working right now. But I'm starting work soon in a few weeks and I'm using my savings to provide for them, and the place I buy them veggies it's relatively cheap!

And now I think that Tahno had a URI and he gave it to Eska, and I'm really worried, so I asked my mom what Vet she goes to. And she told me which one, and then she tells me to stop giving them salads to see if itll help. And i just lose it, im like JESUS, ITS NOT THE SALADS THE SALADS ARENT KILLING THE GUINEA PIGS.

And I told her I think it's a URI, and I think it's what killed my guinea pig many years ago, and then she goes, were you feeding him Salads too? I was like are you serious??