u/spielemusik

I've been an artist for most of my life creating music, including professionally gigging in my earlier years as well as having a recording studio. Due to increasing difficulty with my tinnitus, I cannot even play an acoustic piano anymore (nylon stringed guitar and most stringed instruments are still not as painful) and have to wear earplugs for certain basic life activities.

I need to create and have decided to turn to drawing. I've always been attracted to the melancholic quality of charcoal drawings with the dark tones. Dusk is my favorite time of the day. I wanted some advice on a beginner's book for drawing. I have some graphite pencils but was told by somebody that if I really love the look of charcoal then there's nothing holding me back with just starting right away with that medium. Any recommendations to get started? I'm happy to learn by exercises but am really looking for a book to serve as giving me a solid foundation. I have practically zero experience in drawing besides going through a couple exercises in Dodson's Keys to Drawing with a cheap set of graphite pencils I bought.

Any recommendations on getting started to learn the basics is highly appreciated. Thanks.

I posted about a month ago at the start of my new night run. I'm a truck driver and we bid every 6 months. I went back to nights for extra money, taking a high mileage run. I've found it's best to stay on my same sleep schedule on my weekends without flipping. Thankfully it's a early evening run 5 days a week, so on my weekends i'm getting up by 2-3pm and still have something of an afternoon / evening available for friends and family.

The weekends are a bit tough. I thought i would enjoy all the quiet time at home with my hobbies that tend to be solitary anyhow, but sometimes it can get a little depressing. I make the time count with the family while everyone is up, yet when they go to bed I feel like i'm missing out on a normal sleep schedule. I naturally like to sleep from 10pm and wake up around 5 am with my coffee and reading. I've been trying to 'embrace' the lifestyle - it has only been a month.

At least I'm usually sleeping ok. I'll wake up after a 3-4 hour chunk and then i'm sleeping and waking on the hour. I can't take some prescription sleep medication because of federal DOT regulations, so I'm sort of sucking it up. I definitely don't sleep as soundly as I do when sleeping at night...

Just looking for some camraderie and support. About to return to nights after 10 years daylight. I'm a line haul driver and have the ability to meet some financial goals a lot quicker running a high mileage night schedule. It's only for 6 months but I can do it longer if it goes well. A little apprehensive since being overtired can make me anxious, but I wanna give it a go. I'll be sticking to night schedule on my weekends. About a 12 hour shift...