The Pursuit Of Happiness in The Form Of Art And... Can You Say OBSESSED?

So... since my last journal entry (in which I told you all about my new found love for speed painting and my subsequent pride at my admittedly shitty attempts) I've been practicing like a mad woman at digital painting. The results... well... I'm over the moon, because I've finally found a way to express my love for the characters that I've been reading about for who-knows how many years. It's also opened me up to a field that I've always been too scared and insecure to enter.



As I am relatively new to this field, there are many things I still need to learn, but I've honestly never had so much fun doing anything 'learning'-related in my entire life. It's amazing. Also, reading Naruto and Bleach and whatnot, it really just inspires me. Many people see these manga (and the fans who trail after them) as stupid and childish, but because of them, I decided to try something new. I don't really know how to express my love for both of them but I will say this; Naruto and Bleach and all the other manga and anime out there seriously open up an amazing world for all of us fans. There's just something really beautiful about someone creating such diverse characters and universes and having all these people band together to show how much they support them. From fanfiction to artworks, it's really quite astounding how the most beautiful work comes out of these fandoms. Not to mention the adorable and slightly chaotic wars that ensue in defense of people's OTPs. It really great to see the healthy competition and the absurd humour that comes out of parings, especially crack parings

Over the past few days, I've been incredibly active on DA, and because of that I've come across some of the most amazing artists. Seriously, you guys wouldn't believe the level of talent out there. At one point, I found three incredible artists in the space of 5 minutes and (if you ask my mother, she'll tell you just how insane I was acting) all of a sudden I was hunched over my laptop, cackling like a crazy person and opening too many tabs for poor Mozilla to handle. And all of a sudden, I was filled with this absolute joy, it was unparalleled. I just couldn't believe how beautiful all of the artworks were and, as I know how much effort goes into any one artwork (being an art and design student), I was in complete awe.

I know I'm going on like a lovesick puppy, but I'm just trying to explain to you lovely people how becoming more active on DA and making new discoveries and trying new things has made me fall in love with art all over again. I went through a time where I was completely apathetic to art, it was basically this whole year. I was inundated with projects for school and I just couldn't stand the amount of energy it was taking from me. All for the sake of marks and a sterling report card.

It's really just so important to surround yourself with beautiful and thought-provoking art. It makes the biggest difference and gets the synapses firing like crazy.

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And that is just a TASTE of what I've been doing for the past two weeks of my DA life. There's seriously too much to even show here. The journal would go on for so long that you'd be scrolling until you turn 90.

So basically, all of this awesomeness inspired me to try be awesome too, so I started messing around on my iPad and eventually (finally!) I became able to digitally paint my favourite and even my not-so-favourite characters and learn new techniques while I was at it!



If you have the time, take a look at the artists that I've featured here, if anything, their hard work deserves a comment or two, maybe a fave and if nothing else, just light up your own little world by maybe finding a new favourite. And that signals the end of the longest journal I've posted in over a year I Could seriously go on and on and on about how my fandoms and unhealthy (but kind of really helpful) obsession with these make believe worlds and characters rekindled my absolute love for art, but then I'd bore you... and we wouldn't want that, now would we?






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