My entire life I've always enjoyed messing around with things. I mess around in Figma trying to make new designs for banners or cards, brainlessly record random things and make mini-movies and trailers that'll never see the light of the internet, and (most notably) make random tools and apps that would make my life easier. All of this is generally known as « the arts ». Be it graphic design, cinematography, music, or really just anything creative; we've all dabbled one way or another. One of the arguably most popular over time has been art itself.
I used to draw a good amount; nothing fancy apart from the occasional derpy cat or random mythical creature, bar the occasional « business » glyphs and drawings. I enjoyed it though. It gave me something to do to keel over long, boring lectures and give a nice thing to talk about with others. Over time, there were two ultimate things that lead me to slowly stop doing it:
- had more important things to do (eg. school); and:
- had more amusing things to do (eg. cinematography).
I decided to drop drawing a good while back (end of elementary school, iirc) and didn't have an initial replacement. I touched bases with a good friend of mine in junior high, and he introduced me to Figma. I instantly fell in love with it and tried way too many other vector design tools1. It let me do a similar thing of keeling over some time and basically is my go-to for graphic design these days. I still had that empty spot, so to speak though.
I tried filling it with tonnes of different things, and still try new things to this date: be it listening to or composing songs, editing and directing weird shorts, or, most recently, getting back into guitar; but they've all never really replicated that love.
I started getting back into American (ish) cartoons recently, namely from Disney. I fell back in love with « The Owl House » (can't wait for S2 to come to Disney+ since I don't have cable anymore), « Milo Murphy's Law », and re-watching a childhood favourite: « Phineas and Ferb »2 3. The hilarious jokes from Dan Povernmire and Jeff Marsh (behind « Phineas and Ferb » and « Milo Murphy's Law ») and the creative mind of Dana Terrace (behind « The Owl House ») made me feel like I was a « kid » watching the greatest shows I thought existed on Playhouse Disney. It also made me fall in love once more with art as a whole, as I scrolled through Dana and other Disney animators, artists, and creators Tumblrs and other art portfolios.
To say I'll ever be as good as these people is a gross overstatement, but seeing these shows and art all over again, falling in love with characters like Luz and Amity, and, overall, diving deep into enjoying my past all over again has made me want to try to mustard up even a fraction of that skill and quality.
Although I know it'll take a hot minute to do so, I plan to get back up to scuff with drawing by hand and may dabble back in the digital realm in the future (still have my Wacom). It may be a neat thing to re-open a DeviantArt and have a good time drawing random things (or maybe drawing friends or smth idk). I usually have some sort of call to action in posts, so here are two things you should consider doing:
- checking out The Owl House if you have Disney+ or cable (cable TV has the newest season simulcasting currently in the United States);
- give me some tips and pointers on what I should draw or how I might learn to get better.
1 : The only other vector tools I used (apart from Figma) were Adobe Xd (Figma was leagues better at the time), Adobe Illustrator (I'd be caught dead paying for CS software.) and Affinity Designer and Publisher. The latter was too expensive for me to stomach outside of the trial, so I stuck with just Figma.
2 : For the most part, I don't watch the tele at all. I watch the occasional anime on Netflix, Wakanim, or ADN, but only watch Formula 1 regularly. I also watch a bit of « reality » TV like « Diners, Dine-ins, and Dives » and « Formula 1: Drive to Survive ».
3 : I use Disney+ in French, which yields some funny results with translated show names: ranging from the normal La Belle et La Bete (Beauty and the Beast) to Les Nouveaux Héros (Big Hero 6; we forgot how many heroes there were, I guess).