Art
I’ve been keeping a regular sketchbook since 2014, drew in it daily for two years (2016-2018), and I’ve been off and on ever since. I was inspired by a huge number of my art heroes who either spoke highly of keeping a sketchbook or whose sketchbooks have been published, but the person who gave me the final push was the inspirational Will Terrell, whose candor and good humor touched a nerve.
Before that, my commitment to art was extremely haphazard. I would occasionally go through a phase where I drew quite a bit. I would, of course, see an improvement in my abilities. At that point I would bemoan "all the wasted years" I’d not devoted to art and would stop shortly after. Ridiculous, yes?
I have improved dramatically since keeping a sketchbook.
I mostly work in pencil, ink, and watercolor which are all fairly friendly to art "on the run", which is why they tend to appeal to either artists in the field or busy parents with day jobs and other commitments like myself.
Mastodon!
It’s 2022, and I’ve just joined a Mastodon instance to take the place of Instagram for my art community needs. Really happy with it so far.
This is me: https://mastodon.art/@ratfactor
I’ve wanted to dip my toes into the "fediverse" for a while, but couldn’t think of a good reason until now.
Update 2023: Getting on a year later…
It’s going great!
Instagram :-(
It’s trying really hard now to destroy itself, but I’ve had a really good experience on Instagram. This is me: @ratfactor. (Some content may be NSFW.)
The art community on IG is pretty fantastic and followers tend to be very supportive. Showing my sketches to the public at large has pushed me to improve, especially on days when I wasn’t feeling particularly motivated (or even very much alive). I’ve had the same experience in improving my writing by writing book reviews (and this website’s content) "in the open" as I mention here.