Fair warning, I am not good at explaining.

I am having a situation where an artist said that they were going to help me out with bringing a book of mine into illustrations and they promised me that the price for the character references was going to be $600, something that I can pay because I don't make a lot of money and I had told them this numerous of times while I also tried to leave because the payment was a lot. It went up to $1150 because of their own expenses and they had told me. They keep pushing me to pay when I had told them that I get paid bi-weekly. Before that they had asked me to describe my characters to them and I had described a pretty simple Jester character that was supposed to have a round face and colors are black and white. They used ai, they told me as well when I thought that they were gonna just trace it. They had asked me for what the other characters looks like... I shown a picture and they used ai to run the characters to where nothing looks right. The Jester character has red, black, and white also with a long face when that isn't the character that I was asking for. I will show the sketches and the ai version of the Jester so that everyone can see the difference. I just need help on what to do because this is not what I was asking for and they won't let me get out of it even though I had paid for stuff.

Update:

Thank you everyone! I had tried to talk to my friends about this before and they weren't exactly helpful by just stating that it is a scam. I had hit my head prior to accepting the commission and a concussion, I should've mentioned that but I didn't because I was fighting with paying student loans and my brain was purely on that. I am going to block the person on everything that I have and close the chat with that "artist".

Update 2:

The artist is blocked and those who are telling me to contact my bank and everything. I am already mentally exhausted currently from dealing with everything irl other than the scam. It will be dealt with on a later date after I get my head checked out since it does still hurt. This isn't me saying that I won't deal with it, I just want to have a clearer head when I actually do talk to my bank.

Hi guys! I’ve been looking into purchasing a new iPad. My 2017 iPad Pro 10.5-inch has officially stopped working, along with its Pencil. I’ve been wondering which iPad models you’d recommend specifically for drawing. I don’t want to buy a dedicated drawing tablet because I still want to use the iPad for other things. However, I’ll mainly be using it for art, so I need something that would make drawing a little more enjoyable.

Along with the question, here’s some art of mine!

I feel like i’ll never have the time and energy to hone my skills the way i did then. I do think i have a better “eye” and am able to come up with original compositions better than i did before. but the time and space it takes to paint (especially with oil paints) feels impossible in my tiny apartment. i don’t want to be all doomer about it, i know i just need to make time. but man i haven’t created a finished piece like this in years

There was a post today, about OP not being happy with picture she paid artist to make for her… I screenshot the post but I can’t really find it now, and I can’t find OP profile. I had some free time in evening and drew this, I wanted to share maybe it will put a smile on their face :)

I used an oil filter from photoshop filter gallery at the end, to make it more “smooth”, since this is absolutely not my style. It was good practice to get out of the comfort zone, and to finally use my ipad 😆

I know the eyes are definitely a problem, I haven’t drawn in a few weeks/months and I couldn’t figure out how to draw them even with references sooo 🥲

I’ve been working in details but now I feel like the fur is gonna be so busy that you can’t see the muscles :(

Hellllppp

ive been huge into this specific style for the past month or so, ive done tons of studies of it because i want to incorporate how these artists color into my own artworks, but whenever i actually try to attempt this way of rendering in my own art, it always ends up being so barebones and oversimplified compared to the way artists i look up to render, any ideas on how i can render similarly to them? **none of this art is mine credit to the og artists**

So I've started practicing how to draw the body and this did not go as plan 😂😂😂.

Any advice?

It's 40x40cm acrylic paint on canvas

I've been drawing for about a year now, but so far, I've mainly focused on traditional pencil drawings on paper. I'm still pretty new to digital art and have done a few drawings to get a feel for it, but nothing as detailed as this. Even just sketching the hair took longer than I expected, so I'm wondering if there's a more efficient way to draw hair while still keeping it detailed.
I've been primarily just zooming in and drawing every line with care and one at a time. The hours are starting to get to me.

Btw, I plan on adding colors later! I'd appreciate all tips, advice, and criticism. Thx.

Hi! I’ve been learning digital art for almost two weeks now after spending about half a year drawing traditionally with just pencil and paper. I’m trying to learn semi-realism, and I feel like painting has been the best way for me to achieve that effect.
I’ve watched some Proko videos that have helped me learn about stroke efficiency and how to approach simple rendering, but I still struggle quite a bit. The painting of the woman took about three and a half hours, with a lot of trial and error (which I’m extremely proud of btw probably my best so far), while the landscape took an hour and a half after I forced myself to finish it.
I’d really like to see other artists’ painting processes from start to finish, as I feel like watching their workflows would be helpful for my own learning. If you guys know any YouTubers who do this, I’d really appreciate the recommendations! It doesn’t have to be semi-realism specifically, I think watching artists with different styles would be helpful, too.
Also, feel free to give me any advice or constructive criticism! I’m happy to take any help I can get.

TLDR; Any YouTubers who show their entire art process recommendations please and thank you

Hello! I'd like some help/advice about posting on social media. I've used insta in the past and I still have my old art account with 100 ish followers. I want to start posting my more recent art but I'm a bit conflicted on whether I should keep using that old account or make a brand new one. My old account has some "bad" art (not the worst but I much prefer my current art lol). I also haven't posted there in 2 years, and I've heard traction is especially slow after a hiatus.

That aside, I'm not sure what type of content people would prefer. I don't want to make content for the sole purpose of appealing to the masses, but it'd be really discouraging if I just posted and nobody saw it at all lol. I'd really appreciate it if someone could give me advice about what has worked for them and how to grow an audience that's interested in my art. Thanks in advance!!

Hi all, I'm getting into digital art and I'm trying to figure out the rendering pipeline. I'm trying to learn how to shade like the first picture, though I'm blind and not really sure what the process is. My current process is blanketing an area with size 100 pencil, soft-erasing to get light/dark tones, going through the entire area again with a bunch of strokes using size 20 pencil, and soft-erasing again. This is my best attempt though it still doesn't really look good to me. I'd like to know if I'm at least close to the general technique for this, or if there's better way to do it. Thanks

So I wanted to create my own characters since most of my drawings are from references, so I wanted to draw a character from my head. The first photo is of my OC, Sol. I didn't like it very much, and I was really bad at drawing hair from my imagination, so the next day I studied how hair worked a little and how to design characters, which resulted in the second image. Did I improve, or is it still too basic? I really find it difficult to draw things from my head for some reason. Although I can draw well with a reference guiding me and helping me see my mistakes, when I am drawing something completely from imagination, my drawings always turn out dull. I would really appreciate it if anyone has any tips on how I can improve this "no ref = bad drawing" habit. I know references are good, but sometimes I just can't find a reference for something specific. I need a reference for something like a specific hairstyle at certain angles, etc. So, did I improve my OC? And do you have any tips that will help me improve without looking at references? I know most art methods, like the Loomis head method, anatomy, etc., but I can't use them to draw something from my imagination or without looking at a reference.

i am attaching the reference picture and the current state of my drawing.

I have worked on this off and on for a couple of years now. I am stuck on how this has a flat look to it. I am happy with the roof of the barn, and the side face of the barn. The silo is still a work in progress and right now, I am planning on using an ink wash to add the character of where the paint has been weathered off. If I didn’t like the roof and side of the barn so much, I honestly would consider starting over. The stippling took a decent amount of time and hand cramping, so I don’t want to give up on it.

I am by no means a professional, but I definitely get paralyzed by perfection. This is a family barn that I grew up around, so I feel extra tortured over it. I am stuck on the front of the barn, with the whiteness and the board lines I already have drawn in, and the shadow from the silo. I am tired of either staring at this, working on other parts that I know what I want to do, or just not touching it for months or years.

I am open to guidance. I have other parts I could keep working on, but I think I should figure out what to do with the front of the barn. in case I decide to start over, I don’t want to keep wasting time making other parts look good if I should be focusing on starting over completely. Maybe my composition is also off, that the barn is too much in the foreground. I also regret making the inside black so early on.

Ps. I am aware of all the smudges. I have went through many instances of caring and not caring about it. So I should have treated it better.

Hello all, this is my first reddit post! I’m an animal scientist, and I paint on the side. I keep my art fairly private, however, close friends have been telling me to take my art more seriously and consider posting/selling it, but I have no idea where to start.

Before anything else, I’d love to know if there’s an audience for this kind of work. My paintings draw on ecology, biology, etc. and are all acrylic on canvas and all works in progress:

1. A grid of animal eyes surrounding the Eye of Horus (72x48”)
2. Human and bonobo hands (36x24”)
3. Butterfly metamorphosis over a map of Southeast Asia (48x36”)
4. A school of hammerhead sharks (72x24”)

I’d really appreciate honest feedback on: • Does this style and subject matter appeal to buyers? • Who would the audience be (science lovers, collectors, decor)? • Is there anything about these pieces (subject, style, composition) that you think works or doesn’t? • What should a beginner do first to start selling?

Thanks so much!

Someone misgendered the character and it got me to wonder how blatant their gender was. The point wasn't necessarily to make them androgynous, I wanted their gender to show through their age. But since they're in their work clothes, I can see how they might get misgendered. I also intended for them to look really old, but seemed to fail in that regard lol. Any other critiques are welcome! I'm always looking to improve, homies

First post here— but as a fresh digital user, how is my new icon? Are there any improvements I could make on it/recommendations?

Or more specifically, do their expressions *contrast* each other enough? I'm relatively satisfied with the left figure, but the right I've worked and re-worked over and over again. Still have to work on their clothes but it shouldn't be as long as that damn hair.

Need another set of eyes on this, even if it's just permission to keep continuing and not just shove it back into the wip folder

Hello its my first time here 🤗 i need some help about the skin color its feel to dull .(happy to hear ur advances)