I use an iPad Pro (the old 2018 model) and an Apple Pencil to draw! The app I use is Procreate. It’s available for $9.99 on the App Store— one time payment. Totally worth it in my opinion!

I use a wide variety of brushes, but almost 80% of my drawings are made with one brush. That’s the “butter shader,” a custom brush I made by tweaking over and over again— it’s included in my brushset (which is available on my shop!). For all my digital sketches I use my custom sketch brush (also in my brushset). I also purchased the MaxU Gouache Brushset and use various brushes from that— mostly the “clean” brush. Procreate also comes with awesome default brushes! It’s a bit tricky to figure out how to customize them to your liking, but play around and you’ll figure it out! I find most of the helpful settings to be in the “Apple Pencil” section.

Well, it depends. As it stands now, I'm a full time student with a part time job outside of my art, so some days I have tons of time to draw while (most) others, I don't even cobble together two hours. I try to draw at least 30 minutes every day, usually about an hour. If I have commissions lined up, I'll put in more time. I also put together around an hour to manage my business / social media needs, such as posting and engaging on Instagram, working on my shop, responding to emails, etc.

I am a 100% addicted to collecting art supplies that I simply do not have the time or motivation to use. It's pretty bad. But of my massive pile of supplies, there are some that I keep coming back to. You can find a full list in my blog post here!

No. Unless you paid for that art, no.

Only with credit. Tag me and mention(@) me in the post description. Thanks, and I'm flattered you want to share my art!

Favorite part of the painting process: - ideation (I love just dreaming about ideas) - sketching! Favorite part of my art process in general: - interacting with you guys and seeing how you guys interact with my art. I can't even believe how lucky I am to have such a community. You guys make everything possible for me!

Before diving into ANY sort of monetization of your art, I think it’s really important to establish some things about it. Are you proud of your art? Keep in mind that you are trying to SELL your talents to others. If your art makes you cringe, you’re not providing a very trustworthy image for people looking to spend money on you. If you still look at your art and see nothing but mistakes, I suggest you continue to work on your own skills first. Ease up the pressure! Do you have the time? This is for my fellow workaholics! Sit down and track out your time. Each commission can take hours. Do you have time for that in your schedule? Is there something you can give up? If you have no time, don’t bite off more than you can chew. Are you old enough? I know, I know, age is just a number, but if you’re running commissions online, there are a lot of suspicious people and pitfalls to be wary of. If you’re under 13, consider starting commissions first within your personal circle— people you can trust (and chase down if they don’t pay you).

Here’s a link to my ‘all about commissions’ blog post! You got this.

What’s the difference between Shopify and Society6 and Redbubble and Etsy and aaaa! Starting a shop is super overwhelming, I get it! Here’s one of my blog posts that might help.

It depends on what state and country you’re in. In the state I live in, you don’t need a business license unless you make more than $12,400 annually. There is never a “lower limit,” though- if you want to protect your brand and you’re serious about it, it doesn’t hurt to register! In the US there is usually a fee of ~$100 to register a business, depending on the state. Just search it up on Google for your country and I’m sure you’ll find something! If you have the finances for it, consider making your job easier and hiring a business advisor for this.

Here's a mindset related tip that I found really helped when I was working on improving anatomy. Remember: your brain fucks everything up. Oookay, probably not what you were expecting. But here's what I mean. In our heads, we have expectations of what the "correct proportions" are. For example, our brains usually have established pretty well, that someone's wrist-to-elbow is as long as their elbow-to-shoulder. However, whenever drawing this arm foreshortened, bent, or partially hidden, our brain will scream-- "WAIT! That forearm still needs to be as long as the upper arm!" even when in reality, our eyes can see that something is shorter, longer, wider, or thinner than our brain's perception. But our brain controls our hand, so when we draw what we see, it comes out...wrong. So how can you practice training your brain to see the ways that your eyes see? 1. Practice. Surprise, surprise. Figure drawing and using references can, obviously, help you see the errors in your own drawings. 2. Be proactive. KEEP NOTE of what you keep doing wrong (I always make the head too small, for example) and try to fix it next time around. 3. If you screw it up, try again. It might seem boring, but drawing the same thing twice can REALLY help. I mean, when you get the wrong answer for a math problem, you don't just move on, right? You do it again, till you get it right, because that's how you LEARN.

Well, it depends on what type of art block I'm dealing with at the moment. I tend to categorize art block into 4 different categories: block due to burnout, block due to habit, block due to pressure, and block due to disinterest. If I'm art blocked because I'm burnt out (creatively or just in life in general), I'll give myself a break. Just take a few days off. Take care of myself, catch up on sleep. Once I feel energized again, I'll get that creative spark back. Usually what happens, though, is I take a break due to burnout and then just...continue. It's hard to know when you're properly "well-rested" enough to *draw*, after all. But at some point, I realize that I'm don't feel like drawing not because I'm out of energy, but because I've fallen into this bad habit of not drawing. This is what I call art block due to habit. I tend to think of drawing as, at its core, an instant-gratification activity, like physical exercise. At that point, I just force myself to draw. Sit down, pick up a pencil, and sketch something really bad. Then something better. And before I know it, I've created something I like, and I feel like drawing again. Magic! What do I mean by art block due to pressure? Well, many artists have built up these expectations in their head of their art. More and more, they start to think, "I'm going to draw THIS and it's gonna look just like THIS." And when the piece DOESN'T achieve that expectation, the artist feels really disappointed. It's a sucky feeling, and doesn't exactly make you want to draw MORE. Another example of this idea of 'pressure' is forcing yourself to draw only things that you think your followers will like. Don't do this! If you find yourself stuck behind a wall of expectations, I suggest taking a break from social media or just changing your mindset. Sit down with your sketchbook and say, I'm going to draw something super bad. It's freeing. Rediscover your love for art, and dear god, be easier on yourself. The last type of block? You've just...fallen out of love with art. It's okay. It happens. A sign of this is when you're not even interested in seeing other people's art anymore. Don't feel bad, just let it go and chase something you're more passionate about. Hope this helps!

I talk about this subject in detail in my blog post about art improvement here. Here are my most basic tips for you, though: 1. practice every day. 2. actively look for ways to LEARN about what you're weak at. 3. use references 4. ask for feedback 5. have faith! even if you can't visibly see it with YOUR own eyes, you ARE improving. I promise.

Depends on two things: 1) Why you're starting an account 2) Who your target audience is. Let's talk about number 1 first. If you're opening an account to simply share your art process, have fun, and maybe throw some personal content in there, you'll want a platform that's more catered towards casual, quick posting. Think: Instagram, Twitter, Tiktok. If you're opening an account to create a portfolio, sell a lot of your products, or get discovered by people in the industry, you should look for more niche, higher entry-bar platforms. Think LinkedIn, Behance, etc. This all ties into number 2. Maybe you're a younger person, not yet 18, just looking to meet other teens interested in art, or jump on some of the latest trends. Well, all the youth are on TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, even SnapChat (good luck with that though)-- so go there. Maybe you're voice is a bit older and you're aiming more for late millenials. Go wherever they are, whether that's Twitter, Tumbler. Or maybe your audience is even older-- try Facebook. Don't overthink it, because all platforms have audiences of all ages, and you might actually consider an 'opposite' strategy to access a niche, more devoted audience, but still, give a *think* about it. Also: don't be afraid to join multiple! (If you have the time to keep them all up, that is.)

The strategy has changed over the years. At first, it was just posting EXTREMELY frequently. I'm talking three, four times a day. (Yeah, some people will say the algorithm will knock you for that now. And they're right.) Besides, with that frequency, I couldn't post anything of decent quality. They were all just quick sketches. So don't do that. But frequency is IMPORTANT. At least once a week, consistently. Better to make it twice a week. Three times, if you can do it. Keep it consistent. The algorithm will choose something of yours to push to the greater masses. Trust me. But all your work needs to be quality. Don't sacrifice quality for quantity (okay fine, you can do it a little, but not too much!) Try varying things up if your account is stuck in a rut. Although that sometimes backfires. There's only so much we can do. Have faith, and remember, if trying to please the Instagram algorithm is hurting your mental health, step away. It's not worth it at the end of the day. Try landing jobs and making connections the old-fashioned way-- meet people in your network, reach out via email, etc. You'll have a much higher rate of success, and feel way better about yourself- even without the hundreds of likes.