Well, I thought that I’d talk very briefly about how art is meant to be fun. This was something I ended up thinking about during a stressful morning in late May. My sleeping patterns were being annoying, I had been busy preparing one of June’s Pride Month articles, I was running late with everything else, there was an unexpected visitor etc… And it was just a stressful morning.
Although I still had to make some original art, I just didn’t have the enthusiasm. So, I found myself on Youtube instead and ended up watching this amusing fan clip (warning – mildly edgy humour) of the Twitch streamers F1nn5ter and Pierbi building a high-end modern gaming PC – which looked like something from a 1970s-80s sci-fi movie – whilst also having a funny conversation. On a side note: Do high-end PCs actually look like this these days? Where are you even supposed to put the DVD drive?
Because of the editing, I briefly found myself worrying about whether or not either of them had put any thermal paste on the CPU. But it was just a fun, relaxing Youtube video. The sort of low-budget (ok, given how modern the PC is, maybe not so low-budget...) fun which reminded me of old-school Youtube. The sort of internet-exclusive videos which you won’t find on stuffy and traditional broadcast television.
Anyway, whilst watching, I was surprised to find my enthusiasm for art returning. Although I wasn’t in the mood for original art, I had a “I have to paint this” reaction. So I paused the video, got my other sketchbook and ended up making a semi-digital painting of part of the video.
The semi-digital fan art painting certainly wasn’t perfect, perhaps even “badly-drawn”. I also used some artistic licence with the palette (to give the painting more of an orange/blue colour scheme, with pink/green highlights) and the painting certainly wasn’t original either… but it was relaxing to make.
(Click for larger image) This is a semi-digital sketchbook painting I made based on an amusing Youtube video of F1nn5ter and Pierbi building a PC. It’s pretty badly-drawn, but it was fun to make.
And making this painting, following a “I have to paint this” instinct, not caring about originality, focusing more on the relaxing process of drawing and painting – rather than the end-result – reminded me that art is meant to be FUN. Yes, practice is important, but it isn’t meant to be a chore. Art is meant to be relaxing and FUN.
This, by the way, is why it’s always good to have another sketchbook that you can just mess around with. If you focus a lot on making art for an audience, or making original art, then it can sometimes feel a bit exhausting. So, having another sketchbook which you can make fan art in, paint random stuff you see on the internet, make “art journal” type art in etc… can be an essential way of reminding yourself how enjoyable art is meant to be.
Because, yes, art is supposed to be fun 🙂
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Anyway, I hope that this was interesting 🙂
