Gevo's Sketchbook

[gevo]

doodles from memory except bottom black hair girl. semi ref'd middle face too.
i am proud of some of these despite some mistakes, looks like it could be from manga

[gregorya]

These are pretty good. I like the Japanese temple and the studies.

[gevo]

scraps, used reference for homelander, the bloodborne boss on very right, and the bloodborne character on far left, rest memory.

memory doodles, it was fun to draw

studies

reference used for top left pose, ghost of tsushima character, furry, and homelander. rest memory.

memory doodle

memory doodle, really bad at drawing front view on females


doodles from memory except bottom right guy, top middle guy, and bottom middle zombie. i am proud at how i drew guts without reference, though it has some mistakes.

[gevo]

scraps/bad drawings

scraps

study, tried to stylize it, didnt turn out too good

studies

[gevo]

study

study

shitpost, memory. random stupid stuff is the most fun to draw. also that hand is eh, i shouldve used reference but finding a good hand reference without using ur own hand takes a while.

mainly memory poses, semi ref'd one of them. drawing more lewd poses is also fun and sometihng i dont really do but maybe should.
added shadows to a drawing i liked , old drawing. i think i captured the perspective/expression well on it, kinda proud.

semi studies

memory ken, doesnt really look like him but i tried

memory doodles and a few studies, legs are maybe a lil too long on right girl.

studies/memory eyes

study of a dungeon meshi, i think its the anime, panel. when i dont like something, i will redraw it up to 100 times.

study

memory

pose referenced

memory doodles, left one has a nice vibe and energy but i feel it has too many mistakes, or its just not the style i prefer.

memory, i like expression

studies

study, not that good but better than previous attempts

memory, semi ref'd left chibi. i cant really draw chibis which is funny cause they look easy to draw but are actually quite difficult.

study

memory, i am proud of this one

memory doodles except for the chibi illumi and hisoka, i am proud of the screaming face. i think that is one of the most fun things to draw, really expressive things.

[gevo]

study

left study, right memory

studies

memory

studies

[gevo]

left memory, right study

[gevo]

forgot to upload these ones.

semi study

memory

[gevo]

zombie doodles mainly from memory, used reference for a few of them.

one of my eyes is really red and hurts maybe from looking at screen too long, so funnilly i look a bit like a zombie , drawing zombies.

[gevo]

memory

2min gartic phone, used ref

2m gartic, used ref for pose

2min gartic

2min gartic

2min gartic

2min gartic

memory

memory

memory

memory

study

memory

memory

memory

memory

memory

memory

memory

memory

memory

study

memory

study

study stylized

left memory, right study

study

memory

memory

memory

memory

memory

memory

memory

memory, porportions r off

memory

memory

study

study

memory

memory

memory

memory

memory

memory

memory

memory

memory

memory, right leg is a bit broken

The feeling of only getting 1 - 3 likes on a social media post will never not be discouraging. But nothing is discouraging enough to make me quit drawing. I think the strategy of drawing a lot of stuff and waiting a while to post is good though rather than posting it immediately and then feeling that sadness on the next set of drawing

[gevo]

bad drawings, i will try to draw her again one day and do a good job

[gevo]

study

study

study

study

study

study

have a lot more art than this but it will be for the webtoon i think.

[brohawx]

The feeling of only getting 1 - 3 likes on a social media post will never not be discouraging. But nothing is discouraging enough to make me quit drawing.

I always let this get to me too. I think,
- "If no one likes it, why am I drawing it? "
Then I think,
-"I wasn't drawing to post this for likes anyway dumb brain."
Meanwhile thousands of people like trash and dont have taste....I dont know what to think about that.

Keep rocking it Gevo. I am always blown away when I come in here.

[gevo]

@brohawx
I agree, I remind myself I didn't start drawing for social media. The only problem it causes me is when I think I made a good drawing and it gets the least likes, then I think, perhaps it wasn't as good as I thought.

Thank you for the kind words as always and for sharing that, I appreciate it!

[cedricgo]

The feeling of only getting 1 - 3 likes on a social media post will never not be discouraging. But nothing is discouraging enough to make me quit drawing. I think the strategy of drawing a lot of stuff and waiting a while to post is good though rather than posting it immediately and then feeling that sadness on the next set of drawing

Rant ahead. Proceed with caution
It definitely get discouraging at times when our drawings barely reach anyone, but it's good to try to remember that it probably doesn't have much to do with the quality of what we do. What is pushed forward or not is dependant on an algorhythm which I feel no one knows how it works anymore, with different people having success with different methods that doesn't seem to work for other people. Like I follow on instagram and seeing your topic here made me realize I haven't seen one of your post in a while.

Personnally I want to do art and not spend time understanding how to cheat an algorhythm that can change one day without warning. So I just gave up and do my own thing now. And also, brohawk is right about all he wrote! Keep up the awesome work! Your drawings are always inspiring to see

[gevo]

@cedricgo

Long reply sorry.

yeah thats fair, that feeling i shared is one of the reasons i stopped posting as often on social media so that may be why you havent seen a post in a while. one reason being is it takes a lot of time and effort in making those doodle page compilations and then cropping it well, another reason is that many doodles aren't good enough in my eyes to be posted, third reason is that other doodles that i like but want to save them for a future use of something else like a comic, and also the fact that i know if i do post it now, it wont really change much or gather much attention.

But it is strange on that regard of algorithm too because when i post on twitter, it says engagement or impressions, like how many people see it regardless of clicking on that image, and it used to be 200-400 views years ago, and now it is 10-20. But looking back on my art from just a year ago or half a year ago makes me glad that more people didn't see it or like it, cause damn...I would rather people see the current me than even just 6 months ago me, and I still have much more room to improve.

Anyhow, i must say, after not posting to social media for a while and not thinking about it or checking social media religiously except for looking forward to other peoples content and art, it has made me feel better than when i was posting. That's relatable on doing your own thing and not worrying about the algorithm and instead on what actually matters, the art and process. I think that is how I am the past few weeks and it feels great not having to think, "man i need to upload something", "im going to upload this and not get attention", "im going to draw this for views, money, or just so other people like it". And instead, just draw what you yourself want in the moment and not think about anything else like social media. Even though I don't even really upload on instagram anymore, a part of me wishes to still hit 200 followers though haha, i dont know why. And thank you for those words cedricgo, you have been a constant supporter of this sketchbook and my art for years when not a single person would react to it on multiple days.

edit: also havent uploaded anything new to this sketchbook in over 2 months, maybe one day i will add the recent stuff ive done, but right now just focusing on the art alone haha

[cedricgo]

No need to apologize fora long reply. I asked for it with my comment

But yes, I understand how you feel. There's definitely a shift that happens when you start doing art on your own term and not to grow a social media presence. For me it feels like it calms the mind or something like that. It's hard to explain. But it's a bit like getting back to how we drew before, as kids maybe. You draw what we want because we feel like it. And we may show some friends what we did, but it's mostly for our own pleasure. I think there is something strong and motivating in that. And I know what it is to look at older work and being almost ashamed of it, but I love seeing the progress other artists do over time. And it's a good way to show that skills are built over time and just don't fall from the sky. So someone seeing your older work and seeing your newer one in comparison might inspire a beginner to keep going instead of getting discouraged!

There is still something nice with posting our stuff and get some feedback on it. At the end of the day we are social beings. So sharing a drawing with others and having a laugh about it because it's silly, or opening a conversation because the subject you drew is interesting to you and others is definitely a great feeling. And in that sense, for me the quality of the interactions I get is more important than the numbers. I don't have that many followers in the grand scheme of things (300 and something on instagram), but I have a few ''regulars'' who are always a pleasure to interact with. With that said, I hope you hit that 200 followers someday even if you don't know why you want that

And you're welcome! I've always appreciated your dedication to drawing. In a way what you do reminds me of people like Karl Kopinski or Katsuya Terada who seem to be drawing all the time. So I hope you keep going because I think what you do is quite inspiring and definitely worth sharing, in my own humble opinion!

Oh! And you made me realize that I don't know how to spell algorithm, so thank you!

[Watercolour]

1st timer in this topic, love your style! Looks very comic/manga inspired and I have a softspot for that.

Re likes and socials, (haven't rad all replies so sorry if I’m repeating) - the key to likes is not just good artwork, there’s too many aspiring influencers out there, so simply making something gorgeous does not mean someone will see it.
Making your posts visible on socials is a job of it’s own, I tried playing with hashtags etc a while ago and it was working to an extent, but it’s so tedious and time consuming I’d rather just not. It also helps a lot to schmooze with strangers on the internet, complement them on their art etc (regardless of what you actually think) so then they have to go see your page .. stuff like that.

So if you ever feel bad about the numbers, you can always just remember more likes = hours of not drawing but instead updating tags and liking random strangers’ art. If that doesn't put you off it idk what will

[gevo]

thank you for those words cedricgo. i will keep going.
theres days where i literally dont have anything else to do it feels like, i dont have much irl friends except for one person or even online friends, much of a social life, so the one thing i always end up doing from either 10-20 hours per day is drawing.

so if it wasnt for art/drawing, i literally dont have anything better to do.

[gevo]

@watercolour hey watercolour, thanks for joining the conversation and appreciate the style comment.

yeah i tried hashtags when i first started ig many years ago and i realized either bots are liking the post from the hashtags or its the kind of people who just want follow for follow which are worse than bots in my eyes. so i just stopped using them since id rather have 4 real people like it than 40 bots/fake people. but im not worried about the numbers or feel bad anymore.

I always kind of knew in the back of my head when i started art, when i starting taking it seriously, and even currently, that i would never really get popular, or make much money out of it. and my goal has always been since a child to make a comic or manga, regardless of how many see it, i want to make a great comic, not a popular comic. thats why i never went to art school, and why i majored in something completely different. art was always a plan b, i was just hoping maybe to make a few bucks on the side too from it, but i get maybe 1 commision per year or per 2 years. So my work isn't appealing enough or aesehticlaly pleasing enough unfortunately.