UPDATE 2: I'll be back and uploading art, but just for a little bit. My tablet still hasn't been fixed or returned to me, so I'm still waiting on that, but at least I have access to another one in the meantime! My activity might be pretty random here on DA though... so art trades and commissions are on hold until then! Thank you for understanding~

UPDATE: I just got off the phone with Wacom and they told me that even though I technically wasn't covered, that they would fix my tablet for free! Things are finally turning around. I'M SOO HAPPYYYYYYYYYY~ ;u;

Actually, this is probably the worst news any digital artist can have!

My faithful and absolutely amazing Wacom Intuos4 tablet stopped working for who knows what reason. :C Regardless of it being only a year old, it just up and died without any warning. This has left me kinda... devastated.

I'm not sure what it is or why it happened, but I feel really empty and completely frustrated without my tablet because now I won't be able to draw until further notice.

There's no physical damage to it, it's only a year old, I've tried all of the ports, multiple USB hubs, tried changing the cord, rebooted my computer, re-installed the tablet and the driver, and tried it on multiple computers. I've even tried plugging in other electronics into my computer to make sure that wasn't the problem. Nothing seems to work. It's just completely dead.

. . . And now I feel dead inside. ;_;

I've been talking to some people recently who are either beginning artists or get easily discouraged by "more talented artists," and to those people, I'd love to give some advice!

As for tips, this is gonna probably sound so cliche but practice, practice, practice! A lot of beginner artists get really intimidated because they will often try to jump into something and expect it to be AMAZING right away and become discouraged and upset when it doesn't. Even if your first few pictures don't turn out so well, the experience you gain from drawing each one will help you learn so quickly. You'll start to pick up on the methods and things about the style that you do and don't like, and eventually you'll just start doing things by heart and making stuff up along the way. Just remember that not everything has to be *perfect* because if you have that mentality, you'll never get anything done! If you're stuck on something for a long time, it's perfectly okay to do something else and if you feel like it later on, come back to it with fresh eyes and maybe you'll be able to do it in a way that you like.

If you don't know where to start , it's okay to look at already-existing pictures and to just redraw them. I'm NOT saying to trace, but just practicing already-existing poses is good for getting a feel on how things work. Once you get the hang of it, start making up your own poses! I still have trouble on poses from time to time, so just remember that references and photos are your friends! Tutorials are also really good to look at, whether you're just beginning to draw or have been drawing forever. Learning different techniques and how they can be broken down is really useful, and you don't have to stick exactly to the tutorial either. It's just a guideline there to help you out!

I always feel like I'm being so cheesy or like I'm a broken record when I give advice, but hopefully this will help someone out there! These are just little things that I've learned along the way and I still have so much to learn myself. If you guys have any questions or anything at all, feel free to ask. I love helping out whenever I can!