stabilizers help me keep things clean for cleaning up merch but when it comes to illustrations I just always go too thick and also don't feel like I get nice crisp sharp edges

sorry, I'd give examples but I'm at work on break, this is probably hard to explain without seeing my style firsthand

I always have detect speed and tilt and pen pressure on, maybe i should work with no width fluctuations from the getgo? There just has to be something I'm missing or a way i can practice improving on this specifically

I've tried to use smaller brushes but I also know its important to not abuse zooming in too much so I think I usually make them bigger to see. Maybe my 10" screen is just too small

Legit: draw on a FUCK huge canvas so you can be as sketchy as you want, then size it down and fix it up as needed

I usually work on canvases that are a minimum of 3000x3000 pixels and then size them down to a little less than half that

It gives the illusion of clean and crisp lines without losing quality

I usually do my lineart big then size down a little bit once for coloring, then do the final size down at the end when I’m doing texturing and effects

Also believe it or not: not keeping black as your outlining color. I color pick and change my lines from black depending on adjacent colors. I’d show some examples but I am also not at my computer

Here’s some examples off my phone of how I kinda do a darker accenting line color for whatever area of the lineart I’m on. My loose and fast rule is only using black for lines against the background

Not sure if this makes total sense but I hope it helps at least a bit!

huge canvas definitely helps, and maybe switching up your inking pens of choice for lineart may help find something you enjoy better! I also tend to, if I like how a sketch looke a lot, just render that; it has a certain charm to it, depending on your preferred level and style of polish

I have also taken to shading or coloring lineart at times to get certain effects/make it less intrusive

Ohh!! Oh thank you, everyone, yes this is exactly the kind of advice I was looking for!

I seem to have a different approach to every art method so when it comes to drawing for myself I just get all twisted up with a default

Like for merch it helps to design not much bigger than the size you'll print so you aren't losing detail, and in storyboards you don't want to overrender and not zooming in helps you simplify on conveying the action

But it sounds like NEED BIGGER CANVAS really might be my hangup! That's so reassuring

Morgane You explained it perfectly! Actually l love the style with lineart colored a shade lighter than the adjacent local color, I strive for that when I can too (And I LOVE that last Mer example, that's super pretty)

And you listing the size you start with and the fact that you resize it in steps is super helpful. That's the kind of thing I would have doubted doing myself like if I'm resizing it twice have i made it harder than it needs to be? Am I failing at this??? Thank you for the insight

Juuvi GOD YES those SHAKY LINES, I'm so glad I'm not alone in that happening on big pieces. Again I feel so much better to knowing that cleaning up lineart by resizing is an actual technique

And You're so right, I have a lot of brushes I like, but they all behave differently in different sizes, I may have to switch it up with this new approach. I hear you on the comfort thing, this part year I've tried to focus on what height to sit to really gauge how i hold my arm to the canvas too which suprised me with the difference

pythonmelon And Yess! I've done that before too. Sometimes just hopping right into a pencil sketch gives a nice render. I want to post simple doodles more frequently too and I'm never going to reach that level of speed if i insist on overrendering every little thing. Sometimes I need to trust the initial sketch!

Thank you everyone, I feel invigorated to try some new approaches

happy to help! You're an incredible artist

you're welcome!! I hope you hit your stride cause it's so frustrating when you can't seem to get it right

also thank you! Panacotta Fugo does make a very pretty mer hehe

Pythonmelon: You too!

morgane: Oh!! Yes! I'm canonblind but I totally see it! They really dooooo. ♡
Yeah, here's hoping I'll have fun things to post again on here soon! \o/