Shadowing Practice: what 600 days of art progress looks like - Learn English Speaking with Video
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Hello!
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I made art for 600 days or something like that
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because I wanted to and I think I improved significantly without trying too hard.
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I didn't go to art school, I didn't have an art teacher guide me even though sometimes I wish I did
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and so I wanted to document the progress that I've made so far, where I have started and where I am today.
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So November of 2024, the holiday season was approaching and I needed a gift for my brother.
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I think my brother can buy anything he needs and or wants at this point so I wanted to make something instead.
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At first I wanted to make it digitally
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because I'm a graphic designer and I know how to make things digitally
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but I'm sick and tired of working on my screen during the day
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and the evenings for work and for hobbies so I was like perhaps I can make it analog, real, one of a kind and see how that goes.
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So I dusted off my old gouache set and my pencils
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and I made this and I think it turned out quite cute.
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I like the colors and most importantly, I really enjoyed making it.
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So in December I decided to make another piece for my friends, this time in the size of a postcard, and I sent it to them and they also really liked it.
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In December I also bought this little sketchbook and I made this painting on it.
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I think it turned out very cute.
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If you can't tell, it's Smosh, the members of Smosh.
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I really enjoy watching their content, so I was like, why not paint them?
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So from that month on I decided that painting will be one of my hobbies.
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And so I did it sometimes, every day.
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I don't remember how often I did it, but I did it as often as I wanted to, which was pretty often.
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Most paintings from that point on weren't that good.
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At least I didn't like them as much.
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But I was trying a lot of new things, I was experimenting with colors and shapes.
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I didn't really have like a structure of what I exactly wanted to do.
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I was just trying to find things that I want to paint and paint them.
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I was also experimenting sometimes, especially with this painting.
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I at first just painted an pastel colors
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and then i was like it doesn't look that good
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so i added the black outline
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and i was like oh this actually looks pretty nice these paintings don't really have a date on them
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which i regret not adding them
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because i think it's it's really helpful to see where you were at at what time
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so if you start making sketches or painting
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or whatever i recommend putting on a date on them
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and then in april of 2025 i found this little baby i took it to my trip to portugal
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and i was like you you know what i'm gonna sketch in it just just for fun i don't know
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and this was my first sketch i was on an airplane
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so i just drew the the seat in front of me and
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when i came back home i was like actually it was
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a lot of fun maybe i should do it more often maybe i should do it every day
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because these sketches are not that time consuming i could do it in in five minutes
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or in 30 minutes depending on how hard i want it to be
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and it became like a nice way to memorialize a day does
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that makes sense to draw the highlight of the day
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or something silly that i saw
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so basically it's like a diary i made a whole other video diving into my mini sketchbook specifically
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so here maybe i just can showcase you my favorite sketches
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and maybe my least favorite sketches just to balance it out i really enjoyed sketching in this
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because it was easy small i could bring it everywhere
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and it doesn't feel like a big commitment in april i also realized that not only do i want to draw
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i want to understand so i found this book on perspective
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because i do not understand perspective i have learned it before
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but i still am not that good at it
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so i bought this book to improve
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and even though i still struggle i struggle a little bit
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less it's very thin very short five baccaroonies very affordable
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and very useful it explains what perspective is and then it gives you a bunch of exercises to do.
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A bunch, a few.
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It improved my understanding a little bit.
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In June I also made a couple more mini paintings for my friends, just to show my appreciation that they're my friends.
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And I also stumbled upon this book, which is a book about gouache, how to use it, techniques,
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and 20 fun and creative painting projects for everybody.
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If you are someone who wants to learn about gouache and is a beginner, highly recommend.
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Very useful.
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It really taught me the capabilities of gouache and its limits and it made me more comfortable with the paint.
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So here's a few projects that I've done, some of my favorites.
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This one was my least favorite and this one was a random self-portrait that wasn't really related to the book.
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In July I started a new mini sketchbook which first felt incredible
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because from the first sketchbook I have developed a concrete style
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that I liked using which is having two colored markers
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and a pen and so this one felt so rewarding to see my sketching improving, if that makes sense.
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There's a few of the sketches, of my favorite sketches and I guess my least favorite sketches.
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We should have a little, what's it called, a mix of both.
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Also when I drew this sketch I realized that I don't know how to draw people, more specifically proportions.
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How long are the arms, the legs, the torso?
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So I picked up this little book, mini book, about sketching people
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or bodies more specifically i suppose there are some heads there
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are some body parts there's many explanations of like what things are
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which is useful but also a little bit too not scientific necessarily
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but sometimes they just i don't understand these words is expressed by the subcutaneous tibia what is a subcutaneous tibia
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that i had to google things of what they mean i did not learn any terminology from this book
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but i did draw a lot of this i was just
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copying from the book just the poses the limbs the tibias you know
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and i think like in the beginning it was it was
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i struggled look look at this guy he looks like he's seen some things
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but like in the end i was getting better i wasn't getting good
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but i was getting better right
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and it kind of like you just kind of copy what is drawn in this book
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and you somewhat understand how the human body is
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and what i definitely understood from this book is
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that humans are really complex to draw like even more complex
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than i thought i also watched some youtube videos of how people draw
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or if they have any tips to drawing humans and oh my goodness there's so many things you should could know
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and should could improve it just felt a little overwhelming
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but what's nice about having a book is
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that you can just sit down and do one page
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or two pages or one project
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or half a project what i'm trying to say is
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that you know what you are gonna do
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that day you don't have to decide you just open the book
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and you just do it because one of the things to keep your hobbies
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or projects alive is to have less friction
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and one of the frictions is deciding on what you want to paint today what you want to do today
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and then if you have a book you don't really need to decide sometimes i did skip some parts
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because i really didn't want to draw noses that day
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but then i would come back and be like okay time to draw some noses
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but overall very useful to have a little book in september of 2025 i saw a tiktok
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that i really liked it was someone drawing painting tomatoes
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and i was like wait i want to draw
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that i can do that so let me do that
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so here is my painting of tomatoes i am proud of this i suppose
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but also it looks like it's it kind of looks like
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ai tomatoes they all look weird they look too perfect i don't know something's wrong with them
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but i do really like the way
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that i use the colors i mean i was just studying what the painter did with their tomatoes
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and in their shadows they had a lot of blues
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and in some of the highlights they had yellow so
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that was really interesting
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and this i think was my first canvas painting not like ever in my but just in a long time.
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I think I just had it laying around
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and I was thinking about what I should paint there
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or should I even touch it and
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so I painted some tomatoes in November I finished this book
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I think it took me a few months to go through all these pages
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and in between I also took some breaks
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because at some point I was kind of frustrated and
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or lazy I don't remember but I remember it taking it a
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while to finish this what I also did is I made this painting of this gas station looking building,
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which is actually a car wash.
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I took a picture of a car wash in the evening and it looked so beautiful.
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I don't know something about it, just it had such aura.
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Aura?
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I feel like that's way too young of a term for me to use.
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Vibe also doesn't feel right, just the essence.
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I don't know, I don't know what I'm saying anymore.
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But yes, this picture looked really nice and I wanted to recreate it somehow, or not recreate it, I just wanted to.. it spoke to me
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so I had to do something with it and the thing that I decided to do is make a painting.
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I think it turned out all right, even back then I think I thought that it was just all right.
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And this canvas I didn't buy, I actually reused a canvas that I had laying around at home.
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On this canvas before was a painting of a ship on a beach
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and I made it when I was I don't don't know 13
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or 16 even back then i didn't like how it looked
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so i'm glad to find another use for it
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or a recycled use for it i remember struggling a lot with the grass
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because i didn't know how to mix colors correctly
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and i knew somewhat what i wanted to achieve with the
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colors like i really like the grass here it's very green
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but this grass i wasn't sure how to make it dark but not
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black and then I started mixing black into the paint and it made it kind of worse.
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So the colors felt a little bit like a mess in some ways
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but still happy that I have it or I tried.
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Happy that I tried.
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Another thing that happened in November is that I got art block or more like life block.
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I was kind of sad about everything in my life, about my social life, my creative life,
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my career and so I kind of stopped drawing.
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I also felt really bored and uninspired about this sketchbook.
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I couldn't really...
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This was my last sketch in it and it was very forced.
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I really...
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Like I wanted to finish the sketchbook because not that many pages are left but I just couldn't do it.
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Like something was blocking my motivation and so in November, at the end of November, I went to Copenhagen to volunteer in a hostel
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and there I made a deal with myself
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that I want to finish this sketchbook and what I did is I pivoted styles and colors.
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Since I was feeling a bit depressed I decided to make my sketchbook more depressed by implementing black.
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I took my art blind pen and a black marker and I was just trying things out.
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I was looking for a for a style.
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At first I struggling a little bit
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because i didn't really like what i was making
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but then at some point it kind of clicked
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and i really enjoyed this newfound style of mine at the
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volunteering thing there was actually a lot of free time
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so i had a lot of free time to just draw
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i think this one took like two hours to make
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which is crazy but also quite rewarding to see it in the end
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and so in december or
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so before the new year i did finish the sketchbook this was my last sketch in it not only
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that but there was actually less pages than initially because i started to rip them out
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to make little gifts or little drawings for the people
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that were that i met at the hostel some
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that were working some that were volunteers
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and those i did in my old style
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because i felt more comfortable with it
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and i also still like how it looks it's just i
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kind of felt a bit uninspired to do the same thing all the time.
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And it was really heartwarming to give them the little sketches
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because the other sketches or paintings of my friends
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that I did before I sent them by post and then here I could see their live reaction I guess.
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Even though I don't need a live reaction, but it was just nice to see them light up when I gave them a little drawing of themselves.
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And so in January of 2026 I started a new mini sketchbook.
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Look at it, it was so cute and nice
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and this one is black so it matches my newfound style
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which i was very excited about this was my first sketch in it not the best one
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but sometimes you just need to start you just need to start
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because otherwise you'll never do it this was my second one also don't really love it
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when i was doing the sketches with my black pen i
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really was craving some color in it just pops of color and
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therefore i added some red and blue and pink into the sketchbook i think it made it more interesting.
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Ever since I finished the gouache book I kind of started painting less and less, because I didn't know what to paint.
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And also painting requires a bit of more of a setup than sketching.
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But in February I started this painting, as you see right here, kind of valentine's day themed.
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I just impulse bought a canvas from Lidl, it was I don't know five euros or something, and I had this urge to draw something for valentine's day.
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Why?
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I don't really know, but I knew that I wanted something pink
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and something cute like a date or something along those lines
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so we have here a table with cards with drinks with
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cookies with a heart with flowers i'm just describing what you see on the painting
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and i think here was a pivotal point of me realizing
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that i'm not that good which there's nothing wrong with
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that what i mean by it is that there are still things that i to learn, obviously.
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I mean, I obviously knew that.
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But to me there was a clear misunderstanding of how to draw these drinks.
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And I didn't know what the problem was.
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And when I dived deeper into it, I realized that my problem is I don't know values.
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I don't know shadows and lights.
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Where to put them, how to make them work for me.
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I was struggling quite a bit with a couple of things here.
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With the flowers.
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I mean, they don't look that good, but I didn't really care about that, I more care about the fact that I didn't know how to paint those drinks, because I really want to know how to paint the drinks.
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And so I made a little side project of where I painted cocktails for seven days.
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For the first few days I started really simple with just blocking out black
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and white of where the light is and where the dark is.
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It's an exercise that I saw in a YouTube video they suggested to do it,
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to just understand values and how shadows and light can easily make a shape that is understandable.
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So after the first few days of that I started actually painting cocktails.
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So this is the first cocktail I painted.
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I think it looks quite cute, I started to understand where to put shadows,
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I started to understand how to look at an image and see shadows and highlights.
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Here we have another one and this one was my final one for this mini seven day project.
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But I still had a few pages left in this notebook, so I was like I have to finish it.
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So these are the rest that I made.
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And I feel like you can see that I was getting better and better at this.
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Well this one wasn't that good.
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Oh that was the last one.
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In April I bought another canvas from Lidl, which is this one.
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I didn't know what I wanted to paint on it for a while and I made a whole video about it, but this is what i made and i think here the practice of lights
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and shadows really was starting to pay off i started to understand where to look
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and i think the bottles look a little bit more like bottles the shadows
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and highlights are working with each other, i think i think i really like this painting, especially in my room it really.. i love a pop-up color
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somehow it really ties in together with all the rest of
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my stuff in may i finished my mini sketchbook my third mini sketchbook
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which was really nice and fun
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and then i instead of buying another mini sketchbook i bought a bigger sketchbook
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because i really loved making spreads using up two pages instead
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of one i was like i think i just need to buy a bigger a bigger sketchbook
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so i had this sketchbook
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which i was really excited about here are a few other things
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that i drew in it
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and i really like drawing in it i also have a video about me drawing ugly things in my city
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but it didn't bring me as much joy as i wanted to
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or i don't know i just kind of felt it felt a bit too time consuming
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and too repetitive so again i pivoted to something else and
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that something else was making my first art collection
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and selling it to you which was really cool i also have a video about
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that but this is how it looks it's basically this just in mini form
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and made with water-based markers and i was really happy how it turned out
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and it sold out also
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which is super amazing thank you to anybody who bought it
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you know who you are it was a little bit more stressful than i anticipated
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because here in these sketchbooks
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if i make a mistake no problem i can just be a little sad about it
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and move on but if i make a mistake with art
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that i'm trying to sell i feel a little bit stressed
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so i was very cautious of not making any mistakes and
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so the process was more slower
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but overall i learned new things more specifically i learned how to varnish things
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and how to varnish and what to use and what varnish
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if it is varnish also in may i bought three mini canvases.
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Why?
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Because they looked cute.
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At this point I developed a habit of buying art supplies before having an idea of what to do with them.
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And I think it's not a bad habit to have.
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Because at some point I feel so guilty about not using them
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that I do eventually use them and come up with things to do with it.
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And for these three small canvases I decided to yet again make a little gift for my friends.
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Because they deserve it.
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Again I have a video about how I did that and my process, my struggle bus process.
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And in the end I think it turned out quite cute.
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I actually, the first painting that I did for that project, I was so surprised by the outcome.
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And after that I wanted to do more, for sure.
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I wanted to do more paintings.
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Paintings.
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Then a week after I made the mini paintings, I made this painting right here.
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Again, bought the canvas on a whim, didn't really know what to do with it, but I actually really liked the size of this one.
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And I think this painting turned out quite cute.
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I really liked the composition, the colors, the bagels, the coffee.
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The cake was kind of difficult, but overall very happy with this one.
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A lot of things happened in July.
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Firstly, I made another mini collection of art that was called My Cozy Block, dedicated to the Eastern European residential blocks.
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Again, it's something that I've painted before
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and I wanted to to do something about these buildings
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because i think there's some charm in them and again it sold out
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which is super epic and i had reoccurring customers
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which is even more epic thank you
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so much for buying them it means a lot to me
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that somebody wants to buy my art my mini art
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so thank you but with that collection i did realize
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that i do not want to pursue line art further i
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don't want to necessarily improve more in it to it like
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i was really contemplating about where i want my art to go?
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Should I invest more time into painting or line art?
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Theoretically I don't have to choose but I do want to be good.
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I want to get better
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and I think one of the ways you get better is you focus on one thing
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or at least that's what I wanted to do.
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Instead of being multifaceted jack-of-all-trades in many different mediums, I just wanted to focus on one medium
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that I wanted to get better at
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and I was contemplating in five years time do I want to be really good at line art
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or do i want to be really good at painting
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and with painting it seemed like a more exciting
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and rewarding skill to have so i decided to pivot more to painting not to say
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that i'm not gonna ever go back to sketching
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and doing line art i think it's very low barrier
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and low friction so if i'm ever stuck creatively i can go back to it
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and just sketch because i did really enjoy i still do enjoy doing that.
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It's just painting is something that I want to try to get better at.
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And so in July I made my first ever commissioned piece.
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It was from a friend of mine who said she really likes my work
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and I was really flattered and happy to make something for her.
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It was a gift for another friend and this is how it turned out.
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Even though I was quite stressed out when I was making this painting
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because there was a time limit so that it would arrive on time
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and I was making it on paper which meant that there was a limited space for error.
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If I made a mistake, a big mistake, I can't just wash it off like I would do with a canvas.
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I would have to start over all over again and I didn't have time for that.
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So even though I was stressed out, I was trusting the process that it's gonna work out and it did.
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And I was really happy with the colors and how it turned out
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and the fact that I learned how to varnish before and having a varnish specifically for water-based mediums was really nice.
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So yeah, at that point I was like, wow, I'm really improving.
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Like I think something's clicking and my hard work is paying off.
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Or not even hard work, I would say.
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Just my consistency of trying things, doing things is starting to manifest into something.
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And so for my next project, I really want to make a collection of paintings.
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I already bought eight canvases, small canvases that I'm gonna paint.
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And the day before I was sending out the commission piece and my new My Cozy Block art fragments, I broke my elbow.
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I fell on the ground and I broke my elbow.
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The funny thing is, is that I didn't even think I broke anything.
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Like I was 99% sure I had sprained my elbow.
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Like it didn't even feel that bad.
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I couldn't really straighten my arm, but I was like, nah, it's not that bad.
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So I went to bed and the next day I was like, actually, I think it hurts pretty bad i should probably check
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with the doctor i should probably just check it just in case i'm pretty sure to spring
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and so they did an x-ray and the doctor's like yes
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so you broke your elbow and i was like what really that's crazy
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because because i thought when you break a bone it's gonna hurt like a lot a lot
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but yeah the fracture is actually very small
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but i still can't really do things with my arm
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and i am right-handed i mean i can't do things uh i think i was pretty lucky
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that it didn't hit a nerve it's not displaced it's not i don't know
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but worse things so i was staying pretty positive until i realized
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that healing from this fracture is gonna take me up to six weeks
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which is a long time to not be able to use your arm
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and not being able to actually paint probably right now at
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this point it's been like three weeks i have more mobility of my arm
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which is cool
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but i still don't think it's safe for me to to
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paint with it at least definitely not for a long period
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of time plus it's just it would be just i can't
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really lift it too high i just have to keep it
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90 degrees for most of the days for most of the six weeks and
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so i had this grand idea of what i wanted to
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do i already bought the canvases here they are they're small
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but that's exactly what i wanted so i was a little bummed out
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but i didn't give up
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that easily first of all this turned out to be a great opportunity to finish the two books
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that i've been reading which are about color
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and i'm actually thinking of making a video about colors kind of similar to the architecture video
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but about colors we have this book highly recommend it's really fun it says the secret lives of colors
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but for this video more importantly I finished the book called the color theory for artists, and this book is a really nice book,
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it's just like less than 200 pages long, which is nice because sometimes people just be writing things, be yapping in the book, even though it could have been an email.
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This book taught me about mixing colors with paint.
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In this book the author more focuses on oil paints
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which i don't use but it's equally as useful for any kind of paint i remember
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when i was painting this painting i was struggling to mix
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colors i was also struggling to mix colors with other paintings
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but here more specifically i was like damn i wish it was easier
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because i'm not really sure what i'm doing exactly with the
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color mixing especially in this with this brown i just didn't know how to make it darker, i didn't want to use black because i saw an instagram reel saying
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that you should not use black and i was like okay noted
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and in this book it explains so nicely of how to mix colors and it is actually so easy,
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it is so easy to mix colors here are some of my attempts
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or like art studies or something along those lines of me trying to understand color mixing
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and i did from
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that point on mixing colors didn't feel like a guessing game
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of what i'm supposed to do it was more like okay i have red
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and i want to make it darker so i'm gonna add green
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because that's how you make a darker red it was it was mind-blowing i definitely need to practice more
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but now it feels more it feels more easier
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and more understandable of what i'm have what i have to do
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but yeah let me know
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if you're interested in me talking about colors i'm not too sure how to package it exactly yet maybe things
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that you should things i don't know
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because i'm not an expert on color theory
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but i do have things to say
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or things to share at least that's that's one thing
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so yeah this experimentation i did do it with my left hand i was struggling
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but i was learning and that's more important right i don't know
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so since i did this with my left hand i was
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like maybe i could try painting with my left hand as well
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because i have nothing else to do i i can't really do much besides watching videos
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and maybe going on a walk so i was like let me try
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and paint with my left hand
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so this this is what i painted the first painting with
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my left hand come here this is what i painted
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and honestly i'm really proud of this little painting firstly i painted this with my left hand
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which is pretty impressive secondly this was the first time i
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didn't have to guess colors i was like wait this is actually not
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that difficult this is actually pretty nice
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so yes here is the first one go back into your place
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and don't fall on me this was the second one
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which i didn't like as much a little jelly i think i will um redo this one
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because i can and i don't really like it it
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that much but i do like having it as a memorabilia
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so since i didn't like this jelly i made another jelly i made this jelly
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and look look at that it looks
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so nice no like i think i think this looks really nice
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and then the next day i made the coffee cup again
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i think here in this point on from this point on whatever the fact
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that i was learning about values
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and learning how to mix colors started to really pay off
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and i started to understand things more which was very satisfying
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these paintings did take a
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while to make i think from 30 to an hour maybe more
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and i was painting with my left hand remember
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that impressive i was impressed by myself
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and then the next two days i made these two i
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really like to pastel donata i think the cheesecake the blueberry cheesecake has a too much of a strong highlight
429
but that's okay but again left-handed i was
430
so impressed don't get me wrong i was struggling with doing it left-handed it took way more time
431
and my shoulders started to
432
because my left hand needs to be higher than my right hand
433
and my right hand has to like always be like this um
434
but it became a little easier it is a little easier
435
to paint with my left after a couple of tries
436
so that's that's a cool thing to know
437
so now recently i was actually thinking about what i want to paint on
438
and how i want the paint to be blah blah blah um
439
because i what i learned is
440
that painting on canvases on gouache is not really good it's
441
just it's kind of trickier it cracks more easily you need
442
to the owner of the painting needs to know how to treat it right
443
because these pieces are not varnished if i spray water on them
444
or or put them under tap water the paint will just kind of smudge off for watercolor
445
and for gouache the best material to paint on is
446
thick paper thick paper made specifically for watercolors right
447
so what paint is good for canvases
448
because i do really like painting on canvases as the final product
449
so the best paints for canvases is either oil paint or acrylics.
450
And so now I bought some acrylics.
451
I bought acrylics to try out, to see how I like them, to learn how to use them, because I've never.. no, that's a lie.
452
I have painted with acrylics before, but I didn't really understand what it is and how it's different from other paints.
453
So now I'm learning how to do it with acrylics and left-handed as well.
454
Yes, so the this was my first attempt i was just trying
455
it out i was just seeing what what i like what i don't like how it works um
456
and and this was my first painting with it with it look it looks
457
so cool i mean i think it looks kind of unfinished
458
because i don't know how to make it better
459
but i think i've come a long way i believe um this is my second painting a cheese i needed to
460
this is a cheese for the video game i'm making for one of the levels
461
if you are interested in how the video game is going
462
it's gonna be out by the end of the month i think 26
463
or 28 something like that but it's almost done so that's cool
464
and these are a few other paintings
465
that i did not as impressive i would say i'm not
466
as proud of these two still i think cool it's cool
467
to learn new things it's cool to try stuff out this is actually the perfect opportunity to tell you
468
that i'm rebranding my instagram i'm making my instagram about art
469
and i'm rebranding to a new name to my artist alter ego i was thinking about it for a
470
while the channel the youtube channel name is gonna stay the same
471
because i think changing it now to something else feels wrong
472
but i did want to rebrand my Instagram to make it more art focused.
473
And I feel like having it under Hello Erika just doesn't feel right to me.
474
So I'm going to rebrand it to Easy.
475
Made by Easy.
476
That's what I'm cooking on.
477
Because it's kind of a combination between my first name and last name.
478
And I kind of like how it sounds Easy, but spelled differently.
479
Spelled confusingly, but I kind of like it.
480
So if you see that my instagram is different now you know why a few takeaways
481
that you can take from this video is that one
482
if you like creating things
483
and being creative i highly recommend making things for your friends it's really rewarding
484
and i think it's a thoughtful gesture to just like make
485
something for them being like hey i think about you
486
and i made this for you um
487
and also it gives you motivation to make it nice
488
and make it in the end like not stop halfway the second takeaway you can take from this video is
489
that books are fun, books are knowledge, books are useful.
490
If you're looking for some structure in your learning, in your pastime, free time, books are a great way to do it.
491
For some reason they work best for me and I'm not a big bookworm, I read quite slowly so it takes a lot of time for me to finish a book
492
and I get distracted but books are great, what can I say?
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Why This Video Is Perfect for English Speaking Practice
This video’s casual, conversational tone makes it ideal for english speaking practice. The speaker shares personal stories with natural pauses, self-corrections, and everyday vocabulary—exactly the kind of language you’d use in real life. Whether you’re learning to describe hobbies or talk about progress, the dialogue feels relatable, making it easier to mimic rhythm and intonation. Plus, the mix of past and present tenses offers great practice for storytelling, a key skill in fluent English.
Breaking Down Natural Speech Patterns
Let’s look at a few lines that sound authentic. First: “I made art for 600 days or something like that because I wanted to and I think I improved significantly without trying too hard.” The phrase “or something like that” softens the statement, a common way to avoid sounding too precise. It’s a natural filler that native speakers use often. Next: “I was sick and tired of working on my screen during the day and the evenings for work and for hobbies.” “Sick and tired of” is a vivid, conversational phrase that replaces plain “I didn’t like,” making the sentence more expressive. Finally: “Does that make sense to draw the highlight of the day or something silly that I saw?” Asking “Does that make sense?” invites connection, a typical way to check if your listener follows—perfect for practicing interactive speech.
A Simple Shadowing Routine for This Clip
Try this shadow speak exercise to master the video’s flow. First, watch the video once to understand the story. Then, pick a 30-second segment (like the part about the sketchbook diary). Play a 5-second clip, pause, and repeat it out loud, mimicking the speaker’s tone and pace. Record yourself, then compare it to the original. Notice how the speaker stresses words like “really” or “fun” to emphasize feelings. Do this daily, and you’ll start to internalize natural speech patterns. For more structured practice, use a shadowing site to slow down the audio if needed. Over time, you’ll find your English sounds more fluent and conversational—just like the speaker in this video.
Learning English with videos like this turns practice into a story, making it engaging and memorable. So grab your phone, hit record, and start shadowing—your progress will surprise you!
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | I've made · have learned · I've done |
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | is expressed · is drawn · are left |
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | book, which is · someone who wants · using which is |
| Past continuous was/were + -ing — an action in progress at a moment in the past | was approaching · was trying · was just trying |
What is the Shadowing Technique?
Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.