AlystraeaArt

Formerly known as Annamare! My other account on DA is alystraea. That has become the account on which I would post Tolkien-inspired sketches, practice pieces, fanfic art, and the occasional comic. My art on this account is not very different - maybe a bit more detailed and finished, some larger pieces, but also mostly inspired by Tolkien's Silmarillion.

Teaching myself to draw since mid-2015, and still with lots to learn. I learn mainly by looking at the work of artists I love and slowly picking up how to use light/shadow and color. My style is still developing and I appreciate feedback and any tips on techniques that could help me improve - but keep in mind that I use a very basic program with no fancy cloning, selection or transformation tools.

I've used MyPaint 1.0 ever since it was recommended to me by Irsanna in 2015. It has the brushes I love best. I've tried other software, but I've always come crawling back to this one.

I started out with a Wacom Intuos tablet and now use a Huion H640P, which I recommend as decent - cheap and good, though the connecting cable is temperamental.

Been on a break from creating art since 2023, because (1) my husband lost his job and I had to take on extra work contracts to keep the family afloat, and that left no time for my art hobby, and (2) the advent of AI caused an existential crisis for me as an artist.

If you look at some of the larger, more detailed pieces I have on this site, they each took me three to six months to complete. That amounts to thousands of hours of blood, sweat and tears. Even my most amateurish smaller sketches took a minimum of 2-3 hours. It is one reason I have stopped taking commissions, as the amount of time and effort I invest is hard to assign a price to. And it is also why I have been so demoralized that I don't feel like painting any more. My particular art style, which is still not very developed, was aspiring to a form of imaginative realism that AI can generate in seconds/minutes with a few well-engineered prompts.

I still have Tolkien art I want to create, even if I paint like a snail. I especially want to finish my Lords of Gondolin series before I kick the bucket. But I don't know when I'll find the time, strength, and motivation to paint again.