I spent three months trying to teach myself digital illustration and now my wrist just hurts

Buying a tablet was the easiest part of the whole mess

I bought a Wacom Intuos tablet back in March because I kept seeing these incredibly vibrant web novel covers on social media. It cost me about 250,000 won, which felt like a reasonable entry price for a hobby that might last a week or might last a lifetime. At first, I was obsessed with the idea of drawing characters that looked like they belonged in a game concept art studio. I spent the first two weeks just trying to get my hand-eye coordination to stop fighting me. When you look at a monitor while drawing on a flat plastic surface, your brain does this weird gymnastics routine that I wasn’t prepared for. I kept undoing lines that were off by just a few millimeters, which turned simple character sketching into a three-hour ordeal.

The endless struggle with color palettes

Everyone online says to just ‘pick a mood’ for your color palette, but that’s completely useless when you’re starting out. I spent an entire Sunday afternoon looking at color theory charts because my shadows looked muddy and my highlights looked like neon plastic. I tried using the same settings that some game graphic instructors at places like Atents Game Academy recommend, but my screen settings were clearly different from theirs. It’s annoying how a color that looks perfect in the Photoshop picker turns into a muted, depressing grey once you flatten the layers. I eventually stopped worrying about professional color theory and just started eyedropping colors from photos of the sky I took during my commute to work.

Why I gave up on rigid anatomy lessons

I tried following those strict tutorials that emphasize building a skeleton structure using geometric shapes first. It makes sense in theory—if you get the bones right, the pose shouldn’t look like a collapsed tent. But every time I tried to add flesh and skin over those lines, the character would lose all its personality. It became this weird chore where I was doing math instead of drawing. I think I’ve spent more time looking at reference photos of random people in the park than actually creating anything that resembles a finished piece. Maybe I’m just too impatient, but the joy drains away pretty fast when you feel like you’re doing homework.

The realization about professional workflows

I briefly looked into signing up for a proper drawing class, even checking out what some local community programs were offering, but the thought of having someone critique my messy lines made me stall. I saw some interviews with illustrators who talk about how they spent years refining their process, and it honestly just made me tired. I’m doing this because I liked the idea of making something cool, not because I want to be a professional concept artist who needs to produce three high-fidelity character sheets a day. The pressure to make things look ‘finished’ is probably what’s actually killing my productivity.

Still sitting at the desk with an unfinished sketch

I don’t know if I’m getting better or if I’m just getting used to my own mediocre results. I still have this one character sketch of a knight leaning against a wall that I’ve been working on for two weeks. The sword looks a bit flat, and the hair shading is still making me angry every time I look at it. I could probably fix it if I sat down for another solid four hours, but the thought of turning on the computer after a long day at the office is just too much. I suppose it’ll stay in that layer-hidden state in my folder for another few weeks until I feel like looking at it again.