I’m glad I put in the extra work to review and practice with the reference material I researched. I absolutely could not have pulled that drawing off without it. Glad you liked it!
The 1st one with the forge was my favorite, but I’m happy to hear you’re going to play around a bit on your channel! I’m looking forward to seeing whatever you decide to do, Stephen!
I really like all of them, but if I had to pick a favorite, maybe the "snow" man? Also the pen vidoes/reviews are nice, but honestly I think I like videos where you're more focused on the art/drawing are my favorite! ❤
Hello and congratulations! Your name was chosen to receive the postcard titled “Nib Forge.” Please email me at stephen@stepheninks.com with a mailing address where I can send it to you. Thanks for your comments!
I personally didn’t grow up with snow, and I thought it would bee cool to have a snowy winter sometime… then I moved to South Korea and got more than my fill. Just got back from a work trip from snowy Colorado, and I am very happy for dry roads, and light winds. I guess I’m always going to be a California boy.
As always, Love the content. Thanks for giving me the inspiration to start drawing myself this last year. Hope you have a wonderful Holiday season, and of course, I would be honored to have any of the three examples on my wall. As for what went wrong in the Sand person drawing, only you as the creator would really know, for all we know it might have been intentional. I was trained as an Architect and not an illustrator so I am not catching it , besides art, is what the beholder makes of it. If it makes them happy to view it then it's good.
You know, my father is an architect, and he was my first art teacher. I noticed a few years ago that I really didn’t enjoy drawing buildings, and I asked him what it was that he liked about them so much. I honestly don’t really remember exactly what he said, but just hearing him talk about it helped me find things that I liked about buildings, and now I use them often in my art, hoping to get better at them soon. That’s just to say, where you come from is an asset. Lean into that with your art!
Omg i love this video … it has all the feels of pen, drawing, and Christmas 🎄 I hope a postcard might find its way to Humpty Doo 🤗 happy Christmas to all 🎅
Hello, and thanks for the kinds words! You name was drawn to win the postcard titled “that’s no snowman.” Email me with an address where you can receive mail at stephen@stepheninks.com. Congratulations!
The not a snowman is fun! 😆 Haven’t been near the ocean in far too long. And snowmen (even the sandy kind) hold special memories in my heart. 😌 Playing around on the channel to find what continues to ignite your wonder and intrigue our curiosity sounds fun. I’m newer to the channel and lean towards a silent follower enjoying the process of thought and skills practice. Learning is a slow crawl for me - practicing around life these days without the pressure of more other than joy and calm. I am not artistically trained and new to fountain pens and inking, so process videos allow me to absorb some “rules” while listening for some why’s as I build some form of drawing foundation. That also means it’s not clear to me what didn’t turn out well for you. 😅 🤪 Thank you for this share tonight and the rad postcard designs. The Nib Forge and Nibcracker are also wonderful and I agree with someone else - the textures are great! May the remainder of this year be kind and the holiday season feel nourishing for you and your family. ☺️
Thanks and Happy Holidays to you as well! Making art on social media is kind of like performing on an invisible stage. It’s hard to know who is watching, and why. Always nice to hear what draws people to the content I make (I couldn’t begin to guess the reason myself!). Thanks for your comment, and I hope I make many more things you enjoy in the future.
@@stepheninks Thank you for the holiday wishes. 🙏🏼 and you’re welcome. Thank you for receiving my comment. I can understand the uncertainty/lack of clarity of what you put out and how it’s being received. It’s hard to know when and how to add value, so that lends me to just staying quiet and observing. I appreciate the tone and calm of your videos, as well, and the comfortable conversations around just life and what it is sometimes as you explore new and favorite drawing tools, discuss thoughts during the process, and allow us to watch a creation from beginning to end. The tips at the end are fun too. I enjoy the curiosity and whims of the mind, so it could be niche. Good luck with the paths you take on this channel, and, as long as you’re also feeling fulfilled, I do believe you’ll stay current with those who follow you for you and reach those who need something you share in their time and space. I hope this helps and gives a little more info. Otherwise I may have said the same thing twice. 🫠🙃😅
I love the nibcracker! I’ve been subscribed for a few months now and I’m hooked. I’m an artist as well and I would love to have a piece from you in my home!
Honestly, I love these videos. I have a question for you, more so advice needed. I was drawing seemy frequently for a while, took a break to game with friends at night instead of draw, gotta try to keep some social life. But one day I just stopped feeling like drawing. Idk if it was from not feeling like I was progressing the way I want to or what. But there were other aspects of my life that just changed. My question is, have you ever felt like that? And how did you get over it? Just one day, interests just stop.
Hello, I missed this comment somehow. I was out of town with bad internet for a few days. I have definitely been there, and I have been given more advice on the subject than my tiny brain can hold. Only about half of that advice being actually useful. This would be a great subject for a future video, so I may go into more detail about this in the future, but I think your first step is to ask yourself what you are feeling, and why and when you are feeling it as related to your art. Does art feel stressful to you? Boring? Unfulfilling? Do you feel this way before drawing, while drawing, or when you have finished drawing? Further, do you want to be an artist? It is 100% okay to decide to walk away from it if it doesn’t seem fulfilling. I have done this a few times in my life. It doesn’t mean you can’t pick it up later. I have also found that if the problem is just not wanting to start, I can force myself to do it, and I instantly realize why I love to create. It’s just a weird feeling that I get before starting. I don’t know if that’s what you’re going through, but it has been my experience. This is the time of year that people assess their lives and make goals. Do you have any goals for your art this year? It’s a really great time to plan for future success. The solution can be trying something different as well. Sculpture, paper folding, digital art, knitting, writing, and som many other really creative hobbies might be just the change you need to spark something new for your future. There isn’t really a “good” solution for creative block. I’ve just found it useful to be flexible around it when it does show up.
@stepheninks Hey. Im sorry for the late reply. I was trying to think of a proper answer for a bit and then forgot to reply. This may end up being a very long reply for a youtube comment reply. I was drawing last night for the first time in a while. I think it really helped me pinpoint why I have been struggling. Maybe not why I stopped out right because others things did as well. But the issue is not getting stressed about drawing prior to it, but rather, I get really stressed out when I can't put what I see in my mind on paper. Or even recreate from reference. I have always had bad hand eye corridination. In all the sports I played, I was never a scoreing player. In the martial arts I studied, I was slow on the uptake, blocking punches coming on my left with my right arm, and having no clue why my body moved like that instead of just using my left arm. So I know writing and physical stuff are a little messed up for me. So, learning to draw is so slow and some times feel like an impossibility for me. It's so frustrating and had to put into words without sounding like a melodramatic teen from the 2010s. I have dreams and goals I want. I've always wanted to be good at drawing, I dont want to be a professional artist, per say, but I want to be good enough to create and do stuff with it. I guess more than a hobbyist but not an outright carrier goal. I also would like to make my own comic and draw it. But these goals and wants seemed unattainable when I went through art class all through high school and went to college for an arts program (mainly 3d graphics, but we still had some 2d stuff) and yet I feel like I cant get past this barely amateur level. I have no sense of distance or angles. I struggle to see the mannequin building blocks on pictures of people. To this day, I struggle so hard with proportions and can't seem to get a good head shape using the loomis method of a circle and oval like mask. I've been trying to study on my own as I have no friends who draw or pursue anything. It's rough. I think I got in my own head and killed my drive and can't seem to stop. Even last night, I spent about 5 minutes just trying to get the line of action right on a photo reference. It was a 10-minute reference session, and all i got was a line of action and the line of the back and some badly angled and sized arm. I was so frustrated I just sat there in my own head for 20 minutes before I sat up and just tried copying a mannequin character off Pinterest. I spent a lot of time when younger trying to run from a lot of the 2d stuff and go 3d because my art was bad and scared of failure, but now I am trying to pursue it, but its hard. I know this was a lot and very long. I hope that answers your questions. And I dont mean to dump my drama on you, but at the same time, it was kinda nice to vent, so apologies there. If there is anything here you wanna make a video on by all means, go ahead. I assume there are others out their with their own struggles and goals who may like a video you do on it. Again, sorry for the late and long dramatic reply. Keep up the great work! It has been a huge inspiration for me.
@ Thanks for this comment. It actually means a lot to me that my art means something, I have been there with frustration with my own work, and that feeling that you aren’t progressing. I have some thoughts for you about that. 1) you say you aren’t getting better. Is that true, or is it just that it’s slow? Try looking at an old sketchbook, one that you’ve filled completely. Compare the first drawing to the last one. Is anything improved? Because if the problem is that it’s slow, the answer is being patient with yourself. If the problem is that some things you are drawing, you are improving at, and some things you are not, maybe you are just not that interested in those things. Remember, no artist is good at drawing everything. Some artists will spend their entire lives drawing trees and flowers. There’s will commit to portraiture, and spend years on just eyebrows. That leads me to my other question: 2) Do you enjoy it? When you draw, is it only frustration, or do you get enjoyment out of it? As a teacher, I work with a lot of students who do not enjoy reading. Some because they can’t focus on it for very long, others because they don’t see the point, and others due to bad history with it, and just not feeling like they are any good at it. With art, it’s a little bit different, because you don’t actually have to make art, but everyone needs to learn how to read… the thing is that with both your problem and the reading thing, the solution is pretty much the same. You need to keep at it. For my students, I need to find ways that they can enjoy it, rather than just shoving the same things that they continue to disengage with at them. If you’re not enjoying it, in what ways do you think you could create that you enjoy? Things that make you happy, not necessarily when finished, but during the actual process of drawing. If it’s not your career, just remember to take it easy on yourself. You aren’t a faliure if you need to step away and reassess why you’re doing it for some time. If it’s any consolation, every artist i have even known has struggled with the fundamentals at some point, and every artist has also struggled with dissatisfaction in their work. For some, that disssatisfaction is actually the motivating factor they use to push themselves. Either way, I have been drawing for most of my life, and disappointment is a constant that i have jest needed to get used to.
Hello and congratulations! Your name was randomly chosen to receive the postcard titled “The Nibcracker.” Please email me at stephen@stepheninks.com with a mailing address where you can receive it. Thanks for playing!
Obrigada!🌷🇧🇷
Wow that forge one is so cool! Im in love with the concept and the execution is just 👌
I’m glad I put in the extra work to review and practice with the reference material I researched. I absolutely could not have pulled that drawing off without it. Glad you liked it!
The 1st one with the forge was my favorite, but I’m happy to hear you’re going to play around a bit on your channel! I’m looking forward to seeing whatever you decide to do, Stephen!
I appreciate your vote of confidence. I’ll be throwing in ideas like this one, as well as a mix of new and old ideas. The future is looking bright!
So that's how fountain pen nibs are made!🙂 The nib forge is my favorite, but all three are fun holiday postcards!
Glad you enjoyed those!
I really like all of them, but if I had to pick a favorite, maybe the "snow" man? Also the pen vidoes/reviews are nice, but honestly I think I like videos where you're more focused on the art/drawing are my favorite! ❤
This comment is a dream come true for me, because I love making videos like this one. I’ll be doing more like this for sure!
Love all the textures of the Nutcracker post card. Love it, love it. It looks great. Have a safe and merry Christmas season!
Thanks and you too!
I love the postcard with the forge. Thank you for the giveaway!
Hello and congratulations! Your name was chosen to receive the postcard titled “Nib Forge.” Please email me at stephen@stepheninks.com with a mailing address where I can send it to you. Thanks for your comments!
I’d love the sandman! Originally from the North Bay Area, it makes me happy as I grimace at the snowflakes currently falling outside!
I personally didn’t grow up with snow, and I thought it would bee cool to have a snowy winter sometime… then I moved to South Korea and got more than my fill. Just got back from a work trip from snowy Colorado, and I am very happy for dry roads, and light winds. I guess I’m always going to be a California boy.
Very nice video love your style. IThe sandy snowman is my favorite.
That one was the hardest for me to figure out, but it is growing on me the more I look at it.
As always, Love the content. Thanks for giving me the inspiration to start drawing myself this last year. Hope you have a wonderful Holiday season, and of course, I would be honored to have any of the three examples on my wall. As for what went wrong in the Sand person drawing, only you as the creator would really know, for all we know it might have been intentional. I was trained as an Architect and not an illustrator so I am not catching it , besides art, is what the beholder makes of it. If it makes them happy to view it then it's good.
You know, my father is an architect, and he was my first art teacher. I noticed a few years ago that I really didn’t enjoy drawing buildings, and I asked him what it was that he liked about them so much. I honestly don’t really remember exactly what he said, but just hearing him talk about it helped me find things that I liked about buildings, and now I use them often in my art, hoping to get better at them soon. That’s just to say, where you come from is an asset. Lean into that with your art!
Omg i love this video … it has all the feels of pen, drawing, and Christmas 🎄 I hope a postcard might find its way to Humpty Doo 🤗 happy Christmas to all 🎅
Hello, and thanks for the kinds words! You name was drawn to win the postcard titled “that’s no snowman.” Email me with an address where you can receive mail at stephen@stepheninks.com. Congratulations!
Creative, loves pens, nice personality, and cute! This guy is the whole package.
The not a snowman is fun! 😆 Haven’t been near the ocean in far too long. And snowmen (even the sandy kind) hold special memories in my heart. 😌 Playing around on the channel to find what continues to ignite your wonder and intrigue our curiosity sounds fun. I’m newer to the channel and lean towards a silent follower enjoying the process of thought and skills practice. Learning is a slow crawl for me - practicing around life these days without the pressure of more other than joy and calm. I am not artistically trained and new to fountain pens and inking, so process videos allow me to absorb some “rules” while listening for some why’s as I build some form of drawing foundation. That also means it’s not clear to me what didn’t turn out well for you. 😅 🤪 Thank you for this share tonight and the rad postcard designs. The Nib Forge and Nibcracker are also wonderful and I agree with someone else - the textures are great! May the remainder of this year be kind and the holiday season feel nourishing for you and your family. ☺️
Thanks and Happy Holidays to you as well! Making art on social media is kind of like performing on an invisible stage. It’s hard to know who is watching, and why. Always nice to hear what draws people to the content I make (I couldn’t begin to guess the reason myself!). Thanks for your comment, and I hope I make many more things you enjoy in the future.
@@stepheninks Thank you for the holiday wishes. 🙏🏼 and you’re welcome. Thank you for receiving my comment. I can understand the uncertainty/lack of clarity of what you put out and how it’s being received. It’s hard to know when and how to add value, so that lends me to just staying quiet and observing. I appreciate the tone and calm of your videos, as well, and the comfortable conversations around just life and what it is sometimes as you explore new and favorite drawing tools, discuss thoughts during the process, and allow us to watch a creation from beginning to end. The tips at the end are fun too. I enjoy the curiosity and whims of the mind, so it could be niche. Good luck with the paths you take on this channel, and, as long as you’re also feeling fulfilled, I do believe you’ll stay current with those who follow you for you and reach those who need something you share in their time and space. I hope this helps and gives a little more info. Otherwise I may have said the same thing twice. 🫠🙃😅
I'd love to receive The Nibcracker. Thank you for the video. I've enjoyed watching your other videos as well. Happy holidays 🎄🎅
Thanks for your kind words!
I love the nibcracker! I’ve been subscribed for a few months now and I’m hooked. I’m an artist as well and I would love to have a piece from you in my home!
I appreciate your attentions. More to come!
Ooooo 🤞 edit after watching: nib forge or snowman look wonderful to me
Thanks! They are both my favorites too!
Honestly, I love these videos.
I have a question for you, more so advice needed. I was drawing seemy frequently for a while, took a break to game with friends at night instead of draw, gotta try to keep some social life. But one day I just stopped feeling like drawing. Idk if it was from not feeling like I was progressing the way I want to or what. But there were other aspects of my life that just changed.
My question is, have you ever felt like that? And how did you get over it? Just one day, interests just stop.
Hello,
I missed this comment somehow. I was out of town with bad internet for a few days. I have definitely been there, and I have been given more advice on the subject than my tiny brain can hold. Only about half of that advice being actually useful.
This would be a great subject for a future video, so I may go into more detail about this in the future, but I think your first step is to ask yourself what you are feeling, and why and when you are feeling it as related to your art. Does art feel stressful to you? Boring? Unfulfilling? Do you feel this way before drawing, while drawing, or when you have finished drawing?
Further, do you want to be an artist? It is 100% okay to decide to walk away from it if it doesn’t seem fulfilling. I have done this a few times in my life. It doesn’t mean you can’t pick it up later. I have also found that if the problem is just not wanting to start, I can force myself to do it, and I instantly realize why I love to create. It’s just a weird feeling that I get before starting. I don’t know if that’s what you’re going through, but it has been my experience.
This is the time of year that people assess their lives and make goals. Do you have any goals for your art this year? It’s a really great time to plan for future success. The solution can be trying something different as well. Sculpture, paper folding, digital art, knitting, writing, and som many other really creative hobbies might be just the change you need to spark something new for your future.
There isn’t really a “good” solution for creative block. I’ve just found it useful to be flexible around it when it does show up.
@stepheninks Hey. Im sorry for the late reply. I was trying to think of a proper answer for a bit and then forgot to reply. This may end up being a very long reply for a youtube comment reply. I was drawing last night for the first time in a while. I think it really helped me pinpoint why I have been struggling. Maybe not why I stopped out right because others things did as well. But the issue is not getting stressed about drawing prior to it, but rather, I get really stressed out when I can't put what I see in my mind on paper. Or even recreate from reference. I have always had bad hand eye corridination. In all the sports I played, I was never a scoreing player. In the martial arts I studied, I was slow on the uptake, blocking punches coming on my left with my right arm, and having no clue why my body moved like that instead of just using my left arm. So I know writing and physical stuff are a little messed up for me. So, learning to draw is so slow and some times feel like an impossibility for me. It's so frustrating and had to put into words without sounding like a melodramatic teen from the 2010s. I have dreams and goals I want. I've always wanted to be good at drawing, I dont want to be a professional artist, per say, but I want to be good enough to create and do stuff with it. I guess more than a hobbyist but not an outright carrier goal. I also would like to make my own comic and draw it. But these goals and wants seemed unattainable when I went through art class all through high school and went to college for an arts program (mainly 3d graphics, but we still had some 2d stuff) and yet I feel like I cant get past this barely amateur level.
I have no sense of distance or angles. I struggle to see the mannequin building blocks on pictures of people. To this day, I struggle so hard with proportions and can't seem to get a good head shape using the loomis method of a circle and oval like mask. I've been trying to study on my own as I have no friends who draw or pursue anything. It's rough. I think I got in my own head and killed my drive and can't seem to stop. Even last night, I spent about 5 minutes just trying to get the line of action right on a photo reference. It was a 10-minute reference session, and all i got was a line of action and the line of the back and some badly angled and sized arm. I was so frustrated I just sat there in my own head for 20 minutes before I sat up and just tried copying a mannequin character off Pinterest.
I spent a lot of time when younger trying to run from a lot of the 2d stuff and go 3d because my art was bad and scared of failure, but now I am trying to pursue it, but its hard.
I know this was a lot and very long. I hope that answers your questions. And I dont mean to dump my drama on you, but at the same time, it was kinda nice to vent, so apologies there.
If there is anything here you wanna make a video on by all means, go ahead. I assume there are others out their with their own struggles and goals who may like a video you do on it. Again, sorry for the late and long dramatic reply. Keep up the great work! It has been a huge inspiration for me.
@ Thanks for this comment. It actually means a lot to me that my art means something, I have been there with frustration with my own work, and that feeling that you aren’t progressing. I have some thoughts for you about that.
1) you say you aren’t getting better. Is that true, or is it just that it’s slow? Try looking at an old sketchbook, one that you’ve filled completely. Compare the first drawing to the last one. Is anything improved? Because if the problem is that it’s slow, the answer is being patient with yourself. If the problem is that some things you are drawing, you are improving at, and some things you are not, maybe you are just not that interested in those things. Remember, no artist is good at drawing everything. Some artists will spend their entire lives drawing trees and flowers. There’s will commit to portraiture, and spend years on just eyebrows. That leads me to my other question:
2) Do you enjoy it? When you draw, is it only frustration, or do you get enjoyment out of it? As a teacher, I work with a lot of students who do not enjoy reading. Some because they can’t focus on it for very long, others because they don’t see the point, and others due to bad history with it, and just not feeling like they are any good at it. With art, it’s a little bit different, because you don’t actually have to make art, but everyone needs to learn how to read… the thing is that with both your problem and the reading thing, the solution is pretty much the same. You need to keep at it. For my students, I need to find ways that they can enjoy it, rather than just shoving the same things that they continue to disengage with at them. If you’re not enjoying it, in what ways do you think you could create that you enjoy? Things that make you happy, not necessarily when finished, but during the actual process of drawing. If it’s not your career, just remember to take it easy on yourself. You aren’t a faliure if you need to step away and reassess why you’re doing it for some time.
If it’s any consolation, every artist i have even known has struggled with the fundamentals at some point, and every artist has also struggled with dissatisfaction in their work. For some, that disssatisfaction is actually the motivating factor they use to push themselves. Either way, I have been drawing for most of my life, and disappointment is a constant that i have jest needed to get used to.
The nibcracker
Hello and congratulations! Your name was randomly chosen to receive the postcard titled “The Nibcracker.” Please email me at stephen@stepheninks.com with a mailing address where you can receive it. Thanks for playing!