A mix of media: Gouache Paint, Graphite, Colored Pencils, and Oil Pastels.

I need suggestions on how/why the sketch shifted more to the feminine, and what are the main characteristics that tend to shift an image more one way than the other?

As I am working to develop content for 2026, I want to make sure its useful to you since you've taken the time to join this community. I have 1000 ideas of course but if they don't meet your artistic needs and desires that's not helpful, so what do you want to learn? What dreams do you have for your art? Do you want to continue improving your skills because you love doing everyday, or do you want to eventually have a career based on your art? Are you more interested in creating individual illustrations or are you more interested in learning how to create a comic/graphic novel? Are you struggling with the basics or are you needing more in-depth training on character design, scriptwriting, camera angles, etc.? Let me know if the comments below. There are NO wrong answers!

On a journey to rediscover the love I have for art. It's been a very long time (about 30 years), and I thought it well past time to say hello to a childhood passion.

Here's a little bit about me and the whole idea behind Slinging Ink. You are probably here because of the art techniques, practices, or as I like to call them on TikTok, art hacks... BUT. While drawing and helping you be a better technical artist is of course my goal, I have found through interactions with my students, that understanding how to tell a story has seemed to resonate even more. I love traditional materials and processes and in an ever increasing world of 'content over creativity', I want to be able to share my love of story and equip creatives to go out and tell better stories. Are we losing the ability to tell stories that last? Do we have the tools necessary to make stories of substance? With impact? We have a generation of artists coming up that are talented and have loads of creativity and don't know what to do with it. While they may be talented with a great idea for a story, without the right tools it stays in creative limbo. You can read comics, manga, and watch movies, but if that is the only guidance you have to making your story a reality; at best, you will have a pseudo-copy, derivative of the source material, and at worst; a hollow shell of a story that lacks the substance needed to make your audience care. Nobody wants that. In short, I want Slinging Ink Studio to be the go-to resource for creatives who want to not only grow in their technical art skills, but also be challenged to tell stories with substance. My love is for sequential art, and the examples will be catered toward comic storytelling, but the concepts and principles extend far beyond sequential art. Art informs art. Take the tools and principles and write, draw or film. Create stories with substance. Care about what you make, because if you don't care, why would an audience? With that being said, there is so much coming that I am excited to have a place share, but for now enjoy the free resources and let's get to work. N. Colin Dyer