Drawing is complicated. Art itself is complicated, but the process is what makes it so special. For an artist like myself, over the years that I have dedicated to learning how to draw more efficiently, some parts have become asinine to me, one of them being lineart.

I think that lineart is overrated. It’s useless, and more often than not, when you think a nice fluid sketch looks good, going over it with a new layer digitally or using a pen traditionally will often remove that fluidity and make it boring. Not to mention the even line weight. Even though I know that line weight can vary, and that no piece of art has to follow every single direction or proper step, the extra hassle of having to essentially trace over and redraw your art with so much effort is just not that appealing to me.

To dodge this problem, I much prefer to go through all the normal and necessary steps of my art process, and then instead of adding a new layer, I instead just carefully clean up my sketch.  Doing this instead not only makes the process of making my art faster, but it also just makes it look better, as I get to retain the original fluidity of my sketch, while also being able to use the original pose I want and color it as I please. Ever since I started doing this, I feel as though my art looks more professional and has more of a charm to it, as opposed to listening to every art YouTuber that insists on line art being the only way forward.

It’s not a crime if someone personally chooses to use Lineart and wants to stick by it. But to me, line art will always feel unneeded and unnecessarily time consuming. Frankly, it’s just overrated.