There are just so many tips everywhere and a lot of different types of drawings and I have asbergers along with like ADD and it feels like the asbergers makes it even harder to be good at drawing, maybe ADD also makes it harder, idk. Also I get problems with the program and stuff like that, so I get frustrated because the program is so complicated and because I’m not that good.
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Can I tell you a secret?
I have aspergers too 
And I treat it not like as weakness, but as a strength, it always motivates me to give my best.
As for the tips, don’t fret, you will get there, slowly, just continue experimenting 
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Just feels like I got better and better before but that now I’m just stuck at a certain stage and I won’t get better.
Three years ago, I tried making a ‘proper painting’ to see what I could do.
Here is the topic where I explain what I did:
Sketchy Lakeside Landscape
It was challenging for me and the end result is not to a high standard but I did enjoy doing it. I didn’t try to advance from that experience but I believe that I could have if I’d put time and effort into it, to get practice and experience.
You could try finding one of those YouTube tutorials (there are very many of them) or even trying the same tutorial as me, it’s linked in the topic.
It’s not about being perfect or even just ‘good’. It’s about seeing what you can do and if you can improve.
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Firstly, I sympathize. I have a sibling who is also autistic and feels they have a similar problem, and I see the frustration this causes them, and I’ve had similar problems in the past as well. So I know this is a challenging and maybe even painful thing to feel (but autism is different for everybody, and I don’t know you or your how your brain works, and I don’t want to assume I do).
First, I’ll say the outlook I have on art is kind of different from most people’s, I think? I don’t care about my art being good, necessarily, because that’s vague and nonspecific. I think about what kind of art I want to make- and that’s comic art- and I try to be curious and explore different methods of trying to get to it when I draw, instead of trying to “practice hard”. For me, this feels way more natural, way more fun, and personally has helped me improve way further in a way faster amount of time! However, for others, it might be different, because I don’t know you or your brain. But I want to be clear and explain the angle I’m coming at this from upfront.
So I have a few questions for you to maybe try asking yourself, and see if the answers are illuminating in any way:
- What kind of art do you want to make? Do you want to go with a painting style, or a more cartoony/lined style? What kinds of styles do you like, are you drawn to anime or very angular/sharp styles, or more soft, rounded styles? Detailed, realistic styles or over-the-top, cartoony styles? It’s okay and great if there’s more than one “style” or “type”, but maybe choose just one to start working with for a while.
- When you sit down to draw, what are you thinking and feeling? Dread? Are you telling yourself you need to practice hard? Do you get frustrated? Try to identify why you feel the ways that you feel, and see if you want to/can change that.
- What if, for just one drawing session, you just had fun? You try to draw far outside the way you normally draw and ignore all the lessons you’ve been taught and just kinda follow your heart? You either just do lazy doodles, or you try to draw exaggerated crazy shapes, or any number of outside-the-box stuff you can think of! To me doing this is a whole lot of fun :3 If you try this and it doesn’t work or lead to any improvement, that’s okay, but hopefully its still fun to do and shakes things up a bit!
There’s probably more things you can ask yourself along these lines, but I leave that to you and your journey. To me, that’s what art really is about, or should be about- yourself, your journey, and what you want. While you don’t have to follow my view on things, I hope at least these questions are in any way helpful and made sense!
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I have Autism, but its not too severe on my brain.
I’m a SFW furry artist, and even with autism, I’m super good at drawing them.
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This is something that any beginner even without your conditions would feel
Try to tackle one small thing at the time, you don’t have to know or be able to do everything immediately.
Take your time and enjoy small successes.
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@Filip_Lusth - We’re happy you’re here with us.
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Try doing shorter drawing sessions
Use references or draw from life (draw what you see and how you see it).
Don’t worry about style, just color your drawings in. Color in shadows and highlights after that.
I know that Krita has a lot of “Bells and Whistles” but you don’t have to use them all, just play with the painting/coloring and color selection parts of it then when you’re feeling more adventurous, explore the other things, a few at a time. 
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It’s hard to stay calm and rational when it comes to your own art. On one hand you know what you should do, but actually doing it is hard. If you fail, it causes frustration and maybe even pain (emotionally). In short, it sucks, but it’s reassuring that everybody is struggling with their own process.
Probably the best advice (heh, I should take it to heart it myself) is to keep it simple so that you can claim some victories and try something more difficult next day with a positive state of mind.
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There are many reasons why a person can “feel” overwhelmed. Since I don’t know you personally it’s hard to say, so I’ll speak generally.
If we do more than we can handle then we will feel overwhelmed. Let’s say you’re new to painting and you attempt to paint in color. Things won’t look good and you will feel overwhelmed because you are unaware that you’re trying to tackle many things at once. If you get the color combination right but the values (black/white) wrong, then your painting won’t hold up. So as a beginner you shouldn’t be tackling both at once. Start painting in black and white, because even without color your painting can still hold up. Furthermore, it allows your brain to stay focused on one singular thing and not be distracted by many other things. Good practice is FOCUSED-practice. Once you’re comfortable and confident with painting in black and white, then and only then should you start exploring color combination and theory. If you try to tackle them all at once then expect to feel overwhelmed and even discouraged!
One of the downsides of self-taught is that we often learn these simple lessons the hard way. We try to achieve everything at once and so we try to practice everything at once. I have much more to say in the manual I’m putting together.
In the case of digital art, not knowing our ways around the tool we’re using can make us feel overwhelmed. I don’t know about you but I spent a lot of times learning my way around Krita. Since Krita is a tool I’ll be spending decades with, I want to familiar myself with it. I often open up Krita and just scribbles, learning to set hotkeys, explore what each item on the menu does etc… there’s a documentation you can download and skim through to learn more about Krita.
Information overload also can make us feel overwhelmed. This is the case in the informational age. Learn to take notes! It’s not possible to remember everything you learn as a beginner since they’re new and your mind hasn’t put these theories to practice yet to know good from bad. Be a good note taker! Everything we do, be it note taking, learning to play chess etc… develops our brains in one way or another and that in turn will help us to be better artists and learners!
In summary, know the tool you’re using by spending time with it. Take notes and review them. Take things step by step. Krita was not built in a day nor by one person. Each programmer didn’t wake up one day and became fluent in programming. They all started out learning simple functions and algorithms, very basic stuff that later became very useful to solve complicated problems! The mind can’t create what is complex. We can only do what is simple. This is why as artist we learn to simplify! Even a computer can’t do anything complicated. It only understands 1 and 0, on and off. In the same way, learning to draw cube, sphere and cylinder might come off as a waste of time, but these simple things are what will help you to excel later on. Why do you think musicians practice their scales daily?
It’s the discipline in the smaller things of life that makes us better when it comes to bigger things. Start small and stay focused.
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I have aspergers as well, so I get where you’re coming from. I went to school for a fine art major and there were a lot of days I felt just like you are now. Unfortunately most of the advice I got was on the lines of, just do more art until you break through the block, that didn’t work for me.
My ability to sit and concentrate on a task for hours without moving a muscle was a super power as a programmer but kryptonite for my art pursuits
For me, the best thing to do was either to ignore my art until I couldn’t any more, or to do work that was going straight to the trash the minute I finished it.
For example, I would grab a piece of scrap paper or cardboard, some crayons(crayola or conte), and draw something I could remember from my childhood with simple lines/gesture. I only spent a minute or two on them and then sh*t-canned them, no saving of anything! That didn’t allow me time to analyze myself, my work, or my methods, and eventually just work in the moment.
Meditation or just some square breathing can be helpful for me when I get overwhelmed, like when I was reading the dev docs last night
If nothing else, you can start with just tracing something with a simple line and then add paint bucket fills and be done and delete it.
That’s my two cents worth, your mileage may vary
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You might find hashing all this out with our fellow ‘aspies’ useful, I know I do, and there are plenty of aspergers web communities out there.
Personally, I like wrong planet, but there are many others.
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Autism can be a superpower, and it can be rough as well, I speak from (my own) experience
I wish you strength and positivity!
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I still feel overwhelmed and stuff but still, thanks a lot guys!
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