EEEE THANK YOUUUHEHEHEHEHE this is my FAV KIND OF COMPLIMENT hehehehehehe

sometimes i feel myself getting discouraged bc generally people tend to receive idol fanart that leans more towards realism better than whatever the hell i got going on (esp when i rarely ever color my work LOL…), and OCCASIONALLY it does get to me. not TOO BAD, not enough to discourage me in the slightest, but sometimes it does just feel disheartening, so receiving praise that acknowledges the specific efforts i make in terms of my style is incredibly meaningful to me 😭 i literally graduated from an art school w a concentration that had a focus on some 2D concept design (not the kind of stuff you see for large scale live action films—think more like animated tv show production) therefore while this stuff is definitely a passion of mine its also like a dedicated skill set i was honing and am still actively working to refine that i was awarded a degree for 😭 granted the kind of stuff i made back then and even now isn’t necessarily the cream of the crop in terms of industry standard, but that said, its genuinely something that i am very much invested in and specifically dedicate a ton of time and effort towards. i think most of my time spent drawing is literally just practicing and re-doing and redrawing and practicing again how exactly i want to stylize idols’ faces. i am still very much an amateur when it comes to the skills needed to understand precisely how to translate real life human features to character design in a way that’s both appealing and recognizable. so literally the lion’s share of my art is just basically trying to do exactly what you're describing (like genuinely sometimes i can sink two hours alone into just trying to perfect a face LMFAO)

anyways sorry for the long winded reply akfkskf this means a TON to me, i rly want to keep working at it and rly specific praise like this helps SO MUCH you have no idea 😭 thank you friend