Uncategorized – The Art of David Stankowicz

Welcome to DSDraws!

Hi there!

This is here is the newly rebranded and improved DSDraws Art Blog!
I’ve attempted at running an art blog in the past, but I honestly wasn’t sure what I wanted it to be and that made me pretty inconsistent with it. Well after much thinking and many brainstorm sessions, I’ve finally figured it out.

This is a place where I can share any and all thoughts I have about being a creative person making art. That will include me talking about my art making process and sharing the sort of things I think about when working on any given project. But that’s not all. I also plan on using this to share my reviews of various art supplies (and other products too). Whether any one actually cares to hear that is up for debate, but I wanted a place where I could voice my opinion on a variety of things and let you all know the things that I personally enjoy and would recommend.

The other thing I’d like to do here is share works in progress (WIP), first looks, and artwork not shared anywhere else for paid subscribers. Each post will contains some form of this content for just $3 a month. It’s just something extra for anyone who enjoys what I do and would like to support me. Don’t worry though, I’ll still post artwork to social media like Instagram, but supporters here will get to see these exclusives as a thank you for believing in me.

What excites me about all this is I am not restricted by any limitations here. I have the freedom to share whatever I like in whatever way. I have the ultimate freedom here that you just don’t get from any social media site. I don’t plan to show anything too outlandish and inappropriate but it’s really nice knowing I have the ability to do that here if I chose to do so. My goal is to have a new post every Friday so I’ll do my best to stick with that.

Thank you for reading is introduction to my new and improved blog. I want to turn the page and be more open about things and create more artwork to share. If even one person is moved and inspired by my art then it makes this all worthwhile. 2026 is the year I want to make a leap forward and this blog is one way to do that.

I appreciate you for supporting me in whatever way you do.
Thanks again and keep moving forward!

Subscriber Exclusive Art

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January 9, 2026January 14, 2026 by DStankowicz Categories: Uncategorized Leave a comment

Knowing When to Take a Break

Sometimes its ok to walk away for a bit.
Just make sure to come back at some point.

Being an artist isn’t as easy as many people make it out to be. While on the surface it looks like all we do is just make pretty pictures for a living, there is more to it than that. As strange as this may sound to a bunch of you out there, it actually takes a lot of work and a ton of time. Even though it’s super fun and incredibly rewarding, the weight of all of it can be too much to handle at a point. When you pick up a pencil or stylus and it feels like a burden and a struggle, then you need to make a change. It’s a little thing us artists like to call…a break.

*gasp*
Taking a break from the thing I love and am passionate about? What blasphemy!

I know, it sounds crazy and absurd doesn’t it? But all joking aside, it really a necessity that many artist can easily neglect. Even if they are well aware that a break is needed, it can be difficult to distance yourself from you work. I fall into that group all the time. Which is why I bring this topic up here. This blog I started was supposed to be a weekly thing that I kept up with for the foreseeable future. However, after about a month of it I began to struggle with what to write about and it starting feeling like a hassle to force something out. Now a huge part of that could be that I’ve never been a writer at heart and always preferred to showcase emotion and feeling through visuals. I’m an artist, it’s what we do. Anyway, I reflected for a moment on what I wanted to accomplish here with this. I reminded myself that the purpose of this was to be a way for me to express my thoughts on various art/artist related topics and not worry about being struck by the almighty hammer of the internet overlords.

*cough cough* Facebook and Twitter *cough cough*

Once I remembered that, I realized that I was literally burning myself out. I exhausted all my ideas I had in mind, and I was trying to force out new ones out of thin air just to hold to a schedule I made for myself. While it’s great to set a goal and adhere to a scheduled path to reach it, sometimes it just doesn’t work out the way you wanted. I can’t speak for all artists, but that’s certainly the case for me when it comes to my work. I can’t force it. I need to brainstorm an idea and way to make it a reality before I can start it. I can’t just tell myself, ‘I will paint an elaborate portrait every weekend’. That’s just not how it works for me and it never has. It feels like a very rigid and corporate approach to this line of work. If it starts feeling like that for me, then all the fun and enjoyment is sucked out. I need there to be a bit of openness and spontaneity to my artwork so that it feels organic and not manufactured. When I try to manufacture something and it feels forced, the result always looks like shit. Then when that happens the demoralizing feeling creeps up and I begin the downward spiral of demotivation.

That’s just not how it works for me and it never has

So why take a break? I’m willing to bet there are many artists that don’t take a ton of breaks. That might be fine for them, but I can almost guarantee that those artists are already well established in the industry. Once again, I can’t speak for all the artists in the world, but I feel like I can say with at least a bit of confidence that taking a break from your work isn’t as hard when you know you have the audience and the income to get you through that gap in productivity. Breaks are hard for me to sit through since I’m still at the lower stages of my career. Whether a break is just a few hours or even a couple days, for me it always feels like an eternity. That’s because I’m not at the level I want to be and every moment I’m not working to progress forward feels like wasting time. I also know that sitting down and forcing work out when it just isn’t working is more of a waste of time and counterproductive.

When you feel like you’re burning the candle at both ends and you’re running out of wax, the best option is to step back and take some time to rebuild the figurative candle and maybe even reinforce it. Burn out is real for any profession. I felt some major burn out with this blog and some of my work. So I took some time to gather myself back up and resume with some fresh and exciting ideas. So take a break before your candle burns out completely.

Keep Moving Forward

June 22, 2021June 28, 2021 by DStankowicz Categories: UncategorizedTags: art, burn out, drawing, dstankowiczart, motivation, self help, sketching, taking breaks

Rolling with the Punches

I had other things planned, but sometimes you have to adapt on the fly.

Life is unpredictable. No matter how much you plan and prepare, you never know when a curveball will be thrown your way. My family was thrown a major curveball this week. I lost the time needed for my planned topic so I had to improvise. I thought about skipping this week, but I made a commitment to myself to keep this ongoing no matter what.

There was a time where such a thing would throw me off and I could not recover. But my experiences this last year have shown me what is important. I know now that when you hit a large bump in the road that you need to brace for impact and adjust speed. You don’t stop and turn around, you slow down and maybe change your approach. But you keep moving forward.

If there is one thing I know its that I can take a punch. I’ve been hit left and right many times and I’m still standing. I’ve been beaten and bruised but I keep fighting. There is too much at stake to lie down and take it. This post is short, but it needed to be given the circumstances. I’ll return to my original idea for next week. And if something else happens then I’ll adjust. I’ve been in this fight long enough that I know how to roll with the punches.