Someone asked me to draw a mantis, but didn’t like how i kept asking for more details, and then told me to just draw something i think that someone would look at and say “that’s a mantis”.

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Thing is, I don’t hold visuals in my head, just concepts. All I think of if tell me mantis, is just; Bug, Folded Forearms, Five Eyes, Triangle Head.

No form, no camouflage, no texture, no features, no pose, no background, no situation, nothing.

Same goes if someone were to ask me to just draw anything else.

Human; Head, torso, two arms, two legs. - No face, no body type, no features, no pose.

Raven; Bird. - No mass, Just a shape, put wing or shapes that looks like wings. Maybe legs.

I can’t draw simple requests because I have nothing in my head to fill in the details. Using Google does not help because then you have various species to filter though, individualism of the animal or subject, what kind of pose would they be, how would they express themselves, what angle is the drawing in.

All that is missing, and I end up drawing a part of it, erasing it, trying to redraw it, over and over.

And in the end I don’t get anything back from it. I like drawing things for other people, it’s the only reason I draw, but I don’t really have motivation to even start a drawing anymore…