/ic/ - Artwork/Critique

I told myself I wouldn't use a tablet until I feel worth of getting one. Reason being is that I had developed so many bad habits with my old tablet that I was actually going backwards with my art progression.

So for a yearish I only did pencil+paper, and then I got a bit desperate and did digital art with a mouse (tablet was broken). Despite taking forever to draw, I was actually progressing at a satisfactory rate and was making works I was actually somewhat happy with. After 3 months of this I decided I was ready to go back to using a tablet and got a screen tablet, figuring I had finally let go of the old habits.

And then I tried using the tablet. All my old habits instantly rushed back in, no matter how long I spent trying to figure out how to get my brush to do what I want, it's like it was going against everything my mind wanted. I figured it was due to lack of mileage but I got used to the tablet's mechanisms pretty quickly, so then I tried playing around with brush settings, brush packs, etc. but they didn't solve anything. I nearly had a nervous breakdown because I was so looking forward to making the next step in my art journey, only to be kicked back down by stupidity.

What the heck was I doing differently with my mouse than I was with a tablet? It's like the pen just didn't cooperate with me, but I really wanted to get comfortable with using a tablet because I'm tired of spending 3x the time using a mouse. Is it just some oversight with my brushes? Is it all in my head? This is giving me mad anxiety.

Pic unrelated.