My babies

I finally started thinking about my goals for this year and I decided I'd like to do one major artwork per month. Since it's almost the end of this month, this counts for February as well. I have literally hundreds of ideas which makes it hard to choose. I asked myself: What would I regret not drawing if it became too late? So, I'm starting with an idea that comes from the heart: my beloved cats! 

I don't yet know how this will play out, but I want to spend more than four hours on the artwork. I have multiple ideas as well. At some point I want to get back into traditional art, since a physical artwork of my cats would make for a wonderful memento.

Colorful eyes

Curtain

Colored a value study from a few months ago. I used Luminosity instead of Multiply for the actual grayscale, and it looks so much better! I can't wait to try this on some other grayscale images.

Christmas tree memories

A cool alternate version

 

Desert

I haven't been doing much digital art lately. Not much scenery painting either and I miss it dearly. This was a small one but it was fun to get back into the groove of things.

Bonus: A cool accidental alternate version after hiding one of the layers.

Stained glass eyes

 Having fun with some experimental stained glass eye shapes. I would love to expand upon this.

Herrington the scottish fold

I want to do something interesting with my art style. I'm aiming for an anime/cartoon hybrid look, with fun and non-representational colors. That said, I am quite happy with this one. Now if I could draw more than once every 3 months I could do more stuff like this.

 

Experimental value studies from imagination

 

There is nothing wrong with using references for your art. But I would like to do more artwork without relying on it so much. I have forgotten how to get lost and have fun. But I'm slowly getting back where I want to be!

Winter grayscale studies

You ever get the feeling you're being watched?

 

Herrington the scottish fold

Referenced some vintage Buster Brown comics

I am getting more experimental with my color choices. 

Sailor Moon redraw meme

 I've never actually watched Sailor Moon past the first episode (just recently, too)

It's really fun seeing so many different artists' takes on this screencap. My favorite are the humorous ones. But for those who take it seriously, it is a great exercise in understanding and drawing expressions. The challenge for some of us (cough me cough) is getting the expression right even without context. I hope I did her justice. If not, maybe I'll revisit this someday. I love redrawing anime screencaps in general tho. We'll see.

Princess Tortoiseshell

Owliens

I would like to redraw this old artwork from 2009 at some point. 

Cassie

 

OC from my story I'm working on. I nicknamed him Free Trial Cassie.

Pareidolia

 

I was working on this commission recently when I noticed from far, far away, it looks like a face!

OC sketches

 

January check-in

My December has been thankfully uneventful. I got all my holiday shopping done in time, but we are postponing our Christmas present swap  anyway due to family getting sick. Everyone is fine though and it’s not covid, thankfully! 

I've been feeling really burned out lately for some reason. Finally being on holiday break has been an absolute godsend... but I'm still too tired to function for some inexplicable reason. It's frustrating. Despite my mysterious exhaustion, I have ventured into some new territories at last, which is my excellent news for the month! 

First, I've finally started experimenting with Clip Studio Paint. I’ve worked out most of the friction and now it’s just as fun as SAI2. My favorite feature of CSP is the timelapse export. The brushes are very customizable. SAI2 has sophisticated brush customization but CSP takes it to the next level. Being able to use multiple materials for one brush is incredibly helpful for things like floral stamps. 

But the best thing to come out of this month: I AM FINALLY MAKING PROGRESS ON MY STORY!!! This is such a huge deal to me and I want to bask in that victory for a bit. I've been trying to write this story for like... 15 years? I've been spinning my wheels but now I'm sitting down and writing it, but this time things are actually coming together. I just finished drafting the first part and it's ready to edit.  I sat down and wrote exactly how I would get this thing done. This time is different from all my other attempts because I tried different strategies in approaching the project.

Of course, who can say if my story will be any good or not. But what matters the most to me is that I get this out of my system. It's one of my life ambitions and I won't let this story die in my head. I am very excited.

I haven’t sat down to reflect over my 2022 just yet, but to put it briefly I am happy with my progress this year. If you can look back at something recent and already think “I know better”, that’s a good sign. So keep learning. Stay curious. Keep experimenting.  Discover awesome new things.

My goals for 2023:

• Finish writing my story
• Start DRAWING my story
• Re-integrate into society
• Draw more of my artwork ideas (and maybe find ways to get help)
• Perfect my art style as much as possible