Some old faces from the archive
Added 2024-01-03 04:01:13 +0000 UTCIt's the start of a new year, and I can't help but get a little reflective. Well, that and I've been getting plenty of sleep the past couple of days. It's great. People should try it more often. Anyway, when I was thinking about what I could post instead of having a lot of new stuff, I decided I could add some old pics, too.
These are just some sketches from around 2017 that I think are still pretty good. There are others from that era, too, particularly with the faces. The character faces looked great, and I was finding a style that worked well as a caricature and was different enough from each other that it avoided the "same face" issue.
I suppose what might've happened was that I relied more often on shorthand to draw a character in the interest of speed and keeping updates going. It was more important that the drawing be sexy than it was unique, was the thinking. I wanted to keep the patrons happy, and I also enjoyed drawing it that way too. But I think when I stopped focusing on what made each face an individual person, it had a way of flattening the characters too much.
That's not to say everything since 2017 has been a downgrade; far from it. I'm seeing issues with anatomy and clarity that I am significantly better at now. But still, it's always nice to look back at your old work from time to time and try to find what you liked about it.
Comments
I may be either spitballing or projecting, But I think the question, in my observation, is: "What career goal (or project completion) do you want to push yourself towards?" Because I see a lot of conceptual illustration (in general, not just the pieces in this post) for intellectual properties (both original and fan) that could be fun/heartfelt/amazing stories to tell... ...but rarely are they pushed to the point where they go beyond conceptualization. (and, to be clear, this is good work; not knocking any of it) And I think pushing yourself towards a completed personal project (not just Cassiopeia Quinn) in a specific medium (a comic, a visual novel, a game, whatever) on a deadline (so limits can be set) might be the push you need for the next step in your evolution. Working towards a specific goal with a specific deadline does tend to change how people approach art, because efficiencies need to be developed to meet production goals and deadlines. Comic artists and 2D animators can't think of their work in the same way as pure illustrators, despite pulling from the same fundamental skills. So going back to overreaching, but "What career goal (or project completion) do you want to push yourself towards?" I think working towards an answer to that question will help push your reflection and art in the direction you want it to go.
SaunterWing!
2024-01-03 16:31:41 +0000 UTCWe'll see, I'm trying to remember what I liked about this stuff and HOW I did it.
Psudonym
2024-01-03 09:52:36 +0000 UTCSo are you gonna try and incorporate a bit more of the 2017 approach to faces, going forward?
Griffin Hawk
2024-01-03 04:42:23 +0000 UTC
