[1,232 words, 7 min estimated read time]
I’d like to start keeping track of the art I’ve worked on each month going forward, so this is my first post covering my art from this past month! I’ve noticed my energy goes through a cycle of highs and lows when it comes to making art, so I’m hoping these posts can also help me keep track of it. Plus I think it’s worth writing down my thoughts about my art to see I’ve learned along the way.
Art Style Studies
Towards the end of September and beginning of October I was working on some art style studies of the show Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. I haven’t felt as happy with my art style lately and have been wanting to experiment more, and was really happy with what I learned from working on these.
I had already finished two character sheet pages, these two below were character expression sheets of my character Fetcher that I finished at the beginning of October:
I definitely think part of the reason I haven’t been as happy with my art style lately has come from the fact that it’s not as expressive as I would like. The art style for Rise of the TMNT has a LOT of room for really big expressions and dramatic poses which I really enjoyed learning from.
It was also really nice getting to learn more about the stylization for anatomy and clothes. The way they simplify the shapes of puffy sleeves and the anatomy for arms and hands in particular was something that really grabbed my attention. Especially for more dramatic poses, having more clear and simplified shapes is something I’d like to keep learning from.
Drawing an Outfit Lineup
Another drawing I finished up this month was an outfit lineup for my character Morrigan. I tried working to find a balance between the Rise of the TMNT style and my own that I was used to and wasn’t as happy with the results, but I still think it’s worth sharing and talking about why:
I did really like the outfits themselves, especially the first one on the far left and the sweater for the last one were fun to draw. While I think I did alright with the yellowish sweater, for the rest I think I could’ve simplified the shapes more. It’s not too bad, But I see some places especially with the pants and trench coat in the middle image where I could’ve simplified the shapes more.
I had a lot of trouble figuring out how to draw my characters hair as well. I’d done an art style study for Studio Trigger a while back and really enjoyed the way I drew Morrigan’s hair for it, but this time I struggled a lot with figuring out their bangs and what I wanted for the overall shape of their hair. Overall it was frustrating since I really just wanted to use this as an excuse to draw some outfits but was spending way more time trying to figure out what the heck to do with their hair.
I also really struggled with the expressions. I think I still need to find that balance between my old style and pushing for room to have bigger expressions and getting out of my comfort zone. I’m admittedly not as big of a fan of the way faces and heads are stylized in Rise of the TMNT, so replicating that part of it wasn’t as fun for me. Just something I still wanna figure out.
I’m gonna take a look at some other art styles, in particular I wanna take another look back at Studio Trigger and maybe look back at some older cartoons like Avatar the Last Airbender and the studio Man of Action to look at their work for Ben 10 and Generator Rex. Also I really enjoy the way artists like ABD Illustrates, Wulvert, and SnuffyMcSnuff balance out bigger expressions in their art so I’ll plan to take a look at their work to learn more as well.
Practicing Shape Language with a Character Lineup
I went back and worked on an old character lineup I’d drawn for a webcomic story I have planned, trying to focus on shape language in particular. I brainstormed which shapes I thought fit which characters, and while I still want to experiment a bit more with it I think overall I like the direction I went in for each character.
I just did some rough sketching over the original character lineup, so its not really anything I’d officially use, plus I’d definitely want to experiment more before committing to these designs. I really like how the set of characters in the middle turned out, but I think I’d wanna work on the characters on the far ends some more.
Pumpkin Carving
A couple days ago I carved a pumpkin to celebrate Halloween. I really like how it turned out, especially with it lit up in the dark as a jack-o-lantern. I can’t remember the last time I carved a pumpkin so it was really fun to do it again, plus I kept the seeds and plan to roast them too.
Finished my First Sketchbook
For the first time in my life I finally completed an entire sketchbook all the way through to the end, without tearing out any pages as I went.
It’s a bit silly that I’ve never been able to fully finish one given how long I’ve been drawing for, but it was a lot more difficult than I thought it would be. Even though I started small (the sketchbook only has 32 sheets of paper, so 64 pages) it took me a whole year to finish.
I’m glad that I made the rule for myself that I couldn’t tear pages out, instead I covered up drawings I didn’t like with a post-it-note or glued a sheet of paper over it and made something new over it. I think this helped to make me less quick to judge a piece of art I didn’t like at first- it had been easier to just make a quick judgement and tear a whole page out than it was to glue a section of paper over each individual drawing I didn’t like and make a new drawing over it. Plus I found a lot of times drawings I hadn’t initially liked I later enjoyed or got a cool idea from.
Another rule I set was that I wouldn’t share pictures of the drawings from my sketchbook online. I think setting that rule helped take the pressure off of feeling like it had to be “good art” that needed to be ready to be shown to a bunch of people. It let me create and experiment more freely, I ended up trying out different materials and art styles that I may not have.
New Project on the Horizon: HallowHome Zine
While I won’t be able to show any work for it for a couple months, I’m really happy that this month I got into a new zine, the second volume of HallowHome! It’s a fanzine focused on locations from the video game Hollow Knight and the day-to-day lives of characters living in the world.
I’ve already got a couple ideas sketched out, I’m excited to get started on whatever I end up making for it.
Leave a Reply