Another day, another
dollar. It’s been another year! I like to think I learned a few things. I didn't post as much, and that was due to that one time back in that one
month (Was it September?). I always felt pressure to get something up every day
and because of that I felt like I had to be perfect all the time so you’d keep
following me. And by the way, that post was August. The one I was talking
about. Just barely. ANYWAY. All I was saying is that I wanted to wait until
good things happened naturally so that I could just upload stuff for fun
without feeling the need to impress the entire internet. I think it worked out
for the better, although sometimes my posting habits got away with me and I
insisted on posting tons of stuff just the same. I hit my goal of 500 total blog posts,
which is nice. What else happened this year? Oh yeah. Kaitlin and I finally got
engaged, then married. That is nice. Pretty much nothing else happened. Look,
guys, it’s the 25th and this isn't due for a coupla days but I won’t have
time this week cuz school is consuming my soul and my life. So I’m doing it
now. But I was up til midnight (which is unheard of for me!) last night working
on Global Game Jam 2015 and I’m tired. It’s 10:05 PM right now.
Images. Oh, I guess I
could do some updated stats (with the stats from last year in parenthesis):
Total posts: 510 (286)
Total pageviews: 24295 (11724)
Total comments: 1225 (484)
Total followers: 30 (24) [This one is also hard to measure because it says I have 45 people following via Google+, I'm not sure what that means]
Total coolness
improvement: ±#yolo % [I'm not sure what this means, either]
Two years of this
madness. Maybe someone will hire me and then we can all move over to my Tumblr
page, which I've been keeping secret from y’all. But NOT YET! The time for the
Great Migration is not yet upon us.
Thanks again to
everyone for supporting me and coming and looking. Frequently I post puke, but
you come to play with me anyway. HOW PLEASANT.
As far as what I
picked, there were some where it was hard for me to decide now! I picked things
for varying reasons, but constrained myself to one per month.
January
I picked this just cuz I thought it showed growth when compared to now. So there’s not a big complicated reason. But I think I’m better than this now. I hope so, anyway.
February
Gah. This is kind of embarrassing. Again, I picked this one to show growth. I think I was using reference for these people from the internet. It’s kind of shocking. I don’t know if my improvement in this area came from a trillion hours of practice or just teaching myself to slow down and put more time into things, but this is pretty hideous. That frog man getting blasted down at the bottom is also kinda funny (but don't ask me what Urethram Panoosi is, I have no idea what that means).
March
It’s ScarlettJohansson. I think? There’s not really a likeness, which is embarrassing, but I
think this touches on February’s issue. I had a class with Richard, and the work he had us do really forced me to spend more time on things. Did I really
improve or just force myself to pay attention to details for once? I’m not sure
but it sure looks quite a bit different than what normally happens on this
blog.
April
Some scribbles,
basically. What’s weird is that I can see some pencil under drawings happening
down there. I was pretty stiff. If I had loosened up I might have been able to
let things move a little better. I figured that out later, but in the meantime
I struggled to throw lines over a loose pencil sketch.
May
This is kinda fun.
It’s riddled with problems, but sometimes I lose some of this spontaneity- it’s
something I think I have to consistently focus and work on. The Slurpee Guy
appears to have two elbows in his left arm, but the characters have a
surprising amount of personality. So I guess I learn multiple things from this:
I had some artistic weaknesses that I’ve worked on, but I also had some good
ideas I still need to work on.
June
Junes? There’s some
nice foreshortening happening here. I knew it was something I struggled with at
the time so I made a conscious effort to work on it. I think that mentality led
to what happened in July…
July
Ah, yes. This guy. It’s
funny- I see it now and there are things I want to fix and tweak… His
quadriceps especially. But this piece, for me, cemented even more in my mind
that my personal destination (should it be possible to even arrive) should be “Artist”.
I had the idea and asked a friend for some help with some of the painting, and
things just clicked. I remember just sitting on my bed, looking at the finished
image. That’s the first time that I've ever felt so much satisfaction from
something I created. It was a good feeling, and pushes me forward to create
more. For me, this is my picture of the year- a new beginning with endless potential. That being said, I'm gonna be going through and fixing those darn legs of his.
August
This guy was mostly
picked because he has a cool right hand (his
right!). He also has a wide assortment of Liefield-style utility pouches. Too
many, in other words. (Parenthetical thought: It's kind of terrible how this guy and the post from July have like the exact same post minus hand position. What in blazes?!)
September
I picked this because
it was an important shift for me- forcing myself to pick 3D back up. I’m taking
a class now that should act as an excellent refresher, but I like that despite
not remembering everything well I still managed to throw together something
cool. I think it’s cool, anyway.
October
I feel like I learned
a lot the last half of 2014. I feel like here the importance of a nice, loose under drawings
underneath some well-defined shapes finally started to click in my brain. I
think this character is better for it. All I remember is I had an outrageous
fever while I drew this. Hmm. Maybe the trick is to inflict illness upon
yourself? Does that make you good?
November
A continuation of the
previous idea, I really liked this character. He had a nice face and sword and
belt. It’s nice realizing that sketching a bit before committing to lines is a
healthy and effective way to do things.
December
Again, workflow and
commitment. I started with a basic sketch, took it into Photoshop, and worked
it until I was done. His hands are cool, the sword is cool. I wish I had better
and more consistent results, though. It’s like sometimes when I’m painting
things just click and I power through it like it’s no big deal, while others
(like that bearzerker I’m currently lolly-gagging around) just don’t work. I
wonder if it’s a comfort zone thing? Like I do tons of armor-wearing guys,
maybe I’m more familiar so it goes easier? I don’t like that. I want to push
myself more.
January
Back around. There
weren't a lot of posts this month, but I picked some drawings I did from life
to contrast against the ones I posted earlier. I think I've learned something
there.
It’s a comforting feeling knowing that perhaps
some growth took place.
I’m just letting you know that I’m not content to stop here, though: I’m pushing myself further! This month I joined the online art community Polycount and I’ll be working there (especially when I get going in 3D) to really improve and take my game to the next level. Hopefully by this time next year I've really grown, it would be nice to apply for sweet internships for the summer of 2016! Questions? Comments? Good advice? Bad advice? Leave a comment, we’ll have a chat.
