Special Anniversary Post: 2nd Year, Sometimes Awkward, etc.

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 25^th 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.