Gettin’ There: Revitalize Week 20

First: self-assessment. Then: art.

For those of you just joining, I committed to practicing art almost every day of 2018. I’ve been pretty good about maintaining that. I’m definitely drawing more than I ever have (except for when I was in middle school and was art-ing every day of the week), so that’s good. And I’m for sure improving.

It’s weird, because on one hand, I feel like I just started doing this; the past 3 months have just flown by. And it’s not like I’m sitting down and drawing for an hour every day. Some days it’s an hour, most it’s only 15mins. So I’m like “wow I’ve gotten so much better over such a short period of time without wasting my entire life!!!” But that’s not real, because it’s been 3 months of almost daily practice. That’s actually a lot of time. I’d bet if someone looked through my sketchbook, though, they wouldn’t think my progress was THAT substantial. But it feels substantial.

It’s so cool when you have “eureka” moments. Like, you’re drawing an arm from a reference picture and suddenly you’re like “oh. OH. THAT’S how that muscle goes.” With more drawing comes more eurekas. And I feel like all of those eurekas have culminated into jumps forward recently. I’m suddenly far more confident and proud of my sketches, my figure drawing skills looking far better and feeling far better. Even the process itself has felt better. Like, my hands have been catching the curves and bumps and movement of the body in the lines; I can conceptualize shapes better, and how they connect to each other; and I’m actually getting real good at drawing HANDS, which who thought that day would ever come? I DIDN’T. I dunno y’all, I just…I feel like my intuitive sense of the human body has become so much better. Does that sound weird? Probably. BUT WHATEVER. It’s how I feel.

IN OTHER NEWS: I discovered why arm muscles are so tricky for me to understand & draw. It’s because of RIKU.

Look at those arms!!!! Those muscles aren’t anatomically correct!!!! NO WONDER I’M A MESS. Gives me more reason to dislike him.

This realization brought to you by Sharkboy (my fiancé….who is not Taylor Lautner but is instead a regular man who happens to look like a shark) playing Kingdom Hearts and me watching/reciting all the lines because I’ve played it too many times.

Back to the important stuff.

I don’t have anything important to say about this drawing. It wasn’t a character—nether OC nor fanart—and didn’t have any backstory that I can remember. I just liked magic & superpowers so….this happened.

For real though, I am super proud of this redraw. I used a pose reference, but this is one of the first references where my drawing is nearly identical and that is SO COOL. And her face was a first-try success so like multiple thumbs up to that. OH also I discovered the marvel of sketching with a lighter pencil (HB) and then outlining in a dark pencil (3B) and WOW I have never felt so official. Like, that’s a real artist technique THAT I USED BY ACCIDENT and now I understand why they do it.

Shading continues to blow my mind. No one who does art is surprised by this but I still am.

Wrinkles on pants are hard. Also it looks like she’s wearing jeggings when I wanted her to be wearing jeans but like whatever 98% of my redraws are in dresses/skirts because that’s all I drew in middle school (which makes no sense because I H A T E D wearing skirts and dresses in real life).

Her feet are weird. I’m ignoring it.

The shirt says “The Future is Female” which is 1) I shirt I own, 2) the truth, and 3) seemed fitting for a powerful female human person.

So yeah. 3 months down. A lifetime to go. Love that I’ve sold my soul to these pencils. There’s only a hint of sarcasm there.

Sketchbook C is almost finished. I’ll do a rounding out post and then it’s onto the next one! More anime and embarrassment to come.

See you.

Believe It!: Revitalize Week 19

At last. The moment has arrived.

I’ve spent 19 weeks talking about anime & manga. Which, including the enormous break I took, is actually like 2 years. I’ve alluded to these elusive fanart drawings…not the self-insert ones, nor the OCs. I’m talking the far and few between true fanart. And now, your wait has finally paid off. For TODAY IS THE DAY.

Oh yes, my friends. You better believe it. Because this is Naruto fan art day.

I LOVED Naruto as a younger human. I started reading it in Shonen Jump, and, at the time, thought I had started way late in the story. HA. Jokes on me and literally everyone else because dear lord Naruto lasted for freaking ever. Like, for reference, I started in the Forest of Death during the Chunin Exam….which is in Volume 6…..out of 72…….yeah. So like, hilariously nowhere near the end. And of course I watched the anime with the horrendous dubbing and censorship. Not nearly as bad as the infamous WBKids One Piece censoring, but still pretty bad.

Here’s the thing with anime, though: unless the entire manga is already out, the anime will catch up. And when it does, anime has two options: diverge or stall. If you diverge, like Fullmetal Alchemist did, you create your own path separate of the anime storyline. If you stall, you write an excessive number of filler episodes to buy time until the manga gets far enough ahead that you can start up again.

Guess which Naruto did?

The anime became infamous for having an insane amount of filler episodes. We’re not talking like one or two or ten…..no…..we’re talking, like, 50 filler episodes while they waited for Part II (Naruto: Shippuden) to happen. And filler episodes suck. Objectively. Like, they’re not good. And these were REALLY not good.

I stuck with it for a long time. But I stopped my Shonen Jump subscription when I went to college, and I can’t remember when I stopped watching….at some point real early in the Shippuden era I think. It just took too long to get there, and by then my anime/manga phase was long gone & buried.

When the series FINALLY finished in, what, like 2015?? I was shocked. Like, honestly, I didn’t think it would end. It needed to, like, ten years ago, but that aside. Genuinely amazed. And then they come out with the Naruto’s kid or something sequel series? Not surprised, but also I’m exhausted. I’m exhausted and I don’t even follow the series anymore.

Anyways. Long story long: Naruto was a thing I liked. I wanted one of those ninja headbands (although the ones sold used fabric that was too thin so, with the metal band,  they always looked dumb). Sakura was cool because she had pink hair. Anyone vaguely interested in men (like myself) loved Sasuke because he was dark and gloomy and brooding and handsome (I guess??? I don’t know….my emo tastes in humans was…..not the same as my current tastes, let’s just say). Although, honestly, if I had to pick a Naruto man today: Shikamaru. For sure. OH or Kakashi. Either one. Both great looking….animated….dudes…………..this is weird okay we’re moving on.

Sakura. Again, cool because she had pink hair. This drawing actually isn’t awful! She has toes that are kind of toe-ish and her feet are trying to be in perspective. Also her bent arm has proper muscle/bone definition!! And her legs are more human thickness instead of stick-figure legs. See guys, I’m learning. Also her sleeves wrinkle a bit (GOOD) and her clothes stick out from her body as they should (including her collar, which looks good). Yeah. This is a fine drawing for 12 year-old me.

I feel like Sakura got jilted out of being as awesome as she could have been because she was trapped in this weird three-way romance thing happening (Naruto loved Sakura, Sakura loved Sasuke, Sasuke loved himself and avenging his family, Naruto and Sasuke fought like how Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy fought [so obvious sexual tension there that has spawned many a fanfic] etc etc ) and just wasn’t allowed to be as badass as she could have been. She had it in her! Like, hello, that time she cut her precious long hair to save the day?? I C O N I C.

Anyways. I always liked her. Always wanted more for her. Who knows, maybe she got it later in the series. But honestly, as long as Naruto and Sasuke were going at it, she was always just going to be the mediator and/or tossed to the side so the dudes could have their contests of macho manliness AKA ninja battle each other to the ends of the earth and back for no real reason other than #HONOR.

I’m actually not super embarrassed by that typography. Mainly because Tiny Sarah was trying to be cultured & culturally sensitive by spelling her name in Japanese. Is it right? Probably not. But I remember being really concerned about making sure I had the correct word, and that I was writing it properly with all the correct lines and strokes. I wanted it to be right, not just there.

I didn’t try to write in Japanese for this redraw. But I did redraw her to be cooler. I mean, she’s a ninja after all. She deserves better than a cute, coy pose. She deserves ACTION.

I couldn’t decide on a pose, and the first one (top right) didn’t take long at all, so I decided to just draw two. The bottom one was way more complicated anyways, so it gave me good practice. And then I could do both long hair young Sakura and short hair older Sakura.

I’m really proud of the waves on the back panel of the top Sakura’s outfit. Such a strange thing to be proud of but here we are.

Bottom Sakura’s face was a pain. It’s that slight-angle down that was killing me. But eventually, with sheer dumb luck, I got it. Praise.

So. You’ve all gotten what you came for: manga fanart. I’ve kept my promise. Now you can leave. JUST KIDDING.

See ya later!

Bow Down, Witches: Revitalize Week 18

“Double, double, toil & trouble;
Fire burn and cauldron bubble.”
~Macbeth 4.1.10-11~

So I like witches. A lot. Example: the only season of American Horror Story I watched was Coven. Because I hate scary things but witches? Totally chill.

The Sims Makin’ Magic was always my favorite. No matter Sims 1, 2, 47, 394…the inevitable magic-themed expansion pack was always the best.

Harry Potter? Of course. Big Pumpkin? You betcha. Which Witch? Loved it. Sabrina? Watched both the animated and the live action AND read the comic. Kiki’s Delivery Service? Witches in anime, so obviously yes. W.I.T.C.H (debatably about fairies/guardians/undefined magical beings but whatever I’m counting it)? It’s Italian-made manga, I mean, c’mon. Buffy? Clearly. Halloweentown 1, 2, and 3 (the 4th one is irredeemable garbage don’t @ me)? Annual viewings are necessary. Stardust? Heck yes Tristan Thorn. Blair Witch Project? No. That shiz is horrifying. I’m only here for a good time.

Moral of the story: witches are freaking great and I want to be one. I have a black cat and my car’s name is Hecate, for goodness sakes, like…I mean…if anyone deserves to have some magic, it’s me. In an alternate universe where magic is real, I probably am one. I dream of being that woman in the creepy house on the corner with a wrought iron fence and lots of ivy and sprawling flowerbeds who all the kids think might be scary and mean and full of magic but who actually just likes her gardens to be a little overgrown, and who has a resting mean face despite her big heart, and who’s pies aren’t quite magical but might as well be, and who gives out the best Halloween candy just so she can compliment all the small children on their costumes and pretend they’re who they’re dressed up to be.

So I drew (still draw?) a lot of witches. Some of them were Harry Potter inspired, many were not. These two are the latter:

 

Eh. Not bad. Not great. At least, Tanya isn’t bad. Her hands have some perspective and her legs look more like legs than Dara’s do. Dara is a mess. Notice how the feet are in the same position for both? Yeah, for a while that was the only way I knew how to draw legs. Living my artistic life with the “if it ain’t broke” mentality (which seems very counter-intuitive for an artist??? Hence why I’m not one).

Clearly anime influence (and in more than just the eyes & features…Dara’s outfit is a generic anime school uniform). Tanya is vaguely relevant to 2018 in that I recently watched I, Tonya but that’s quite a stretch, honestly. Not even sure why I bothered mentioning it now that I’ve said it aloud and realized how goofy a connection that is.

OH wanna hear something hilarious? “Dara the Young Witch”??? Okay so these were Yu-Gi-Oh Card Character designs. I wish I was joking. I have pages upon pages of them. I’m pretty sure my vision for this card was a 3-card set that would “evolve” this character until her ultimate form, and you had to have all three life stages (child, teenager, and master) in order to unlock the ultimate sorceress. Yeah, I may or may not have play-acted in my basement me dueling and using this made-up card……

Anyways. A deeper thought: now that I’m reflecting on these original character designs (and especially these Yu-Gi-Oh cards), I’m realizing that they’re all women. And they’re all women because, like with most pop culture things, Yu-Gi-Oh didn’t have women in it. It had, like, one steady female character (among like 290204978029 men), and most of the cards (at least the ones always appearing in the show) were men: Dark Magician, Exodia, Obelisk, Jinzo…even the dragons always felt…male. Clearly, as a female viewer (not player. I couldn’t win a game of Yu-Gi-Oh if I played against a potato and a rock) I was missing…well…women. I wanted there to be people like me in the show.

Enough about Yu-Gi-Oh. BACK TO THE WITCHES.

 

Me & My Familiar (messy apartment intentionally cropped)

Crafting counts as art

I decided to do this particular 2-into-1 redraw after attending a Kentucky Derby-themed event in which I once again threw off the shackles of conformity and went full Coven Sorceress-of-the-South instead of Lilly Pulitzer’s next spokeswoman. Bravo should be knocking on my doorstep any day now with a contract in hand for Southern Charm. Cameron does love witchcraft.

Anyways. Long story long, I was in a witchy mood. Might as well have made an event out of it.

It’s Britney, Witch

“Does that look like Sarah? That totally looks like Sarah.” You betcha, my friend. Total self-insertion. But here’s the thing: my outfit for that event was darn good. And my hat–which I made–was great. All it took was a hot glue gun and an embarrassing amount of time and money wasted in Michael’s.

I didn’t want this supreme outfit (ha, see what I did there?) to be worn once and lost to the sands of time. No. This needed to be memorialized.

Used a pose reference, sort of. Like, I started off with it, but made some decent edits to it along the way just because it wasn’t looking like how I imagined. It’s still not quite there, but whatever I’m over it.

Sharkboy’s sharp eye had to help me catch an issue with the arm again this week. Don’t know what I’d do without him. Probably suck at drawing a whole lot more.

I sat down to add flowers to her hat, and ended up doing that for about 3 seconds before feeling compelled to fix her entire face. Definitely seeing the fruits of my drawing-practice labor in how I’m starting to shade/shape/work faces. And everywhere else for that matter. Proportions and perspective are still hard, but I can tell that I’m actually getting better and more confident in straying from the reference photo to do what I think looks best.

Cool. Well. That’s all. Stay spooky, my friends. See you next week.