I broke my rule.
Although, I guess I never really set rules for this thing. I’ve just been working under a set of undetermined, arbitrary guidelines because when only your mom and two friends (never the same two, mind you)* following a project you don’t really need to, like, transparently structure anything.
But I did what I didn’t think I would ever do, which is go backwards.
I assumed, when I started this, that once I finished a sketchbook I was done with it. Thus far, I haven’t moved on from a sketchbook because I’ve redrawn absolutely everything. More like, I no longer find any of the old drawings inspiring, so I move on to new things instead of forcing myself to draw something I’m not connecting with. Stupidly, I didn’t think what’s calling to me would change.
I was skimming through my files from Sketchbooks A & B, and, as true shocker to my naive self, was inspired to redraw a few of them. “But I can’t do that!!” I protested. “I finished Sketchbook A 2 years ago!!”
Well, of course I want to redraw different things now than I did. It’s been two years! Holy cow, it’s been two years…..
Anyways, so I was like, insistent that I couldn’t just go backwards in sketchbooks, that I was done with Sketchbook A and that was that. But if I make the rules, then why can’t I just…oh, I don’t know…change them? Or, just like…not follow them since I never really laid out rules to begin with.
The moral of the story is: I do what I want, and I make the rules. Or, lackthereof.
Knowing that the original is from Sketchbook A makes me far more impressed than I would be otherwise. This ain’t half bad. There’s perspective, some sense of proportion….detail in the kimono…all around a solid attempt. There’s no face, obviously….because faces are hard. It wasn’t me trying to make something scary. I just…probably didn’t know what her face should look like and liked the drawing enough as-is that I was worried about screwing it up (not much has changed).
The redraw is alright. I don’t know. I was inspired to redraw this one, but then actually did the redraw and was like ehhhhh. I really didn’t want to do the stereotypical woman-in-a-kimono drawing. You know what I’m talking about: draped off the shoulder, cherry blossoms floating all over the place, porcelain doll face, etc, etc, etc. Nah. Didn’t want to do that. So I drew a static pose instead. And it’s…not great. Her hand is a hot mess. I also didn’t get the stiffness of the fabric right, so her boob looks way too saggy.
So it was already Not Great, and then I tried to color it.
I don’t know why I thought that would be a good idea. I’m not particularly great with colored pencils in even the best of circumstances. I guess I hoped that I could combat the not-greatness of the drawing with pretty colors. So I tried to color it in. Except….where I had sketched her legs beneath the skirt, despite being erased, left ruts in the page. So the colored pencil was going everywhere EXCEPT in the ruts, so it looked like the skirt was see-through. Then I tried to use a sharpie. That worked, except it bled through the back of the page (which I assumed was going to happen; had I liked the drawing on the back of the page I wouldn’t have even tried).
So now it’s both ugly and a mess. And I could have posted it like that, but I didn’t want to. The only way to fix it without having to start from scratch? The tablet.
AGES ago, Sharkboy bought a Wacom tablet. I tried using it when he first got it and, despite knowing better, I gave up almost immediately because it was so hard. But this time I didn’t care about the drawing enough to care if it got ruined, so MIGHT AS WELL.
I struggled for the first bit. Then, it started getting easier. Obviously. We all knew that would be the case. I’m just chronically impatient. So now that I’ve gotten over the first hump of the struggle bus, I’m more willing to keep practicing. Although I may wait until I get a new computer; my current laptop has one foot on a banana peel and the other in a grave, so installing any kind of new software would be a very bad idea.
The clothes turned out poorly enough that I didn’t feel anywhere remotely confident to do the hand/arm/face so….pretend that black & white is an Intentional Artistic Choice. I also went overboard with the flowers. And used a very stereotypical cherry blossom petal brush. AND the obi/obiage is not shaded well at all. Whatever. It’s not worse than it was so there’s that.
NOW it’s time for the Sketchbook C wrap-up. That’ll be coming this weekend. Hopefully. Lord only knows; I have no sense of a schedule for this thing anymore.
See y’all.
*To the two friends reading this today: Hello! Thanks for reading!
Also, yes, Sharkboy doesn’t even read this. Apparently the sanctity of engagement doesn’t require him to support my attempt to be internet famous.
At least my mom reads it though. So there’s that (hi mom.)
Falling, Failing, & Flailing 