First reflection to start off the new year 2020, I hope you took things easy and tried to take all the bad news from the media not too harshly. But I won’t turn this into a worldwide rewind and keep things very personal.
So what was going on in the last two months?
From November to December, things were really busy for me. I tried to prepare some old things for reselling which was extremely time consuming. And even though I can’t say I’m nearly done, at least I have come a long way. and made some good money in the process. About halfway through January, things got better. I see myself drawing everyday now which wasn’t always possible before also some things regarding that changed but I’ll come to that later.
I thought about restructuring these reflections but now, I wanna keep the old layout. So let’s get right ahead with these month’s artworks.
Artworks
Fuel to the Flame
This project jumped up to my all time most time and effort consuming projects (I think my 100th still takes the cake though). The very high ambitions I had for it acted as some kind of roadblock. Just when finishing the linework, I realized that I had underestimated the whole thing that would end up in some excruciating sessions around design and colouring… that would postpone the initial release date (before the new year) to 9 days after… which puts this on par with Zavi’s reference sheet… though I have to put into consideration how many days in between I wasn’t able to work on each project.
Anyway, I learned that I really should have done some additional preplanning here. This whole thing basically started out with sketching this bike, I’m not kidding. I got inspired by a red bike like in Akira and added the character, then the scene, it was very much all improvised.
This all probably sounds pretty harsh and overly pessimistic so I wanna express how much I like how it turned out. It isn’t refined enough for me to print it and hang it up my wall but it all has a very nice draw to it. I think it invites the eye to explore the image. That’s everything I could have hoped for. One part I am particularly proud of, however, would be the emerging steam form the fuel rods.
After finishing this one, I didn’t think I would do just another very scenic project right after…
Sadha – The Red Princess [Fanart]
January was guided by the game Divinity Original Sin 2, which was a birthday present that I started at New Year’s Eve. Boy did I get carried away. What a magical experience it was!
I knew, even before I finished the previous project that a Fanart dedicated to this game would have to follow. My first ideas already regarded a Red Princess, before I knew even she was in the game… So my first idea shifted from a purely fantastic design to this already established portrayal and the story that goes along with it. I had to make up how her actual head looks like though as it is never seen in the game and I really wanted to show these beautiful headdresses these lizards have. But I’m not gonna lie, even this one has its problems with me 
You might not notice it, but I tried to approach it with a different colouring method. I drew the colour planes on top of my sketch layer without giving up on them at the same time… which probably was a mistake. That way, I just made it more complicated than it actually was. I should have just gone with the full painting approach, add in colour, light indications, then merge lines with colour and paint over the whole thing… ah eventually I’ll get there… I just don’t want to entirely sacrifice my lines. Balancing this could be the trickiest part I want to work on this year. It would also help a lot with the background as rendering everything individually is really daunting.
What I took from both of these project is that working on long, time consuming projects isn’t the most enjoyable way of going on… BUT it definitely is better on myself to take the additional time and try to get everything out of a project before calling it finished. I see great potential in that approach and I saw it got very positive feedback.
Upcoming Stuff & Preplanning
As previously mentioned, I experienced a big change regarding my artistic journey. It is now very likely that I will develop further to become a designer. Since my previous application failed, I’m now trying to get what I did as a hobby to somehow work as a job. I want to specialize in concept design, as I see it as my greatest strength of now. I asked myself the question how to become professional, how to get a truly good impression through my work and I came to the conclusion that I will have to act as if I’m working already. I put up a daily planner which should help me get to each part of the human body individually. Monday will be spent on Hands, Tuesday on arms, Wednesday, the torso and so on. For several weeks, about 2 hours a day while the rest will be spent with applications and working on personal projects. First time I attempt this but I gotta kick myself in the ass a bit and the deadline of most of these applications gives me further motivation to take this real serious from now on.
Which means, I will aim to work on a big more varied projects while all of them should be refined to the fullest. Less artworks with higher quality and some experiments in between. Sounds exciting? For me it does.
This also means that I will focus all on my personal ideas though. I closed my commissions, I deleted my commission information even some commissions of my friends’ had to be cancelled to all our inopportuneness.
regarding such designs, I already have a few ideas in my mind. First thing up, however, would be a slight redesign of my sona, just for referential purposes that I hope to be able to release a WIP today.
Artist Shoutout
i only have one this time. A gem that has caught my eye previously but now I came to fully appreciate her style. While the very soft rendering in most of her artworks, upon closer inspection, you can tell how carefully it was applied so that there’s still a sharpness, conveying strong shapes and an excellent contrast that’s usually underlined by an equally vibrant choice of colours.
Let’s see what the next month will bring…
But all ahead, I wish you to enjoy it!
See you next time!
~Souvillaine