Good evening and Happy Halloween!
I’m writing on behalf of a good mood today and I am very glad about it. Looking at my last two Octobers, during this time, meant I was facing lots of self-doubts in connection with missed expectations and failed projects up to writing their respective reflections. This year is different, as I have both lowered my expectations and had a rather successful art project period behind me. In other words, I’m glad, this doesn’t have to be another 5 minute vent on my end and I can actually talk about my art and aspirations for the following month:
My first piece was the last of last year basically: a halloween-themed portrait of my sona. What’s striking me here, is how none of the things that basically make this piece have been planned beforehand. I didn’t check what the background should be, the lighting was vague and the colours basically non-existent. Only after some fiddling around, did it begin to form its very colourful and chaotic presence. The only thing(s) I’d like to be done better about it is some more colour balance in the background and some softer lighting, though the last part was just something I forgot <v< Also the pose could be better but it’s fine as is really.
Next thing I knew was to portray my mean bat girl Fiara in some way, after my last attempt failed miserably. It shouldn’t be something extravagant or lewd, so I sketched around and did quite a lot of cool concepts, but they all lacked something I really wanted to attempt more: perspective. Since I am still quite the noob in 3 point perspective, I relied heavily on Clip’s 3D tool to help me with the foreshortening and the result was quite fitting; bringing up the focus on her nasty smile as well as also working when flipped on its head. Though I really did take long until I decided whether to go with this one or the more straightforward front-facing poses, however I’m still happy with the result, though painting here was pretty harsh, especially in the neck area fr some reason. I guess the red torch light was something feeling just unnatural for me and I tried to work it out with different layers and blending modes but it really could only be tackled on one layer…
For years on end,I had dreamed about making my own Xenomorph OC, I still haven’t but I have come a step closer. This one started out as nothing but xenomorph sketches that I ended up frankensteining into a plausible pose for a project. It only worked out, however, when I added this little girl to the composition. It added a very interesting dynamic between the two unlikely companions and is exactly what I wanted to get out of my xeno OC. Having played Little Nightmares II previously, certainly has helped me with my vision, although I have to admit, it got a bit too similar to Six’s character design but a little bit of fanart can’t hurt, especially since it is so lackluster in my gallery these days.
Well anyway, once again a little bit of colouring issues with the alien but I think the green that it turned out to be has a very ghastly yet beautiful look to it, I’ll keep it in mind for when I’ll return to this concept eventually…
The last artwork was done under a bit of a pressure. I accepted to be in a secret santa of sorts just for halloween and picked a char I really liked. It’s just that I bit off a bit too much than I could chew and I had to compromise with the detailing of this piece. Turns out that this motorbike really broke me in some ways and I’d prefer not having to draw one for the rest of the year perhaps xP The famous Akira bike slide pose for this was an afterthought but I figured it would show off the bike and chainsaw very well and add a bunch of dynamic on the way. Just as mentioned before, sketching out the bike in a good perspective was quite tricky and then rendering has become so as well. I think for now, I’m good with personal projects, I should really move on to work on my school projects…
Last year, I was struggling a lot to stay productive; to make as many projects as possible to stay in the good spirit of October and it was super frustrating to see only one of my many concepts executed, clashing against the need to make much with high quality output meanwhile balancing school projects. But this year, I approached it in a much different fashion: I didn’t plan out what I was going to do, merely when. I told myself, I want to have one artwork finished by the end of the week, and while it got tight in most cases, it was a healthy motivation for me to continue and stay productive, the ideas really just came in one by one and I did what I liked the most at the time, not spending too much with a specific concept. I also kept pushing on even when a design didn’t fully meet my expectations, in the end, all of these pieces have something to them that I like and allow myself to be happy about the product. I only still struggle with the aspired quality in detail and brush work, but if I apply my foregoing progress, I think I shouldn’t be afraid too much about it. These pieces show more style going through them, they are wilder, more colourful, they’re slowly what I really want in my art on the outside. On the inside, I will try to listen more to my heart and incorporate what is dear to me. In a way I have been doing this m entire life; I wouldn’t want to draw what I didn’t enjoy depicting, it never has been an issue but what I think could be better is the subtext of these projects.
I won’t give much insight as to what my future projects will be yet; for one; I want to slowly build towards them and two: I am really damn tired after a night of Halloween xD
I wish you all a nice follow-up and hope to get good vibes going! Stay safe and enjoy yourself!
~Souvillaine