Hi again!! It's been a little while, sorry for the huge gap. I've been focusing on my art a lot, and shifting my focuses a bit. If you've been on my Instagram, you'll know I was able to receive both a printer and a Cricut Maker so that I could focus this year on developing my skills for a future art shop!
I'm going to be putting a lot of focus into that this year, and also have more work to do with Graphic Design. I want to use most of my free time apart from those projects to focus on my art itself. So I've decided to try and make just one blog post a month here. They will probably all be very simple compared to some of my posts in the past, but I'll try my best to keep active a little bit. But it won't be able to be on my priority list, so I may end up missing some months. Just know I'm never "disappearing" and do plan to keep the blog up and running, I just may need some breaks. But I'm starting the year off strong with a post in case I can't make more as the year goes on!
It's been months since I shared an old sketchbook with you all, and they are such easy posts to make so I thought it would be the perfect thing. There's a lot of "cringe" for me in this sketchbook BUT it was all part of the art journey and so I wanna share it with you guys. Unfortunately this time I didn't take the time to record a flip through video because editing them is time consuming and I'm not sure how often you guys actually watch it, if it's something you missed let me know for next time.
Let's get started!
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Okay, so technically this is my fifth sketchbook, because I never shared my first one here. But that sketchbook was barely filled, mainly studies of OTHER people's art styles, and all awful. So it's not ever being revealed here.. Anyways, this Sketchbook. This is the point in my art journey I always point to express when I began to become pretty much obsessed with drawing and was making something completely new every day.
The funny thing is I still draw more now than I did then, but I could never fill more than two pages of a sketchbook (figuring I was still a mainly traditional artist) in a week because each piece takes me so long due to there being a lot more detail. At this point, I was drawing a ton but never really putting a ton of effort into any of the pieces, always trying to get to the next one if that makes sense. I hadn't really discovered my love for tiny details yet. So a lot of these are kind of unfinished, rushed, or just sketches.
I was using this Sketchbook from July 2016 to February 2017. It was my only ever Rendr brand sketchbook, and I was so excited to get it because alcohol markers don't bleed through from page to page. But I wasn't a fan of the paper color, it's very gray toned, and so I wasn't even really a big fan. I decorated the inside cover with some little, very wonky, homemade stickers - aka just glueing cut out paper to the cover. Then smudged it all with white gel pen when I closed the book. Yeesh.
I really don't remember WHY I made most of these. I'm going to guess I had some new markers but I can't figure out which those would be. A quick 1 marker challenge using 1 color for each of these 4 girl's hair.
So past me called this "Color Scheming" which I think is kind of hilarious because it implies that I was somehow being devious with these colors. I suppose 2016 me thought scheming was a term to define.. using any colors?? This isn't even playing around with color schemes - it's literally just one. Pink, black, and red. I'm not even sure.
I remember thinking this was my BEST work at the time. I honestly think the idea is cute enough and a lot of it is nice and clean (which was really a lot for me back then). But I really can't stand the scratchy pencil background and how.. I'm not even entirely sure what it is.
Another one that I don't really know why I chose to make. I'm sure all these people stood out to me enough to draw them when I saw them, but I can't remember at all. There's also SO much smudging it just. Makes me cringe. Shivers down my spine.
I love how this is apparently a redraw of an older piece I can't even imagine or remember. But I guess there was only a year difference between them. I'm proud of myself for ACTUALLY lining something for once AND drawing a hand. This is like an A++
The colors in this are kind of a mess, but the idea has potential. I always like to find a piece to redraw when I look through these old sketchbooks, and this one is definitely the one inspiring me the most. I think it could be kind of fun to redraw it for Mermay this year, what do you guys think? I would definitely make the color palette more cohesive, for one thing.
Some quick Dragon doodles. Top left is most definitely Toothless, I'm not sure if the other two are referenced or not to be honest.
First ever Stranger Things drawing. Here begins a whole lifetime of being a little too invested. Also when I tell you this image is SO zoomed in and cropped - I drew this SO tiny on the page and I have no idea why. It was a really bad habit of mine then and such a waste of good sketchbook paper because I would never draw the tiny art anywhere but the very center - making it impossible to keep using the leftover space.
One of my least favorites in the sketchbook even though I clearly tried so very hard. It's just.. there are so many different shades of brown and it's driving me insane. But conceptually it's pretty nice, I remember trying really hard to make it detailed and finished so I'm happy with that.
Pocahontas. The overall composition is kind of nice, I'm really only that bothered by the white gel pen in the hair. I was going through an obsessive gel pen phase and basically attacked any piece with them if they felt unfinished or had any problems. There's just SO much hair shine here that it doesn't even look like shines anymore.
Not much to say here, I was doing some three marker challenges because they were so popular at the time. I can tell I layered the pink and blue for the skirt which I think makes kind of a nice wine red color actually.
Not a fan of this palette but I'm pretty sure I picked these at random so. Also, hands have left the dimension I guess. And why is the collar of her shirt and the sleeves such different patterns? Is she wearing pants under her skirt? I'm not sure what's happening.
The style of this is weirdly nice. I remember this was based on a denim shirt I had with little white bird designs. It's so odd to look back in time like this because I know if I saw that shirt now, I wouldn't even like it, but clearly I liked it so much then I had to draw it. All this art feels so old to me now that it's odd remembering it was really only six years ago.
I think this was my favorite in the Sketchbook at the time. I was definitely very inspired by some of my favorite artists from the time. The hair is actually purple even though I had to edit this photo so much you can barely tell. Probably the most complex pose in the whole book honestly!
Little art style study before this was a trend! Crazy that most of these artists aren't even really active any more. Burdgebug was such a huge inspiration to me at the time and I haven't even thought about her art in so long.
Kind of wild.
These were OCs I believe! Couldn't tell you a thing about them. It's kind of interesting that we've got a 20s flapper girl with some more modern looking characters, I'm genuinely curious what this was about. I am forever disturbed by the last boy's smudged lip.
Another piece in that same style I used before. I redrew this one in 2018 I belief, and funnily enough now the 2018 redraw feels old to me. I prefer the colors here but I'm very bothered by how her feet get cut off. I was definitely not in my element trying to draw bigger like this.
And another! I wish this one didn't have the floating plants because the series would be much more coherent. I went kind of crazy with the shading here. Also DOUBLE SOCKS. Bold move. Still think the shoes are cool though - I really like Doc Martens Mary Janes. Maybe I'm still just as cringe after all.
Great Expectations themed artwork because I was super into it at the time. Not a bad composition actually and I refrain from the overly aggressive hair shines. Always enjoyed playing around further with the basic concept and aesthetic of the book and wanted to visually represent an idea for the Havisham's having a whole wall of clocks stuck on the time instead of just one because I thought it felt more ominous. I definitely had intended to add a LOT more clocks but I kind of think I just got bored. I was not a very resilient artist.
You guys might have seen this one before, I've redrawn it a couple of times. The shiny background is metallic silver even though it's hard to tell in the photo. I remember finding a reference of a model in this pose on Pinterest and just thinking it would be fun to try.
Here I started a little Alphabet challenge (which I never finished) because Drawingwiffwaffles was doing one at the time. I remember thinking her too long sleeves were a lot of fun and that I liked the way it looked.
This is one of my least favorite pieces of all time. I liked the previous piece's proportions and style so much that I kept looking back at it, measuring this sketch to match, etc. What I didn't realize is I was measuring these arms to be the same length as the last even though this character was NOT wearing an oversized sleeve and her hands were showing. So it just looks like her arms are insanely long. I remember feeling really off about this one and being unsure what I didn't like about it, but I didn't figure out what I'd done until I looked back at it years later.
Couldn't think of a C character I loved so I chose the Into the Woods film version of Cinderella only because I wanted to draw her golden gown. Also the eye is NOT messed up in real life but no matter how I took this photo it looks smudged because of the metallic I used. Metallic eyes were an odd choice anyway.
Not gonna lie this one is just so ugly to me and I have nothing to say let's get out of here-
Another El. Tried to be brave and give her a more character appropriate facial expression instead of my default smile and I remember thinking it looked pretty good! Her hands though..
A classic. I was really going through the height of my Regency/Victorian obsessive phase at this time so that explains it. Still enjoy this choice for the letter F though.
Giselle! I've been obsessed with that real dress for a very long time. We've got more mitten hands as well!
Another Great Expectations piece. Still actually like the style of this one surprisingly, the tiny pupils really make her look a little crazed.
Last letter I made it to. Kind of proud of the amount of detail I put into the dress!
Its weird how I don't remember making so many of these but I can STILL remember the reference photo I used for this random sketch. Weird. She's on Main Street!
Probably the best piece in the book - I put a lot of effort in and I do think it shows. I did those little inked cheeks because I saw an artist I liked do it and wanted to try it out but I don't think I've done it again. Just didn't feel like me I suppose.
A little Joyce Byers for you. Don't know why I didn't finish this one, I put a lot of effort into the inking and sketch. I think I used to just get terrified of ruining a sketch so much that I'd avoid finishing it I think. This would also be a very fun one to redo honestly.
More old OCs, even though I definitely do remember these guys. But a part of me can't believe I was still working with them in 2016, I would have guessed they were older. Seemingly my first little venture into the triangle nose style??
Another detailed one! Lilo and Stitch screen cap redraw of my favorite scene. I was really brave to do the side profile! I like the colors even though I wish the sky wasn't so unbelievably streaky. Also the white pen on the nose and hands where I messed up is so annoying to me - a random white smudge is not inherently better than a black smudge??
It's the last page! Back then, I tried to include a drawing of Honey Lemon from BH6 in each book because I loved the movie and her design, I remember wanting to color this one but just getting too scared.
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That's all for today! Hope you all enjoyed scrolling through this old art with me. Let me know which you'd want me to redraw most?
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