gartastic

I’ll be at AX again this year. This time with my first table partner ever, Darklightseeker.

Stop by if your attending and say hello. I’ve got a tone of new stuff this year so please come by!

Happy New Year everyone! I hope that you all had a good time with your families and friends over the holidays. Thank you all for all sticking with me, despite how slowly I post new stuff. It’s cheesy to say, but you guys are the reason why I draw.

 If I had to sum up this year in one word it would be “lost.” If I had a second word it would be “found.” I lost a lot more than my will to draw, after my post-con depression. I lost my will to continue going to cons and pushing myself artistically all together. But I also regained my passion and creativity to a certain degree. 

I have talked in the past how I lost motivation, but this year was different. Although I had a great time at AX, I felt ready to quit art all together. Drawing for cons, rather than for myself, really robbed me of my creativity. I felt like I had to draw certain things just to sell. As such I was sticking to very safe poses and compositions. Things were just getting stale. I distinctly remember thinking that I had draw every single possible humanly possible pose. Which is ridiculous, but I was trying to rationalize quitting. I think this shows in my art from January, April, May, and June. The 2B poster was lazy in all regards, with an easy pose, simple background, and block text. 

In February and March, I realized how much I missed my personal projects. Drawing stuff which only I cared about. The two pictures I chose from those months really show passion. In July and August, I lost focus again. I tried to regain it my working traditionally for a change of pace. But I couldn’t reignite my passion. 

I liked the original Love Live for its otaku pandering. But I wouldn’t rank it in my top 10 or even top 50. I wouldn’t do the same for Sunshine, but I absolutely love it. The core message of finding a way to “shine” is super cliche. But the show helped to encourage me and motivate me. Listening to the music drove me forward in October, November and December. Drawing Riko over and over again, I discovered my passion again. Through those pictures I rediscovered two things which I love: learning new drawing and finishing techniques. The combination of trying to draw realistic backgrounds, and filtering the images to look like they were out of a film SLR was and still is fascinating to me. The experimentation which comes from looking at the same subject again and again, rekindled my passion. 

Thanks for reading my all of my babbling if you’ve made it this far. I hope that I can continue to draw things which can put a smile your guys’ faces this year.