Something that I've neglected to really talk about on this blog is what inspires me. In the deepest sense, I could say a lot about the people and life experiences that have affected me as an artist in some way, but I'm not talking about that deepest sense here. That's simply a blog post for another day. This is a series in which I want to take some time to write about the media and artists that have influenced my work or that I thoroughly enjoyed the previous month. You can read my last blog post to see in detail why I think this series is important, but to sum it up, I believe that art of any kind is always shaped by the things around us and that it's important to recognize and document what those things are.
In January, the first movie of the year I watched in theatres was Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. Having already been deeply inspired by the art in the Spider-Gwen comics, I knew at least Gwen's on-screen depiction would inspire me. However, the whole movie was filled to the brim with gorgeous and unique art. Every character was uniquely designed and even had their own art styles in their respective worlds, and all of this came together to make a colourful, jam-packed movie, as seen in the gif above. Based on this movie, I made a small series of character portraits, including the portrait of Gwen below, with backgrounds inspired by the bold colours and shapes seen throughout the movie. Not only did this new style of background carry through the series, I also used it in the other drawing below, and in a couple of drawings I've done so far this month (which I'll touch on in next month's post). Another big inspiration for me in January was ARMS, a Nintendo original game about boxers with different kinds of extendable arms. Being my personal favourite fighter, I drew Ribbon Girl, pictured on the left below. The game is filled with bright, bold colours and incredibly unique character design. The concept of the fighters having extendable arms itself is totally original, and inspires me to not fear even the craziest ideas when it comes to character design. The impact that these pieces of media have had on my art is something which I believe will continue to carry on throughout the months to come. I'm deeply enjoying doing the new style of background, and it's something I will definitely continue to use if there's any one thing I take away from January's inspirations. I will continue to document my monthly inspirations and how they've impacted my art, highlighting the importance of having inspirations, as well as the undoubtable improvement that will come along the way!
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I've had some negative opinions about setting goals in the past. Really the only reason for these opinions was my own failure to meet past goals I had made for myself. Either I always came up short on my expectations or I forgot about the goals and moved on with my life, only to reflect on them later with self-reproach. My S.M.A.R.T. goals from the 2017-2018 school year were hardly met and that was something I wanted to change this year. I totally changed my attitude towards making goals and I'm proud to say that I really stuck with them last semester.
As far as getting better with cartooning has gone (my academic goal), I did fall short on the frequency of my sketching. However, I have been consistently working in my sketchbook, developing a style that I love and vastly improving my skills in drawing the human form. I always struggled with drawing full-body poses and avoided it like the plague, but I've found myself now regularly drawing full bodies and even making my own poses without references. I've had many friends comment on the improvement they've seen in my recent cartoon drawings and it's truly built my confidence in my skills. For my personal goal I wanted to procrastinate less. This entailed using the Google apps for making lists, notes and setting dates and reminders on a calendar. I was slightly unsure of my ability at first to follow through with this goal, since I've tried many, many times to quit procrastinating and nothing has worked. Lucky for me, unlike a physical planner, the Google apps harass me (in the very best way) and give me the satisfaction of watching tasks disappear as I actually complete them on time. I've taken great joy in setting out tasks for myself on the calendar and list apps, hour by hour on days when I need to get things done. It's helped me find the motivation I need to complete tasks bit by bit, long before the coming due dates, rather than the whole task the night before. I faced and overcame many challenges as an artist last semester, both personally and academically. While, yes, having achieved my goals to a standard I'm proud of, none of this came without difficulty. Early in the semester I began drawing more cartoon-style pieces in accordance with my academic goal. This goal, however, was partially personal, too, expanding far further than the academy for me, as drawing in a cartoon style has been what I've done since the sixth grade, back when I lacked the confidence to draw realism. It wasn't long after setting the goal for myself that I began to doubt my ability to improve. The only time I was happy with the pose and composition of a drawing was when it was reimagined from a comic book screenshot. So, from there, in an attempt to further my skills, I started using a posing app that allowed me to create poses on blank figures. I made countless drawings with this app, all of which I was significantly proud of. Now, with this practice, I've gained a better understanding of drawing poses and I can sketch proportionate figures without any reference. Overcoming this challenge taught me a lot about the gradual process of improvement and the influence of inspirations in my work. In the past, I've touched on the fact that I draw mainly fan-art, depicting my favourite movie and comic book characters in my own style. I didn't realize the importance before of having these inspirations to help me gradually learn the basics until I can reach the point of developing my own style and skills. This has led me to creating a new goal for the current semester. I want to publish a series, here on this blog, recording my monthly inspirations. These can include comics, games, books, other artists, etc. I think it's important to reflect on what inspires us and how it plays into what we create, and I want to do that here. This will entail writing a brief blog post each month including visuals about what inspired me the previous month. I believe that writing these posts will help me better understand myself as an artist and watch my growth as I look back on them later. Last semester was filled with growth, challenges, great moments with friends, and landmark achievements, such as getting hired at my first proper job. I know that the goal I have set for myself will bring more challenges and, more importantly, more growth this semester. I also hope to continue achieving my goals from last semester and growing in those areas as I still, of course, have room for improvement there. I'm incredibly excited to begin this new blog series and have confidence that it will become a vital part of my journey as an artist. |
About this blogOn this blog page I'll be posting about my progress in achieving art goals, and how I'm learning new things and improving as an artist. Archives
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AuthorLeah is an eighteen-year-old aspiring Canadian artist who enjoys drawing, painting, and photography. |