HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYBODY! (I regret posting this this now because jesus christ but fuck it we ball)
SO 2025, Nota great year for anyone, definitely not my best art year.
While I definitely Improved and tried many things last year, It was really only starting in June, after which my availability and free time tanked. This means I did not get to make as much progress as I wanted last year. Add onto that the many drawings I had to rush out and I am overall not satisfied with my output last year.
Granted, I did more than draw last year. I tried a lot of new things, and worked on a lot of my other skills. Not to mention my responsibilities which I had to prioritize last year. Still, art wise this year was a pooper and I want to do better and more in 2026.
In any case, as tradition for the new year I drew Derrick, my first real OC. He serves as a good benchmark for my progress and he also had favorite OC privileges. Add onto that he is also in a way my persona as well as my mascot and that makes him perfect for seeing my growth as an artist.
He was also just due for a redesign, I had many details and ideas I wanted to implement on him, and while a few of them snuck their way onto some of my later drawings in 2025, I wanted to put them on something more recognizable and proper.
Starting with the face, I gave him a thicker brow ridge along with larger eye browns in general. He also has a slightly upturned nose, much like that of a pig’s. Along with making his face a bit more square rather than the slightly rectangular face I had been giving him till this point. All of these “gorilla like” features I gave are either ones I myself possess or ones I personally like in the people around me.
In addition to this, it makes him look more monstrous and less cutesy, something I had been struggling to do. I could not find the right balance of tough, ugly, and cute until I drew the reference sheet. I am very satisfied with what I ended up with and I do not expect he will go through any major facial changes.
Now the body, while the majority of the body is the same as always (just looking a bit different due to me changing how I draw and having more detail than usual) there are some more notable changes here.
The first change is to his arm, originally I had given it a scale like pattern in order to make it look draconic. However this became tedious to draw and most people who drew Derrick during artfight ignored it, so I decided to change up how it looked. I had actually made this change in a drawing earlier this year but I am highlighting it with this reference sheet. I changed the look and texture of the draconic arm to be more like scab, rough and a bit bumpy. It is now not only easier to draw but also more fitting then the perfectly transplanted dragon arm I had originally been drawing him with (No flying rune though, I’m afraid that won’t ever become part of his design).
I also drew his “enflamed” arm, which comes from an ability that I admittedly sometimes forget he has, but it's just visually cool enough that I don't forget. The last time I drew this was in 2021, so it's been a long time coming that I give it another shot. The design is overall more detailed, but the same basic concept of fire breaking through the arm and engulfing it remains. Just with longer fiery claws and spikes, and a slicker design.
The next biggest change to the body was the hair (because my gay ass likes hairy men). He is overall more harrier than I used to draw him before, with some areas near the waist becoming significantly harrier (as you can see). I modeled most of these changes with how I am (because again, persona) and I think he looks better but not overly detailed.
I also added the scars on his back from where his wings emerge. This is a design detail that has always been there, but since I have never drawn him from behind before, It has never shown up in one of my drawings, making it the first time it has been visualized.
Lastly I want to talk about musculature. Again it has not changed, but I learned a lot while drawing it. The back has always been a part of the body that is seldom represented, so I am rather glad that I have made it justice with how I drew it. This is knowledge I will for sure take with me into future works of mine and I hope it looks just as good as it does here
Anyways, Life goes on. 2025 will go down as possibly one of my worst years for many reasons, but it will also be the year I learned and tried many new things. Like any other year, I have decided to take the good with the bad, and to learn from all of it. So long as I both have and give a helping hand to another, I know I can make it to 2027 easily. Same goes for anyone reading this.
One last thing, due to this being a momentous occasion (that being that it's been about 5 years since I started drawing seriously and that I made Derrick a reference sheet), along with the fact that I will need to start timelapsing my art in order to not be called AI. I made a timelapse. Which I have not done for a while due to how much disk space they take up.
Happy new year everyone, let's make 2026 a year to remember (for good reasons), and best wishes!
THIS TIMELAPSE CONTAINS BRIEF ARTISTIC NUDITY, YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.
