Art reflection
I've been meaning to write this for, like, over a month. I wanted to put all my thoughts together after finishing my first real series since I started teaching myself art back in June for the first time since middle school.
For this series, I did the five main characters from the interactive fiction @pressplay-if:
Annie (link) was the first one I drew. I was working off of the idea of her dissassociation and lack of affect by bringing in closed eyes and a dreamy aura slowly subsuming her figure. She came out looking a bit mystical to me, which made me happy, although I'm not sure the overall vibe ends up fitting the other characters as closely as I would have liked. She ended up being my favorite.
Stevie (link) was next. She's lightly based on a portrait of Cher I really love. I wanted the light to make her look a bit like she had a halo, a bit like she was a flower herself. She's got a flower for each member of the band, including Maddox and Fatima. My favorite part ended up being her little charm bracelet with a record and a moon.
Angel (link) was inspired by one of my all-time favorite album covers (PJ Harvey's Rid of Me). I was most excited about his hair, getting a lot of air into it. For him, I wanted the light to look like a spotlight. Very black and white, no gradient. I think probably he should have had a wilder expression - I might do a redraw some time after I've gotten better, see if I can bring some more mid-motion in.
Zima (link) was the hardest one for me, maybe because there's so much emphasis on their appearance in the story. They ended up with a lot of shards of light and dark almost distorting their appearance, like the background was breaking through their face, which led to me sharpening up each corner and line in their hair/face. In the end, I thought they ended up almost looking like a sticker cut-out in a zine or industry mag. I don't love the kisses but I do love that they look like jelly a bit. Zima was also the only one who ended up with no celestial details, which I think means I didn't quite get them right.
Lincoln (link) came along quickly because I had a clear idea of what I wanted. I tried to keep Lincoln's lines very rounded, a bit softer, younger, with almost no detail in their face because they're more of a mystery, except for the literal stars in their eyes. I wanted the light to imitate the snake, look a little hypnotic. Snake was my favorite part. I think I'll draw more snakes. :) Also, I hate snakes. :)))
Overall, I had a lot of fun doing these. I got a lot of joy out of thinking about how to keep consistent threads between the pictures (some kind of focus with light, celestial elements, only one pop of color), and practicing rendering different features.
More broadly, it was real fun to work with charcoal and pencil (digitally), I really enjoy that medium and want to improve. I have a shaky hand because of brain medication so am working on how to integrate that into the art I make in a way that makes me happy... so far, I don't think I can get lines as clean as some people can, so charcoal and pencil allow me to focus on mood instead. We'll see what's next!
