Art and Stuff

[thornpuck]

I'm trying to make my character drawings look balanced. A lot of the time they seem like they'll topple over, but I'm preatty happy with how grounded this character feels.

Character belongs to https://artfight.net/~ricopop

[thornpuck]

Characters belong to @gnotknormal (the yellow mammal shark tail one) @gaertan (the griffin) and https://artfight.net/~Dexil (the magician)

Feel like I'm learning to walk again with getting back into the swing of things. It has felt like pulling teeth at times but all I can really do is trudge on.

[thornpuck]

Character belongs to https://artfight.net/~Typhi, for Art Fight.

I might just commit to doing flat color sketches for Art Fight, art is hard again.

[thornpuck]

Art Fight thing. Character belongs to https://artfight.net/~Prof_BooKitty

A bit rough around the edges but I've gotta start somewhere.

[thornpuck]

@miniimoose I think this will tag? I'm so bad at tumblr. Thanks for the inspiration! It's pretty rough around the edges but like I said this art block is a doozy.

[thornpuck]

Doing artfight + let me draw your characters

It's kind of nice to have a somewhat definitive list of, "these are my top characters". Ones I made recently combined with ones I made when I was like, 11. Looking forward to doing artfight for the first time this year! (I think I get it? I think I get it...)

I really can't wait for this event, BUT I'm struggling with artblock at the moment. I think I need some inspiration and I was hoping people wouldn't mind dropping their reference sheets here for me to draw. I can't promise I'll draw them, (this art block is a doozy,) but if I think I have the capacity to draw particular characters that gel with me that'll be a good step in overcoming this block.

Thanks.

[thornpuck]

It's like drawing through treacle again.

[thornpuck]

MoreCurlewSpam because I've been commissioned for a curlew tattoo. The commissioner didn't want this direction in the end and wanted something more horizontal and realistic but I still wanted to polish it off.

[thornpuck]

I tried to render this out but I lost something from this original rough sketch.

Sorry for all the bee spam I'm working on a thiiiing.

[thornpuck]

I thought it'd make a cool sticker. It was cooler in my head but oh well.

[thornpuck]

SO cockatoos are hard to draw. I can't seem to reconcile the length of the body and the position of the wings therein. How do you work, bird. Here are just some sketches of me trying to work them out that I think look the most cockatoo, but I'm still a ways off yet.

It's extra tough because I want them in a compact and stout style and I keep stylizing them loooong.

I also don't want them looking like Fledgling Heroes characters so I'm trying to avoid that disneyfication.

[thornpuck]

Most people are like "I'm an introvert/extravert" from what I can tell but does anyone else swing wildly between the two at different periods in your life? I have whiplash from how quickly this time I've gone from i-love-people let's-party to leave-me-alone-in-my-cave.

[thornpuck]

Do you do commissions?

WOW SURPISE TOUGH QUESTION.

I'm going to err on the side of a generic "no" for a couple of reasons but it's more complicated than that:

1, I am just over my burnout and the idea of doing art "work" right now gives me the heebie jeebies. As soon as I bring money into my art my ability to do it just takes a nosedive. (Stickers are different 'cause if an ideas not working I can just abandon it, not so with commissions.)

2, commission money is terrible. I've been spoiled by being paid as a gamedev and like, it's just not economical for me to spend ages doing an artwork for like, 100 dollars when I would be paid upwards of 1000 for the same thing in salaried work. Some people can make it work, and I've seen people do commssions as a livelihood, but I am not one of those people.

3, I am cautiously CAUTIOUSLY saying yes to some commissions if I an handle them because even though the money is not great, commssions are fun. For example, someone I know in person wanted a curlew tattoo and I'm like, yes, I can handle this.

SO YEAH no, but m a y b e.

[thornpuck]

I wanted to see how putting a background on a sticker sheet would go. I think ok? The sticker cutline will be around the signs, not the posts.

There's just something about wonky 80km/hr sign that I really like.

Also that kangaroo took way too long.

[thornpuck]

I loved ur bees and ur art. 😎 👍

Hey thanks a bunch! I never knew how much I liked native bees until I drew them they're so fuzzy.

[thornpuck]

Impressions of a bee. (Native Australian Bees)

I think I want to stylize these further? I think. I'm still considering. I got the watercolour vibe I was after. But I think I was hyper vigilant about making the anatomy of each bee stand out that I kind of lost a lot of the initial shapes I had.

[thornpuck]

A diary entry.

Apologies for those that are just here for the art, but I use this as a diary sometimes just 'cause I need a place to vent. I tag it with self/text so if you wanna flag it I think you can. (Unless you can't.)

So without tooting my own horn too much, I think it's honestly pretty impressive how far I've come in these past few years. It's come gradually but also sorta in an all-at-once sorta way. I've gone from being a right piece of work to someone who's actully trying to be a nice person. I feel like I'm in some weird sitcom about a guy who used to be a bad person try to be a good person - it's almost comical at times.

It's been such a big chunk of character development for me: I overcame being an abrasive online troll to become like, on ok decent guy. Not a great guy, but someone who doesn't get aggressive/insulting to others anymore.

But it's also ... the toughest thing I've ever done. I seem to just be an arrogant twat by nature lol so reclibrating that behviour has been hella hard. I still slip up. I don't want a medal but I feel like that crying cat meme, like the bare minumum is being an ok decent guy but I clawed my way from hell to get to the ground plane.

I dunno why I'm verbalizing all this. it's been on my mind. I guess a part of me also is publishing it 'cause I feel like it's hard to excape being an asshole for so long. I don't expect forgiveness, but I do wanna be like, "I'm not that guy anymore soz about all that :/" AHEM now that that's all out of my system, some other news:

I now refer to myself as an ex game developer

Sticker/merch work is going well, family members are keen to help me out so that's pretty good. I'm really enjoying drawing things inspired by my hometown. I know tumblr is more rainbow-barfing-dogs and less dusky-moorhens but I'll probably lean towards drawing things that are appealing to me rather than try to chase notes etc.

Feel like I've gone from 0-100 REAL quick art wise but I don't think it's anything to worry about? I think for so long (a decade?) I've had feelings of needing-to-study-ankles or needing-to-be-better or needing-to-draw-good but now I'm all: I'm going to sit in the corner and draw my funky little animals and that seems to have alleviated my art burnout.

I've gotten really into tea, like gong fu style shit and I'm like teetering on the edge of geeting pueh which I know will be a whole other step.