Year One!! The college sports art blog/comic/showcase has made it one whole year! To commemorate, I thought it would be best to take a look back at the year in college sports. This illustration is just a few of the many, many, many great moments, players and teams that made my first year of illustration so colorful.
YALL has grown more than I ever expected it would. I was able to produce 34 illustrations here on tumblr, with a few more spread out on Instagram and Twitter. But more importantly, I’ve made new connections, had some interesting conversations, and (I think) improved on my art skills.
Now, if you’ll allow me some navel-gazing, here are a few highlights:
The Very First -- The original post on June 21, 2017. It’s not my favorite but I feel like I have to include it here. You’ll notice it’s more of a webcomic than most of the others; this was kinda my intention when I started it but the bigger illustration pieces won out in the end.
The Conference Previews -- I had one for the SEC, the B1G, and the Pac 12, my favorite probably being the SEC piece -- I really liked how most of the SEC West and Arkansas came out. I ran out of time last year to get to either the ACC or Big XII but it is on my list of things to do before the season.
Maybe My Personal Favorite -- The Alabama/FSU opener didn’t quite live up to the hype, but I did get this illustration out. The Crimson Tide as a red tidal wave with a giant evil elephant inside is easily my favorite idea I had all season. I want to use it every time I draw the Tide but it doesn’t always make sense. This illustration came out a little dark, so there have been a few times where I’ve shown it to a few people and they totally missed the “hidden” elephant.
Best Story in One Illustration -- Ohio State and Penn State lost on the road and the following week had top-ranked Georgia and Alabama in a similar situation. Only Georgia didn’t make it (secret art sketch right here). As I planned that week out, I couldn’t believe how easy the story was to translate into an illustration.
The Big One -- To this day, I still have no idea what made me think doing 68 teams in a week and a half was a good idea, let alone achievable. This is, without a doubt, the hardest and most time-consuming thing I committed to all year, both inside and outside of work.* But I was incredibly relieved once I was done. And proud. I was able to also do a short webcomic after the first weekend (another of my favorites) and one showing how it looked right before the Sweet Sixteen.
There’s so much more that I still want to do with it. It would be amazing if I could get myself to start pushing the boundaries of the character design. Too many times I default to the actual mascot design. Hopefully, this coming year, I can find new, better ways to look at these mascots. I also want to draw more people, like the coaches and the players. One idea I had is to make a small comic page for each week, giving a heads-up of what’s to come in a more story-driven art form. Also, I want to try new art styles. Hopefully, you’ll see some before the season begins.
And finally, I want to say thank you to anyone that has liked, followed, retweeted, messaged, encouraged, helped, or supported me. You’ve all been awesome and receptive to me filling the section of the Venn diagram where college sports and art meet. Thank you. Let’s keep this going.
* - I don’t think I’ve ever mentioned this here, but I don’t do these or any artwork as part of my day job. Completely on the side stuff. The reason is that I do want art to someday be my day job. Small steps for now but I’m not giving up.
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