It began as a blog where I made illustrations featuring warrior women recorded in history, from Queen Padmini to Nzinga Mbandi.
I did this to not only build up a portfolio of artwork, but to give something to others that I didn’t have when I grew up: an illustrated history of women heroes.
Yesterday I spent a good chunk of my day on something I mentioned in my previous post.
I took some canvas I bought, some old sketches from my high school days, and some Mod Podge, and I made collages.
Here are some photos of the final results.
I even have a few close ups of the first one…
And some close ups of the second one…
You may have noticed that there are smatterings of sketches of Kingdom Hearts or Hunter x Hunter characters in the collages. I’ll be talking about that in my next blog post.
So why did I do this?
Well, I didn’t want my old sketches sitting in a box being unused and unseen. I wanted to start making a large catalog of my art, so that the artistic transformation can be seen more readily.
As time goes by, every artist improves in their craft. I am no different. I look at these sketches, the first set dating to 2006, the second set dating to 2007, and I see such a huge difference between them and the art I make now.
I wanted these sketches up on collages to remind myself of how far I’ve come, and see the progress I have made.
I intend on making more collage pieces with my other older sketches. My goal is to make one collage for every year. That way the progress can be more noticeable.
But this is just a personal project.
For now, I still have a lot of freelance work to do, so it’s back to the drawing board with me.
So what do you do with your old sketches? How long has it been since you looked at them? What are your thoughts on your old work? Let me know in the comments below!
Man, between all the blog posts, Validation comics, Johnson & Sir comics, freelance work, and the day job (yep, I got a day job) keeping me busy, do I have time for personal projects?
Yes. Yes I do!
Project 1 is very different from what I usually do. Project 1 is a large acrylic painting.
By “large,” I mean it’s larger than my usual scale. I’m used to working on, at most, 9 inch by 12 inch pieces of paper. This is 16 inches by 20 inches on canvas.
This is a painting that my mind demanded I make, because there are lighting techniques I want to try with this.
Project 2 is connected to Validation. It’s a portrait of one of my favorite characters ever…
Roxie.
This is a piece I’m doing in colored pencil, which I haven’t used in years. It’s a good refresher to brush up on my old skills. I’m also doing my best to use colors in ways I haven’t before. I’ll post more pictures as I work on it.
Project 3 is a comic I’m hoping to get out by October. I’ve mentioned it a few times previously here on the blog.
It’s Charlie & Clow.
The cover is done and I’m so happy with how it turned out! I need to make the next few pages and take care of a few other things. With any luck it should be online by Halloween.
The story is about a young punk lady named Charlie. When she’s walking home from classes one day, she discovers a monstrous golem, and it decides Charlie will be its next meal! Charlie runs for help only to find a tall goth man who calls himself Clow. Who is Clow? And will he help her fight off the golem menace?
Of course, there are other projects I have in the works, but they’re all either very personal or top secret surprises. So I won’t say any more.
Which project are you most excited to see? Do you have any personal projects in the works? Let me know in the comments!
Also, I’m skipping the Favorite Artist Friday feature this week because I’m still scouring the internet for new artists to add as my favorites. If you have any suggestions for artists I should look at, let me know in the comments!
Thank you for reading, and I’ll see you on Tuesday.