My Year through Art

[dephigravity]

What a year this has been. I am not gonna sugarcoat it, this year turned out far more difficult than I would have imagined, but I will be brief and not dwell.

I remain unemployed and reclusive, because well frankly, I gave into my own anxiety and depression. I'm working on that! But it did allow me more time for fandom endeavors and whatnot, so not a total waste.

I lost my precious Gracie, but found my animal soul mate in Parker.

My interest in SPN (J2) has come back, but my interest in Teen Wolf is on life support.

I started up a few communities/challenges, and abandoned others. And for better or worse ventured further into tumblr...

I essentially gave up writing in favor of art. (Seriously, I did not write a single fic-- not even a drabble-- this past year.)

Speaking of that, here have an end of the year art meme-- totally stolen from cassiopeia7.



Retrospective year in fanart meme (2013)

Total number of completed fanarts: 22
Total piece count: 40 (plus quite a few unfinished or unposted doodles)

January


Mornin' Sunshine
for riyku
insmallpackages
(1)


Heavenly Creature
Artwork for oomnydevvotchka's fic We've All Got Our Junk
twreversebang
(1)


February


Ho'olu komo la kaua
j2_everafter
(1)


That Voodoo That You Do (GIF)
teenwolf_bingo
(1)


And They Call It Puppy Love
Artwork for dugindeep's fic And They Call It Puppy Love
j2_everafter
(7)


March


yeah, but there is a "me"
for untitleddemo
(1)


April


Blue and Evil
A "real life" Tattoo Commission
(1)


Some Sorta Fairytale
(1)


May


En Sabah Nur
(1)


Beacon Hills BFFs
Banner Artwork I made for teenwolf_fanart
(1)


Sloth Chibi
for tebtosca
(1)


June


Jensen Pride and the Color Guard
for j2_crack
(7)


July


Sacrilege
Artwork for xdarkdesires fic Sacrilege
spn_j2_bigbang
(5)


August


McCallateer
Banner Art I made for tw_everafter
(1)


September


Last Beta Standing
(1)


October


Derek Gale
(1)


November


Supernatural Ink
for kink_bingo
(1)


And I Say Hello (GIF)
(3)


Kevin Tran: Prophet of Our Lord
(1)


Team Arrow
For misura
fandomaid
(1)


December


Captain Frank Irving (GIF)
For akadougal
fandomaid
(1)


Mancer Scott
Prompt for twreversebang
(1)

Overall Thoughts:

Looking back, did you draw more fanart than you thought you would this year, less, or about what you'd predicted?
More than I thought I would, I guess. Going through the year, I always feel like I am not all that productive. But every time I compile it in one of these memes, I'm like DAAAAAMN!

What pairing/genre/fandom did you art for that you would never have predicted in January?
Um, I did another Sterek chibi, which I never planned to do... and I did Arrow and Sleepy Hollow Chibis which is new for me.

What's your own favorite fanart of the year?
Can I say two? I'mma say two. The Real Me (angel!jensen) from my Big Bang and Last Beta Standing.

Did you take any fanart risks this year?
I dramatically altered my chibi style and forced myself to learn how to animate GIFs. I also forced myself how to properly do line art completely in Photoshop and have been experimenting with brushes and coloring techniques.

Do you have any fanart goals for the new year?
I would like to learn not to be so dependent on reference pictures and develop my own 'style' for non chibi pieces. I feel like my art can be very inconsistent from one piece to the next. Also to not give a fuck about people's opinions on how I make art and the techniques I and others use.
I also need to continue experimenting with brushes and techniques, I've gotten so used to only using the default brushes in PS that I forget there are other media brushes and that I have a huge ass folder of downloaded brushes.

I'd also really like to figure out how the hell to use Corel Painter. I vaguely know how to use the dumbed down version, but have never put in the time to figure out how to use Painter 12 since it came with my new tablet.


From my past year of arting, what was...

My best fanart of this year: The Real Me. It felt like the first real piece that I put everything I had into it, including a fully rendered background.

My most popular fanart of this year:
Captain Frank Irving, hands down. While it didn't get a lot of recognition on LJ or deviantArt, on tumblr it EXPLODED-- in large part because of Orlando Jones reblogging and retweeting it. It was my first (and only piece) to break 1,000 notes.

Second place goes to And I Say Hello. I feel like I came into my own with this new chibi style, and apparently fandom thought so too. It did pretty dang good on LJ and became my first piece to get over 200 notes on tumblr, think it's around 750 now. I usually get between 5 and 40 notes to a piece on tumblr, so I was absolutely awestruck when this happened-- plus anytime I can get to two pages of comments on LJ is a good day. :)

Fanart of mine most under-appreciated by the universe, in my opinion:
Some Sorta Fairytale... usually people eat this sort of stuff up, but this piece seemed to just fall flat all around.

And maybe it's because I stick too close to the ref pic, but both traditional art pieces I did this year, barely got any reaction to at all. /butthurt artist

Most fun story to art for:
Both And They Call It Puppy Love and Sacrilege! I always love collaborating with people, but it was truly a blast working with these lovely ladies. So much that I claimed dugindeep for another story-- which I should probably start drawing something for... /o\

Fanart with the single sexiest moment:
Supernatural Ink. I haven't done much NSFW art lately, and this is the closest I've done to it this year. What can I say, TATTOO'D AND PIERCED!JENSEN!

Most "holy crap, that's wrong, even for you" fanart:
Well I did put Derek in ruby slippers and Stiles in a prom dress...

Hardest story to art for:
I'm not going to call anyone out specifically, but it is really hard doing a collaboration when there is no communication... especially if you never see a draft.

Biggest disappointment:
Hmm, I had to drop out of quite a few things this year, or just never got around to finishing/starting things. I dropped out of tw_everafter, twreversebang, spn_j2_xmas and had to offer a refund on a commission piece because I just couldn't work with it.

I would probably have to go with everafter, I had a billion ideas for character banners to pimp the comm, some of which I REALLY liked and one I started... but the challenge never really took off so I doubt I will bother go forward with any of them. I also did have a flat colored draft for mermaid!Isaac but real life just got in the way. I'm really bummed that the challenge turned out to be DOA, I was hoping it would have been a huge success.

About reversebang: to quote The Polar Express," [twreversebang] just doesn't work out for me."

Biggest surprise:
Apparently animated GIFs are my niche.

Fanarting goals for 2013:
I have many! Even though I tend to have a love/hate relationship with fandom and motivation, I just can't see myself not doing anything. My love for J2 seems to be rekindled, and my love for Teen Wolf is dwindling... so you might see a lot more J2 and me experimenting with other fandoms (especially in chibi form.)

I say this every year, but I need to learn how to balance challenges with art I do for myself. Compiling this list, there are far more "for" arts than there are "just cuz" pieces... which isn't a bad thing. But you might see more "look, I drew Mysterious Cities of Gold or JLA chibis!" this year. I say 'might' because I am fully aware that I have a faulty on/off switch when it comes to challenges. GOTTA DRAW THEM ALL!

I also need to learn to be less critical of myself, and learn to enjoy doing art. Even though I am a self affirmed comment/note whore, not everything is about the comments or notes that I receive. I REALLY need to understand this. And like I said before, just because someone tries to discredit techniques I and others use in our art process, doesn't mean they speak for everyone. If I am happy with it, and others enjoy what I did, that should be all that matters. Fuck the rest. (soooo easier said than done.)

And lastly, even though I get butthurt over traditional art, I really want to experiment with it. I bought a brand new set of Prismacolor colored pencils back in the fall that I have been terrified to use. Babysteps!

Comments

[wendy.livejournal.com]

You are amazing! ♥

[dephigravity.livejournal.com]

Aw, you are too kind. ♥