#i was listening to the eleventh hour in that berica piece

[turqidoodles]

nA whole year’s worth of art, here!

This year has been full of ups and downs, and I’m fairly sure that’s reflected in my art. When I’m busy or feeling bad, I usually won’t draw as much, much less post. For some reason, I was really busy during March and September, so those are sketches from my sketchbook. On the other hand, I drew 4 fully finished pieces in August! Then, I participated in two month-long drawing challenges - Mermay and Inktober. Doing a drawing each day taught me a lot about simple sketches, but I ultimately wasn’t really proud of most of them. At the end of each month, I was drained from pouring so much creativity into something every single day.

This year, I did a lot of sketches in my sketchbook, which I would take with me to school. It helped me keep consistency in drawing. Most of the sketches aren’t worth posting - scribbles of body parts, poses, expressions, etc - but some I took the time to fully sketch and ink. For next year, I might try to study composition and drawing from life. These simple sketches mean a lot to me as breaks between bigger projects, but it’s also important to get practice with what I see vs what's in my head. As for digital, I hope to study composition, colors, backgrounds, and proportions more. I’ve noticed that my body proportions are off in even my best works. It’s a little disheartening, but it just means I need more practice. As for colors and composition, I find it very interesting seeing how shapes, colors, and even lighting affect the way the eye travels over the image and how these things can set a mood. And backgrounds obviously need work. Even though they’re fun, I don’t really know what I’m doing, and the perspective is off.

But anyway, I’m honestly really proud of the work that I’ve been doing this year. There have been points where I’ve stepped back, took a look at what I’ve gotten done, and cried because I knew that little me would’ve been floored if I knew that I would be able to draw like this. As the years go on, I hope I can continue to do this. As usual, my goal for the new year is to draw at least one “bigger” art piece that I’m proud of. If I participate in any month-long drawing challenges next year, I’m going to try to make them bigger and better - something that I’ll be more proud of, even if I don’t do every prompt for every day. I’m really looking forward to what I’ll produce in 2019, and I can only hope I learn a lot from my past.