#palaeo anthro

[writheworm]

metalhead gorgonops for fun. I like how their skulls r so chunky

[palaeosinensis]

2023 was rough. Things seem to have been rough since 2018-2019 all for different reasons. This is the last drawing of 2023 for me intended for the first day of 2024.

Good luck to you. To all of us. Whatever 2024 hands us let’s make the best of it.

[palaeosinensis]

Whatever you're gonna be in life be intense. Digital work working through intense feelings. Picked a color palette I'd never worked with before. I like what came out. A lesson in what you cut out vs what you need.

[palaeosinensis]

I...really hate winter. It's not winter's fault. Winter is good and beautiful. But I hate it being dark at five. How it's damp and muddy. And how I'm cold down to my bones for the next four ish months. Cocoa is my only comfort.

[palaeosinensis]

I have been pushing shapes and trying out many styles for short form comics. It's out of my comfort zone and it's not as easy as it looks. I already respect comic makers but that respect is ratcheting up the more I do this; there's so many parts. The character's design. How they move. What to leave out what to keep in. What to write in the dialogue boxes. WHERE to put them. How big should the text be? I have no magnum opus planned but sometimes I want to express things and they come across better visually than in text.

[palaeosinensis]

Another practice meme redraw. I was originally doing Blocky Palaeo but the bottom one started being divine so I ran with it. I've only done two of these so far but I suddenly understand the value of the exercise. Redraws cut down the "mental load" of making art into something more startable, which makes you more likely to actually draw, and all drawing is practice, so oops you actually practiced.

[palaeosinensis]

Practicing inks. I wanted to see what a jaguar would look like in one of my boxier styles.

[palaeosinensis]

Now ain't that always the way?

[palaeosinensis]

I have been going nonstop on something since Thanksgiving. I am so so tired. This has been my brain all day today. Finally all the people, festivities, madhouse cleaning, & handmade gifts are DONE. plz let me sleep tonight brain. Plz.

[palaeosinensis]

I am weirdly stoked by this drawing??? I feel like it's the first time I've drawn Ama Tala and her son in a style that matches head to toe and across species. Also did you know blue mechanical pencils are life changing? The scale is off but I don't know that I care. Technically that's closer to the size of her eldest wolf shaped kids while she herself (And her mate Baba Vilkas) seem comically gigantic. But hey little of their lore is locked in. Still. Just. Eeeee. I'd do comics if I could draw this well this consistently. Learning to stylize based on a set of rules vs exclusively what you like is challenging.

[palaeosinensis]

One of my biggest challenges in art in general is NOT including every little detail. I don't have a set style per se but I DO have set shapes and flows I like & tend to repeat. I took Over Detailed Basq and tried him over again in the simple styles I normally just sketch for fun. It's weirdly hard to let go of detail especially with personal characters. The top style is not one of my strengths at the moment and I'm not sure why it's usually the thing I try first. The stuff at the bottom is a lot closer to anything for comics or meaningful character interactions and it's much closer to the kinds of media I enjoy where the impression and silhouette of a character is FAR more valuable than a thousand details. I got this "rules for me but not for thee" idea that if something is easier or faster that it's cheating somehow. Fuck it's not. Choose the visual language to say what you want or need to say, not the visual language that just constantly ratchets up the technical challenge.

[palaeosinensis]

Did a bunch of very loose sketches of Palaeo last night. Been a very very long time since I've drawn the character and not just the avatar. I kind of want to pick one to finish and challenge myself to NOT get hung up in detail and leave it as flat as I can manage.