Playing around with the color wheel WEEE

Art Summary for 2018.

I think I've decided on the representatives for May, June, and August.  

Even though "A Study in Silver"-mer-Akira was technically well done for me and still looked good as a tiny thumbnail, the more I looked at it, the more suspicious his surprised expression looked.  And I wanted to remember that month happily.  After all, I accomplished so many drawings done for Mer May, and ended up doing a little series of mer-Ryuji and mer-Akira exploring or hanging out together; that was fun.  I wanted to remember that more than see an example of my improved drawing of object volume and hair.  

But actually, my mer-AkiRyu exploring around an anchor ALSO showed an improvement in my drawing.  Their anatomy, volume, and hair was all good.  It was just that anchor and chain that were weird.  And as a thumbnail, the drawing was too tiny to show all the details, demonstrating my improvements.  But still, I really liked the happy atmosphere in that drawing.  

Much more than my mer-AkiRyu trapped in a fishing net.  That drawing also showed improvement in my anatomy, volume, and hair, even if some of the anatomy was a little wierd and (once again!) Akira's pose was stiff.  But mer-AkiRyu were annoyed with each other, and I'd much prefer a happy atmosphere, even if that drawing was just the right size to show all its details even when shrunken into a small thumbnail.  

So I decided on mer-AkiRyu exploring around an anchor as my representative for MerMay.  

As for June, I knew that my Kaijune ladybug demonstrated a proper sketch of human anatomy (which I'm usually bad at) and creative modification (into an uncanny creature).  But it just wasn't as pretty as the brumation whale.  Still, the more I looked at the brumation whale, the only thing it proved was a return to watercolors.  The whale drawing itself was just a simple doodle with no skill improvements.  Which is the same that could be said of my Axel&Kairi one-panel comic.  It was fun, and at the time, I was impressed with myself for finally being able to immediately and quickly express myself through drawing, without much struggle.  But technically, it's not very good.  So even if my ladybug monster wasn't very pretty, it proved improvement in my drawing skill, which I had seen people define as the point of the Art Summary retrospective.  

As for my August representative...

I was so sure my giant komodo dragon in a pine forest (against a tiny knight) would be the final. I was so proud of it, when I first drew it for Smaugust, that I actually posted it to Facebook---and I practically never have the confidence to post my drawings to Facebook!  I always liked how that drawing had turned out.  But the more I stared at it, I realized it only looked good because I had realistically sketched a komodo dragon photo for reference.  The pine trees and tiny knight were just simple scribbles.  The only thing that giant komodo dragon drawing proved was that I can realistically copy animal photos...which is something I already knew AND already had several examples of in other months.  

The same could be said of my gharail-duck/feathered-dragon drawing.  I took a LOT more time and effort to draw it, and even put more effort into attempting to return to watercolors through it.  But in the end, all it proves is that I can realistically copy anime photos, add some modifications, and can pick up a paintbrush again.  It was technically my best work in August, but actually didn't prove much.  

On the other hand, my fantasy drawing of dragon-lord-Ryuji and demon-Akira had tons of technical problems.  First of all, Akira's pose ended up so stiff that I was actually mostly ashamed of this drawing.  But I really liked how Ryuji turned out.  His pose seemed so natural, and the anatomy, object volume, and character/face/head portrayals that usually allude me, were actually pretty good in this drawing.  The same could partially be said for Akira, except that his pose was just SO INCREDIBLY STIFF!  ;o;  On the other hand, this drawing demonstrated a lot of expanding beyond my comfort zones.  I mixed mediums:  Copic on the characters, watercolor paints for the backgrounds, and colorful Zig Kuretake Brushables pens as the preliminary figure sketches (an attempt at colorful linework that ended up mostly covered by my usual black linework anyway ~.~; ).  But if Art Summaries are supposed to commemorate skill improvement, I thought all the experimentation that went into this drawing, counted for a lot.  ...Plus, I like AkiRyu.  ^.~  

I had some double-guesses about other months.  

Possibly replacing April's Xion with Persona 5 polymer clay charms, but Xion was definitely an example of more effort and more improvement.  

Possibly replacing September with better chibis or non-dog/cat AkiRyu chibis, but I did a whole series of dog/cat-AkiRyu that I wanted to commemorate and I was kind of impressed how much my horrible chibis had improved during OTPtember.  

I had an original, metaphorical drawing about "introspection" during October, but that realistic tiger's intense stare just won out, despite being my typical Inktober fare.  

December isn't over yet, and I feel my "Waiting for Ryuji" figure photo series had some cuter entries this month (and last month).  But "Day 150" showed off the miniature invitation that I put effort into sculpting that tiny seal for.  Kirby was included, to add his cute, though not as cute as when he was floating with his mouth open, to deliver the invitation letter to Joker (as in "Day 148").  Still, I chose "Day 150" because it not only included a dialogue bubble, to demonstrate how this photo series also occaisionally requires some Photoshop effort, but also because this alternate version of "Day 150" includes a photo of Figma Ryuji, who is the entire point of this photo series.  

Ok.  I think I've convinced myself to be confident in my choices.  

Still, I don't think my did very well this year.  Which is weird for me to say, when I accomplished so many daily/monthly drawing challenges this year and defeated a couple of new and difficult sculpting projects.  It wasn't such a bad year.  But maybe it's just my depression wanting me to look over this retrospective and still say my skills just slid down the drain.  ~__~;