Older Works
Mar. 15th, 2010 08:13 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pasitheaYesterday while unpacking (yes, still unpacking but down to less than a dozen boxes left!) I found a box of my old sketchbooks. Decided it was about time I flipped through them again and revisited some past selfs. This set of books only goes back to 2002. I draw a lot and my sketchbooks get untidy so periodically, I every few years, I go through and cut out pages I like and stick them in a binder, then toss all the practice work. It's kind of fun looking at everything I was drawing but I don't really have the shelf space for that kind of vanity. :P Maybe I should get a scanner with an auto feeder and drop stuff into it.
Anyhow.. I think the good side is that I like the older me. I hadn't quite realized how weird I am. Lots of little drawings that still make me giggle quite a bit. I was also somewhat staggered by the amount of work I completed.
So many characters for little animation pieces that reminded me of how much animation I was doing at the time. There was a period for about a year where I was completing about a minute per month of animation. *sigh* Then I started this 'Stupid Baby' animation and... It's still sitting on my board unfinished. It's only a cruddy 30-second thing but for some reason it's completely fouled me up and I've never been able to finish it and because I'm too stupid to just let a project die, its blocking me from starting any other project. I really need to get rid of the damn thing somehow. *sigh* I also really need to break down and buy or build myself a good paper punch. I just looked and one _finally_ came up on e-bay... Of course they believe its a valuable artifact and want $2500 for it. I should probably just make myself a press with dies for a router.
The other thing that's sort of depressing about my older sketchbooks is that in looking at them, I can see that I'm still making a lot of the same mistakes I was making 8 years ago. Overall, my drawing skill has not really improved that much. I do draw much _faster_ than I used to and the signal to noise ratio (Good drawings vs bad ones) is much better but stylistically I haven't improved much and stylistically, I haven't _changed_ much. I continue to draw sort of a rounded cartoony style as my predominate form. I really need to try breaking out of that.
On the whole, the trip down memory lane should probably have depressed me but I actually enjoyed my old work enough that it's hard to be down on my apparent lack of progress. I like the work I'm currently doing, I like the work I was doing. I wish I were working a bit better and had more time to work but.. I'm just doing stuff for fun anyhow. I know I can't make a career out of art so that takes a bit of the sting out.
I think also that I might set up my scanner, pull a couple of these older drawings and finish them out just for fun. Might be good coloring practice at the very least. I always find it easier to work on stuff that I'm not very attached to.
Anyhow.. I think the good side is that I like the older me. I hadn't quite realized how weird I am. Lots of little drawings that still make me giggle quite a bit. I was also somewhat staggered by the amount of work I completed.
So many characters for little animation pieces that reminded me of how much animation I was doing at the time. There was a period for about a year where I was completing about a minute per month of animation. *sigh* Then I started this 'Stupid Baby' animation and... It's still sitting on my board unfinished. It's only a cruddy 30-second thing but for some reason it's completely fouled me up and I've never been able to finish it and because I'm too stupid to just let a project die, its blocking me from starting any other project. I really need to get rid of the damn thing somehow. *sigh* I also really need to break down and buy or build myself a good paper punch. I just looked and one _finally_ came up on e-bay... Of course they believe its a valuable artifact and want $2500 for it. I should probably just make myself a press with dies for a router.
The other thing that's sort of depressing about my older sketchbooks is that in looking at them, I can see that I'm still making a lot of the same mistakes I was making 8 years ago. Overall, my drawing skill has not really improved that much. I do draw much _faster_ than I used to and the signal to noise ratio (Good drawings vs bad ones) is much better but stylistically I haven't improved much and stylistically, I haven't _changed_ much. I continue to draw sort of a rounded cartoony style as my predominate form. I really need to try breaking out of that.
On the whole, the trip down memory lane should probably have depressed me but I actually enjoyed my old work enough that it's hard to be down on my apparent lack of progress. I like the work I'm currently doing, I like the work I was doing. I wish I were working a bit better and had more time to work but.. I'm just doing stuff for fun anyhow. I know I can't make a career out of art so that takes a bit of the sting out.
I think also that I might set up my scanner, pull a couple of these older drawings and finish them out just for fun. Might be good coloring practice at the very least. I always find it easier to work on stuff that I'm not very attached to.
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Date: 2010-03-15 05:54 pm (UTC)I also get that thing where I've been doing this for years and feel bad about not improving very fast. I think because of personal differences I take it a bit harder than you.