[100607: Two dead links]
[061010]
Well, the first picture was supposed to be a parody of J’s Mecha Musume, but not being very much the parody type, it didn’t quite turn out that way. Nonetheless I think it turned out pretty good.
But today’s story is about the cyclicality (Is that a word) that my drawing has apparently been an innate characteristic of my drawing (For example, those dead days I used to have with immediate “high”s afterwards, I dunno if anyone ever remembers me ranting about it). Though how I define a “dead day” or really a “dead period” these days is not quite the same, I still fall into this cyclical pattern with drawing.
About a month and a half ago (About the time I started making those random updates with comic updates in between, with the comics being pages I drew in mid august) I had a “dead period” during which I pretty much gave up on figure drawing. So I did the obvious – I stopped drawing figures, telling myself that I should go on a month long hiatus concerning figure drawing – (For J – this is when I started to do all those BKS drawings).
Now, I’ve done this before, resulting largely in the rather rapid and sporadic style changes characteristic of Starcrossed and even the first 20 to 30 “episodes” of NWars, especially if you consider the test comic that adorns my section of NWars “episode” 1. However, I don’t think I’ve ever done it intentionally, it was more of a practical problem than anything.
Well, times change and other things do as well, while some things stay the same. Descriptive, huh?
These days, the slumps don’t really cause all that much variation in my drawing. You look at the characters in 407, and you notice they really aren’t that different from my drawing at about the NWars half way point – or, at least the change is certainly not as great as my drawing from the start of NWars to about the half way point. But I still find my drawing to be, for lack of a better work, a bit more “crisp” (Ok, that’s really not a good word choice, but the next alternative was “refreshing”) after a slump.
When I started doing figures again after my month long hiatus I was thus surprised to find it more “refreshing” than usual. I also found I was able to integrate figures and machines into the same pictures, which I hadn’t been able to do very well up until this point. In turn, that prompted me to go overboard on the “parody”, a similar styled drawing not having been done since my summer 2005 series (Example), and even then, the S2005 series is a bit more high quality.
On a slight tangent, I’m finally beginning to notice a lot more flaws in the S2005s, which I always used to think were really top of the line. Hopefully that indicates that I’m actually getting a firmer grasp on my anatomy (Erm… don’t interpret that).
So I had some troubles on the “parody”, most noticeably on the feet, which I ended up erasing and omitting (Largely due to the paper starting to give way) – if you look closely you can see the scars that multiple pencil marks made on the paper. Surprisingly, Chikara’s foot turned out decently. Aerith’s left shoulder is also kinda screwed up – both arms should have formed a uniformly curved arc had I followed my outline better (Oh, gives me a good idea for the next update), but by the time I noticed it was pretty much too late to change…
AND FINALLY, this in turn made me think, “Hell, I should practice more. Just freaking draw. Especially while my art is on a “high”". And that led to the second drawing you see up there. It’s one of a couple I did over the weekend, focusing more dynamic/complicated poses/perspectives. I was also focusing on cleaner lines and character differentiation, but it kinda took a back seat.
Hmm. Yeah, I’m done. J’s getting his new machine. I look forward to his receiving it.
