Weeee! So I finally (?) placed in the C.Y., so now I can make an art thread! I had made it my goal I wouldn’t create my own thread before I had placed, so there you go. Why would I make such a goal you ask (you did. I have mind control, you can’t resist)? Well, reason 1 is I’m a humble guy. If I actually accomplish something noteworthy, I sometimes get these boasting fits where I become extremely annoying, but aside from that, I tend to think I’m the worst artist and everybody hates my work and my guts, which is the almost the same reason why this thread name is as it is. So, I didn’t want to show my pitiful, lousy work amidst the artsy people of the forum. I’d rather watch the giants from afar, than walk under them. But, if I could place in the C.Y., it would be proof that my drawings aren’t useless, that someone can appreciate it. After a good deal of lurking, I realized I was probably the only to have such a goal, as everyone and their mom posts their work, and the people of the forum seem to be very forgiving and positive. So, I used it as motivation. As I became better, building up a modicum of pride for my own work, the urge to create a thread also rose, which meant I kinda had to win that damn C.Y., which in turn was the only reason I was able to make 3 entries. I mean, the last one took me about 9 hours, over less than 2 days, and I’m a pretty lazy person. When Shoi dropped her awesome cake, I felt my previous entries couldn’t hold a candle to it, so I just had to make another, and better, entry to even have a chance of placing. So yeah, what I’m trying to say is, thanks Shoi, for motivation and inspiration/idea theft as well. If you’re reading this, I now declare you my eternal rival! We’ll be totally like Kakashi and Gai (where I’ll be Gai, because we all know Kakashi is like the greatest ninja, evar, and gai is just… gay)!
Tired of reading yet? Well, it’ll only get worse from here on, so skip a bit ahead until the pictures if you are. I’m prone to ranting and I’m probably better at writing than drawing too. I’ve contemplated writing out my stories instead of drawing many times, but it’s just never been able to fully grip me. Drawing’s just so much more fun, ya know?
Anyways, on to my lifestory (well, not all of it).
Like everyone else, ever, I drew when I was a kid. Not good though. In fact, I was horrible. I didn’t draw stickmen, I drew retarded stickmen! Then, at age 8 or something, I stopped drawing. 8 years went by, primarily spent in a gamers haze, that slowly lifted as I spent an increasing amount of time on the internet. Then I stumbled upon the PPGD. And it was awesome. And that was the first forum I joined, this one. Now introduced to the weird phenomenon “webcomics”, I searched further and found many. One of these was Megatokyo. What fascinated me about it was not so much the comic itself, but it’s upbringing. Piro/Fred was a simple wapanese who had never gone to any kind of art school and was now living off of his art.
Now, I’ve always wanted to tell stories. As far back as I can remember I’ve been making up stories in my head, but I made little effort to get them out of there. And it hit me. This webcomic thing was a perfect medium. After all, most webcomics are made by people with the same urge to tell stories. And looking at Megatokyo, I realized it wasn’t too late for me. Not that I intend to live off of art, I’m much to realistic and earthbound for that. Well, maybe. At any rate, at age 16 I began drawing again. Obviously, I sucked. Well, I wasn’t doing stickmen anymore, it had evolved into a very ugly imitation of the DBZ style. In a way, Ivanssj4’s drawings remind me a lot of that period (how can I rephrase that to make it not sound like an insult?). Trouble was, I didn’t draw a lot either. I mostly just sketched on my small A5 (half the standard size) block on the way to and home from school, so I didn’t evolve much. Let me tell you, busses aren’t great for making more than concept sketches. In the winter 2006, I made this:
That was probably the best I had done in that period, so I saved it, because I Like To See How I’ve Progressed Over Time (most artists do). I didn’t draw anything noteworthy for the next year after that, though I did slowly worked myself away from the DBZ style. In the winter 2007, I got a scanner. To celebrate, I signed up to what boils down to the Danish equivalent to deviantart (something I’m kinda still too intimidated of to join) and drew and uploaded this:
A character from a story I had worked on since I began drawing, entitled Secon. She’s supposed to be female by the way. At that point I had a half a million sketches of the main character, Ivenks, this guy:
I began to get tired of Secon, and explored other concepts, notably:
Named, ”Guy With Creepy Dark Wings With Eyes Growing Out Of Him”, a concept I intend to revisit, and:
Which, was inspired by the former and entitled “Midas”. I actually managed to type out his story, but it’s in Danish, so…
The scanner, however, seemed to change a lot of things. I began to draw more often and search out art tutorials and got better very rapidly.
Having had photoshop already for a long time, I naturally began trying to color my stuff. May, this year, I made this:
Note that I’m not particularly proud of this old stuff. From the start, I felt disgusted with about everything I made and how sucky it was, but around this time I began actually liking the pieces I made… For some weeks, at which time I had evolved and the other piece was old and ugly.
Around the time I rejoined the time I rejoined this forum, having been absent for more than a year and a half, I killed of Secon. I was tired of drawing the same stuff over and over, and some fundamental parts of the concept bugged me. In it’s place rose project “Still City”. One thing that survived was Ivenks. His hair turned blue, he got a gruff demeanor, robotic arms with blades in them and some new duds, but it was still Ivenks. To make fun of my own obsession with this character, I drew him as my first chibi:
I used my, at the time, newly bought tablet to assist the coloring of this pic.
The villain of “Still City” is this guy:
Link(because I like my drawing big, and it stretches the thread)
I don't feel restricted by this project, unlike Secon. I'm currently in the process of fleshing out the timeline of Still City, and the many different stories that lies on it, and I'm not afraid to take on other projects, either, like coloring other forumers pics and the like.
Through the summer holiday, I began drawing even more, and I began to enjoy it more too. Arriving at the other side of the holiday, I found that my coloring sessions were far longer than my gaming sessions. I sketch a lot these days, especially during boring classes, but the most notable pieces all lies in the last C.Y. The good thing about being a n00b at drawing is that every successfully completed pic is the best you’ve made ever. And so, the culmination of all my effort so far, is what placed me in the C.Y., the Eight of Spades:
Named so, because he was supposed to be the card to beat Shoi’s entry, the Seven of Spades. Next project is to make a pixel ID, because I’m a trendwhore.
*huff, puff* … So, any questions?
somethings funky with the 3rd one and last ones necks/head tho... might just be me (but becides that, its all pretty cool)
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