Hoodponies

Creative Journal of Lunrir

 11-Dec-2024

  Believe it or not myself, as well as many others, consider me an artist!

 I know right, heresy, vile & most certainly disgusting. Well yes by definition that is what I am and with that I felt undeserving of the title. The reason for this is I still consider myself a beginner, not to mention I am pretty incompetent. For a helluva long time I've wanted to improve this but I long suffered from shite life syndrome even up until now. Thakfully now I'm older and have more knowledge and wisdom to un-fr*ck my life.

 One of the goals is to become a better artist, be more competent, certainly a lot more passionate too. I do have some regret not doing it earlier, to think that if I started earlier I would be better off, so what's the point? Well, the point is that it can still be done & to avoid thinking that delves into cringe nihilism.

  For the longest time I had an idea for an art-style, something to define me, I found out however that I like to draw in multiple styles, specifically three.

 BUT

What is defined as an art style? Some people define it as a genre for example a "fantasy" style or a "cyberpunk dystopian" style, as for me, an art style is something that can defy a specific genre, for example: how do you draw your lines? How do you interpret shapes? How do you interpret the things around you in *your* vision? How do you shade? How do you render? How does the artist put themselves in their work? How does the artist express themselves, their experiences & beliefs? What are the artists emphasis? There are many more ways I can describe what I mean as an "art style" but these are the few but primary ways.

  To define more of defying a genre, I believe the greatest art styles can be adapted into multiple genres, yes this artist might be more comfortable or suited for fantasy, but if their style is dynamic enough they can go out of their zone and draw scifi with some success if not COMPLETE success (yes I have seen this before but I sadly don't remember the example or the artists name...I just remember seeing them at a small town comic book convention panel!!) What makes a good style, at least...in my books, is a style that is dynamic, yes, that's it ...dynamic, that's the key term.

 So, what do I want? I want something that can be dynamic..as per the key term & adaptable to multiple genres, something that can just work. The silly thing about me is that I like everything & I want to do everything, but life is finite so sometimes I can't do everything let alone anything due to societal constructs and man-made illusion of time "OH SCREW IT!" I then said to myself, what if I try to do everything by making absolutely anything? So that's what I set out to do. Before I can even achieve my art goals & my personal style I had to refine the basics, look at references, and do serious reflection, asking myself the questions of: What makes me feel alive? What do I want to make? What will give me emotion? What will allow me to express myself? What will allow me to make a good business out of this?

 During my search for meaning & style I got really into pinterest, & it certainly gave me a lot of inspiration, reference & suggestion. The problem arose however after months on end of using pinterest, I found it to be more distracting and overwhelming, so despite having saved so many great references, inspiration, etc & etc, I found myself still at the beginning mark. At best I was preforming sophisticated procrastination (which I hate and will make a separate blog entry about that). Too much time theory crafting & not applying theory.

 What I found helped was providing a minimal necessary foundation of art, whether it be a style you want to replicate or any theory you want to master.

In the example of style, I have three primary inspirations, there are more of course but I take source primarily from those three. Another thing I'll quickly mention on style, is that the beauty of it is that despite having inspiration and reference, it is still something you make your own, as an artist, by default there is a drive to express oneself. So either direction you go, eventually, if you truly love the craft, you will eventually create something distinct. At the end of the day, they are just inspiration, they are just references, it still will become your make & your creation.

 I won't reveal what I want my style to look, but what I will say is how that expecting high results or to achieve a dreamed look asap is not realistic. Instead, work with a basic version of the style you want to work with, then add on to it until it eventually becomes what you want and more.

 My plan? To do exactly that. As well as to be able to more confidently draw & having a better understanding on composition, line art, sketching, coloring, etc.