3 Year Absence?! geez...

Well, I'm back... The last 3 years (eek) has been weird...

I held back on drawing on that first 2 years and really just saved up. Which was my basic plan a year after school and interning. Here and there, I got a few small freelance work that kept me busy but nothing that led to something major. But it was great experience in terms of the work process in the field. I also sketched out various designs and wrote down notes on various story/ character ideas that, mostly, only made sense to me. But nothing really completely finished.

After a great freelance gig, I was able to afford a Cintiq which makes future digital works much easier.

For the latter of that 2 years, I worked a full-time non-art job and got great benefits that got me medical and dental coverage. But I had to work a lot of hours that left me exhausted, depressed, and really in no mood to draw. Before I completely lost my passion to draw, I decided to go part-time so I can focus on drawing again. It sucks giving up the benefits, but in the long run, I want to be an Artist, first and foremost. And ever since, I've been doing great work that expanded my artistic range. Which is great, because I never felt like I got my point across in my art when I was in school.

I was always leaning towards what was going to get me a good grade and what I felt like my peers wanted to see. But unfortunately, at least for me, what got me a good grade and what my peers liked was not always what I wanted to show. I regret not sticking to what I liked and not being true to my creative instincts, but now I get to pursue that.

These digital illustrations ended up becoming my "design" for silkscreen, but the colors on the final prints did not come out the same.

One of the types of art I was always fascinated about was Silkscreening. It was great since it was completely different from animation and digital illustration. Everything was done by hand- through screenboards, paints, and different kinds of liquids/ chemicals. The process is definitely very hands-on and I got the hang of it towards the end of the class. I only did a few works during the class, but will pursue it again this summer when I take another Printmaking class.

Some of the hands-on steps of Silkscreening.

I also got into vintage movie posters and pulp magazine covers. The way that they were painted and laid out. Right now, that's my primary style-inspiration on my personal projects combining it with my usual stylistic/ anime/ comic book-y style which I'll share soon. Also, thinking of taking a digital painting class.

Anyways, that's my recap post... I'll do more comprehensive art post in the next few days.

ok.
Alden.