dreamandnightmare
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2023 Art Retrospective
🕑 Added 2023-12-31 06:05:56 +0000 UTCHere's a collage of some of the artwork I've done during this past year.
Phew, another year over! I gotta say, I'm glad because I worked my ass off during December! It was worth it though, as I ended up drawing 127 individual pictures this year (not counting alternate versions and such)! Quite an output. And yet my comic remains unfinished - but no longer! I have already started working on the next page! But before we get to that, I want to take a look back:
When I look back on this year, it feels like I have barely scratched the surface of all the things I wanted to get done in 2023. If I had to summarize it all with a word, I would say "sidetracked" defines very well my work ethic of the year. There were things like the "Comparative Studies" series that in May that was originally gonna be just one picture, which escalated into a mini series, completely with a new character! I was also overflowing with ideas during the second half of the year which led to my comic taking another hiatus and while there were come great pictures that came out of that, I seriously started to regret not getting my priorities straight.
Because of MFF I got started later on pictures for December than usual and that led me to really crunch and draw and finish pictures on basically a daily basis. I've drawn 16 pictures this month alone, that means one every second day! The upside to that was that I sat down and started to get my ass organized. I have now a comprehensive list to work off of and I have changed my workflow to where I do not try to follow through with one picture one by one, but instead have more pictures as work in progress side by side, so I don't get so burned out easily. I will also try and do more sketches instead of fully rendered pictures for quick one off ideas. I might have to force myself not to do coloring and shading, but I will learn to adapt - hopefully!
Aside from the issue of my focus being all over the place, I gotta say I am really proud of some of the works I have done this year. July & September for instance feature a Folsom Street Fair kinda theme of a public kink event. It's a setting I have been wanting to draw for a long time and so I was glad I could first explore it with friends and then move up to a huge kink group scene. It was an amazing experience to put this image together and I am proud and happy to have done it.
October stands as an example for the "Rick's Hitchhiking Adventure" series, which I had a lot of fun working on this year. Although it also emblematic of the issue I outlined earlier as it once again escalated into something way more complex than I had initially anticipated (a common theme). Maybe in the future for Patreon projects I will just restrict them to sketches, at least until my comic is finished.
Closing off the year with the sketch I did for December represents my time in Chicago at MFF. Definitely one of my absolute highlights of this year. Seeing so many furries in one place, meeting so many friends from the US face to face for the first time and making new contacts and friends at the con was just magical. I hope to return one day. :3
So this rounds off this year! What's to expect for 2024? Well, as I mentioned before I finally have found a way to organize my own image process better and also will focus more on finishing the comic. That's one of my top priorities. Also commissions! I will reopen them as soon as I can and hopefully do them more frequently again. I still have some ideas for YCHs but I do really wanna work on your ideas again.
Aside from that I will refrain from making any big plans for the new year as those usually go up in smoke! So all that is left for me to say is this: Thank you all for your continued support! I hope that you have a wonderful New Year's Eve and can start 2024 on a good note!
Thanks everyone and have a Happy New Year!
Comments
James Michael
What a year it's been!
