I've been thinking last night. Just everything I've done so far. I can't believe it has already been about a month I started here. I had nothing to my name but just the little art talent I can scrap together. With the last piece I made it made me truly grateful for the improvements I've gained over these weeks. I am thankful for everyone who has seen my art and the friends I made in such a short period of time. To all my 25 watchers here, I can't say it enough: Thank you!

So I figure why not go over some of the important art pieces I did. While I always strive for improvement the following pieces are extra special to me. Alas, I can't just include images into this journal else I feel it would flow much more smoothly.

How it all began

The first image I submitted was a simple wolf icon. Nothing too fancy. It was my test run of trying out digital art. One of the first goals I set was to make sure that the line art was as clean and clear as I possibly can make it. Since I didn't have any confidence in using a computer drawing tablet I drew everything on paper first. I then traced over everything using a mouse in a program called Inkscape. It was tedious but it got the job done.

The next milestone I feel is Skulldox, the black and white image of a canine skull. I realized the importance of having good references for drawing. While it wasn't the first piece to have shading I did learn some cool new brushes to spice things up.

Literally the next image I jumped straight into a lineless style. Eddie's Werewolf was when I decided to switch up my style but this time by removing all the black lines from my drawings. No particular reason other than I liked how it looked. It wasn't an easy style to deal with cause now I had to rely more on having good colors. Which thinking about it now I might of rushed into it too soon. I still had fun and that is the only thing that matter to me.

Shortly after that I started to use a tablet. My Snow Fox bust was the first one I made. I was really happy I could finally just draw straight into the computer. It saved a lot of time and allowed me to focus more on learning different things quickly.

Now I'm not entirely sure when it happen but there was something funny going on with my tablet between the Snow Fox Bust and the Green Fox Bust. The tablet I was using was slightly stretched compared to the computer screen. This means that drawing was significantly more difficult because the ratio was longer horizontally and shorter vertically. Which means the lines I was making before I fixed it was always coming out wrong. When I finally figured this out it literally night and day just how much of a difference it made in my art. I'm positive it was on the Green Fox where I finally fixed it but I didn't leave any notes behind. One more thing I started to do at this point is always make the characters do something interesting. I don't care if it was a cool pose or emotion. I just didn't want more static images I was starting to draw a lot of. So it was a new rule and I continue to do this.

Anxiety is significant for many reasons. It started off as a cool picture. I was feeling really off that day. Once I finished it I realized how much I missed drawing with black lines. In fact, I didn't just want any lines, I wanted thick, expressive lines. I also wanted to try new things that I never did before. In a way I was getting bored of the art I was making. It's hard to describe, I think the lineless art felt way to soft and comfy for me. And I wanted more chaos and edge in my art. This art piece really helped me to realize what I was craving.

Which brings me to my last art piece Glow Wolf. My last couple of art pieces I knew I wanted to make something with strong, black lines. Only problem is I just didn't know how I was going to accomplish that. Most references I had didn't match what I was imagining. Until I came across some beautiful art by :forestfright:. It finally clicked. This last image I drew is the perfect capstone for this period. I feel like I finally found a style I wanted to make. Not only was the lines exactly how I wanted them to be but I got the right proportions, the right colors, and I made something that I can fully say I'm proud of. Not that any of the previous art pieces were bad. I'm still glad I got to draw them. I just felt like I had evolve from a Charmander to a Charmeleon once I had finished it.

It's been an amazing journey. I've come to really enjoy making art more than playing video games. Which is huge for me because it's what all I did outside work. Thank you for sticking around and reading this. Here is some interesting stats that I wish to record for when I look back to this day:

My Stats
* Watchers 25
* Total Submission: 41
* Most Number of favs on a single art piece: 9
* Most views on a single art piece: 93
* Number of commissions made: 0
* Number of friends made: A lot.
* Regrets: 1
* Original Characters Created: 9 (I'm probably won't count this in the future)
* Accounts made for my art: 14
* Number of breathtaking people: 25
* Meals skipped: 4
* Brothers contacted for help: 1
* Cheese eaten: 11lbs
* Blender projects completed: 1