it's no secret i have a fondness for things from my past! especially old artwork, poetry, and sculptures. they're priceless treasures as far as i'm concerned, and i cling tightly to them. i have a collection of them in my dropbox, and though it's not as large as i'd like it to be (i used to delete things a lot back then, unfortunately) i'm still quite proud of it. this probably sets me apart from most of my other artist friends who can't stand looking at their older work! i find it's a constant source of inspiration for me, though, and i'm always eager to share it whenever i have the opportunity.
whenever i look through this old artwork (which is fairly regularly), i feel all... warm and fuzzy inside. it's like a window to the past, through which i'm able to catch a glimpse of the person i used to be. it reminds me of much, much happier times.
my favourite drawings are from 2008-2009; around when i first started taking my art more seriously. it's also when i met shojojim (both online and in real life!), created saria, graduated high school, and began to withdraw from the world. there were many changes taking place in my life! though i don't remember every detail of every day back then, when i look at specific pieces of artwork from that period, i can suddenly remember what was happening around me. how i felt. who i was. the weather. the music i liked. the people in my life. and that means an awful lot to me. looking back, it's also interesting to see how my characters have changed with me. here's a perfect example of what i mean:
if you've been following me for a while, this picture probably isn't new to you. i've shared it many times over the years, but it's incredibly special to me because these are the very first sarias that were ever scribbled by me. i decided her name on a whim (mostly because i was playing through this game at the time). she wasn't a pirate yet, and her personality was completely different. she was shy, thoughtful, and sad. and also an angel for some reason... the paper these were drawn on was actually stained with tears because i was bawling like a big baby as i drew it. i created saria to serve as a vent-art character - to be seen only when i was sad. lucky for saria, i was sad a LOT back then! had i not been so depressed all the time in 2008/2009, she may not have lasted as long as she has, so thank you, depression!
indeed.
ah, i rambled a little more than i meant to.. but it's true! i never expected my characters to change as much as they have over the years. saria went from being short, chubby, and sad, to being thin, tall, and independent. it's fun to look through my older art and watch her evolve. not just saria, but all my characters! it's my old art that inspires me to make new art! and since my old art is so special to me, i'd like to share some of it. in a public dropbox folder!
people like lots of old things! old cheese, old wine, old movies, old music, and even old people. i like old art.
people like lots of old things! old cheese, old wine, old movies, old music, and even old people. i like old art.
Yay! I'm super glad to see you posting here again and even though I'm not an active commenter anymore, I check your blog almost daily. Seeing something new always feels like opening a gift :D I saw this post yesterday.. or 2 days ago? It's 5 a.m. (insomnia issues again), so yep, it was already 2 days ago. It happened to be on Pączki Day, a day when you are supposed to gorge yourself with Polish doughnuts and there's no doubt it's among my most favourite holidays. But I didn't get to eat any, another year in a row ;___; I got sick instead, with the nastiest cold I had over the last decade.. But as I got on your blog and discovered that Dropbox folder, I couldn't be any happier! So THANK YOU for being awesome and sharing your preciousness with us <3
ReplyDelete... Man, going through this folder sure was an adventure! I had no idea it existed and most of these doodles are completely new to me. I love it when artists reveal their older output and knowing about your attachment to these drawings makes it even better in your case. My own oldies make me wanna throw up but thankfully they're the only exception. You were incredibly skilled 5 and 6 years ago!
I admire how spontaneous your drawings were. You never seem to draw just in order to impress others. Seeing that you've been so loose with your work from the very beginning literally restores my faith in artists! You claim you associate these doodles with much better times - and that shows a lot. I could easily tell without reading the post but I always read before I stare at drawings!
I don't even know where to begin, uhh :D But I noticed that you used to devote to many art forms and I secretly hope you'll find some time and motivation to come back to it one day. Animations, comics, both digital and traditional pieces, sculptures... I'm more than certain that you'd be rocking these if you tried them again! Those Snapps clay animations are simply hilarious (in a positive way!) and I couldn't take my eyes off when I first stumbled across them xD It's amazing how his body wiggles along with his moves! He sure does look alive! But when I discovered the digital animations, I was deeply surprised. I already knew you cope with animating very well, yet I had no idea you could do this THAT well also 5 and 6 years ago! I don't want to sound overly flattering but I can't help it, I feel like I was watching a cartoon when I look at them! I think that one with Shivers and Burnaby is my favourite. The movement, the angles, the expressions, you got everything about them perfect. I envy your skills!
Same goes to your comics! Although you rarely draw them anymore (I can understand, being a busy person myself D:), I can see you definitely have potential. They're short and simple but personally I couldn't ask for more. With their great pacing, accurate expressions and classical humour they seem perfect to me ;_; I think that one with Harass and Mij doodling would be worth reviving some day. I'd never believe it's actually so old if I didn't know. You've always had such a good understanding for expressions and interactions. The last panel made me laugh out loud, as well as Harass' interpretation of her brother :D It's hard to tell whether it's more cute or ridiculous, haha. Goshh, being able to see so many doodles of your elephant characters it's nothing but pleasure for me. I missed them. A lot!
Discovering how your oldest characters evolved is something I will never get tired of, seriously. Always feel free and encouraged to say more about them! Now I really regret I was too shy to hit the '+Watch' button od dA when you were sharing them for the first time on there. But I'm grateful I can make up now what I missed out back then! I always loved Jeanie's early simplified designs and I'm gonna add them to my collection after I get some sleep :D And whoa, is there a Violet with her kitty hood taken off? It's a blast to see her this way! Also Collin and Pudge, wow. I didn't know you used to draw them so often and I finallly got to learn about them more!
ReplyDeleteSaria has definitely gone through many drastic changes! It's fun she started out as a character with completely different personality than she has now. It's a good thing she's not all that sad and depressed anymore, yet realizing that she was actually brought to life by depression, I need to say sadness is indispensable sometimes :3 She's one of my favourite characters ever! I want her to exist, always. I adore your attempt to draw her more like the old one. It's especially neat because she combines your new style, old proportions and her ultimate personality all at once! I love her chubby little arms and that giant fluff tuft on the tip of her tail <3 I find her face extremely appealing here, with that long girly lashes and one fang sticking out she sure looks like a mischievous cutie. Someone who I'd really like to be around to because I love playing havoc with little kids, yup xD
I wish I could say more but my bed calls me! Thank you again for sharing the artwork. I hope to see some more one day!
i feel special because i actually know about that holiday :D i learned about it from a polish cooking show i watched on youtube last year. it's awful you weren't able to participate (i hate colds so much yeugh), but i hope you're beginning to feel better now :c i also hope next year you get to eat three times as many doughnuts to make up for missing two years in a row!
Deletemannn, i used to draw CONSTANTLY back then! i literally had stacks of drawings that went up to my knee. i wish so badly i hadn't fallen into the habit of deleting/throwing stuff away, but i didn't know back then i'd grow up to be such a sentimental dummy haha. i'm the opposite of you! my new art makes me wanna throw up, but i'm quite proud of my old work. i used to visit your deviantART gallery back in 2010 sometimes so i know you were super talented back then. i'd love your older art too :D
from the time i was 11 until just a couple years ago, i used to animate pretty regularly! at one point i had nearly 40 animations saved on my desktop computer. then it unexpectedly kicked the bucket and they were gone forever ;__; i stopped sculpting because my creations kept getting destroyed by other people in the house. i once walked in to find my nephew gleefully smashing a harass sculpture i spent hours on >:C it's okay though! when i finally get out of this house i'm going to pick those hobbies back up. hopefully that'll be within the next couple of years! i'm happy you enjoyed looking through them :3 i'm still fond of that burnaby/shivers animation, and the snapps claymations were SO much fun to make! i have many comic ideas, but like you said, they require so much time and patience. still, i'd like to make at least ONE fully inked/coloured comic in my lifetime haha. the comics i've seen by you (especially boatswain blasting that yappy dog) are incredibly inspiring!
eventually i'd like to make individual posts here about all of my characters/their histories. if i can get my thoughts organised well enough, i'm sure i will :> i wish i had watched you on dA back then too. you left shortly after i finally got around to it, and i've always regretted that. your art is a treasure and always brightens my day! lots of collin and pudge scribbles, yep, and you did indeed see a violet un-hooded :D
sometimes i'm not sure how i feel about the saria that exists today. it's funny because she pretty much told ME who she wanted to be. she didn't wanna be all sad and lonely all the time, i guess! i'm glad you like my attempt to draw her as she used to look haha. i'm not sure if i actually succeeded, but it was sure lotsa fun :3
thanks very much for the sweet comment <3 i hope you're able to get some sleep!
You do? I feel honoured then! I'm ashamed of our politicians but I'm actually proud of our national food, haha. And I'm totally gonna eat three times more next year. Or four, just in case ;D
DeleteThe amount of art you've managed to preserve is really impressive anyway, I think! Even if it's less than 1% of your entire artistic output, you can at least connect yourself with the good ol' times through anything that you still have :3 I kept deleting, burning and burying stuff and now I am left with nothing. I am eternally grateful you didn't do this!
That's terrible thing to know, you can never trust technology D: I'm happy you started making the backups, please keep them up. Ugh! And I'm sorry about your sculptures too :c I know the pain 'cos my brothers kept doing this to me on regular basis. It's no surprise we both temporarily gave up to sculptures... making them takes HOURS, yet destroying - just few seconds. I wish you to leave the house as soon as possible. You deserve a better life and better treatment ;__;
If you want to do it, I believe you'll end up doing it someday! Browsing your Dropbox I came across so many 'Tallow and Soot' ideas it makes me wanna see the entire comic really badly :D Thank you! I haven't drawn a simple comic strip in ages!
Eeee! You know I'm obsessed with getting to know fictional characters. So take it as a small dose of motivation :3 I'm always thrilled to read about them and I've visited your charahub countless times already, haha.
On second thoughts, I'm kinda glad we didn't get to know each other in 2010 or earlier xD Don't take it personally! It's not about you; as I was thinking about my dA adventures, I recognized I had a huge tendency to be a douche back then. Honestly. I turned off a lot of people and I still blame myself for that, for my mean comments. I think I learned to be somewhat nicer over the past 2 years. In junior high school, I was among the most rebellious scums!
I think all of our characters do this at some point ;3 Admit it, we like to see them alive in our heads, as well as it's nice to imagine them to be real. And they need to gain independence to be more life-like! It's a natural process, haha. All of my characters are nothing like their primary concepts, too.
No prob! I slept well :D Ahh, and there's always something I manage to forget to say, so I guess I can add it now:
Jeanie and Mij is by far my most favourite cartoony couple ever ;__; Seeing all of your older drawings featuring them, I couldn't stop smiling widely. The relationship they share is so special! Like almost everyone, at first I thought Jim was your actual brother and I was kinda surprised when I found out he was not. Your relationship in real life is still a bit of a mystery for me, haha. I like to imagine the drawn one reflects the real one, though! I like how Jeanie and Mij are contrasting, both in personality and appearance. This is super cute because they still get on well with each other despite all those differences. They sure remind me two totally inseparate souls. And while I easily get fed up with other people drawing their 'other halves', I can never get enough of Jeanie and Mij.
I'm SORRY for being this mawkish, oh my gosh! I couldn't help D: In real life I'm completely withdrawn and this results in being wayyy too effusive on the internets..!
yes! i love to learn about other country's foods so i watch lots of youtube videos of people cooking haha. i saw another polish cooking video where they made yummy cabbage wrap thingies too. i'm not skilled enough to try to recreate those dishes in my own kitchen, but i really want to try them! too bad i live in a tiny town in the southern US. i doubt i'll ever get to try authentic polish food!
Deleteyup, i've learned my lesson about not backing up art (both mine and others). i lost gift art from so many people recently, some of it from 2009 and earlier ;__; i had folders with friend's art (including yours!) i lost as well and i was not happy about it!
ahhh haha i'd really love to work on tallow and soot and i think about it frequently. at the very least i might write out the story for myself so i actually know what's supposed to happen! and it does indeed motivate me to hear you like learning about my characters. i'll try to talk about them more in the future! oh, and i wasn't a very nice person either a long time ago, so don't worry ;D i used to get into a lot of fights on dA/youtube/facebook many years back. i'm not so mean anymore, but i still find myself strangely drawn to folks who are a little grumpy. not that i think you are!
awww, i'm glad you like jeanie and mij! and yep, our relationship in real life is very similar to the one shared by our cartoon-y personas. it's... a mystery to me too, so don't worry, haha. i do wish we'd never publicly referred to each other as siblings though cos it's caused others SO MUCH confusion xD
don't apologise :D your comments are fun to read and respond to, and it's the only way we really get to chat so they're even more special! i hope my long responses don't make you uncomfortable! thanks so much again <3
Stuffed cabbage leaves are THE BESTEST. They're called 'gołąbki' and that's kinda dumb because it means 'little pigeons', while they don't have anything to do with the birds. I am outrageously fussy and usually toss the cabbage away but I can never have enough of that stuffing :D Aww, you still have plenty of time to find a chance to try it! Or you can come to Cracow any day. You are very welcome here :D
DeleteUgh, I'd be mad if something like this happened to me, so I can imagine how you felt! I hope you could at least regain your access to the majority of that stuff. This reminds me to make my own backup because I haven't on this laptop yet.
I strongly encourage you to write down the scenario. It may eventually lead you to draw the entire story one day :3 Ima often tells me the primary step of making comics is scenarios or storyboards, and even if I'm too lazy to do any of these, I trust her (+ she has had two of her stories published already)!
Haha, that's some relieving news :D I left dA for many reasons but most of all that place was destroying my nerves. I didn't get into dramas often but I got angry with people easily. Once I posted a long journal against porn among younger deviants and that gave me numerous enemies!
That's really good to hear :3 Yep, I can imagine what kind of confusion it caused :D But on the other hand, that was unique!
That's right! I enjoy talking with you a lot, especially now since all I have here is my cat. They don't make me uncomfortable at all, in fact they have the same impact on me as my comments have on you ;D