Another year is nearly done,and first decade of the 21st Century will have come and gone. Every year I set new goals for myself as an artist. In 2009,for example,I set out to master watercolors and a bunch of other artistic mediums. In 2010,it was all about learning to draw better.
During the year,I filled hundreds of sketchbook pages with anatomy studies,and I took it upon myself to learn the real layout of the human form. I gave special attention to drawing faces,because the series of interrelationships between the various features is intense. I also worked at coming to terms with drawing the female form correctly,and to do it right,getting rid of all those stylistic pinup-based quirks I had picked up from various artists over the years. I made the effort to be Scott Story,not J. Scott Campbell or Adam Hughes. I also realized that a realistic representation of the female form is more attractive (to me) than the stylized exaggeration of pinup art.
2010 also saw me studying to improve as an inker. Inking well is a very exacting job,and I still think I often fall short. I got better,but I can see I still have a lot of work to do. As a colorist,I tried numerous techniques this year,from cut-and-grad to memory brush to multiply and screen layers combined with layer masks. Sometimes I like what I’ve learned,but I still have many miles to walk before I become the colorist that I intend to become.
One unfortunate side-effect of all this studying is that I didn’t get to enjoy any of the other mediums I do,such as watercolors,acrylics,colored pencil,shaded graphite,etc. I hope to correct that in 2011.
So,that brings me to my 2011 artistic goals. I’ll still be working on all my 2010 goals,because you are never really done studying these things,but in addition I plan to study effective story-telling and dynamics. I’d like to learn some more 3D art applications,but that’s still up in the air. I also plan to perfect my freeform drawing style.
When I say freeform drawing style,I mean drawing a realistic representation of whatever I visualize. I spent much of 2010 drawing in the more mechanical (and traditional) style of bulking out stick figures with a geometric shapes. Such mechanical drawing has some real benefits in speed and accuracy,so I’ll never give it up fully,but it lacks the stream of consciousness beauty and flowing grace of freeform drawing.
So,I’ve got lots to do,and I can’t wait to dig in!
Scott.
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