I’m gradually cleaning up my office (first time for everything), and while I was cleaning it earlier I had on the underrated film The 13th Warrior. Near the end of the film is one of my favorite scenes, and I won’t spoil it but needless to say I think the given speech is fantastic. One of the things that’s said is “do I see the line back”.
Now, I’m taking that completely out of context, but it still made me think about where I am as an artist, and where I started. Especially just finishing up my latest cover (which you’ll see soon enough), and since I was moving around some of those old sketchbooks, I thought it was a good time to look back and where I’ve been.
I think it’s good for all artists (and any creative type really) to look back at where they’ve been, to see how they’ve improved. Often when you’re working day to day on art it becomes second nature, and, much like seeing a kid only every 5 years, you don’t see how it grows.
Here are a few sketches I did way back when. Hopefully none too embarassing.
When I was first learning how to draw (no, I wasn’t learning how to draw when I was 6, more like 20) I would often copy animation and comics. It helped to learn how things are built, how characters look and feel different from one another, and how styles can change. Here are a few of those:
Over time, I started making my own characters. They were always very silly, some of them downright offensive. Here’s one of the nicer ones:
After that, and months at a time where I thought I was just terrible, I would just sketch away at a sketchpad. Looking back, I can see two things that are apparent from those. First, that I really have learned quite a lot, and, judging by today’s cover, I’ve come a long, long way.
Secondly, up until the 2000’s, apparently I couldn’t buy a sketchbook smaller than 14″ x 17″. Which works swell where I have my scanner jammed into right now.
Here are a last couple of sketches, two that I found that aren’t necessarily embarassing.
