Sketch Dump, some updates & some ramblings (Patreon)

Hey everyone, hope you've all had a good week!

I wanted to make this post for all of my higher-tier patrons so you can see a little bit of what I’m currently working on, and I can update you on what’s to come in the next few weeks. This is going to be one part update post, one part self-indulgent art blog post/rambling so, if you’re interested, read on. (I’ll keep the former separate from the latter, though)

First things first: Update. In case I wasn’t clear about it in my last post, moving forward I am going to be focusing mainly on larger projects and stories for the time being. Meaning, fewer one-off illustrations and more stories and comics and things of that nature, possibly even some short stories too. I really enjoyed working on “The Backroom” and I want to do more works like that in the future.

On that note, I’m working on my next project. I got an idea pretty nailed down as well as a basic script (which I’m sure will get tweaked quite a bit as we go forward…) It’s another satyr TF story (which is going to be my main focus for now) with the working title “Summertime.” It’s going to be a bit shorter and simpler in scope than “The Backroom” was. I was (and still am) a bit apprehensive about that choice, but I think it’s necessary. I wanted to use my next project as an opportunity to really streamline my artistic process, so that when I take on larger projects in the future, I’ll be able to get them done in a somewhat reasonable amount of time. Especially because I have some pretty big ideas I’d like to take on in the future.

Thus I’m taking some time right now to really try to iron out my process and methods for finishing my illustrations. I’m hoping that by investing the time now, it will make my production times for future stories a lot quicker because I’ll have a “protocol” so to speak that I can follow.

The point being that it’s going to be a while until I have anything “real” from the next project to show. Which is kind of a bummer, but I’ll be posting what I am working on in the meantime. All with the hope, of course, that the time I invest right now will carry over to faster turnarounds on my future stories. So I hope you’ll all be patient with me for the time being and stick around because I have a lot of story ideas I’d like to play around with 😊

That’s about it for the update piece of this. If you’ve read this far, I appreciate it. Next week, I’m hoping to finish ironing out my characters, tweak my script a little bit, and then hopefully start thumbnailing. I’m hoping to make a regular thing of posts like this so stay tuned to see what I’m working on.

As far as the “art blog” piece of this post goes, I wanted to talk a little bit about where I’m at in the creative process on the off chance any of you are interested. (And also because I need to write some of this out for my own sake, lol, but feel free to read along if you’re interested)

Pretty much all the work that I’m doing right now is experimentation, feeling out different ways of working and seeing what I like best and what I want to pursue. All of this is ultimately with the goal of helping me work faster and more consistently. It sounds obvious when I type it out, but it’s worth putting into words: I can’t make a hyperrealistic rendering for every single illustration in a story format. It’s just not feasible either for the sake of time or my own sanity, lol. So then the goal becomes finding a way to simplify forms in ways that are a. consistent, b. time saving, and c. in alignment with how I naturally draw. And of course, saving time follows the other two points, rather than being the end goal to work toward in and of itself.

Regardless, point c I think is particularly salient right now. One thing that I have noticed recently is that while there is consistency to my ideas and the way I approach my art from that side of things, there’s much less consistency in terms of mark making, how I utilize color (both in terms of design and actual application), how I choose to simplify, distort or otherwise stylize forms, etc. All the aspects of the actual drawing, and of the visual language used, aren’t consistent when they should be.

Fortunately, I have some idea of how to approach some of those problems. A lot of that information is already visible in how I draw on paper, which is why I do most of my early ideation and thumbnailing in pen. For some reason, though, I never approach my digital mark making the same way as I do pen, so I’m beginning to experiment more with that. It’s almost like I approach my digital work completely differently from my other work, haha. Probably a mental thing; the trouble with digital art is that the ability to infinitely make changes or undo mistakes can put a pressure to meet perfection, haha. More permanent media takes some of that pressure off. The inevitability of making a permanent mistake is somehow mentally freeing.

I’m getting off track though lol

Point being, I’m trying to work out my character designs and practice my actual drawing at the same time. I did a few head drawings of a character from “Summertime” in my sketchbook this morning, just trying to get a better understanding of what lines I need to draw to convey who he is. It’s not quite just as simple as just copying a reference photo exactly.

(or maybe it is and I’m just overthinking it)

Anywaaays, just wanted to touch base with you all and show some of what I worked on this past week. I hope you’re all having a restful weekend 😊

-Aaron