COMICS
In case you missed it, here are the comics from March!
Both are available as prints at INPRNT!
ART
Last month…
I spent most of March working in my sketchbook!
I focused mainly on cartoon style drawing. More specifically, I did a fair bit of study of the classic “CalArt style” cartoon Adventure Time. I dabbled a little in the Fionna and Cake version…which, since I didn’t watch all of the show, I don’t understand at all. I think I like the original version’s art better, but it was interesting to explore a different take!
I also did a whole bunch of sketching with Posca acrylic markers for my Patreon’s monthly art theme. I had really liked working with them in the past, but I loved working with them again!
And I also made a new t-shirt design for my TeePublic shop! It’s been ages! Nothing too crazy, just a lot of fun! 😀
I’m pretty pleased with what I got done! After all, I spent the last two weeks getting ready to go out of town, enjoying a mini-holiday in Chicago, and then super struggling with allergies. So most of that was done in the first half of the month. Not too bad! If I can keep up the momentum I had, I’m excited to think of what I could do with an entire 30 days!
This month…
While I was recuperating from allergies, (which thankfully seemed to have calmed down today) I came across artist Nelli Suneli’s ebook How to Find Your Style and bought a copy. It’s workbook, and it’s about..well, exactly what it says. (Not an ad, and I don’t even know if I recommend it since I’ve literally just started it…) But I was struck by her acknowledging that it can be so frustrated to get to work, when you don’t know what your work looks like. Have to figure out how to approach everything from scratch every time is exhausting, so “just draw” becomes immobilizing… Agreed!
Plus, the dream is to have a consistent enough style that all my work looks like my work, no matter the subject matter. I tend to think I have to be consistent in subject or genre, but I love to draw all kinds of stuff honestly, and it would be neat to have it look consistent whether it’s a character, landscape, or still life, or whatever!
I think maybe, to some extent, it already does? I know I have a very cartoony, cute-ish, colorful style …But I think I’m getting to the point where I’m open to refinement and I’m hoping as I work through her book this month I’ll make strides in that regard. Basically, I’m hoping it will solve once and for all (…for now…) how I want to blend my love of cartoons with my fascination with anime-style art, and find a consistent way to do my own thing! And maybe even get new ideas for subjects to explore!
Without getting into Suneli’s helpful details, I’m just starting with collecting and analyzing the work of artists that directly inspire MY work. Artists like Hokusai, Bill Watterson, Li Chen, Dan Hipp, Carles Dalmau, Mike Mignola, Trudi Castle, and others… I feel like that list is very specific to me! Haha… I’ve done a similar exercise before, years ago, but it’s exciting to re-visit and have a helpful guide.
A very small selection of the art & artists I’m studying right now! Credit (in order): Dan Hipp, Paper Girls by Cliff Chiang & Matt Wilson, instagram artists: aubryjoi, xetaercx, jetpacksandrollerskates, and lastly Mashle by Hajime Kōmoto. 😍
So I think this month, we’ll see how this workbook pushes my art style!
And I suspect there will be lots of sketching, both studies of my influences, but also my own original stuff too! And I am ready for it!
I want to keep using Poscas again, since I enjoyed it so much for my Patreon. But I’m also ready to get back to ink drawing, and maybe even alcohol markers again. I’d like to do some nice finished fan art drawing too, I was enjoying that previously, but it’s usually lower priority than my other work.
This month’s Patreon art theme is ELEMENTS, so I’m excited to do a lot of drawing of water, fire, earth, and air. (Could not get into the new Avatar: The Last Airbender show, but I think I’m due to rewatch the original!)
And since the last illustration I did was for a t-shirt, I think this month, I’ll try to create some art for prints again! But I do have a t-shirt idea I want to explore so I may do that as well! Yay!
…Well that is quite the to-do list, so time to get started!
Thanks for reading!
P.S. – You can support my work (and get cool stuff!) by shopping prints, shirts and more at INPRNT and TeePublic! And can you tell I’m on Patreon now? Because I’m totally on Patreon!
Bee Sauls Art 