Hello December!
Last month…
As anticipated, most of my time was spent working on Inked-Over (my version of Inktober in November). My goal was to draw a fan art character for every prompt on Inktober’s official list. And I wanted to practice both cartoon and anime style drawing. I focused on using Dan Hipp, Carles Dalmau, and Li Chen as references & inspiration for poses and expressions and details I just couldn’t figure out on my own. I didn’t want to copy them, but learn from them and improve my own style! A month of learning from artists I consider some of the best!
I think I got waaaay better at the cartoon-style characters for the first 15 days. It really started to click for me, how I wanted to draw each person. Even if the reference material was super different (see Cursed Homer Simpson). I never got as confident with drawing anime-style, which is admittedly disappointing. But I do think I still made good progress and learned a ton! So that’s still a success! Quality practice! (…even Mr. Krabs, while not my own style of drawing, I think I managed to still make it my own…)
I also managed to come up with some new comic ideas in my spare time, which is exciting! I wrote them down, so hopefully some of them are still good. (Not all my ideas are great, or hold up… nor do all my notes make sense when I go back to read them later…)
And I made sure to keep working on my graphic novel, just about every day. It is still a priority! Since it’s such a big project, I try to spend at least half an hour every day working on it. So after a month, I’ve gotten a lot of re-writing done, and pages and pages of layouts planned. It’s slow progress, but it’s still progress!
I didn’t get to work on any illustrations or actual comic strips. But I didn’t figure I would, so that’s okay.
Last week, I hung up my prints of the Summer Myths in my studio! I usually save wall space for artists I admire, but I made an exception for these, because they’re super cool and I’m still really proud of them. Also they look awesome there. 😀
Available at INPRNT!
This month…
I already know I have too much on my to-do list…
Quite a bit was put on hold to do Inked-Over. So, it makes sense that I won’t be able to continue the challenge now that I’m wanting to get back to work on everything else. I mean, if I could just do both, I would have already. But hopefully I can keep showing up to my sketchbook with some sort of consistency and keep working on drawing characters and improving at anime-style drawing (along with everything else I want to get better at!).
But I’m also looking forward to working on illustrations again (I feel like I haven’t done that since the Summer Myths!). I’ve been thinking more about what kind of illustrations I want to do. My ideas can be all over the place, but I’d really like to focus again and get consistent (and better!) in my work. The focus is basically what I’m already doing, but with some new subjects I think I could probably start attempting, whereas before I think I lacked the skill or confidence to try it… But I also have some projects I’ve already started but haven’t made any progress on in months…so I should probably do those too…
And I want to make at least one comic strip this month, from one of the new ideas I had…
And I also picked up some new paint markers to try out (Ohuhu instead of Posca this time!). I’d love to try to do something cute and fun with those on some of the canvas board I bought months ago… But I have no idea what…
And finally, and this is a big one! I think it’s time for a re-brand!
I started Summer Child Designs in 2016. Eight years ago. I am now a totally different artist than I was back then! I’ve changed so much, and I just don’t think that name makes sense anymore (it also feels VERY 2016. Designs). Fun fact: the name was partly a low-key silly reference to Game of Thrones/A Song of Ice and Fire… so that hasn’t aged well either.
I think I’m just going to use my name moving forward. Bee Sauls. (Friends, I know that probably looks weird, but I don’t think I can claim “B” as a brand. Family, thank you for understanding that I can’t be bothered to spell my full name every time I talk about my art. Heh.)
So yeah. Bee Sauls.
It’s already on a lot of stuff anyway as my name. But I’ll start slowly but surely rebranding all my stuff that way to match. I don’t have a new logo, so I’ll have to do that too. But a little consistency there doesn’t seem like a bad idea for now… But I’ll work on it!
On the one hand, end of an era, right?! But on the other, I’m so excited for this update! I’ve been thinking about it for a loooooong time. So if you start seeing Bee Sauls on stuff, that’s me! Hello!
So yeah. It’s a lot. A lot a lot! But I’m excited about all of it!
Time to get to work!
Thanks for reading!
P.S. – Don’t forget! You can support my work (and get cool stuff!) by shopping prints, shirts and more at INPRNT and TeePublic!
Bee Sauls Art 