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Description
Guess how long I was working on this piece? Since January... haha... of course, I took breaks. Lots of breaks. As you could probably guess, I don't usually take 7 months on a single painting  But this one has a bit of story behind it!

I don't know what it was about this painting, in fact, it's sketch was nothing special, just a quick 3 minute gesture drawing on computer paper, the type of scribbling I'd been doing to vent that little did I know, was wrapping me back around to making art again. It's hard to tell this on the Internet because you can only see what I choose to post, but between 2015-17 I was really in a tangle art-wise. I was still making work, but with a lot of abandon. I basically got a lot of great ideas but no follow-through. I didn't realize until I was coming out of it, how much I let school and outside influences infest my art practice. School and applying for colleges made me take art WAY too seriously. I guess it was worth it for that interval of time because I earned a scholarship that's really, really helped me financially and scholastically, and I did "perfect" at AP Art. (lol I actually cried and stressed out so much in that class but I had a good teacher and it was a good portfolio building experience). But now that I don't have to go and """"impress"""" people with my art (read: fish for compliments because people need me to prove I can be valid or professional or such), it's more destructive than good, allowing all this perfectionism and stress...

This was one of the first pieces since A Little Rainy (one of my favs cause it was like the only good one from my art block period) that got fully colored and in my opinion is my best digital animal art piece right now. It has more depth and better depiction of wildlife and the anatomy is better. I did this one before the Breezepelt one but waited to post this so I could tweak it more. Even with rounds of edits, there's still some of that "rough painting" look b/c my art isn't totally sharp and nifty as I remember it... but I'm picking up where 2014 left me off. But the best part? I love art again  I don't know why this was the painting that I just got back with the program for, but it was, so it's really special to me right now. I feel weird making personal/hobby art and upcoming fanart after so long making art for teachers, professors, and scholarship granters! But I remind myself that my silly Lion King fanart and Pokemon comics and Warriors animations back in like 2008 was why I got into art to begin with, and I'm sick of making art to gain validation (part my own doing, part influence of school and such i.e. being graded, mandatory competitions), and I just want to retrace my hobbyist and fanartist roots. I think art can be really rewarding even just as a personal project or hobby! I love the feeling of working out a painting and seeing a brand new image come to life, and knowing I can pick up that painting again at anytime to either repaint it or use it as part of an animation!

Description
Guess how long I was working on this piece? Since January... haha... of course, I took breaks. Lots of breaks. As you could probably guess, I don't usually take 7 months on a single painting  But this one has a bit of story behind it!

I don't know what it was about this painting, in fact, it's sketch was nothing special, just a quick 3 minute gesture drawing on computer paper, the type of scribbling I'd been doing to vent that little did I know, was wrapping me back around to making art again. It's hard to tell this on the Internet because you can only see what I choose to post, but between 2015-17 I was really in a tangle art-wise. I was still making work, but with a lot of abandon. I basically got a lot of great ideas but no follow-through. I didn't realize until I was coming out of it, how much I let school and outside influences infest my art practice. School and applying for colleges made me take art WAY too seriously. I guess it was worth it for that interval of time because I earned a scholarship that's really, really helped me financially and scholastically, and I did "perfect" at AP Art. (lol I actually cried and stressed out so much in that class but I had a good teacher and it was a good portfolio building experience). But now that I don't have to go and """"impress"""" people with my art (read: fish for compliments because people need me to prove I can be valid or professional or such), it's more destructive than good, allowing all this perfectionism and stress...

This was one of the first pieces since A Little Rainy (one of my favs cause it was like the only good one from my art block period) that got fully colored and in my opinion is my best digital animal art piece right now. It has more depth and better depiction of wildlife and the anatomy is better. I did this one before the Breezepelt one but waited to post this so I could tweak it more. Even with rounds of edits, there's still some of that "rough painting" look b/c my art isn't totally sharp and nifty as I remember it... but I'm picking up where 2014 left me off. But the best part? I love art again  I don't know why this was the painting that I just got back with the program for, but it was, so it's really special to me right now. I feel weird making personal/hobby art and upcoming fanart after so long making art for teachers, professors, and scholarship granters! But I remind myself that my silly Lion King fanart and Pokemon comics and Warriors animations back in like 2008 was why I got into art to begin with, and I'm sick of making art to gain validation (part my own doing, part influence of school and such i.e. being graded, mandatory competitions), and I just want to retrace my hobbyist and fanartist roots. I think art can be really rewarding even just as a personal project or hobby! I love the feeling of working out a painting and seeing a brand new image come to life, and knowing I can pick up that painting again at anytime to either repaint it or use it as part of an animation!