A Nod - My Youth

In my formative years, I went through a phase where I only drew odd-looking women. I sort of referenced this earlier, but now I'm going to go into detail.

The deal was this:

A) My only source material was really my face, so it was much easier to draw chicks (although I hadn't yet come to terms with the oddness of my face, so they are all equally odd looking. [more on my alien face in the future, I promise.])

B) I was kind of stuck in that whole women = beauty, so I have to draw women if I want to draw beautiful things section of my life. (I went through a similar phase later, where I thought I had to draw only what I found attractive, so I drew just a bajillion penises.)

C) I felt like a creeper for drawing dudes, because I didn't want people to think I was sitting around fantasizing about random men (true). This was a double-edged sword, because I was also uncomfortable with the idea of people thinking all I did was sit around and fantasize about women (not true).

From this, I learned a good amount about drawing, and I kind of shaped my style. At the peak of my eighth grade year, I had a pretty set M.O., and life was good (if a little bit repetetive, predictable, etc.)

Looking at these is a really good way to get a handle on my learning of photoshop, anyway, and I kind of like looking back at them.

1) Luxurious


My friend Puffer, who is a writer and artist (Her works can be found on her DeviantART account here), had a Naruto OC named Orian, and this was a gift for her. I was secretly always jealous of her getting to draw people with colorful hair, which I still kind of have an obsession with.

2) Bask


I decided it was my turn to use some crazy colors... the result was sort of awkward, but it was a good learning experience. Please to enjoy my use of the Dodge and Burn tools, as that was ALL I KNEW.

3) Lovely


This was the OC I created to be friends with Orian. Her name was Lila, and she was pretty damn awesome. (All I can remember about her now is that she stole her weapons off of the ninjas she defeated, so she had an obscene amount of weaponry... and that the green highlights were as close as I could bring myself to identify with colored hair.)

Although these weren't really the most artistically impressive pieces of work, I like to look at them as stepping stones - I was getting a handle on shading, hair, facial structure (I definitely struggled with that one for a while), and color schemes.

Also, much credit goes to the Puff for influencing me so heavily. I can blame most of my anime-style artwork on her, along with a great many other amazing things.