Coin-Sided Soul of Myself — Exploring that Other Side of Creativity— Digital Art

A bit of pixel art I’ve made in recent months!

In an attempt to continue allowing this blog to be a place where I can completely express my passions, thoughts, opinions, and feelings, I thought it would be nice if I explored the other side of my creativity — digital art.

Something I made to showcase my art’s evolution.

I’ve been dabbling in digital art for roughly 10 years now. I’m sure one could argue I’ve been drawing since I was a kid, but to be frank, I don’t think any of it counts until about 10 years ago.

One of my old sketches of my first OC (Original Characters), Nighteye, who was featured as the protagonist in that first attempt at making a comic, way back in those “Flipnote Days.”

It all began when I was around the age of twelve, going on thirteen. Around that time, I’d found a sudden passion for wolves and wolf conservation arise in my life, and that paired with my love for fantasy stories and comics ultimately led to a singular goal.

I had wanted to make a comic.

The only bit of art I’ve got on hand from my old Flipnote days is this tiny “self-portrait” I somehow saved to my computer. I made on a tiny 2-inch by 3.25-inch screen on Flipnote, but I’ve no idea how it got it onto my computer, and why I chose to save this sketch above all the other things.

Sparing the narrative details, the comic WAS made — albeit on my Nintendo DSi, via an app known to few as Flipnote — and it was my first step into drawing in a digital format.

The rest, however, is lost to history . . .

And another piece I made a few years back to show the evolution of my art here as well.

I don’t think there’s much need to recap every step of my artistic life, but there are just a few key points I feel required to cover all the same since I’ve already covered my “origin story.” Specifically, you may be asking me, “Okay, so you draw . . . but why the hell are you still drawing wolves?!”

Well, I don’t draw JUST wolves . . . I mean, I do get it. Why I draw mostly Canidae like creatures that walk like humans, talk like humans, and for all tense and purposes, minus the heads, tails, and fur (and arms in Aufnaher’s case), are humans . . . why stick to the animal-like aesthetic. Why not expand and draw humans?

By now, you get the idea that I’ve redrawn some images over the years, so I’ll let this be the last I share of my “progress over time.”

I wish I had a fancy answer. I wish I could say: “I’m not fully sure.”

And I wish I could follow that up by supposing some philosophical reason behind said answer, such as “I think humanity is best decerned when we see people as monsters, beasts, and animals,” OR “Animals have much purer emotions than humans, and I believe that comes across better than just another human face.” Or even, “It all goes back to that primal child-like part of myself that dreams in stories of the fox in the night, and myths of animal gods that ancient ancestors perhaps believed in.”

Those answers sound nice, right? They’re really thought out, and perhaps there are some half-truths in them.

However, if I’m going to be really honest here, I think it just comes down to the fact that I just enjoy drawing animal features more than I do human features. And on top of that, there’s surprisingly a large community of people who also enjoy drawing human-like animals also, and they’re pretty cool, all things considered.

It’s not that I lack the ability to draw human faces. I have drawn humans before . . . Just, they ain’t what I’m passionate about.

I know that this TECHNICALLY was shown earlier, but considering how large I made the file, I thought I’d share it again so you may see it in the LARGE scale. Drawn in 2018

Art, for me, is a hobby, albeit one I care about and use to express my feelings.

Drawing of my lovely scarf-armed-protagonist-boy, Aufnaher. Drawn end of 2019

So, because I wanted to write this blog to mostly showcase the art that I’ve made in the recent year or two, I thought I’d just start showing off those pieces on the side, adding commentary if and where I can.

Inspired by title screens on old retro games

While not the greatest/cleanest animation, for a first-time attempt, I think it’s pretty great!

~ Pixel Art ~

I’ve shared some of my pixel art in a previous blog, and while I may eventually pick up the idea of using the art for video games, for now, I’ve reached the point where it’s more fun to just make basic animations like these.

Overall, I’m still a novice in a lot of ways and have plenty of growing to do. However, through the help of a few friends and whatnot, I was able to make these two animations with my pixel art, akin to 16-bit video games. I’m quite proud of these pieces and look forward to making more in the future

~ Homesickness ~

My most recent piece, depicting how I have honestly been feeling lately.

It’s not that I feel homeless anymore. I know I have a loving family, and obviously have a place to take up residency — I even have a nice job — but even still, there is just this empty feeling I’ve felt since I moved away from the farm.

I wish I could fill that void, but I just . . . haven’t.

~ What Are You Looking At? ~

This is a remake of a remake of a remake of a remake . . .

That’s not to say it lacks inspiration. I mean, maybe it does, I don’t know . . . but it’s something I’ve continually poked at as something to see “how have I grown?”

I think I’ve grown a lot — my hair sure has, and my ability to do backgrounds as well.

~ Excerpt from my Ref Sheet ~

I just thought this one would be fun to show off. I won’t show the whole reference sheet because it’s massive and has several other outfits, but I really was proud of this fantasy design I made for my character.

There really isn’t anything special about this one other than that. It’s not shaded and lacks a background, but that’s alright I guess.

I’m still proud of it.

~ Tarot Card: Daemon ~

This is a piece inspired by the idea of tarot cards. It’s a few months old now, but I really like the dark surrealism to the piece.

This character is called Tanscia, her name inspired by several European words for the word “Dancer”

She is the female counterpart to my previously shown character, Aufnaher, and in many ways, is meant to be an antagonist to him, albeit through a mentoring fashion.

She’s basically his older sister, without being blood relatives.

That’s all I’ll share for now, even though I’ve much more I could share.

I’m not sure if I’ll directly share my art on this blog again like this or not, but I will admit, it was fun to make such a massive post relating to this subject. So when in doubt, I may do an artistic update.

For now, though, I’ve got pizza heading my way, and some TV that needs watching. So without further ado, I must bid you ado…

Here’s my end of blog song: Night Runner’s “Magnum Bullets”