Most people would look at previous photos to remember what their year was about. I have the opportunity to look at art.

I started reading fantasy near the start of the year (Brandon Sanderson's Stormlight Archive), and it had me in a worldbuilding kick. I'm not much of a character designer, but I was fond of this character's … character. Learning worldbuilding and character design is certainly something I would like to spend more time doing.

This painting was inspired by an anime that aired this year, "Frieren: Beyond Journey's End". It's a fantastic show. More importantly, though, is that I painted this as the last assignment for a mentorship. My focus was on being more expressive with color, but I also learned a few things about how a professional works. What stood out to me were how many paintings he had going on simultaneously. My mentor had many color roughs waiting to be realized. I have a habit of only focusing on one painting at a time, and I think it burns me out a bit. I'm not much better now, but I have not forgotten.

I completed this one in the middle of the year, and it was my most difficult piece to date. Multiple characters in a POV shot. I pulled out all the stops to figure it out -- I setup the scene in Blender (3D software) to understand the perspective and redrew the characters many times to get their expressions and interaction to feel comfortable. Painting the food was unexpectedly fun, but multiple characters interacting was tiring. That probably indicates a need for more practice. And for those wondering, the painting is from "Dungeon Meshi", a show about … making food in a dungeon. It's a good comedy with great worldbuilding. I highly recommend it.

I painted these two as an attempt to shift toward something that I felt more inspired by, both emotionally and aesthetically. I've already written at length about the emotional inspiration here. Aesthetically, however, I wanted to introduce a more traditional touch. One part of that is the texture, the other part is the loose stroke quality. It feels like a blend between impressionism and painterly (though the definitions are vague, here is a little food for thought). I am pleased with the outcome, and I believe it is a style I should commit more time to.

Amsterdam was a big part of the last quarter of the year, but if you want to read about that, go here. I explored more of the painterly style while I was there. After coming home, I took a look at my paintings from my time in Greece two years ago. Things have certainly changed (I am a much better artist), but there are hints of style in the older work that remain consistent.

And finally, a simpler, more casual fan illustration. I grew up playing the Sonic games and reading the comics. My first email address was made based on a move Shadow the Hedgehog has called "Chaos Control." So when I saw Sonic 3 in theater, I was overjoyed at the adaptation of Shadow and all the references the movie made. Technically, this painting was an attempt at making something enjoyable without it taking every fiber of my being (character work sometimes does that to me).

When looking back at the art I made this year, I noticed I did not practice as much as I had previously. Yet I learned a reasonable amount, and I think it's because I know enough about art now to understand how to learn art. I am under no pretense¹ of being a master, but I feel it's a lot like working out. I've spent enough years doing it that I know how my body responds to different stimuli. I understand the fundamental concepts. I know the movements I click with and how to push my limits. All that being said, injuries still happen. It's being able to train (live) well despite injury (hardship) that makes the experienced lifter (human being).

1. I initially wrote "false pretense" as that is how I see it commonly used, but after some thinking I realized that phrase is a pleonasm.