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tenshinoakuma) wrote2011-05-09 01:08 am
tenshinoakuma) wrote2011-05-09 01:08 am
(no subject)
I think, after reorganising my LJ tags, the next step will be to actually put some effort into redoing my current icons.
But that would just be procrastinating. (Not that I haven't already been doing that all week.)
The green is temporary, but I might end up leaving it there (or change the shade) since it's pretty soothing behind the red of the costume. Going to have another layer of inks when I figure out how to do them, and I haven't figured out how I want to do the shading. I spotted all sorts of errors while I was inking, but honestly I've reached the point where I've decided it's better to move on than to go back and constantly tweak.
So, I was thinking of that one art improvement meme, where you basically show/talk a bit about your art for each year over 7 years. And I thought it was a rather good way of seeing where I came from as an arteeeeest, what/why I was drawing the things I did.
Maybe it's a bit of nostalgia from the fact I recently remembered I actually have a deviantArt account (wow I've been on there for almost 9 years!), but I was flipping through my old art there and was kind of amused at what I found. Okay, yeah, my old art was terrible (except for that one picture), but it was really interesting to see that I used to do a lot of digital colouring (and they were generally quite colourful compared to now!) before I started to generally only do sketches or mostly monochrome images. It's only fairly recently that I started picking up colour again * A*
But while that meme provides an easy to see snapshot of art evolution over the years, I kind of wish there was something similar for writing. Unfortunately, because you actually have to read things for a writing improvement meme of similar nature, it probably wouldn't work out so well. Not to mention snapshots of longer stories doesn't show bigger picture things like pacing and plot.
I did end up looking through my collection of TWEWY drabbles that dates back to about 2-3 years, though. And realised (aside from the fact ffnet reformatted all the earlier chapters without telling me) that my writing style's changed a lot in the recent years, too. My one-shots have definitely gotten longer, and as a result, I feel I've got more content in them.
I was reading something earlier that mentioned how drabble writers don't write anything with content. That they just write words with no real meaning. I initially had an adverse kneejerk reaction because, you know, it was a drabble writer that inspired me to write more, and drabbles were kind of where I considered my writing to actually get better. Assuming by drabble they'd meant one-shots about 500 words or less (because I've seen fairly lengthy one-shots be called drabbles and the term seems to be interchangeable these days), after I got over myself, I do have to admit there is some truth to it. These days I'm finding myself craving good, longer stories, and reading drabbles to me is like looking at the surface of a swimming pool; they're a suggestion of something more under the surface, but you can't go any deeper.
That's not to say drabbles are bad per se, but I generally don't enjoy them as much as I used to any more. They do make for quick and easy writing exercises, and I kind of think of them as being a little like what observational sketches are to drawing.
THAT WAS A RANDOM TANGENT but what I meant to say about art/writing evolution is that it's interesting to see where someone's come from, and I guess for me personally, sometimes it's hard to acknowledge that I've gotten better without the evidence sitting right in front of me. It can be a bit of a cathartic reality check.
But that would just be procrastinating. (Not that I haven't already been doing that all week.)
The green is temporary, but I might end up leaving it there (or change the shade) since it's pretty soothing behind the red of the costume. Going to have another layer of inks when I figure out how to do them, and I haven't figured out how I want to do the shading. I spotted all sorts of errors while I was inking, but honestly I've reached the point where I've decided it's better to move on than to go back and constantly tweak.
So, I was thinking of that one art improvement meme, where you basically show/talk a bit about your art for each year over 7 years. And I thought it was a rather good way of seeing where I came from as an arteeeeest, what/why I was drawing the things I did.
Maybe it's a bit of nostalgia from the fact I recently remembered I actually have a deviantArt account (wow I've been on there for almost 9 years!), but I was flipping through my old art there and was kind of amused at what I found. Okay, yeah, my old art was terrible (except for that one picture), but it was really interesting to see that I used to do a lot of digital colouring (and they were generally quite colourful compared to now!) before I started to generally only do sketches or mostly monochrome images. It's only fairly recently that I started picking up colour again * A*
But while that meme provides an easy to see snapshot of art evolution over the years, I kind of wish there was something similar for writing. Unfortunately, because you actually have to read things for a writing improvement meme of similar nature, it probably wouldn't work out so well. Not to mention snapshots of longer stories doesn't show bigger picture things like pacing and plot.
I did end up looking through my collection of TWEWY drabbles that dates back to about 2-3 years, though. And realised (aside from the fact ffnet reformatted all the earlier chapters without telling me) that my writing style's changed a lot in the recent years, too. My one-shots have definitely gotten longer, and as a result, I feel I've got more content in them.
I was reading something earlier that mentioned how drabble writers don't write anything with content. That they just write words with no real meaning. I initially had an adverse kneejerk reaction because, you know, it was a drabble writer that inspired me to write more, and drabbles were kind of where I considered my writing to actually get better. Assuming by drabble they'd meant one-shots about 500 words or less (because I've seen fairly lengthy one-shots be called drabbles and the term seems to be interchangeable these days), after I got over myself, I do have to admit there is some truth to it. These days I'm finding myself craving good, longer stories, and reading drabbles to me is like looking at the surface of a swimming pool; they're a suggestion of something more under the surface, but you can't go any deeper.
That's not to say drabbles are bad per se, but I generally don't enjoy them as much as I used to any more. They do make for quick and easy writing exercises, and I kind of think of them as being a little like what observational sketches are to drawing.
THAT WAS A RANDOM TANGENT but what I meant to say about art/writing evolution is that it's interesting to see where someone's come from, and I guess for me personally, sometimes it's hard to acknowledge that I've gotten better without the evidence sitting right in front of me. It can be a bit of a cathartic reality check.