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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.
no subject
Hmm, I'd argue that GOOD drabble writers can have quite a lot of content in their stories, but there's an unfortunate amount of very shallow drabble writing that dilutes the field, as it were. Having read a couple of writers who are really good at implying a lot with very few words, it can be really powerful.
But yeah, you can't get the same in-depth plot, and the vast majority tend to be a thought in a point of time or a piece of fluff. Candy, as opposed to a full course meal. You don't have time to really empathise with characters, either, so it's much harder to get the same emotional punch. Though you can sometimes get away with this in fandom only because everyone knows the characters already.
...And I've digressed on your digression. Sounds like an idea for an interesting meme. Maybe you should start one! It's both fascinating and horrifying looking back on earlier work. Apparently Penguin once published a book with early short stories from all these famous, respected writers, and they were uniformly AWFUL. XD
no subject
That's very true! I think part of the reason I don't enjoy them as much as I used to is more a flaw on my part than the writer's part, though; I tend to skim when I read something for the first time, which means I tend to lose meaning and implication from a good drabble when every word is significant.
I do agree about fandom and its shared knowledge base, and I actually think that's why I like reading fanfiction so much. You can essentially skip introduction to the characters and world because people would (generally) already know them, and I admit I'm pretty fascinated by the many interpretations of the same characters. It's pretty interesting comparing and contrasting peoples' ideas of the same character while they've (hopefully) kept the character's core personality, and that's just something you generally don't get outside fandom!
(GOING EVEN FURTHER WITH THIS TANGENT, I imagine the upper plane in TWEWY to be something like this. A massive conglomerate of individuals who pool shared knowledge together, not unlike a more united form of the Internet)
Yeah, though I think it's something best done at the beginning/end of the year not... right in the middle of it xD;; I can't help but have a little bit of bile fascination with that Penguin book, though.