Revised Older Piece - Beta Euthynus Redux

Close up of an older piece (see below for full view). 

From the Instagram post:

Dug through the archives and found an older piece - alot of older pieces actually - and decided to do some revisions. Alot of these were pretty rough around the lines, and I caught myself cleaning some of them up on this one. But then figured, what the hell, at some point at least some aspect of your old work is what it is regardless of whatever fixes you make, or regardless of whoever had a problem with your approach beforehand ("Not clean enough!"). A person can always improve, but parts of how you used to approach art shouldn't be completely erased either. The industry, Instagram, the internet - as lame as it sounds, they can't provide your art with you. 

Which is just another way of saying: Don't let the studios or the Internet Commons erase your thumbprint or signature on your own work, warts and all. Trends have a way of flattening both concepts and art, and eventually the people who come up with them, if they let them. 

(And yeah, all of this grandiose stuff on a post that's basically an upshot on a girl's butt. I get it.)

Character Design Challenge - 06 - #skyfishking

The last one of the Sky Fish King series. Added the two additional post-script illustrations and reference pages at the bottom that were part of the original Instagram post.

I did a few more #drawthisinyourstyle's after this based on other folks' characters, but as with most things industry or internet it has its limits. Maybe I'll pick it up again at some point, but that well has been drawn enough from for now I think but blah blah blah.

Basically I got bored with it after while, and just... tired of seeing how clique-y folks from the studio system get, even when it's something online that's supposed to be fun involving other folk's art. Am not sure whether to blame them or the corporate culture they're immersed in everyday when they act like that. Maybe it's a generational thing, maybe an occupational hazard when ego meets millstone, but I doubt either one of those is the sole cause for people turning into insects and only recognizing others that occupy the same hive (and not even then).

Character Design Challenge - 05 - #skyfishking

Technically the first version I did of @jakemorrisonart's Sky Fish King series. Added the extra dunkleosteus character (Dunkleosteoid?) on the side, as much to take up negative space as to add a little more character fun and an additional thumbprint of mine. And as always, @meekius' piece was also a factor in how this turned out.

Character Design Challenge - 04

(Full image below.) Another #drawthisinyourstyle using @jakemorrisonart's character design, as well as referencing @meekius' take for inspiration.

This was the first of three versions I did. (I'll post the other two soon.)

The fish's scales were probably the most difficult to codify since there are so many different shape choices going on around the head area. Should have taken a cue from the other two characters and simplified it somewhat. But, that's part of the fun of doing these character design challenges, reinterpreting not only someone else's designs but playing around with whatever you come up with, and not worrying about whether it'll work the first time or fit into some corporate animation production pipeline. Part of the process of designing should involve room to breathe and explore, to have fun, *and then* refine for efficiency's sake.