Art Year in Review: 2006

[Stratadrake]

Did you have a good 2006 in your art? What did you accomplish, what were the high points, the low points, was there an overall 'theme' to what you could do in art this year, and where do you think you'll go from here on.

Take a minute to think about all the works (and submissions) you accomplished during the past year in art....
[list]
[*]Overall first/early impression of the art year 2006
[*]Was there a recurring theme in your art, style, technique?
[*]Best art moment in the year
[*]Worst art moment in the year
[*]Looking back, your one favorite piece from 2006
[*]Overall final impression of how the art year 2006 turned out
[*]Any resolutions or laid plans for the art year 2007
[/list:u]
I'll get to my responses later, once I've had time to think them over.
_________________
Strata here: [url=http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/user/242293]Nanowrimo[/url] - [url=www.fanart-central.net/user-Stratadrake.php]FAC[/url] - [url=http://stratadrake.deviantart.com]dA[/url] - [url=www.furaffinity.net/user/Stratadrake/]FA[/url]
[size=9]Disclaimer: Posts may contain URLs. Click [url=http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TVTropesWillRuinYourLife]at your own risk.[/url][/size]

[Battou]

well my year started out with a flop but picked up substansually in the end


[b]# Overall first/early impression of the art year 2006[/b] None, I did not really think about it cuz I sucked
[b]# Was there a recurring theme in your art, style, technique? [/b] I'm gonna say no, I'm fairly random
[b]# Best art moment in the year[/b] finding this site
[b]# Worst art moment in the year[/b] January threw May
[b]# Looking back, your one favorite piece from 2006[/b] Toss-up betwine [url=http://www.fanart-central.net/pic-483028.html]Tadaaahhh...(FaAC/FuAC)[/url] and Truely Bootless(HF) [size=9]I know you said one but I can't decide[/size]
[b]# Overall final impression of how the art year 2006 turned out[/b] I got better
[b]# Any resolutions or laid plans for the art year 2007[/b] keep going
_________________
[b]RPG[/b]-[i]n[/i]. A computer programing language designed for business reporting that generates specific programs from the users specifications.([b]R[/b]eport [b]P[/b]rogram [b]G[/b]enerator)[i]The American Heritage Dictionary[/i]

[u][url=http://www.photo-lucidity.com/user-Battou.php]Photo-Lucidity[/url][/u] - [u][url=http://www.fanart-central.net/user-battou.php]FaAC[/url][/u] - [u][url=http://www.funart-central.net/user-Battou.php]FuAC[/url][/u] - [u][url=http://forums.fanart-central.net/index.php]Joke of the day[/url][/u]

[Stratadrake]

As for my responses:

- I sort of had the impression early on that I was running out of ideas to draw. It took me months to get even a few pieces done, which felt like a sharp contrast from previous years. I just . . . didn't know what to draw.
- As always, I seem to have a fantasy theme running through everything. It's what I like, so I do it a lot. But this also seemed to be a year of heckling and criticism.
- Best art moment in the year: Doing a gryphon giftart for Lizkay. I seem to strike a completely new level of coloring and shading with that one.
- Worst art moment: Getting into a tremendous catfight over said giftart. I literally lost all my own respect for it, much of my respect for myself, and a good chunk of inspiration. It was one of those moments where I felt I should have just boarded everything up, pack my things and leave. I ultimately just didn't have the heart to do that, but I was quite miserable.
- Related best moment: Turning said giftart into an "art gift" and shipping it to Lizkay herself.
- Favorite overall piece: I ended the year with two giftarts and another inversion. I love doing inversions, but it isn't my overall favorite this year because of all the digital cleanup I had to put it through. Instead it's a tie between the [url=http://www.fanart-central.net/pic-525498.html][u]tiger anthro[/u][/url] for DG-sama and the [url=http://www.fanart-central.net/pic-531302.html][u]twin anthros[/u][/url] for Lizkay and Suzidragonlady (who, I recently learned, actually are related; they're sisters). The inspiration for both pieces came out of nowhere and struck like a lightning bolt cliché, I was able to complete both pieces on comparatively short notice, and inking out the lineart before sketching them really improves the shading.
- Ending impression: The year started out slow, absolutely sucked during the late summer / early fall, but did manage to turn out well in the end. Do I have my inspiration back? Not all of it, but....
- Plans for 2007: I've expanded the variety of tools I have, and now I just need to put them to work. So many ideas, so little time.
_________________
Strata here: [url=http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/user/242293]Nanowrimo[/url] - [url=www.fanart-central.net/user-Stratadrake.php]FAC[/url] - [url=http://stratadrake.deviantart.com]dA[/url] - [url=www.furaffinity.net/user/Stratadrake/]FA[/url]
[size=9]Disclaimer: Posts may contain URLs. Click [url=http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TVTropesWillRuinYourLife]at your own risk.[/url][/size]

[AngelusMortis]

# Overall first/early impression of the art year 2006

I never really had much of an impression at the beginning of the year. I guess maybe because my goals are mostly sketchy. You can probably tell by the inconsistencies in my drawings. Sometimes I want to do lineart, and sometimes I want to do realism without lineart.

# Was there a recurring theme in your art, style, technique?

I drew a lot of Sephiroth pictures because I joined a Sephiroth fan club recently. But I also continued developing my realism style with and without lineart. And I developed the graphite method of sketching so I don't need to use a sketch book so often. Although I guess I wouldn't call it "developed" because it's really just the pencil tool on Painter! I also tried to develop color theory and work on lighting. I've actually experimented with a lot of things. I also learned to draw grass, thanks to Diathene's pictures. I drew lots of fanart for practice most of the time, but I also tried to draw fan characters from a variety of other games instead of taking characters from Final Fantasy. Generally, my originals consist of the Demi series, which are the demon/angel or contrasting hybrids. I think I managed to do at least three of them this year. And for once, I even managed to make a popular piece with a slightly different style. Thanks guys, I never thought the Candy Cane Snowman would be that popular.

# Best art moment in the year

I enjoyed drawing and coloring the Gabriel piece most.

# Worst art moment in the year

Learning to draw girls, only to find the Aeris I drew looked kind of like Sephiroth.

# Looking back, your one favorite piece from 2006

I have a real hard time deciding. They're all good. But I settle for this one because it's a true representation of the accumulation of what I've learned during the year, in terms of lighting, technique and other new things I've learned by looking at other pictures. If there was a folder of my artwork that says "2006" on it, this would be the picture that appears on it.

http://www.fanart-central.net/pic-527754.html

# Overall final impression of how the art year 2006 turned out

It's not too bad. But it makes the art I drew in previous years look bad.

# Any resolutions or laid plans for the art year 2007

None really. Except to just keep getting better at what I'm already doing. I kind of don't really have any goals for art as before. It's just something I do as a hobby. Although I hope I may still have enough original ideas to draw an original character that I may grow to like.

[Stereominate]

[b]# Overall first/early impression of the art year 2006[/b]

[b]# Was there a recurring theme in your art, style, technique?[/b]
Pop art. Pop-art inspired works, that is... I'm 30 years late for the real thing. Dx

[b]# Best art moment in the year[/b]
The summer. I sketched, experimented, and came up with great ideas.
[b]
# Worst art moment in the year[/b]
Eh... none. xD

[b]# Looking back, your one favorite piece from 2006[/b]
My lemon-staircase sculpture. It has shaped my artistic intentions forever. xO
As well as kicked my focus on sculpture back into full gear.
[b]
# Overall final impression of how the art year 2006 turned out[/b]
It was very colorful. xD

[b]# Any resolutions or laid plans for the art year 2007 [/b]
I'm applying to industrial design programs at universities and colleges! So much stuff is gonna happen... *excited*

[Brianhjh]

2006 sucked

although I've fallen love with acrylic paint, and I've done about 5 big paintings by the end of the year. I did about 4 times as less pictures as I did with 2005.

Oh well, I think 2007 will be awsm.
_________________
[img]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v233/Brianhjh/emesprani151.gif[/img] "Sarah's future makes me sad." - Benk

[Trinity_Fire]

I have to say, personally, that I've made a really big jump in art in 2006.
I started out drawing anime, but couldn't even manage much more than facial profiles, and deficient ones at that. Now, at the end of the year, I'm finally learning to work with wireframes, guidelines, and taking interest in more than just anime/cartoons, although I can't say I jump for joy to draw still-life or the like.
Also, I gained a firm understanding of colored pencils, coloring techniques, and from 2005-2006 during the first school semester, I took my first (and probably only) official visual arts class, where I learned to actually accept colored pencils (rather, this is during 2005), learn to use ink/markers (though only black so far), and learned about two-point perspective, the color wheel/complementary colors, the like.
Before this, I'd always been learning how to draw still-life and the sort through a once-per-week, one-hour-session art classes at my public chinese school.

Because of this, I'm not really an official art student or anything of the sort, but I do like to draw in my free time, and finally learning how to 'really' draw and to work with all of this new information really makes me quite happy. Oh, how the days of ignorance are gone...
Anyways.

[b]Was there a recurring theme in your art, style, technique?[/b] Fantasy, steered towards angels, demons, etc...

[b]Best art moment in the year [/b] Discovering some really nice artwork that was of a style I was interested in (for the moment) such as Daisuke Ishiwatari (artist of the Guilty Gear game series) and Ayami Kojima (artist for Castlevania). Don't laugh at me, please.

[b]Worst art moment in the year [/b] I can't really say that I've had a 'worst' moment, but there were plenty of times I felt rather down and annoyed at myself. I tend to suck at drawing humans in general, even though I keep trying, and I'm a bit self-critisizing. I almost seem to enjoy ripping up (not literally) pieces of mine completed a mere week or so ago. I'm not the type capable of roughly sketching out something to look brilliant; I can't do requests or draw (indirect, i.e. not based line-for-line exactly off another pic) fanarts, I lost my touch at drawing dragons/animals as well... It was pretty depressing, at times. And still kind of is, but that doesn't mean I'm going to quit. In fact, I'm already planning on embarking on several new projects to learn how to draw better, and to draw a wider variety of things.

[b]Looking back, your one favorite piece from 2006 [/b] Hard to decide. Like I said, a pic I love the day I drew it, I'll hate in a week's time. My pieces are usually a mix; one has really good anatomy (I hope), one has really nice coloring, one has really great lineart, etc. I've got a whole skew of artworks to suggest for those individually, but so far, nothing really astounding to add it all up.

[b]Overall final impression of how the art year 2006 turned out [/b] Still, it was a spectacular year. I managed, in the last few months, to draw my first faces using guidelines (don't ask why this is such of a big achievement), and also sketched out a few quick roughs of realistic faces. I've improved in leaps in bounds, though not nearly as fast as some other people have. But, I like my own style, and my slow, self-discovery. I enjoy doing things at my pace and working with what I'm comfortable with, and I've improved at my own leisure.
So, yeah, this year's been great, and now, I'm finally becoming something of what I truly want to be.

[b]Any resolutions or laid plans for the art year 2007? [/b] Like mentioned before, I've got quite a few projects I've roughly outlined in my mind. I want to do quite a few realism sketches, at the very least, to learn how to really draw people. I want to be able to really draw a variety of things, instead of just anime or people or particularly, unrealistically fantasiacal creatures. Get a real, basic understanding of muscular and bodily anatomy, for both humans and creatures.

Also, I want to draw some direct fanarts, just to get a grasp of some new styles of art, and to do justice (heh) to some of my favorite artists or things that I enjoy or admire.

As well, I want to learn to use a variety of the mediums out there. So far, all I've been using are: Graphite/Mechanical Pencils, Prang Colored Pencils, Micron Pens and sharpies (no colors), MS Paint (though a bit on the 'discarded' side), and Oekaki.
I would really love to learn how to use markers, oil pastels, paint, watercolor, all of those other ways to make art that I haven't even brushed over once before.

So anyways, I've accomplished plenty (in my own opinion) this year, but there's still far to go. Art is just a hobby to me, but it's still something I really love to do, so I hope I can really improve throughout 2007, and on and on.

Wish me luck.
_________________
[url=http://www.fanart-central.net/user-Trinity_Fire.php][img]http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e326/MomentaryEternity/sig3.jpg[/img][/url][url=http://www.fanart-central.net/user_stories-Trinity_Fire.php][img]http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e326/MomentaryEternity/sig2.jpg[/img][/url]

[thedudedisturbed]

overall first impression...
ummm...none

a reccuring theme? most certainly, as there has been for the past 4 years...dragons, aliens, robos now and then...

best art moment...a lot of those...each time i get a comment of praise...

worst art moment...not sure...can't say...

favorite piece...alien...no thats my best piece...which one? lightning critter...or meh red critter...those two are tied...i actually think meh red critter might be better.than alien..i dunno...you decide *

my impression of how it turbed out...good..could've been better...should have made a better effort...but didn't...still...

laid plans and resolutions...

well this semester at school is going to be hectic, so there coud be a drastic decline in quantity, maybe even quality...for example, i tried to do a request, but being sleepy and still having homework, i botched the thing...amazingly, the requester was satisfied..
resolution-not do such a sorry job on the opaque comic-do another, better request, keep practicing realistic people
plans-the opaque comic, maybe sell some of these things for somewhere around

mega hurrays! a good art year 07 to everyone

$5-$10 *you decide[url]http://www.fanart-central.net/pic-521720.html[/url]
[url]http://www.fanart-central.net/pic-497457.html[/url]
_________________
You probably recognize a pattern beginning to take shape. Not of the Fibonacci variety either, where said repetitions are woven into the very fabric of nature in some kind of cosmic mathematical coincidence that makes you wonder if there really is a design to everything after all, but more of Grandmother's quilt variety, where said repetition makes you wonder where in the world people can purchase such hideous floral pastel patterns and why they think you'll want to display them in your living room.

[Papercut_Dragon]

Early early 2006 art was lame. Early but almost mid 2006 contained the biggest jump in my artistic skills I've ever had, ever, so that was a good thing.

Mid 2006 art was non-existant.

Late 2006 art was much better, even if I did have to more or less force myself to get much of it done.

High point was coming up with my concentration, which lead to my favorite piece, where I have my sister marrying her game controller.

Low point was when I spent two weeks before Christmas killing myself trying to paint a large backdrop mural for one of the school performances. That was NOT a fun experience, even if, when all was said and done and the performance was over, I'm glad I did it.

For 2007? I'm going to finish my concentration, tighten up my art skills, graduate, and not take another art class for a very long while. (Although I do want to do a figure drawing seesion at least once a week - it's amazing how much better at drawing the figure I get after even an hour of figure drawing.)
_________________
222.
[url=http://www.fanart-central.net/pic-607038.html]No Shaking Throne[/url]