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Aug 2024

So I've been doing digital for a couple years and here's one I could find that isn't too old from when I first started but pretty old and then the next is a couple of my most recent

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    Aug '24
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    Sep '24
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Drawing from 2022

Vs 2024

You can tell I used a grass/leaf brush in the first one XD


I didn't realize I had improved as an artist until I saw this.

My first digital art drawing a little more than a month ago

This was like four days ago

My secret improvement formula: absorb as much art information as you can, and try new things as often as you can.

sounds like a good method, i'm doing that more now, so maybe it'll help

Okay so I started drawing digitally about 2 years ago now and these were some of my first cover ideas for my novel (that I will be turning into a comic)- I had debated the MC's hair being red but decided on silver.

Versus this is my artwork now for the same comic:

I don't think I've really improved that much, tbh. :sweat_02: These two are from back in 2017, when I first got Medibang and started doodling a bit more regularly on a phone.

Now I work on CSP so I can exploit the brushes, lol. These are from this year:

If anything, my sketching's gotten messier, lol. :rofl:

Well sometimes it doesn't matter how messy the sketch is it will still look good

That's true, and maybe my anatomy's gotten a little better from practice. The biggest improvement I've made is probably in terms of speed when it comes to sketching.

Mhm, I've gotten a lot faster with my sketches and I noticed my art has been improving because of the sketches

I can show progress with the same drawing, though it was 30-36 years ago:

First drawing, 1988:

Second attempt, 1990:

First attempt at this drawing of the same knight on a computer, 1990 (note, I was using a 12MHz 286 with 1MB RAM, 640k video ram, 640x480 resolution and using ZSoft Paintbrush which came bundled with a Microsoft mouse driver - I used that mouse to do the drawing):

Second attempt at the same knight on a computer, this would have been mid 1990's using a 486 DX2/66 with 8MB RAM and a 4MB video card, still at 640X480 but now with 16.7 million colours:

Going back to 1991 or so, I was doing my comics on that 286 using the mouse:

And I drew this on that same computer. Yes, there are only sixteen colours in this pic (except for my monogram, I added that later). I drew this pixel by pixel and mixed and matched those 16 colours to make more:

I was still drawing stuff on paper too, though, because drawing with a mouse was very difficult and the limited hardware back then made it no fun (Colour printer? LOL!)

Here's an example. This was an early attempt at drawing a deer on that old computer:

And here's the same drawing on paper:

Did some colour stuff, too. Wild Nights, Hot and Crazy Days started out as a slice-of-life comic in the early 1990's (this image suffered water damage at some point over the last 30+ years):

Then, inexplicably, I put down my pencils, pens, and mouse, I stopped drawing for 30 years. Don't know why I did, I just did. During the COVID lockdowns and general unfunnery I decided to start again. Bought me a new drawing tablet and stylus (Microsoft Surface Pro 8) and dove right in. This was the first drawing that I did:

Then I got serious and laid down some character designs for a Wild Nights, Hot and Crazy Days reboot. I was not happy with those designs (top) and redid them (bottom):

As my learning new software and techniques progressed so did my style:

And I continued improving:

After I finished Wild Nights, Hot and Crazy Days I started a new story, a shapeshifter fantasy called Finding Daecon's Way. That series is currently being redone as "Defining Daecon", but my skills have improved/evolved over its run, too.

First drawing of Daecon:

A later drawing (the hair colour change is canon):

I have since accepted the fact that I cannot draw straight lines (I have a medical condition that makes my hands shake) so instead of fighting it and wasting a lot of time trying to straighten out squiggly messes I embraced it and took on a rougher, more sketch-like drawing style:

You can really see this change by comparing this early drawing of Daecon in his lion form:

With this later one, done in the new sketchy style:

And I have lately been trying to refine my style and Daecon's looks for the new version of the story. Here is a drawing of Daecon as he appears early in the story with blue hair and contacts (this image was done recently):

And here he is after the blue dye washed out and he lost the contacts:

I've been working on a scene with the same characters and location from my pages about two years ago. It's really making me appreciate how much I feel like my art has progressed!

2022:

2024:

There's definitely more detail and anatomy

Me when I first started doing art digitally back in 2015...I was still doing art in an angular/manga style...

I also forgot to ink on a separate layer

My first Ray Thunder piece...

I started to break away from the manga like style and slowly returned to my regular art...my OC art from 2020

2022- returning back from burnout, depression, and injury...

2023- hitting a NICE stride; finally did the Spidersona piece that I had been planning since 2018...

And this year...

In the process of rebooting my comic. Here are some side-by-side panel comparisons.

Old (Oct 2023) vs New (Aug 2024)

I agree with @ArtGremlin and want to add something that helped me.
I´m doing exactly the same, absorbing art information all the time and
trying out new things all the time. I improved a lot when I forced myself
to draw 10 random drawing prompts every day, it was stuff like:
Mercedes Benz, Donald Trump, Spongebob, Kitchen etc.
totally random and things I would have not drawn. It´s great for the
visual library + it forces you to learn how to draw things.

The other important thing that helped me level up a lot was to trace references
and then copy the traced shapes. It´s one of the main keys to drawing complicated poses
from memory. Many people don´t trace because it has a bad reputation, but
that´s a big mistake.

sadly I have no way to make printouts for tracing, but this is a good suggestion.

ahh, i have zero idea how to operate my app, so I'll have to figure out how to do that XD.

found this, it's from the first comic I tried to make in 2021, I think these are actually some of my first digital drawings

This is a more recent fan comic I did! I think I've come a long way since my first comic page :))

23 days later