Welcome to crimsonowl chatter where I ramble or reflect about anime AND art.

ArtPark Weekly entries for June

Hi! It's crimsonowl, the other half of two who created @ArtPark. June has come and go so I'm here to reflect on my creativity in the past month and the past half year.

While I was riding on a high since I had a perfect attendance for May, it wasn't the same for June. Sure, I started on a good note since we had a new activity but sometimes, life just get in the way of my creativity road.

Speaking of new activity, we added spice in the pot by introducing Emoji to OC in our weekly activities at ArtPark. On Emoji to OC, we randomly choose 3 emojis and artists need to turn those emojis into their own original characters. We decided to add this in our activities so artists can exercise their creativity and massage their imagination.

Emoji to OC #1

Since May had just ended and I haven't yet set a goal on what I wanna achieve, art wise, in June so I just continued experimenting with colors. In this particular artwork, although this was somehow a troll entry, I tried to justify it with the experimental colors in the shadows and highlights. I used some blues in the shadow rather than the usual greys and darker base colors, and magentas and pinks in the highlight rather than the usual whites. This was a very simple artwork but I had fun making it.

DTIYS Week #13

Ah, this snack. I am very proud of this piece. I mean, look at this abs!? I tried, yet again, to experiment on how I draw the shadows. Instead of my usually cell shading, I try to use brush strokes and blend, (which I found out that I hate doing digitally). Maybe I'm just so used to the crisp look of cell shading that my paint-ish shadows look so muddy. I don't know. Give me some tips on how to shadow, pretty please?

DTIYS Week #14

Week 14 was a week dedicated to celebrate the release of the Netflix adoption of the comic series, Trese. Artists get to choose which character from Trese they want to draw and I chose the twins, Crispin and Basilio. To be honest, I was half-heartedly watching Trese because the I couldn't decide which dub I like to watch it (that's a topic for another story) but the twins somehow left an impression to me (and because who doesn't love men fighting in suits?)

Anyway, back to creative reflections, in this artwork, I decided to go with flat colors and heavy use of lines. I wanted to adopt the American cartoon-ish feel of the animation, Trese. Also, aside from the self-indulging artwork of Nanami where I drew an avatar of myself with him, this is the first artwork in this year that I drew more than 1 person in a single canvass.

DTIYS Week #15

No entry for Week 15 because as I said in the intro, life was getting on the way and I was feeling overwhelmed with a lot of things in my life recently. As of writing, it's been 2 weeks since my last artwork and the more I realize the I need to grab that pencil and draw, the more overwhelmed I become. So I just dropped everything and focus on straightening up myself.

Half Year creative reflection

As I mentioned in my very first crimsonowl chatter, I was playing with fire with art block for so many years until I met Noise.cash on January of this year. Creating ArtPark was the highlight of the first half of my year. It was the most challenging thing I did since, despite it’s still small community, it need some sort of organization - to which I am failing incredibly. Balancing making art and moderating a group is tough especially if you have a lot on your plate and you work a full-time job. Thanks to my bish Ishan who’s a great partner (No, we are not a couple. Just bishes) who helps whenever he can and listens (and stops, if necessary) to my impulsive decisions.

Art wise, I think, I am quite improving and if I say so myself, I am getting close to drawing religiously. I am now clear on where I needed improvement aside from anatomy. That is 1, choosing a color palette everytime, 2, backgrounds and composition and 3, speed in making art. One drawback in doing the weekly activities in ArtPark is being too lax with time in making art. I would always think, “Nah, I can do it tomorrow. There’s still time till Sunday.”until Sunday comes and I am too stressed with the time crunch that I usually can’t create the desired output.

In that note, I have came up with ways to, hopefully, improve in those 3 weak point I discovered. For weak point 1, I might just search the internet for color palette and avoid choosing reds (my favorite color) when I draw something. For weak point 2, saying I will draw backgrounds would be a lie. I need to study various backgrounds and landscapes before I even draw them. Finally, weak point 3, I decided to do an Art Journal. I read somewhere that to improve with art, generally, you never stop drawing, even if it’s a simple doodle or scribble. That last part is important because I always think “how in the freaking hell can I draw everyday?”. We artists need to keep in mind that a scribble or a doodle is still art. It may not be Instagram-or-Noise-worthy but believe me, it is. Hopefully, when I start to do Art Journal, I can improve my speed time. I will try to blog on my journey with the Art Journal so you and I will know where improving or failing but take note, I will try.

Most importantly, I will never forget in enjoying the creative process because as what Oprah said, “It’s only when you make the process your goal that big dreams follows”.

Creativity is contagious, pass it on - Albert Einstein.

Previous crimsonowl chatter :

My ArtPark DTIYS entries for May 2021 | crimsonowl chatter

My ArtPark Weekly DTIYS entries for March and April 2021 

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