Reylo

Here's my latest Star Wars fan art! I found some interesting pose references on Figurosity.com and challenged myself to combine them into the pose you see, but I'm especially proud of the idea of drawing Kylo's and Rey's lightsabers as one single imaginary line (can you see it?). I'm not completely satisfied with my colouring and shading techniques in this one, but I believe it turned out pretty well.

 As for the so-called Skywalker saga - no spoilers! - I'm not sure what to think after all. I've been a Star Wars fan for several decades, but this last trilogy does seem like a mess. I think it started pretty well with The Force Awakens, but I'm very, very sorry to admit that The Last Jedi came as a bit of a shock and a letdown. I mean, I've watched it several times so far and I'll watch it again, but I still can't get rid of that "Why?!" feeling. I enjoyed The Rise Of Skywalker, but it was confusing to some extent, although I guess I should've expected it, because it had to tie the whole story together and finish it somehow.

The main problem is that this "trilogy" doesn't seem like a trilogy at all! It looks like they didn't start with a clear idea about what kid of story they wanted to tell, so they just let each director decide what to do with the events from the previous movie, even if it meant messing it up. However, I also must add that I'll watch all three movies as many times as I get the chance, like I do with every Star Wars movie. There are many issues with the story, a couple of unnecessary characters and questionable decisions - but it's Star Wars, I'll always support it and it will always remain inspiration to me.

After The Holidays

During holidays it's hard to stick to your usual diet plan, so have you started this year with a couple of pounds more? What's your plan now?

Of course, it's not a problem for Captain Marvel's "cat" Goose, a member of the Flerken race who can store any kind or amount of objects in pocket dimensions inside their bodies and still look fit, but we don't have that kind of choice. 

This idea for an illustration of Goose overeating during the holidays has been on my mind for a couple of weeks and I'm happy I finished it on exactly this day! January 6 in my country marks the official end of Christmas holidays, when most families take their Christmas tree down and put all the decorations away, so, starting tomorrow, life basically goes back to its usual pace.

I hope you had great holidays! And good luck with getting back to your old habits and maybe some new goals! 😉

Odd One #44

Happy New Year!

Art Summary 2019

Let's finish this year with two artwork charts: the Top Nine algorithm application for Instagram and the Art Summary from deviantART. The first depends only on your likes and for the second I get to choose only one favourite post for each month.


TOP NINE

Here are my top 9 posts for this year according to your likes on my Instagram account throughout the year! I waited this whole month to get the latest count, because three weeks ago I converted my IG account to a business account and decided to try out the promotion feature, which drastically changed the number of likes.

Before the promotion my posts didn't get that much attention. The first one on this list had 55 likes and the least one 42 and that was approximately the range of likes I got used to. But what really worried me was the fact that at the end of the year it became obvious the number of followers wouldn't reach my next milestone, 400 (it kind of stuck at 393 or so). But experimenting with promotion skyrocketed one of my illustrations to the magical number of more than 400 likes, and although it didn't affect the number of the followers, it changed the whole dynamic of my account. Before that it wouldn't have reached the best nine (it had 36 or so likes) and now it's on the first place. So I tried to do so with another of my favourite posts, but I broadened the audience (which wasn't limited only to my country like the first time) and shortened the time of promotion. It also got about 400 likes and it's now on the second place. You can see the number of likes in the top left corner of each image - the first two, which were promoted, have 425 and 398 likes, whereas the third one (without promotion) has only 55 etc.

On one hand, I'm excited my promoted posts reached so many new people, but on the other, the plan wasn't quite working, because they liked just these two images, but didn't seem interested in following me further. I reached my milestone - had even 403 followers, which meant that only 47 out of 800 people decided to visit my profile and only 10 decided my profile was worth following. Interestingly enough, I didn't get any comments at all (!?) and it seems like the number of followers is going down again (at the moment it's precisely 400). I got my first 100 followers some time in 2017 and it took me almost a year to get to 200. I reached 300 followers in November 2018, and now, finally, a year later, 400 (and probably only because I paid for that promotion).

I got my first 100 followers some time in 2017 and it took me almost a year to get to 200. I reached 300 followers in November 2018, and now, finally, a year later, 400 (and probably only because I paid for that promotion). I know the biggest problems of my account are different techniques and styles I use, different themes and irregularity in posting, so I get it why I can't reach more followers. All I know at the moment is that when I draw something I really like and find worthy seeing, I'll probably use that promotion feature again, maybe it'll change something in 2020.


2019 ART SUMMARY

This has been my favourite art review template for years, because I get to fill it in according to my own preferences (one for each month)! The author of this specific layout is AsterianMonarch from deviantART.

I know that sometimes it's difficult to choose just one drawing for the whole month, especially if you draw a lot. Although I can't say I was very productive, I'm happy to say that I drew more than last year, which means I fulfilled my last year's wish to some extent. There was only one month when I didn't draw any digital drawing (May), so I chose my DIY projects, but I'm happy that digital art is still the biggest category in my gallery. There were 37 digital drawings, 18 comic strips, 6 DIY projects and 3 watercolour pencil drawings.

For 2020 I hope I'll continue mainly with my digital art, but I also hope there will be time for my other techniques and projects. Thanks everyone for your support and I wish you a happy new year! 😊

Odd One #43

Happy... .. .

Yoda Ears

If you follow me long enough, then you already know that I usually make some kind of DIY projects (pins, keychains, hats etc.) for movie premieres that are important to me. This time, for The Rise of Skywalker, I made a headband with Yoda ears! It's actually inspired by Baby Yoda or The Child from The Mandalorian, and although it doesn't have anything to do with TROS, it's all about Star Wars after all.

I didn't have much time, but all I really needed was some green fabric and a headband, both of which I bought in a dollar store (I already had everything else that I needed i.e. green thread, sewing needles and glue). I was looking for any kind of green fabric, but was lucky to come across a green polyester pillowcase and all I had to do was cut one of its corners and then cut that piece into two identical parts. The fabric was so rough that it was enough to sew it to look like ears and glue it to the headband. I was actually surprised how easy it was to form it in a shape of ears without any stuffing or wires.

In the end I didn't wear it to the premiere, but let's just say that there was a photoshoot recreating the Baby Yoda sipping soup meme. Of course, I don't intend to post it, so I drew a little illustration instead. I tried to recreate Baby Yoda's cuteness by drawing myself as some kind of a Chibi character with big eyes, so the only question remains: who did it better? Baby Yoda or me? 😊

After The Horror

Finally, the time has come to post this drawing I made about a month ago. It was my entry for this year's (late) Halloween competition held by Josiah "Jazza" Brooks, but I didn't want to post it before he made his final video and announced the winners.

The title of the competition was "After The Horror" and the challenge was to draw what happens to monsters and villains after the cameras are turned off. For this scene I chose Freddy, Michael and Jason waiting by a phone, expecting their producers to call them and inform them about their next role in some new sequels of their horror franchises. 

I didn't really expect to win anything, especially If you know I've been feeling kind of stuck with my "art" lately. It would've been nice to get just a shout-out, but there were so many entries and I guess the choice had to be made.

As usual, I won't let this discourage me, and when I get this kind of silly inspiration, I'll just go with it, because above all it was very fun trying to figure out how to bring my idea to life, as well as getting through the whole creative process. 🎨

And not to forget, congratulations to the winners! 👍 You can check the video on Jazza's YouTube channel: