Heeeeeeey Everyone

heeeeeeey everyone

i know i said id be adding new stuff to my kofi shop round about now but ive been having some ~health issues~ this month

at this point ill probably not be able to add more stickers until after the xmas holidays.

sorry guys, thanks for being patient with me.

the fact that putting 'too much effort' into something is Thing That You Can Do fucking SUCKS and im goig to kill whoever invented it!!!

hello gay people in my computer

this is a thing I do every year just to reflect on what i've done/where I can improve/ etc art-wise.

This year is technically my 'least productive' year (for reasons that are mostly 'I got really unlucky and caught back to back viruses over several months'), however I also think this is one of my more improved years... although I say that pretty much every year so idk lmao

last year (2022) here and years 2018-2021 here :)

doodling out some thoughts + fears I've been having now that my first year of Uni is done.

a thing i only recently realized i knew abt character design that isnt just common sense apparently:

do not start ur character design by doing a full, refined turnaround/model sheet.

like. everyone in my childrens book il class is fuckin doing this even though most of them are illustration majors and its a huge mistake (our prof literally warned them against this, and YET)

any time you design a character, start by not caring. by just doing what feels right. dont settle on the first thing; play around. and then draw your character a shitload of times before u start a ref sheet

dont finish anything, just. do super fast sketches of them over and over and over. fill up a page or two. as you draw them theyll evolve. that will happen whether your sketch it out at the beginning or jump right into a final draft, and lemme tell u, u do NOT want ur character evolving and changing AFTER ur final draft. u want to get that out of the way early so u can get a decently consistent finished product

then when you go to do your model sheet you will already be able to keep your character on model without it bc youve drawn them a shitload of times. then it wont be “struggling to draw the character the same every time” itll just be “this is what the character looks like and i could draw them with my eyes closed bc of muscle memory”

dont just jump in and be like “shit i gotta have this full complex polished thing right out of the gate!” like. in the beginning, Do Not Work Hard. play. play a lot. and THEN do a refined drawing. your refined drawing will look way better, too, bc by then youll be completely comfortable with your design

its just a super bad idea to present a character as “heres a ref sheet” as soon as you have a concept. your concept will evolve and u have to let it, or else ur designs will look rushed/bad and your drawing will looks stiff and uncomfortable bc u can only draw ur character at a ¾ths view in a particular pose bc youve drawn them twice in ur entire life

HIII hello I'm Dan G welcome to my pinned 👋✨️

I'm 24 years old, Australian, and I'm a Visual Communication student double majoring in Illustration & Interaction. Previously I did a lot of fanart and paintings, but I've recently been diagnosed with a chronic health issue which means I'm in the process of restructuring my life a bit. Not sure where I'm taking my art in the future, but it'll definitely be interesting!

LINKTREE for Ko-fi, Cara, Downloads, etc.