It's cool, but it also sucks because Irritator is yet another case of scientific colonialism and the fossil black market. Not only that, but fossil poachers broke and defiled the skull to smuggle it out of the country. It was named "Irritator" because it was irritating to figure out which parts were real bones and which were plaster.
Here's a good vid on it too.
Once thought to have appeared in the Triassic, apparently ichthyosaurs decided to screw with paleontology and evolve way before the Permian mass-extinction instead. The mass extinction that killed 90% of life on earth, and these guys were just chillin'.
https://www.sciencealert.com/oldest-ichthyosaur-known-to-science-discovered-on-remote-arctic-island
Good for them.
I feel this one came out looking worse than the thumbnails. Oh well, can't win 'em all.
This piece was certainly a lesson in patience.
A two-legged fox showed up on the internet early this year.
I wonder if medieval people might have thought it was demonic, or if weird mutated animals didn't mean anything. Regretfully I could not capture the utter "life sucks but idgaf" mood of medieval woodcuts.
From now on I'll make each sketch it's own post once, or do a monthly sketch dump, not sure yet. Anyway, some sketches so far:
Last of the old art, and my favorite piece from 2022. I love American robins and bluejays and I had this in my head for a while. I also have an alternate version, since this piece was inspired by vintage bird paintings after all.
WIPs:
Fun little piece based off the Dinosauroid. It's a whole thing so here's someone else to explain it:
https://tetzoo.com/blog/2021/8/30/dinosauroid-at-nearly-40-years-old
But yeah, it slaps.
Another old piece. I saw a leaf with holes in it like a skull, so inspiration struck. Also found some WIPs.
On the other hand, a lot of people loved it, which would be great except I think they also expected this kind of art from me consistently, even though it's the kind of art I don't care to make anymore. I'd rather do cell-shading, sketches, and (hopefully, eventually) comics. Highly detailed art takes too much time and I just don't have the attention span to commit, and I'd rather take that time to experiment. But even after switching styles, this has still been my top eyeball piece for a number of years now, only recently being dethroned by the derpy ichthyosaur comic (thank god).
I don't hate this piece for that, but it's the centerpiece to my problem with "artist branding". People expect you to make a certain type of art and if you switch it up, it throws them off. I get why it would and viewers aren't obligated to follow an artist that doesn't interest them anymore. But it still puts a lot of creative stress on artists, especially those whose art is their income. Thankfully mine isn't so I can afford to be flexible, but burnout from lack of creative freedom is a real problem. Add in if an artist has an unhealthy relationship with validation, you have a nuclear meltdown in the waiting.
Anyway, I've been thinking of putting this guy in a story idea, set in prehistory. The concepts are still vague tho. Also a lot of people said this reminds them of Homestuck, a thing I know nothing about except that half of all cons were full of gray trolls like a decade ago.
I didn't make much art that year due to absolutely everything bad happening, but I did manage to fart out one third of Inktober. Or Drawtober in this case.
The theme was modern birds as dromaeosaurs.
Last year I made a custom Christmas card for my mom and dad. It's of their cats, Ticky and Friday (aka the Black Hole of Love.)
Yes, I have a fursona, a highly stylized "Seth Animal" or "Sha", aka this thing:
.jpg) |
| From Wikipedia |
Why a sha?
She's not really a separate character, more just an extension of myself. Her name is just my name. Though I don't use her that often, she's evolved a lot over the last decade. So unlike everything else here, I will attempt to put these in chronological order.
Her first design was an eye-searing fire truck red with green eyes, but that's gone forever (probably for the best). Her next design was a very toned down version of that. Can't remember the exact year, but definitely around the early to mid 2010s.
But it must have bothered me because I found a ton of concept art trying to rework her.
Ultimately this is what I went with. It somehow turned out worse than the concept art.
But almost immediately after I started deviating again.
Up until this point, I suffered from a horrible case of perfectionism. I was very concerned about things being consistent and "the very best end result". I think part of me wanted to present to everyone on social media as the "the very best end result" all the time. Even my sketches had to look "finished". This guided all of my work, but especially my sona, which is why I don't think I drew her that often. She just gave me anxiety, which of course contributed to depression. Basically I had no chill.
Then in 2021, the worst day of my life happened when my apartment burned to the ground. I lost everything; precious stuff, any art that wasn't saved somewhere on the internet, and worst of all, my cat Vala. It was not a fun rest of the year. But, paradoxically, the aftermath turned out to be the best thing that ever happened to me. I stayed with my folks who encouraged me to go to therapy for what happened. But even before therapy I decided I would try to make this a new beginning. I grieved, but I knew it'd be pointless to grieve forever and never move on. While I was in therapy, I discovered that I've had undiagnosed ADHD for my entire life, which explained a LOT.
So I got medicated and worked on my perfectionism issues with my therapist. I'm not 100% better art-wise; I'm still slow and still have that urge to noodle to much, and I still have trouble staying on track. But now, I have chill. I don't feel guilty for not being super productive or getting distracted. Actually, being distracted has led me down rabbit holes that make life more interesting; turns out I like to learn all the shit. I'm still working on my speed and keeping on track, but I no longer feel guilty for having to work on those. Honestly it feels like not worrying about being productive has made me more productive; I've done more art and writing the last year and a half than I have in the five before that. Should've figured. Best of all, I no longer care about social media. I no longer feel like I must be Brand. I can draw whatever I want.
My sona has reflected this change. After the fire, I wanted to totally redesign her, in part because the orange looked gaudy to me now, but another part because of new beginnings and all that. It was still early in working thru my perfectionism issues, so I tried to make a consistent ref for her.
Then I stopped caring completely and went buck wild.
These last four images are the most fun I've had drawing her in a long, long time. I think this is what she was always meant to be: chaos and fluidity. Which is fitting, since that's what the sha/Set represented in Egyptian mythology, more or less.
I'll probably make a proper ref for her eventually, but at best it'll be a guideline for other people if they ever want to draw her.
Anyway, more art of her.
