December 19, 2024

my first year of art

there's a bunch of stuff i drew in 2017, my first year of trying to actively draw, that i still really like - i was very new to it, i wasn't very good, but i felt so inspired and motivated and full of ideas in a way i haven't been able to get close to since. these don't exist anywhere online so i figured i'd share some of my favorites.

hover over the drawings below to see their full title and when they were drawn. clicking them will open their full resolution in a new tab.

a simple portrait of pebble's fox sona in front of a cityscape in the far background

dawn

May 7, 2017

aksai, one of my old fox ocs, sitting peacefully next to a large window, holding a cup of coffee, looking out longingly with a smile on his face. he's viewed from the side / behind. outside of the window is a blurred scene, it looks like nighttime in some sort of futuristic city, not much can be made out. a depth of field effect is used to guide the viewer's attention to their face

coffee break

May 8, 2017

this was a request for someone, i don't remember who it was a long time ago - it's an anthro fox sitting on the edge of the roof of a tall building at night in the rain, looking up at the sky longingly, in the background are lots of out of focus city lights

rain request

May 13, 2017

auris, my other oc, sitting on a bed looking thing with a laptop on their lap. auris is a gray anthro polar fox with short hair and blue eyes. the laptop's screen is the only light in the otherwise dark room, it's lighting up his face and leaving a stark shadow behind him. he's wearing a hoodie and shorts. there's a clock on the bedside table showing the time as 22:16 (10:16pm). in the background an out of focus window can be seen with yellow and black hazard stripes around it

procrastinating

May 18, 2017

aksai sitting in the trunk of a large car. the trunk door is open and aksai is looking out of it longingly. aksai is wearing a dark vest with pockets and green camo shorts. there's a bandana around his neck. in the background an out of focus forest scene can be seen, it's clearly a blurred out photo. a sepia color filter was applied to the whole picture.

respite

May 30, 2017

auris, my grey polar fox oc with blue eyes, walking down a futuristic looking hallway, looking down at his device that looks like a phone. he's wearing a blue futuristic looking outfit with an ID card on his chest. in the background is blurred out scifi type scene, it's clearly not art i drew. at this point in time i liked to use pics i found online as out of focus backdrops, i stopped doing this later as using others' art in mine didn't sit right with me

just another boring day at work

June 24, 2017

early on i really liked to focus on portraying characters just sorta going about their lives, doing mundane things they'd normally do. i guess it kinda helped ground me, it was a pretty rough point in my life

(btw look closely at the clouds on the second one below :3)

my gray polar fox oc, auris, sitting down, leaning against a tree, looking all sad; he's wearing a flannel shirt and shorts; the background is painted with rough brushes

summertime sadness

June 30, 2017

a wide drawing of my two old ocs, auris and aksai, running in a yellow field together, bright blue sky in the background, they both look happy; one of the clouds in the background looks like a samoyed dog and has a very faint dog face on it

field drawing

July 5, 2017

auris wearing a yellow raincoat, waiting at a bus stop in the rain, looking all sad; the lighting is very atmospheric, the background is black and white except for a red streak of light reminiscent of long exposure of car taillights; it's nighttime and raining

rainy day

July 7, 2017

auris sitting down on a wind turbine, overlooking a yellow field with more wind turbines, a small town far off in the distance, mountains on the horizon; the lighting is bright and yellow, the sun appears to be setting behind the mountains; auris is facing away from the viewer.

on top of the world

August 6, 2017

train

August 10, 2017

a cinematic shot of aksai sitting inside what appears to be a spaceship. aksai is wearing a spacesuit and looking to be under a lot of stress. there are many gauges and lights behind them, moving and flickering. the shot is shaking, indicating there's a lot of movement.

liftoff

August 28, 2017

i also tried animating some, i won't lie it was mostly for clout bc i figured animated drawings would draw more attention, but it was fun! the train one was my most popular drawing on tumblr for as long as i had the account, even years down the line, which is pretty funny.

the "liftoff" one didn't have as much universal appeal i guess, it never got noticed. i still like it a lot though. wild to me that i made something like this not even a year after i picked up drawing!

the first one below, "fading", was a vent art. poor 17 year old me had so much to figure out. i wouldn't put together that i'm trans until like, a year after i drew this. and that was only the start of the journey. i wish i could go back and hug her.

an unknown green fox character, floating in a dark void with an abstract bright triangle behind them. their colors appear to be draining from them, dripping down. they appear still, emotionless.

fading

August 29, 2017

aksai standing on a catwalk, leaning against the side of a building, a lollipop in their mouth. they're on their phone. the atmosphere is relaxed, the shot appears to be at night.

(drawing 70, no title)

September 5, 2017

aksai facing away from the camera, pointing a flashlight towards a door that's slightly ajar. they're in a room that's slightly flooded, furniture tossed around. other than the light from the flashlight the room is dark.

(drawing 71, no title)

September 16, 2017

auris sitting at their desk, their laptop in front of them. they're drawing using their drawing tablet. they appear happy. there's a speech bubble aboe them, saying i'm gonna be good at this one day!

gotta stay positive

September 22, 2017

auris standing next to a bench, which is next to a path in a park. there's a low detail cityscape in the background. they're on their phone. it appears to be autumn.

fall

October 1, 2017

winter

October 1, 2017

something to note here is that despite the fact that i was living in eastern europe at this point in my life, you'll notice the power outlets and light switch on drawing 71 are in the US style. having grown up on the internet where most people around me were from the US, i always felt out of place in my own country. a lot of the environments in my early drawings are also reminiscent more of places in the US than elsewhere. i might make a blog post on this topic at some point in the future, it's not really something i talked about before.

another slightly more fun thing is that a bunch of my drawings from this point in time had black bars at the top and bottom. this was to make them look more "cinematic" - it was something i picked up on artstation, where a lot of the art i was looking at for inspiration had these. i was kinda obsessed with trying to like, go for that environmental concept art kinda style. in my first year of drawing.

no wonder i ended up getting burnt out so bad jkdfhg

(also, the "gotta stay positive" drawing above is something i still look back on - u did it girl <3 u got good at it, i'm so proud of you)

a comic strip; auris sitting on the floor, curled up in a dark room, looking to be panicking; aksai opens the door, letting light into the room. the characters are looking at each other.; aksai and auris sitting next to each other, aksai comforting auris, the scene is full of light and color now.

that's what friends are for (3 panels)

October 7, 2017

auris floating in the air with a lot of balloons strapped to them at their waist. they don't appear particularly happy about it.

balloons (animated, sound)

October 16, 2017

auris standing at a bus stop in the rain, holding an umbrella above themself. the scene is very dark and cinematic.

waiting in the rain

October 29, 2017

auris sitting on a wall, wearing a winter coat. it's night, dark and snowing, the only light is coming from a street lamp. their breath is visible due to the cold. behind them are barely visible train tracks and a building in the distance.

cold breath

November 12, 2017

the same as the image before, except this one is missing the shading and lighting, showing how simple the scene appears without those.

cold breath (no fx, bonus)

November 12, 2017

enclosure

December 16, 2017

if you look at the "waiting in the rain" and "cold breath" drawings above (and the no fx version of cold breath), you'll notice that i relied heavily on my knowledge of visual effects to make up for my lack of drawing skill. at this point i had been messing with video fx production and designing graphics and stuff for at least 4-5 years, so it's something i was way more skilled with than drawing

as i got better at drawing, i started using this less and less, eventually giving up on it entirely. my art can definitely stand up on its own now, but oftentimes i wish i had the patience to do this kind of stuff with my art still. i feel like with my current drawing skill it could add a lot.

when i finish a drawing now i'm just kinda, done with it. i wanna post it and move on to the next thing. back then, i'd fiddle with it for a day or two after i was done with it, just tweak little things and add fun little effects and stuff. it wasn't efficient but it was fun. i wonder if i could somehow get myself to be ok with taking it slow again

ok that's it! u made it through the blog post !! good job :3 i hope it was a fun read. i wanted to share this stuff both bc i'm still v proud of this old art and bc when i was starting out i remember how much it helped to see good artists share their old, imperfect art, so i'm hoping maybe this'll motivate someone out there to pick drawing up or to keep going. u got this.

i'll also mention that these are my favorite drawings from 2017. there were plenty of worse ones, ones i'm not as proud of. you can find all of these in my art archive!