Welcome to Art Evolution! This is a place to post our really old artwork, look back on it, and see how we've improved.

PM me if you want to be a guest poster.

Rules:

  • One post per day
  • The post must contain an old piece of artwork (scan or photo)
  • One piece of artwork per post
  • Include when you made the artwork (approximate guesses are fine)
  • More elaborate descriptions are encouraged, but not required
  • Posting every day is not required
  • Preferably, the artwork should have been made before you joined theO

20 Years to the Day

Wanna see an image I made on this day 20 years ago?

I think my thought process behind it was that I was drawing my kitsune alias (before she had a story of her own) singing into a microphone, because I was listening to music at the time. Once I was done with that, I had a lot of extra space left, so... I drew my very first picture of Jon Bon Jovi.

This is what opened the floodgates. I didn't quite know what anatomy was at the time, but I feel that drawing JBJ and the band over and over helped me a bit. I was really experimenting with styles at the time, and I think the band helped me find my "voice", in more ways than one.

So, here's to Jon, Richie, David, Tico, and Hugh for helping to shape me into what I am today. Love you guys.

Jun-ai, Pre-Eternal Rain

Flipping back through an old notebook, I found some pics of my original character concept for Jun-ai Shen. I first created her as a child character and adapted her to her angsty, barbed-tongued teen version for Eternal Rain.

I'm going to guess that this was drawn in late middle-school to early high school... so maybe around 2005?

The "Rebels" Trainees

These are the initial designs of the eight trainees in The Rebels of Planet Aadau. I drew this in 2001 and entered it (and many other drawings) into my high school's anime club contest. Didn't win anything, though.

In hindsight, I have a lot of problems with this drawing. Meh-Eh-Vah looks like a mutant Scyther clone. And why is Meh-Eh-Eh standing on her hind legs? (If you read the first chapter of "Rebels" you'll know what I'm talking about.) And Meh-Eh-Tiu just looks... weird.

I shouldn't be so hard on my past self. After all, it was like the fourth time I ever attempted anything anime-related.

Just so you have a frame of reference, this is what they look like now. And by "now" I mean quite a few years ago.

How I (Used to) Draw

One of the first bits of advice I received about drawing circles is to draw a square and use it as the guidelines for a circle. I used that technique for years-- maybe even a decade-- until I felt comfortable drawing circles on my own.

In this particular picture, I drew a mouse and the steps I went through to draw it. I think this was a visual for a speech I gave in high school, so I'm guessing it was 2000 or 2001 when I drew it

My reason for choosing a mouse was probably because I used to draw Pikachu a lot in those days. Had I actually drawn Pikachu, I would be ridiculed even more than I already was. Back in those days, teenagers and Pokemon did not mix. My, how times have changed.

I keep forgetting to post in this World, which is a shame because I have a large backlog of old drawings that I want to share.

First "Destination" Drawing

As I was reorganizing my art files, I came across this:

This is my first-ever destination drawing. I drew it all the way back in 2003. I remember starting the picture just before my senior year of high school. I don't remember when I finished it, but the date displayed on the drawing was when I did.

The drawing features Keba, Jon, Rakusa, and an unnamed character. I don't think any of them are the correct size in relation to each other.

I;'m pretty sure I haven't drawn the unnamed character since. His role in the story has remained the same, but his appearance has changed a lot in my mind. I won't reveal his role because I don't want you associating the image with him.

Now that I think about it, I haven't been able to settle on a hairstyle for my character, Keba. I think I might go back to something like the one here.