Several years ago I decided that I
would dedicate a chunk of the towards doing art trades. Being hardly
the greatest of artists I wanted to get in all the practice I could
and step outside my comfort zone, and at the same time see other
people's own takes on my designs to better develop them and identify
my own flaws.
For the most part this is what I got
out of it, and certainly I've had some great experiences. For the
third year running however, there has been a portion of the tradees
who would never respond back. I would keep up my end of the bargain,
always, and try my best. There were some who did get back to me who
advised for a variety of reasons why they couldn't finish their end
of the trade, and for that I am thankful that they contacted me.
There was also people who never got back in touch, and while it's
frustrating that this happened, I understand there are some things in
life more important than an art trade.
I'd just like a bit of acknowledgment
sometimes, you know?
Ultimately I've come to the conclusion
that art trades only seem to be worthwhile for artists who have been
long time friends online or artist's who are commission worthy enough
that they can pick or choose their trades. As a result of this, I
think It'll be unlikely I'll be returning to trades in the future.
Anyway, enough moaning. Here's the
first half of the roundup, featuring my end of the trades. Characters
all belong to their respective requesters unless stated otherwise.
Garnet for Sonten.
Character from Sonten's webcomic. I
really like doing characters of different skin tones and Sonten's
style was different enough that I felt like I wasn't just covering
old ground. I've only had a chance to check out a little bit of their
comic but It's interesting to say the least and well worth checking
out.
Daniel for PsychoticKing.
A simple everyday person. I wasn't sure
what to do with the background and I think I could have probably
tried harder with that. Overall though I was pretty pleased.
Blastoise girl for
CG-Crayon .
Humanised Pokemon character. I wanted
to emphasize the strength of the water Pokemon's final state but I
don't think I pulled the muscles off very well. This pretty much led
into me doing a lot of muscle practice with I still working on at the
moment. CG-Crayon hasn't done his side yet but he did have a pretty
big backlog last I checked so who knows. The character is his
creation but as you all know the Pokemon elements belong to Nintendo.
Red for Intissaria.
Another simple character for Intissaria
who I did some work with last year. Again, no response on their end
but they did make good on their last trade after a lengthy hiatus,
and I know they've been dealing with some issues of late so I'm
willing to give the benefit of the doubt.
Bruce Banner for
Wildjenmonster.
I can't say no to the chance to work on
a Mark Ruffalo. Natuarally the character belongs to Marvel and Mr
Ruffalo's image is his own.
Magician for Monoklo.
Quick nondescript character for
Monoklo. This was another one of my attempts at trying something a
little more dynamic. Because I suck at perspective I went for a
pretty standard profile, which ended up making it a little less
dynamic than I had planned. Still satisfied with it overall but it
didn't archive what I intended.
Amelia and Cillian for Clchriskl.
Some nice romantic stuff. I was a
little worried about doing this because it seems like an eternity
since I've drawn something that wasn't f/f or m/m. In the end it
turned out exactly as I wanted it and I'm really satisfied with what
I did with the background. Clchriskl still has yet to get back to me
with their end, they last posted a WIP months ago, but at the very
least they've responded to my messages so hopefully something will
turn up shortly.
And that's the end of part 1. I really
wanted to do more trades this year but it was hard finding people
that were interested in doing any. I even got turned down because
someone said they didn't think my art was good enough to warrant a
trade. Fair enough but wow don't worry about my feelings. Part 2
wrapping up all the artwork I got in return will be coming up
shortly.
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