2023

DAILY DRAWINGS

2023 throws off my recollection of the past few years. I feel like I drew more drawings than any other year, which is numerically impossible given the nature of daily drawings. There are so many drawings that I think I did in previous years. And looking back, it’s hard to believe that they truly were all from 2023.

This was a top year for me with art. The first few months of drawing I was feeling great. I had a system and style down and felt like I could coast through it all. But that ended up hurting me in the long run. About half way through the year, I started to feel less and less satisfied with my drawings. I liked the way they looked, but I felt like I was losing the creative spark. I was drawing images I was really happy with, but I was mostly transforming reference into a stylized image. The only thought process I had going on during drawing was how to translate complex details into suggestions and my visual short hand.

And so I forced myself to dive into more and more character drawings. I wanted to be more experimental and leave this comfort zone that I had build up for myself. And I fell flat on my face a few times. There are some October and November drawings that I feel are lacking and far from the vision I had. But I see so much growth in both skill and style and mindset.

I know that the amount of burnout that I was experiencing from the start of this daily drawing project has slowly been building year after year. And this year, I started to trip over it. But, I think that I caught myself and found a way to shake it off. At least a little.