poppypari

Cyberpunk Postcard

Added 2023-09-15 19:38:46 +0000 UTC

A very fun experiment with a genre I don't really do! I definitely have a lot of respect for anyone who can do mechanical illustrations because I had six references pulled up and still didn't know what I was doing. When people say drawing mecha helps you learn anatomy and form, they're absolutely right! I can 100% see doing it as a great exercise since a lot of it requires you to really break things down to their basic shapes and think "How would this work..."

Anyhow, the inspiration for this was a really old drawing from when I was 15! It's fun seeing how my style has changed with time, as well as how it hasn't in some ways haha There are a lot of design choices I think I just didn't know how to make when I was younger, if that makes sense. You can see what I was going for, but I didn't have the visual language to execute it, especially when it came to non-high fantasy fashion. I think that's one of the things I struggled most with back then. I had a very limited catalog of styles and hadn't had the opportunity then to really explore beyond what I knew, or what I saw from the media I consumed at the time. Nowadays, I'm indulging in the same stuff I used to like, but hopefully with a better sense of style LOL

Looking back, I did have some really fun designs though. I've thought a lot about how my art has changed, and often times I find myself missing some of the joy that was there. It's definitely true that making your hobby your career changes your relationship with it, but I'm working to bring it back to how it was before, even if only a bit. I guess this was almost an exercise in doing that.