Re-organising Art Portfolio #2

I’m doing another tidy-up of my gallery

It’s never an easy task deciding which artworks stay and which ones leave the gallery. There’s usually at least one thing I still like about every image I’ve created.

When I was younger, I guess it’s fair to say I had a small degree of aptitude when it came to art creation, but I’ve never been a naturally gifted genius. Creating each piece meant relying on a lot of grit, determination and trial and error over time to get artwork to a level where I was happy with the result. And therefore, removing any image from the gallery, effectively letting it die, always feels like a difficult job.

But with each passing year, my art gets a tiny bit better. I can see minor inconsistencies or errors with early work which bug me. And I ask myself, why am I presenting this as a representation of my capabilities?

Bye Bye Witch

Firstly- I created this anime witch art in September 2003 – 20 years ago! I’m amazed it stood the test of time, while many other artworks of that era had since been removed from my galleries. The face could use some tweaking and the background needs some work. There’s a few other bits I’d alter to bring it up a notch. Having said that, I still like 85% of it. I’m going to keep it available for sale as a print, at least for now.

Goodbye to: Cigar Girl and Skull and Snake

Cigar Girl – a Chicano / tattoo themed character I made up in 2009. 14 years ago. At the time I wanted to become a tattoo artist. As an exercise, I’d check portfolios from local tattoo shops and try to re-create their tattoos while attempting to improve them [see photo]. In the end, I went to the shop this tattoo came from, showed them my portfolio and and asked for an apprenticeship. They liked my work, but didn’t give me an apprenticeship. I ended up teaching myself to tattoo. A job I held part-time for around 12 years.

Skull and Snake – Again, this was a case of taking someone else’s art and attempting to improve it. The amazing thing about this one was the fact the original was created and drawn by an A-Level Art teacher [see egg-snake image]. Over the decades I’ve also attempted to land a job an an Art Tutor in a school or Lecturer at an art university. Other than a few short spells of 1-1 teaching and a one-off 2 hour Uni lecture whilst freelancing, I never managed to land a full or even part-time position. To be honest, I never understood how egg-snake man made it and I couldn’t? For now I will have to impart my teachings through my How to Draw Manga book. This Skull and Snake artwork will, for the time being, stay available to buy as a print.

Goodbye to: Neon Pink Streak Portrait and Sci-Fi Sunset

Neon Steak Portrait  – It was an experiment, using some digital textured media brushes. Normally my work is all smooth and airbrushed, so wanted to try out creating something more raw, textured and graffiti-like. It was quick to produce compared to typical art I make. It’s a bit sketchy and think it shows. It was fun trying out a different style. Buy the A3 Print here.

Sci-Fi Sunset – Similarly, using textured brushes, I wanted to create something a little more painterly than my usual smooth, rendered blends. I like the colour scheme, so perhaps I can use the orange and purple again some day in a different, new and more polished artwork? Buy the A3 Print here.

Hello to: Geisha, War Memorial, Junko, DnD Girl, Zoro and Guts

I’m replacing the above artwork with 4 new pieces created within the last 12 months. I’d like to, at some point, present a closer look at each of these with their own blog post. For now, they’ve been uploaded into the gallery as stand-alone images. That now makes 45 portfolio pieces. Let me know what you think of these.