So my parents have been going through their storage room, and my mom sent me an email last night with the question, "Do you want this?" I clicked, and there was this picture. My face broke out in a huge smile, because I've actually tried to find this poster I drew for years! I'd been able to locate another, unfinished one this size, but not this "crowning masterpiece" of my high school art pieces.
It's hard to tell from this picture, but the poster you're looking at is about 3 foot by 4 foot big. And I used Prismacolor pencils for the whole dang thing. You can kind of see in the starry background the pencil lines, and boy does that bring back memories. I think I went through two full black Prismacolors to finish off that brackdrop! It took forever.
What's funny is that I still remember the basics of this story I'd never written. I'd do that a lot in high school—draw a whole cast of characters repeatedly, but never actually write their story down past general ideas. This one was about Cruit (the girl in the purple dress/cape ensemble), who discovered she possessed magic in a world where it had been lost for thousands of years. SUPER original, right? Haha.
I have no idea what the pendant was for.
I'm pretty sure the guy with the red headband was a pirate.
The girl with red, short hair was a traveling fortune teller.
Pretty sure one of those other girls is a princess, because every fantasy story needs a princess.
Oh! And the girl with the wavy hair was the mute sidekick!
Man, I would like to say my characters aren't nearly as weird/random as they used to be, but they are. I guess that's comforting, to have some kind of signature trait in all my work. But anyway, I thought I'd share this piece with you because it's a fun glimpse into my life as a teen. This is pretty much what I did all the time—whether it was big pieces like this or sketches in class when I was supposed to be taking notes, I lived my life partially in my own worlds. Much like I do now.
I don't regret a thing.
Blue-hair looks very princessy, but I really love the redhead. She reminds me of something out of the Wildcats. You don't see a lot of teen-art with the precision to get the shine waves even in hair.
ReplyDeleteWe had to do a major semester project in our art class that turned out about this big, but involved copying/enlarging a photograph (it was the Indigo that nearly did me in - my photo girl was wearing a dark blue jumper). I would have much preferred being allowed to create our own images.
Nothing to regret! This is awesome. :)
ReplyDeleteThat is amazing, and you're right "nothing to regret!"
ReplyDeleteI still have art, notes, and the rough draft (a full 100 pages!) of a story I wrote in my creative writing class in high school. While I will never touch that story again (it was about as original as an average drop of water) I did take some stuff from it. Several character names transferred over to the new world I'm working on, and even the in-story religion is the same.
ReplyDeleteBut more importantly, it taught me passion. Through yourself into EVERYTHING you do. Because if you do that, you'll never regret anything. =D
Awesome picture, btw. Primacolors, as beautiful as they are, are IMPOSSIBLE to work with!
(At the risk of tooting my own horn, I recently blogged about how <a href="http://zyearthdefender.blogspot.com/2013/04/art-transformations.html>my art has transformed over the years.</a>)
Noooo my link didn't work. D= Let's try again...
DeleteThis is beautiful. And I, too, cringe at old writing/ideas. :)
ReplyDeleteLove that! And you have nothing to regret! This is awesome!
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteI would give anything to go back to those days, I used to draw all the time, and some of the characters I draw I actually never written their stories, and some times I would draw some cool girls and decide to write their stories, AH! the good all days. And that's a very good drawing Natalie, you were so good even back then :)Thanks for sharing, one of the reasons I love this little blog of yours is that you have this artistic side like me, I still keep looking at your header, quite stylish :")
ReplyDeleteCertainly a manga-anime influence there!
ReplyDelete