Inktober 2019 Retrospective | Day 3: Bait

Here's that retro manga inspo in the style again. I've always liked sideburns, and after drawing a slew of male characters with that design element, it's just ingrained in my head that, more often than not, male = extreme sideburns. Even if he's 12. Along with the almost facial hair, there's the very simple yet dramatic hair. I'd want him to be, provided one remembers him from the 3rd at all, instantly recognizable.

I'm not sure what was happening with me when I did this piece, but there was some lingering feeling in my person that I was just not very good at this. Nearly every person of any craft goes through that, I'm sure. It wouldn't help that I was less than thrilled with the previous day's picture. For whatever reason, it was with me very strongly.

But as I was doing this, I started picking up on techniques and principles I was using. Making sure the values were well-balanced. Drawing the far background as misty and the foreground to be sharp. Leaving that slight halo around the string so that it can be more visible.

I don't know why this picture in particular brought this to my attention, but I suddenly realized "Hey, I'm not actually bad at this. In fact, I might be rather good at this!"

That meant a lot. It means a lot. I've always felt making art is the only thing I'm truly good at. Feeling as though you're bad at the one thing you thought you were good for breeds a sense of pointlessness, worthlessness, whatever you'd like to call it. Feeling as though you're great at it breeds pride. Not the puffy kind (hopefully) but the relief you find in confidence that, God willing, you can navigate through these spokes of your wheelhouse.

Honesty, that's the shape of it. I mean, I'd imagine that fishing line would be visible from this angle. The lines could be a bit crisper. There ought to be some ripple or something around where the fishing line meets the water, But what the picture means to me very nearly means more than the picture itself.

Thanks for reading.

#inktober #cartoon