akairiot

Ten Year Retrospective (Original, Various)

Added 2024-06-17 18:00:35 +0000 UTC

There's a template going around on Twitter where you showcase the last ten years of your artwork, to see how it's changed/improved/etc. It was pretty interesting, looking back through my old work.

Seeing certain stylistic choices, the way I used color or simplified stuff, what kinds of ideas were most vital to me at different times. Some years I was spoiled for choice with stuff I loved, it was really tough to narrow it down to just one. A couple years, there was exactly one I was still satisfied with and all the others felt like failures (or at the very least, I looked at them and thought, "I would change so many things here").

What amazed me the most was my output in the past -- it used to be no big thing to do 3-5 pieces a week every week, or there were a few months where I did a new drawing every single day. With my various physical and mental health issues now, I find it a lot more challenging to keep up that kind of output without destroying my body or burning out. But at least I'm still here, still drawing, still doing the best I can. If I get one good thing worth sharing finished every week, I'm pretty happy! And it's not impossible that I'll get that kind of output back in the future, if I keep taking better care of myself. Just gotta keep trying!

Anyway, thank you all so much for being on this journey with me! Fingers crossed for another 10 years, and another 10 years, and so on and so forth. I'm 35 right now, and I hope that however long I'm around, I'm still drawing the whole time.