I began this day joyously chipping away at a new piece in Inkscape. I was envisioning a new composition the likes of which I would ordinarily avoid as though it held the promise of ‘half the calories with all of the original taste’! I have no distaste for this composition, rather I do not know what makes it work. Nevertheless, I pressed gallantly onward towards the breaking point of my distressed chair (I have very poor posture and the chair is extremely cheap).
Two and a half hours whizzed by before I tossed in the towel, at least for today and in regards to that piece. I was feeling a little sullen over the idea of my efforts not going towards the completion of the day’s labors, but it will be resumed in the future and not wasted. Now considering one of the main topics of yesterday’s post, I really had to ask myself, ‘Are you unable to complete this piece at this moment in time, or are you just being lazy’?
This is a piece I knew going in was not my usual fare and I had not done my due diligence before starting it. Funnily enough, that tells me that while there was absolutely laziness involved, it was in the complete lack of the research stage, where I would have just sat back to do some reading or peruse videos discussing composition, which I would have hastily shrugged off as laziness and procrastination. It was more childish excitement and a lack of forethought than any burden of sloth.
Minor victories and lessons learned aside, I was not aiming to break my goals of posting and arting (making that a word) daily on the third day, not I. I can hold out at least four days! This time, however, I was going to start with a sketch. I launched Krita and began the most lifeless gesture drawing you ever did see. I had to spice it up, somehow. I know, I will tilt the character’s head to the side! Genius!
Power flowed through me, and my smooth brain launched a second tactical strike. There could be a reason the character’s head is tilted! By the gods! That voice in my head is right! It could be dark outside, and they could be holding a light source! I was bouncing in my seat as though I was trying to escape a highchair. Such originality had not been conceived since that last movie remake about the movie remake was released!
Without further ado, I present unto you, Fox Looking at Something in the Dark.
As it turns out, the sketch I started with the full intention of finalizing as vector art ended up finding me trying a new style of texturing. I cannot say I am in love with the style of it, and the process was rather time-consuming, but I am pleased with the final image.
Most of my art is a strongly-outlined, cartoon styling with less saturated colors. While I stuck with the low saturation in this image, I tried breaking away from the constraints of contour lines, or outlining. That being said, the image felt too washed out to me without the contour lines. They say art is in the eye of the beholder, but I am beholding these images for hours as I make them, and if it doesn’t feel right, it doesn’t feel right. Instead of adding in a full layer of inking, I tried to merely emphasize some of the more important and defining contour lines.
I would not be expecting more of this style from me anytime soon, but a wise pigeon once told myself and a wayward Mousekewitz to ‘never say never’.
AutumnalFoxFire 
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