Rebooting old work! Pirate pups!
During this pandemic of 2020, I’ve had much more time to work on my folio! It’s a bittersweet situation as I had seen a very large drop off in work. Initially I was depressed and questioned if it was my skills (or lack thereof) that caused the lack of work but I’ve come to accept it’s just the reality right now in this uncertain time.
So instead of sulking, I threw myself into my art. I actually have not had time in the past 3 or more years to create personal art for my portfolio so I felt a bit lost at first. I’ve gotten used to receiving briefs to tell me what I need to create, and not rely on my own ideas. So, I turned to checking out what was currently in my portfolio and decided to reboot some of the art there.
This is the older pirate pup piece from around 2015-16:
I remember spending a lot of time on this and I was super happy with the results (at that time). When I recently reviewed this piece, I really felt that I needed to update this. It doesn’t reflect my style or my abilities any longer. This was also using a technique I don’t really implement anymore. Long story short, I would create the initial parts in Illustrator, import to Photoshop and add textures and shading etc.
Here is the rebooted version! I wanted to keep some of the elements from the original but update it using my new style. I currently use Procreate to illustrate digitally in an iPad Pro. It’s really amazing how natural and wonderful it is to draw on the iPad.
Here are some close ups of the characters:
And here are some of their rivals, the pirate cats!
It’s very rewarding returning to an older piece, redoing it and seeing the progress you’ve made. I’ve been a full-time professional illustrator since 2015 but I always feel we can grow and improve!