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Description
[EDIT] Updated 12.24.2012
[EDIT] Updated 12.7.2013
[EDIT] Updated 12.7.2014
[EDIT] Updated 12.11.2015

Blank meme here; kamaniki.deviantart.com/art/03…

2006 - I was really into anime, like alot. Back then I would draw comics alot too and even then I had a focus on emotion and speed in fact I think a lot of the speed at drawing today comes from this era of my life. I almost exclusively looked to Yoshitoshi ABe for reference and inspiration and my art began to echo that in it's own naive kind of way. Nothing was good but back then I thought it was awesome, funny how that happens, right?

2007 - Got into my first art class and I wish I could say I was the worst in there haha. For some reason even back then I was seen as one of the best artists in our school which is incredibly hard to imagine in retrospect. I didn't have a tablet yet or photoshop so instead I used a mouse and played around with GIMP and Paint. It's actually funny, I think my anatomy got worse this year than it was the last year perhaps because I did more tracing of work that I liked in 2006? I dunno. Towards the end of the year I got more serious about art and first visited my current college.

2008 - This year was one hell of a year. I traveled a ton and I remember wanting to do more background on my work so I tried and while it looked great at the time it's super terrible now haha. In the summer I came out to my college and did a summer program for animation, it was a lot of fun and what not but I really didn't improve much there. I got my tablet sometime after and did that gorgeous painting over a sketch of a cat girl. Hoo boy.

2009 - I focused more on detail, I began to fall in love with it sketch wise. I liked to do ridiculous armor and character designs which I almost wish I could go back to in my mind. I also began to do my whole red-nose effect on characters. I had no good implementations of it this year and I'm not sure exactly what started it but alot of the drawings from this year look absolutely terrible because I shaded them like that. I started going to art college near the end of the year and I did more digital painting. These are all really rough but I thought they were awesome at the time.

2010 - Kind of a crazy year, I focused a lot on anatomy this year and on top of that I also began to experiment with some different coloring methods in Photoshop. I began to do drawings with purpose and feeling even more so and I think now is when I began to understand that mindset a bit more. I also began trying to break away from my anime backgrounds and heavily studied artists such as Iumazark for inspiration and I think artists like him are really to thank for my improvement at this time. Being honest that last pic of the girl falling is still one of my personal favorites out of anything I've done and I can't believe it was that long ago. I drew it in the time it took for one song to play through but I had a lot of feeling and motion to it and I think for the first time I had captured truly what I felt or something like that.

2011 - What a crazy year. I began wanting to do a lot of foreshortening and so I challenged myself with my pictures to add that in and make things as dynamic as possible because many of the artists I liked at the time did similarly. I still kind of dodged around with what it was that I really wanted to do and what kind of style I should be trying to do. I had a table at my first con this year and it was fun but I don't feel I was retrospectively ready. At the end of the year I had a life changing moment of clarity where I realized that I wanted to do illustration and not just that but illustration involving animals and humans.

2012 - A whole ton has happened this year, I feel like I've come leaps and bounds from where I was even last year. This year I decided that I wanted to pursue editorial illustration and I've been researching, studying and working hard to make my are what I want it to be. I know it'll still be a long time till I am where I want to be but I think this year has been a good start. I'm really pumped to see what I get to add onto this next December!

2013 - I feel like I learned so, so much this year. I focused a lot on doing more work similar to what I would want to do in the future and I feel like I have a better grasp on what I want my work to become. I think this year I also began to use more finesse in my work and tried to get better with pretty much everything. This next year I get to switch into an illustration program in another school and I think it's going to yield some really great and big changes for me in the future. I'm super excited to continue updating this each year and seeing where I've come from and where I am going to!

2014 - This has been a rough year. I have made a lot of strides in terms of networking especially but I don't feel like a lot changed for the majority artistically. I fell into a big slump for a long time and felt a lot of stagnation happening. I focused a lot on feeling and emotion, I think this year has been extra rough in terms of stress in each and every way. I think now that the year is coming to a close and I had some alone time to sit and think elsewhere that now I'm coming back refreshed. In this last month - even though it just started - I can already feel the next steps happening under my feet and it feels good. I hope this continues onto the next year.

2015 — This year I struggled a lot with style. To be honest, I think where I am now and where I want to be feel like a million miles away but it's an exciting journey. I began questioning marketability a heck of a lot and I want to move towards something more accessible in the future. I'm super honored to have really begun my professional career this year, too. Things are just starting to pick up but I'm already excited for all the future projects to come.

Description
[EDIT] Updated 12.24.2012
[EDIT] Updated 12.7.2013
[EDIT] Updated 12.7.2014
[EDIT] Updated 12.11.2015

Blank meme here; kamaniki.deviantart.com/art/03…

2006 - I was really into anime, like alot. Back then I would draw comics alot too and even then I had a focus on emotion and speed in fact I think a lot of the speed at drawing today comes from this era of my life. I almost exclusively looked to Yoshitoshi ABe for reference and inspiration and my art began to echo that in it's own naive kind of way. Nothing was good but back then I thought it was awesome, funny how that happens, right?

2007 - Got into my first art class and I wish I could say I was the worst in there haha. For some reason even back then I was seen as one of the best artists in our school which is incredibly hard to imagine in retrospect. I didn't have a tablet yet or photoshop so instead I used a mouse and played around with GIMP and Paint. It's actually funny, I think my anatomy got worse this year than it was the last year perhaps because I did more tracing of work that I liked in 2006? I dunno. Towards the end of the year I got more serious about art and first visited my current college.

2008 - This year was one hell of a year. I traveled a ton and I remember wanting to do more background on my work so I tried and while it looked great at the time it's super terrible now haha. In the summer I came out to my college and did a summer program for animation, it was a lot of fun and what not but I really didn't improve much there. I got my tablet sometime after and did that gorgeous painting over a sketch of a cat girl. Hoo boy.

2009 - I focused more on detail, I began to fall in love with it sketch wise. I liked to do ridiculous armor and character designs which I almost wish I could go back to in my mind. I also began to do my whole red-nose effect on characters. I had no good implementations of it this year and I'm not sure exactly what started it but alot of the drawings from this year look absolutely terrible because I shaded them like that. I started going to art college near the end of the year and I did more digital painting. These are all really rough but I thought they were awesome at the time.

2010 - Kind of a crazy year, I focused a lot on anatomy this year and on top of that I also began to experiment with some different coloring methods in Photoshop. I began to do drawings with purpose and feeling even more so and I think now is when I began to understand that mindset a bit more. I also began trying to break away from my anime backgrounds and heavily studied artists such as Iumazark for inspiration and I think artists like him are really to thank for my improvement at this time. Being honest that last pic of the girl falling is still one of my personal favorites out of anything I've done and I can't believe it was that long ago. I drew it in the time it took for one song to play through but I had a lot of feeling and motion to it and I think for the first time I had captured truly what I felt or something like that.

2011 - What a crazy year. I began wanting to do a lot of foreshortening and so I challenged myself with my pictures to add that in and make things as dynamic as possible because many of the artists I liked at the time did similarly. I still kind of dodged around with what it was that I really wanted to do and what kind of style I should be trying to do. I had a table at my first con this year and it was fun but I don't feel I was retrospectively ready. At the end of the year I had a life changing moment of clarity where I realized that I wanted to do illustration and not just that but illustration involving animals and humans.

2012 - A whole ton has happened this year, I feel like I've come leaps and bounds from where I was even last year. This year I decided that I wanted to pursue editorial illustration and I've been researching, studying and working hard to make my are what I want it to be. I know it'll still be a long time till I am where I want to be but I think this year has been a good start. I'm really pumped to see what I get to add onto this next December!

2013 - I feel like I learned so, so much this year. I focused a lot on doing more work similar to what I would want to do in the future and I feel like I have a better grasp on what I want my work to become. I think this year I also began to use more finesse in my work and tried to get better with pretty much everything. This next year I get to switch into an illustration program in another school and I think it's going to yield some really great and big changes for me in the future. I'm super excited to continue updating this each year and seeing where I've come from and where I am going to!

2014 - This has been a rough year. I have made a lot of strides in terms of networking especially but I don't feel like a lot changed for the majority artistically. I fell into a big slump for a long time and felt a lot of stagnation happening. I focused a lot on feeling and emotion, I think this year has been extra rough in terms of stress in each and every way. I think now that the year is coming to a close and I had some alone time to sit and think elsewhere that now I'm coming back refreshed. In this last month - even though it just started - I can already feel the next steps happening under my feet and it feels good. I hope this continues onto the next year.

2015 — This year I struggled a lot with style. To be honest, I think where I am now and where I want to be feel like a million miles away but it's an exciting journey. I began questioning marketability a heck of a lot and I want to move towards something more accessible in the future. I'm super honored to have really begun my professional career this year, too. Things are just starting to pick up but I'm already excited for all the future projects to come.