Hello everyone, happy new year! I was a little more than halfway through making this post when my computer decided to give up and forced me to start all over. I'll try my best, but this might be a bit rushed. These pieces aren't listed in any particular order, they're being showcased because they best reflect how I've grown and evolved as an artist, and also show what I need to improve. At least, they do to me. I'd love to hear what you think down below, I always love getting feedback from you all!

Shoutouts to @BombsAhoy since I'm all but plagiarizing his post. That aside, I hope you enjoy it!

#1 - Mandalorian Monday

This was my first piece uploaded in 2021, and I'm still fairly proud of it. I've always loved drawing shiny metals, with or without battle damage, and this piece was an experiment in drawing shiny metal differently than I usually do. Mando himself looks pretty good, I paid just as much attention to the rest of his outfit as I did his armor. The shading on his undersuit is actually much softer than I usually would draw. I think the background is fine, but I do wonder if I should've had lineart for it. Without the thick black lines I usually have, like seen on Mando, it ends up looking a little bare. It's a fine background, but since he has them and it doesn't, they end up looking good independently of each other.

I also think I distracted from the art when I first posted it by putting a truly unnecessary mountain of text in the description. I ended up talking almost exclusively about the modern state of mainstream American pop culture, barely mentioning The Mandalorian as a show, let alone the character himself. I didn't really talk about the art I had made. That essay, well-written as it was, and as important as it might've been to say, should've been posted somewhere else.

#2 - Lord Zedd's Dark Rangers

This one is a mixed bag for me. In some ways, I showed that I can draw a wide variety of different characters, but in others, I ended up looking like I can only draw two different types of characters. The faces are the highlight of this one, but everything from the neck down is lacking. Despite striving to make them more unique, all the differences between the team members is surface-level. The Pink and Yellow Rangers, as well as the Blue and Black Rangers, look like they share the exact same body type, save one being slightly taller. Each duo has the one generically "slim, kinda tall boy/girl" body type. The Red Ranger has the most distinct physique, and even then he's too similar to the other guys on the team.

I made this one with the intention to try and do the concept better, only looking at it now fell into the exact same kind of pitfall. None of them are really distinct, save for the colors of their outfits and what specific way their armor is cracked. If I ever draw this team again, I'd push to make each member more distinct as a character.

#3 - BARRIER BREAK

Ironically, this piece came out well before the last one, yet it does what the Dark Rangers sorely lacked. Each character is far more distinct and unique, having a strong sense of character based on the way they're dressed, standing, and their facial expressions. You can look at each one and get at least some sense of what they're like. The background is a little lacking and I wish I'd adding shading to the Man in White's shows, but overall it's pretty good. The characters themselves are done well, which is a good thing cause they're the focus and all lmao

This is probably because @Ecko-AI 's OCs have established backstories and personalities, there's much more to latch onto and understand with them. These are characters from his wecomic, which you should go read. He and I and other friends of ours had a lot of long talks about our OCs this year, and I look forward to doing it a lot more.

#4 - Ultraverse Taskmaster

I made a lot of redesigns this year, and by far this is my favorite one. @EarthRabbitDraws really made my day when he said that my design made Taskmaster cool and menacing while still staying true to his core design. The only thing I'd change would be making the upper arm guards orange, but other than that, I'm fully satisfied with and quite proud of this design. An incredibly old drawing I made of Taskmaster and uploaded here is one of my worst pieces of all, but it did also lead to my improvement as an artist, one way or another. This design is the standard I'll be holding all my future Ultraverse redesigns up to.

I'd also like to take a moment to give rightfully deserved credit to artist George Pérez. He was the designer behind Taskmaster and Deathstroke, as well as many other genre-defining works in comics. His announcement earlier this year was truly heartbreaking to read. The world has lost too many inspiring creators in the last few years, and will never be the same without him. We wouldn't have comics as we know them without his works, and he has my eternal thanks for that. My heart goes out to him and his loved ones, and all who have appreciated his works.

#5 - Doodle Dump: Ikari

Whenever I prefix a post with 'Doodle Dump' it means that I focused on the one singular main subject, and everything else was more or less an afterthought. The background in particular is usually a last-minute addition, but at least I've improved enough to no longer make it a single, flat color.

Like with the previous Taskmaster, and unlike the Mandalorian, I managed to keep the overly long description relevant to the art itself as well as the character and their source material, as well as my relationship with it. I spent a majority of the description gushing over Waid and Samnee's 2011 run on Daredevil, especially Ikari and his arc. It helped to contextualize why I have such a love of this character, who might otherwise be completely irrelevant.

I tagged this piece a mashup rather than a redesign, because frankly that's what it is. It's Ikari's head put on Daredevil's Fall From Grace costume. I think they blend together remarkably well(and in my personal opinion looks better than Ikari's official outfit), but I couldn't rightfully call it a redesign. This is where my lessons in gesture drawing and anatomy from my Drawing II schoolwork really started to take hold in my personal art, where characters began to feel alive. Even under the armor and the suit under that, Ikari feels like he has depth and form. Muscles are well-established, his anatomy is more lifelike, etc. I'm very satisfied with this one.

#6 - Hell on Wheels

This was my most popular piece of the year, by a landslide. I certainly wouldn't have 400+ followers if not for this. I'm not entirely sure why this is the one that got so much attention, but you certainly won't hear me complaining!

For as loved as this one seems to be, there are parts of it I wish I'd changed or fixed. I practiced drawing fire a lot this year, you can see my practice for this piece in a previous one. The fire here looks alright, but not great to me. I'm not sure what it is, but it doesn't quite feel like raging fire to me. The flaming wheel looks correct, if nothing else.

Despite being one of my most action-packed pieces of this year, it's not terribly dynamic. That's something I plan on changing in this coming year, having a much more dynamic sense of action in my work. A lot of my characters are just sort of standing around or leaning.

All in all, maybe I don't think it's that great, but a lot of people certainly liked it. No problem with that!

#7 - Burgerpant(ie)s

I think this is would have to be one of my favorite pieces from this year. It's where I really started grasping my style and taking it to the next level. A lot of people responded to this one and admired the balance of cartooniness and realism, something I've always strived for. The shading also got a lot of praise, something I'm glad to hear. I've always shaded in a blockier, comic book style. Her face looks a little strange but everything else ended up looking great. I think this is also where I really started getting into drawing different body types, if this was earlier in my career Saoirse would've ended up looking less good. She's a character who I'd been wanting to bring back for a long time, but wasn't sure about. Mostly because I wasn't sure what to do with her as a character, but also because I wanted to be able to capture her body type correctly. After a long time, it paid off and she made her reappearance!

#8 - Sanctuary

I need to get into drawing backgrounds and environments more, and this piece was me dipping my toes into that. I wanted to be able to draw(heh heh) an emotional response from viewers without having a character in the piece. I'm pretty happy with this one, it showcases my growing skill with colors.

#9 - OC Character Sheet: Max Vanguard (Armor)

This is one of my absolute favorite art pieces I've made this year, and one of my favorite art pieces I've made yet. I went into greater detail about it in the post itself, but finishing this character sheet really felt like I was finally capitalizing and capturing all the ideas I'd failed to capture when I made the initial version. A stronger sense of character, a better design that more cohesively portrayed and blended all the concepts, everything about it feels leagues ahead of my first attempt. I'm really proud of this one.

#10 - 400+ Follower Thanks!

One of my best works yet.

Phat Gynoid ass aside, the level of detail in this piece was almost harrowing to draw but incredibly satisfying to see completed. I wanted to truly show my thanks for so many followers, and didn't want to give them anything less than my absolute best. My resolution for 2022 is to draw my OCs a lot more, so expect to see more of everyone pictured here!

Except the monkey.

Maybe.

Also, fun fact, this is the only piece where Valerie is depicted so far where she's smiling!

That's all for 2021, I really hope that you enjoyed this look back!

If you didn't see your favorite work of mine listed here, be sure to tell me down below! I'd also love to hear what you liked about my art in particular, what you think I should do more or less, and what you'd like to see next!

I love you all very, very much. May 2022 bring you happiness, health, and good fortune.

Keep being cool, everyone!

Big love.