Break-Through and Finding My Own Style

Me on my artist date

Wow! What can I say? Honestly, this week has been amazing—like, insanely good! This is the moment I’ve been searching for. Over the past five weeks, I’ve delved deep into my negativity, confronted my jealousy of other artists, and stepped away from viewing their work. Now, my own unique light is beginning to shine!

This week was particularly special because my mom left, and I dove back into illustrating my children's book. After taking about a 10-day break to show her around and travel to Amsterdam, I found that break really inspired me. When I put my pen to paper, what came out felt different—it felt more… me!

Redrawing all 32 pages of my character

Big Realization & Change to My Book

Now, here’s something I kept tucked away in the back of my mind for about a month. I was thinking about changing my characters to make them more diverse and relatable to multiple ethnicities. My current character was based on anime characters like Sailor Moon, so she had a thin, white girl look. I never thought it was a bad thing until I began looking into book trends. One of the top trends in children's book illustration is diversity and hearing from characters of different backgrounds.

From this, I thought about making my character a Chinese girl since that’s probably what I relate to the most. But as a mixed-race Asian, Hawaiian, English, and Irish person, I also considered a mixed-race character. However, I couldn’t figure out how to convey that since my official layout, sketches, and environments were almost completed.

It’s crazy how my morning pages helped me open my mind and let my emotions out, allowing new thoughts to come in. Then it hit me: make this girl an alien with a weird skin tone! Something just clicked. It felt so right! I knew in my heart this was exactly what I needed to do. I’m not copying any artists; most of my past illustrations have been fairies or aliens. This feels like it’s coming straight from my heart, so I took this week to redraw all of my characters for all 32 pages.

Allowing the New Ideas to Flow In

Something strange also happened while redrawing my characters. I didn’t look at any reference images like I usually do. I just let the character poses come from my mind, and I think that made it a lot better!

I ended up drawing all 32 pages of the characters this week, plus finishing up a few environment images. I have about seven more pages until I’m done! Then, I just have to illustrate the characters on each page and do a pass-through on each one.

It wasn’t just the drawing of the characters that felt more like my voice; it was also the texturing and color choices. Now that I’m drawing alien characters, I can make their world more unique with strange colors like purple trees or pink skies. This also felt more aligned with my vision. I even found a specific texturing style that I’ve been trying to nail down for the past six months, and I finally figured it out!

There’s no doubt that The Artist's Way has played a huge role in this transformation. A major change that has helped is recognizing what I say to myself and being kinder and more understanding. I did The Artist's Way about a year ago and stopped around week eight. But this time, I’m determined to make it to the end! I truly believe it’s worth the effort, and I’m already seeing changes halfway through.

The Importance of Social Connections

For my artist date this week, I realized I needed to do things with people since I pretty much just work alone and don’t socialize at all. I went to the Vivienne Westwood exhibit with a few friends, and it was so inspiring! It was also nice to get their opinions on the fashion and hear what their favorites were. I think moving forward, I’m going to make my artist dates more social because it works best for me, especially since I spend so much time alone.

Balancing Creativity and Social Life

Something I’ve realized I need to work on this week is balancing time for friends. When I’m on a roll and feeling creatively inspired, I don’t want to socialize AT ALL. I just want to keep drawing and making art because everything looks so good! But I know I need my social time with friends to keep my creative juices flowing. It’s what makes me happy! So, I’m going to try to do more things with people.

Embracing My Unique Style

As I continue this journey, I’m embracing my unique style more than ever. The blend of my experiences, emotions, and newfound perspectives is shaping my art in ways I never expected. I’m excited to see where this path leads me and how my characters evolve.

So, here’s to more breakthroughs, more creativity, and more fun! Let’s keep pushing those boundaries and creating art that truly reflects who we are. After all, the world needs our unique voices and visions!