Issue #6, Coming Intro Story, & Some Introspective Stuff

I want to complete every illustration in the sixth Atheist Thai Girl issue before I do the Introduction story. Once I do this one, what was originally issue #1 when I started this nearly two years ago will be bumped up to issue #2. So the most current issue, which is #6, will actually become issue #7. I'm sure I only need one issue for the Introduction.

The reason I started part way into the storyline, rather than at the beginning, is because I wasn't certain how I should introduce the storyline. I always had trouble starting a new storyline. I enjoyed developing the story though and was already aware of the direction it needed to go. So, I started "issue #1" (which will be issue #2 once the intro story is finished) as the protagonist was walking through town and she saw an ad for an art show, which led to many horrible doors opening up in her life.

There have been moments when I could start a storyline from the beginning, but more often I would pick what I viewed as "Act II" and start drawing from there. I don't know why I was more comfortable with this. I still have a lot of finished and unfinished stories from my childhood and teen years. Some of them were started at the beginning and some in the middle. Where I started seemed to have almost no impact on whether or not I finished the damn thing.

I will start posting this entire graphic novel series one issue at a time after I complete the introduction story. This should take place during the summer months. I do not know how else to reveal my work to people.

I recently looked through the first three issues I had drawn from May-June 2010, July-October 2010, and October-November 2010. In late 2010, the artwork looked fine to me. Now, the artwork looks a bit primitive to me, or at least the rendition of the protagonist's face and hair along with some other characters. My artwork has improved since then, but I am slightly disappointed (for now) with the illustrations in these earlier works. This happens every year, though. In December of 2010, I would look back at December of 2009 and think, "I actually thought THIS looked decent?" I have looked back hundreds of times over many years and acknowledged that I made more progress.

I had some artwork published in late June of 2011. Unfortunately, this artwork was created and submitted in the spring of 2010 and was outdated by the time it was finally printed. These drawings were artistic female nudes. I've never had the opportunity to draw using a live nude female model, so I create the human anatomy from scratch. The flaws present in the drawings from the spring of 2010 were obvious to me when they were published over a year later, and I didn't like the fact that these outdated and flawed things were now representing me. Whatever I draw today that I'm proud of may look poor to me a year or two from now. I think that will continue throughout the rest of my life as I enhance my skill further. Maybe this is a result of teaching oneself rather than being taught by others. No matter what I did, my attempts to seek instruction from teachers or fellow artists did not improve my technique. For some reason I always had to experiment and learn my own way.

One last thing:
I've been in a weird mood over the last few weeks. During this time period and out of boredom I made a Facebook page representing the protagonist with the working title of the character: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Sawaporn-Songlakranangpunlapong/224505147663794

Meow!!