As I never got around to doing this the year the Meme was introduced, I took the liberty of finally putting this together in order to take a bit of a look back over the last few years that I've been doing art:

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While it's nice to see how much I've improved, I'll be candid to say that I'm a little annoyed how, in some respects, I *haven't* improved. It's interesting to see, because it says a lot about me, I think--I always feel an artist's style says something about them--but my main interest is seeing what isn't correctly reflected about both myself and the kind of art I want to create, and finding a way to start working on improving that.

But, I'm still happy with what I've accomplished. In 2008 I made a massive leap forward--something that could be attributed not just to getting a tablet, but to the sheer volume of drawings I made that year. That's something that, sadly, was utterly ignored in 2010 because I did a whopping 4 drawings. Granted, there's a huge leap in some areas in those drawings because taking time off helped me to really *see* my art and see where I needed to aim, but any tools I may've picked up I've probably lost because I didn't choose to build on them by doing more.

So? What does all that mean? Well... First, I need to start drawing more. Now, I'm not going to make any unrealistic expectations of myself. While a good chunk of the reason I quit drawing was lack of inspiration, I also burned myself out big time because, as usual, my spirit of generosity is much larger than my spirit of motivation. To be honest, I'll be happy if I do one drawing a month. As small as 12 is, it's a heck of a lot bigger than the '4' I did in 2010; and, if I actually spend a month working on something, it could have interesting results.

Second, I've got to stop sitting in a rut artistically. I can't draw the same damn thing over and over and over again--so, as much as I love them, no more dragons. I can't stick to the same art style--not until I at least experiment to see if there's something better for me. I can't pretend I'm not good enough to improve--anyone can improve if they work.

Anyways... Ramblerambleramble. This last year has been tough for me, but it would have been a lot less tough if I'd used art as an outlet; perhaps in the coming year, as sucky as it may turn out to be, I can find a way to use art at least as a distraction. It can't hurt.

Hope all you dA-ites, old Pern buddies, old friends, and random passerbys are doing well!