Stroll Down Memory Lane: Jeannie

Okay, I'm continuing on this weird-ass personal nostalgia kick for some reason. Maybe it's all the watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer and listening to Cibo Matto, but I had the strange urge to go over the artistic history of one of my characters to see how she's changed and how my art has changed since I pretty much started drawing back in 2001. This is really mostly for my own records, but it's kinda interesting to see what happens when I decide to actually learn how to draw.

WARNING: This post contains old, crappy, high school infested art and should be viewed with caution. Scroll to the bottom if you don't want to hurt yourself.

First, 2001 and one of the first pictures I ever drew of Jeannie:



A couple years later, I haven't learned a whole lot but I thought it would be interesting to see what happens if I re-interpret the first picture:



A couple more years later in 2005 I do another interpretation and I guess I've learned something but the growth isn't really there considering I'm still treating this as a hobby:



2007 and I'm in Japan and I've had the benefit of taking a couple of real art classes. I don't get around to doing a new version of the original but I do a sketch of Jeannie I'm particularly fond of:



And today, I just finished the inks for what will probably be the next version of the original picture:



So what have I learned over all these years? One, if you want to draw don't start out with manga, you'll spend years trying to unlearn all that junk. Two, it's never a bad to revisit old ideas because if you're not sure of your progress you'll at least have something to directly compare things to. Three, ridiculously long hair is ridiculous and have I mentioned I'm a fan of Uzumaki?

Overall I'm generally happy with the direction my art is going even if I've still got a ways to go. I've kicked a lot of my old bad habits and I'm starting to regain a certain amount of confidence in my ability to progress.