My good friend Alty gave me the idea of doing a retrospective, not only for the year, but for past decade. I think it was an excellent suggestion, but a nerve-racking one.
Going through each year and trying to find one single picture that represents the entire year was a daunting task. I don't think there is a "right" answer for it either. But these represent, for my current mindset, the ones that I think do each year justice. For those who are interested, I have collected my thoughts on each year and also included links to the original FA submission below. Attached to this post are all pictures I chose in high resolution.
2010 - 2010 was definitely a year of experimentation for me. I dipped my toes into 3D modelling, expanded on backgrounds, some video game fanart and solidified my experience with commissions. Facial expressions are all over the place still, making the characters look derpy in some of the pictures. However, I started to slowly solidify my style, respresented by the picture "One In Hole".
2011 - That year shows huge improvements on facial expressions and picture complexity. There were some instances where I put in extra effort for characters, details or backgrounds that I would have avoided the year before. There's still a fair share of wonkyness, but progress is clearly visible.
I'm also starting to develop a taste for my own character, which only got more with the coming years. :P The picture I chose to represent this year is called "Cock Tail", because I have very fond memories drawing it and I still very much like the whole picture idea. :3
2012 - 2012 was a year of big changes. I got better, faster and more elaborate at drawing characters and backgrounds. I did a project in which I would do 18 (!) wing it commissions within a single month. To this day there have been few projects that have exhausted me as much as that one. I learned a lot about what to do and what not do this year. Some lessons came at a price, but that's the cost of experience.
On a lighter note however, I first drew pictures for people like Alty and Ryan Moonshadow, who I'm still friends with today. :3
I chose "Shark week!" for this year, because it goes to show how far I had come that year in terms of drawing.
2013 - In 2013, my pictures improved yet again. The backgrounds got even more complex and elaborate and I also drew more multiple character pictures than before.
It was also the year where I created my bunny character Rick and drew the first pictures of my friends Teren and Cirez, who I still cherish to this day. :3
The picture I chose for this year is "God Love", because it was my first big YCH auction. Back then I was super nervous about doing this sort of thing because of all the negativity that surrounded it. Looking back now, I can still say that YCH auctions have allowed me to improve greatly on my pictures, because I always try to give them interesting ideas and put the YCH characters in the focus.
2014 - This year demonstrates very well how far I had come as a furry porn artist. The style is much more distinct now. It's apparent that I had found a liking in high contrast, detailed backgrounds and smirking characters. ;P
Apart from that, there's lots to enjoy about my own pictures now. All the practice of the previous years really paid off and made for some quite elaborate works. To represent this year however, I went with something simple: "All I Wanna Do" is the type of personal picture that I draw to lift my spirits. It represents how much drawing has given me and how it changed me as a person.
2015 - 2015 was a very emotional year for me. My father passed away that year. And I faced the decision of how I wanted to earn money. I took the leap to become a full time furry artist. It's a big step that I don't regret.
On the bright side: I attended Eurofurence in Berlin for the second time and had gathered the courage to put my own pictures up for display and sale in the art show there, which went very well. I also collaborated with Tristan Black Wolf on a book project called "The Laputan Factor".
But the biggest project by far was creating my own little visual novel called "Sketchbook Romance". It was a huge undertaking because I had to learn basically everything on my own. Writing and drawing were the easy parts, but learning to program in Flash was such a pain, that I'm puzzled at how I made it happen. I remember spending hours rewriting code to get the tiniest features like volume control working. Which of course, made all the criticism hit even harder when people woud complain about how useless a save and load system were in a game that takes just a few minutes to complete. :P
However, the feedback was mostly positive and I'm still incredibly proud I made this little project with my own two hands. It's a cherished memory and that's why it rightfully deserves this place in the review.
2016 - With the increasing output of art for every year, it's getting progessively harder to choose one single picture. So with 2016 I chose one that has a very strong emotional component for me: "Private Coaching" and the creation of Coach Night have been incredibly therapeutic for me.
He's the kind of teacher that supports you, encourages you to be yourself...and he's handsome and sexy so you can drool over him. :P But seriously, I'm so happy that so many people found a liking in this version of my character. I know it can be confusing that I like to draw my own sona in so many different iterations sometimes, but it allows me to explore all these different directions, that I don't want to miss it.
2016 was also the year in which Asyr and I began our relationship, which has grown stronger ever since. :3
2017 - 2017 marks the point in my own pictures where I have grown much more confident and relaxed. I don't feel the urge to push the boundaries of what I can do with every single picture, which was always a great source of stress for me.
Drawing definitely got more fun with more experience for me. This year however also marks the point where I was able to provide a banner picture named "Pharaoh Tiger" for Eurofurence that year.
Seeing my own art as a 20 meter wide banner hanging in the convention hotel was such a breathtaking and bizarre experience, that I couldn't really believe it when I first saw it. It's still mindblowing to me that I had the opportunity to do that.
2018 - For me, 2018 is defined by routine. Not in a bad way, but it goes to show that I have become efficient and consistent in my pictures that I can deliver them at a level of quality without taking dozens of hours to complete them. Starting out, I would often shy away from certain steps because of their time consuming nature.
Nowadays, my workflow is so established, that I balance things out better. From time to time, I still push myself to draw something very elaborate, but it's not a constant struggle with every picture. My choice for this year is the picture "Naked Poolside Predators", because it combined experimentation with established techniques and I think it pushed me towards a slightly new direction. :3
2019- 2019 was suprisingly easy to choose. Being a furry porn artist, the "art" aspect is not usually in my focus. I like drawing muscular characters doing naughty things because I find it fun - I'm not attempting to create works of art with deep meanings behind their symbolic nature.
So whenever I work on something that has an emotional side to it, it's a very different process from what I'm used to. For this year, the most emotional I got was over the "Tiger Proposal" picture of Asyr and me. Not because it was a very elaborate picture, but because of what it meant for me, for Asyr and for our lives together. Proposing among my close friends at Eurofurence, while in a fursuit, was the biggest highlight of the year for me. It marks the perfect high point for this retrospective as it culminates in my own art as well as my personal life. I couldn't have chosen anything else.
In closing I can say that I am deeply thankful for everyone that I have had a chance to get to know through my pictures. Be it friends, fans and followers, commissioners, or just people who left a comment or two. The support and friendship I have found over the years has helped me over some dark times in my life.
And while I occasionally can get frustrated at a mean comment or a commission not going the way I want, it is nothing compared to the immense amount of support I have received. And going through the memories of each picture, has made me very happy. If I could I would put dozens of pictures as my favorite of each year.
This selection is but a glimpse of all the wonderful moments each and everyone of you has given me through their love and their support. Thank you all and I hope you have a wonderful year 2020. :3
