Tuesday, January 03, 2012

157: retrospective

I´m super late but... HAPPY NEW YEAR 2012


I wanted to do this retrospective almost 2 years ago .... talking about procastination here, even with having pretty much all the files ready haha.

So, I´ll give a shout out to Casey and Okha , who still had a lot of my old images and saved me a lot time :)

I´m just going to cover the years 2000-2006 though. From 2006 on you can see most of my drawings here in the archives  haha

Oh and this was inspired by the wonderful Katie Rice , I highly recommend to visit her blog... her retrospective is unfortunatly gone :( And make sure to check the look-back from Daniel Lieske Daniel Lieske



2000-2003





Influenced by the few Mangas and Anime that were on the market around that time I was highly influenced by Sailor Moon, Magic Knight Rayearth, Battle Angel Alita , Record of Lodoss War and Escaflowne (character designer Nobuteru Yuuki was in fact the first animator whoose name I actually remembered and the first Anime based Artbook I bought was some kind of groundwork Artbook  for the Escaflowne Movie)











2004-2006

Got my own mac for my 19th birthday with Ps6 on it and could finally properly practise CGing. I already owned a small wacom at that time and now spent all my free time between school and jobbing to practise :D Couldn´t wáít to do what I´ve seen from other artists online. The beginning wasn´t very promising though, I had a hard time getting used to do everything digital.






Also I started to study Graphic Design in Hildesheim that year and at the end of 2004 I discovered ca.org and was blown away haha Also a few month later I bought a proper sketchbook, beeing inspired by wesburt to actually render with pencil...









Also started with a few comics during that time but never finished them...


15 comments:

nlombardo said...

Super inspiring to see how much you've grown as an artist :).
Thanks for this post.

Wouter Bruneel said...

Inspiring stuff. I'm intrigued by the anatomy sketchbooks. How many sketchbooks were there? What books did you use?

Truly amazing drawing skills.

ANTONIO CUESTA said...

Wow! Awesome sketchbooks! O_O

Daniel Lieske said...

You are sooo good at this, Saskia! You can do what you want and I guess that you have already realized that this is the REALLY hard part - finding your own source of inspiration and finally putting all your skills into a beautiful work of art. Don't expect that to fall into your hands. You have to search for it and that takes time. Don't force it and just keep up your great work!

Zeitwolf said...

not boring at all. Ah, bei den alten Sachen sind ein paar richtige Perlen dabei. Vielen Dank für den Text und die Bilder!

taranalis said...

Da sind Bilder dabei, die ich noch gar nicht kenne! Ach, ich schwärme immer noch so sehr für deine Zeichenkunst, wie damals, als ich dich entdeckt hab. =) Du bist eine Inspiration und ein richtiges Vorbild!
Ob du es glaubst oder nicht, aber deine Bilder haben mich durch manch schwere Zeit begleitet und getröstet.
Schade ist nur, dass deine alten Bilder nirgendwo mehr zu sehen sind. Du hast sie viel zu schnell gelöscht! ;) Mach weiter so und viel viel Erfolg für das Jahr 2012!!

Casey said...

Aw, das ist schoen nochmals die alten Sachen zu sehen! Ich freue mich, dass ich davon alles kenne. Ja, doch alles.

Saskia said...

Thank you all so much :)

@ Bruneel In that specific year I filled around 5-6 Sketchbooks, plus many sheets of paper for pure anatomy practise..

@ Daniel Vielen Dank für deinen schönen Kommentar. Ich kann nicht unterschreiben das ich alles zeichnen kann was ich will, aber du hast recht damit dass es schwer ist das erlernte auch sinnvoll anzuwenden. Es ist eine ständige Suche.

So fühlt es zumindest für mich an...

Ich habe im letzten Jahr vermehrt versucht meinen Drang alles perfekt auszuarbeiten zurückzustellen und mich mehr auf den Gesamteindruck zu konzentrieren. Ist nicht immer einfach und mir fällt immer wieder auf das viele Bilder die ganze Detaillflut gar nicht nötig haben... besser werden sie dadurch eh nicht.

Und das ist wohl das schwierige... sich hinter Skills zu verstecken ist schlussendlich der einfachste Weg, aber kann das Bild auch in andere Aspekten punkten? In meinem Fall musste ich das immer wieder mit "Nein" beantworten.

Und somit geht die Suche weiter haha

@taranalis: Das fällt mir tatsächlich schwer zu glauben, aber ich kenne kenne das selbst von den Kunstwerken anderer aufgeheitert zu werden, daher vielen vielen Danke für die andauernde Unterstützung :)))

@casey: Ich habe auch noch deine ganzen alten Bilder... irgendwie kann ich mich bei fast allen auch noch an das ganze drumherum erinnern.. ach ja, die gute alte Zeit :)

Tom Zhao said...

Thanks for sharing this. I've always been a fan and it's cool to see your growth through the years!

Cheers

Iru said...

Aw man Saskia. Vielen Dank für diesesn wundervollen Post! Ich erinner ich an so verdammt viele Sachen die du hier hochgeladen hast :) Da schwelgt man gleich in Nostalgie. Und einfach wahnsinnig spannend zu sehen, wie sich das nochmal alles entwickelt hat.
Da verspürt man glatt die Lust, sich auch auf Zeitreise durch seine eigenen Sachen zu begeben!

Danke danke <3

hyun said...

It's great to see years of effort.

What I like about your work is that there is a harmonious blend of western realism and Japanese stylization.

Other than internet, it would be nice if someone from Japan's "S" magazine notice your works. If the Japanese wasn't the barrier, Japan could use people like you. They hire French artists, so why not another European?

I'm saying all this because most of Japan comic art world seems to draw certain style(s) only and they are all boring to me.

Speaking of Nobuteru Yuuki movie groundwork art book, I'm guessing it's Escaflowne Fan Book 2. I have it too.

Mr.Robinson said...

I love your sketches, they inspire me!
Go on and make us happy.

Saskia said...

@Iru: Au ja, mach das bitte. Das wär so cool mal so einen Rückblick von allen zu sehen. So eine Entwickung läuft ja immer sehr fließend voran, so dass man nie so wirklich bewusst einen Wandel wahrnimmt....

@hyun Thank you so much for your kind words, it´s nice to read that you like the way I work.
And I´m terribly sorry about not answering anymore haha I always wanted ot but forgot again and again.

It´s actually not a groundwork book in a classic way like the ones for evangelion or the selfpublished works fromt he animators themselves... Its just the 100%Newtype book with the conceptwork and such... wish to have one of Mr. Yuukis selfpublished works though haha

Do you mean Kikan S? That would be cool, but somehow I think there are so many others better suited than me haha It´s still flattering that you think that I would fit in among these Illustrators :)
I have only been a guest artist for a few self published books from japanese Illustrators, so...

Will you update your blog someday? I found your thoughts very interesting!!

hyun said...

Saskia,

I have two copies of the same groundwork book by Yuuki. The Anvil III. I bought two of them by accident. Anyway, I've been collecting his self published books for a while.

Speaking of Yuuki, he has been working on new anime called "Sakamichi no Apollon" with Cowboy Bebop director, Shinichiro Watanabe.
A fellow Anipage member, BahiJD, has been selected as key animator for the show.
http://bahijd.tumblr.com/post/16575087346/i-work-on-this-anime-as-key-animator

So there is a hope for every hard worker who wants to work in Japan.

Anyway, back to the subject...
Yes, the Kikan S magazine. They tend to focus on popular Japanese comic illustrators, but as you know they also feature works of foreign comic arts. Seriously, once you establish yourself at a right project, I'm sure they'll notice.

My blog? You mean the Anipage Forum postings, right? I have a separate blog of my own, but I haven't updated for ages and it's just my rant.

J Lou said...

( ^o^)/ Hello Saskia! Your work over the years are very inspiring... and then I see this post! It's nice to know we have similar early inspirations, lol :3

Lookin' forward to seeing more of your work!