About Page Image: 2021
I was never sure of when I originally finished this. I checked the image before writing this entry, and the year it gave me was 2022. I knew that wasn't right, as the first image for my website's front page was published at the start of 2021. I double-checked and triple-checked my computer, but I never got the right data. As a last resort, I checked my iPad to see what date it displayed, and it gave me the accurate date for the piece. Maybe the dates I was getting were from backups I made, but who can say?
Back when I finished what was supposed to be my front page image for 2021 featuring Aqua and Nimbus, I was in the mood to give the Arrowarchive an artistic glow-up despite the minimal coding knowledge I had. I'd say that the website was in its pre-alpha stage, but I'll be honest, I was so new to coding back then that it was more like the pre-pre-alpha stage. I was still learning markdown at the time and the layout came from a web design template, that's just how new I was, but I had to start somewhere.
Back then, I knew that my ambitions were faster than the courses I was taking, so unless I took a risk by venturing into unknown territory, it was best to play it safe and keep myself occupied by focusing on my website's appearance. After the front page image, this was the second one I finished, with the FAQ image preceding it by a week and a half. Much like 2020, I had a lot of free time in 2021 due to the pandemic, so I was cranking out art like it was my job. I enjoyed the time to draw while I had it, as it wouldn't have as much free time in the years that followed.
2021 was also one of the years where I was at my most paranoid about what I posted online. I was afraid of dealing with creeps, I was afraid of saying things that could be taken the wrong way, I was afraid of taking what others said the wrong way, and I was afraid of people seeing the real me. Although it's 2024 at the time of writing this and I'm still not comfortable showing my face, I'm comfortable enough to the point of drawing caricatures of myself rather than using Aqua as a proxy. It shows how far I've come personally and that I'm comfortable enough online to not constantly use Aqua as a proxy. That's a theme you'll notice in a lot of the early art for my website's pages; if I didn't draw myself, instead I drew Aqua doing what I would've done.
I borrowed from life quite a bit when I drew this. I had a brown desk that was exactly what you'd expect from a college dorm, except I didn't draw the shelf that came with it because it would've obscured Aqua's face. I don't recall having a dual monitor setup at the time, and if I did, I didn't know how to draw it. I drew my iPad and tried to mimic the UI for Clip Studio Paint, but it doesn't have a lot of depth to it and I didn't draw anything on the canvas I gave Aqua. Looking at this piece again, I can't help but notice how unfocused Aqua's eyes are despite the fact that she's supposed to be drawing, the neckline for her dress doesn't look right, her face lacks any sort of expression, and I could've done something to personalize the piece, but I never did. Coulda shoulda woulda, I guess.
Safe to say, this piece was part of my gradient era. The purple gradient was intended to match up with my profile picture, but as more characters came into the picture, the more I had to add to the gradient so the characters wouldn't clash with the background. There was a reason I began changing my approach to backgrounds the following year, but this piece came before that era hit its peak. It was a good idea at the time, but it ultimately didn't stick, especially as my style became more complex.
I wasn't expecting myself to have a ton to say here, but I managed to surprise myself. I don't want to dwell on this again until I have to write the entries for my FAQ and Terms of Service images, so if you want to see what the new about image is, I recommend checking out Artist Vibes for insight on how that piece developed, because some of what I said there applies to my thoughts here.