ElrokFoxx

So its been well over a year since I've made a full art for this page, with how things have been for me since early last year it's been tough on my end and I probably know its been the same for allot of people this past year. With the whole of everything personal I've just really been unable to find any sort of energy for creativity an currently dont really know how I feel about it anymore but I think there is a part of me that still wants to try and put stuff out there for the world. So for the time being I'm still struggling a bit but I still also be trying and I hope other are doing their best to do the same.

So i try to give updates for the times I'm a bit absent but this one I've been struggling to post for the past few days. I've talked slightly before about my loss of energy and stress as to why I've slowed down with my production of artwork. At this point I think I should explain one of the main reason that brought some of that on. For the past few years my father had been battling with cancer that even resulted in him having a brain tumor and I out of my other siblings (me being the youngest) was solely the one that's been taking care of him these past years so it's made things a struggle when I was constantly worrying about him. But I should get to the main point of wanting to make this- as of the past Friday (may 3rd) my father past away, this was something that was very unexpected and has left me in a vary distraught and depressed state for these past few days and I just don't know how to move forward currently.  Hopefully in time I'll be in a bit better state and get things somewhat back to normal but until then I'll probably continue to be quiet for some time.

I wish all you other artist well until then.

So DA has now released what i assume to be the current beta of Eclipse, in all i find it pretty cool. So allot have voiced their thoughts and opinions so i will as well along with a bit of explaining to help others that are supposedly finding it confusing to navigate.

To start, when looking at the overall design i like that they are going with the more modern look which seems like they are trying to improve upon what they did with the mobile app (still wish they'd start paying attention to it again) which i think is a good direction when comparing it to most other art sites. Its made some really nice improvements specifically looking at how it displays art, no more clunky display boxes especially in the profile and gallery sections. It really does its best to fully show your work now and really helps your pieces stand out more i feel.

One thing i find pleasing with Eclipse is that now on your main profile tab it has made some customization options available that you were only able to get by purchasing core being the option to display Gallery folders and an option to add a custom widget on your front page now. I over all love that you now have a "I'm open for commissions" link on your front page as well, makes it allot easier for people to tell who's open or not- so most no longer have to have people always commenting or sending notes asking of they are.

Now concerning the whole new Ui design itself it's still pretty much the same layout of the old DA (just looks different), though i can see how that would throw people off- you still have your About, Gallery, & Favorites tabs but whats new is the "Posts" & "Shop" tabs. Now "Posts" is petty much the Journals tab from before but now includes your status updates as well, and the "Shop" tab can be compared to the old "prints" tab but now also includes your commissions as purchase options which really helps display the point that they are all things people will be purchasing from you, so they are no longer separate (always found that a bit weird).

Looking at the overhead navigation its still about the same though simplified only having Browse, Shop, Groups, and Forum now but whats different is that now your "Watch" page is added to the mix so it no-longer counts as one of your notifications as this is now displayed with a bell icon and opens up onto its own mini window. And also your submit button is now displayed in the upper right of your screen with its own simplified pop-up window. And lastly on the top bar is your profile icon that now displays all the tabs the pertain to your personal account magnet options- Core, points, Sta.sh and so on along with the option to toggle the new Eclipse theme to Night or Day as some have seemed to voice that the Black of Eclipse is to overbearing. And finally there is a "Eclipse on/off" button for those that don't feel like using it all together.

Now there are things that need to be fixed and worked on obviously (as with any beta build) more so just looking at some of the page editing options like for customization and organization of art and galleries, it still needs some smoothing out as i found it easier to switch back to the old format to move things around and make edits.

Again overall i like this new design and really look forward to how they refine it in the future. So those are my thoughts and explanations on things, I'm interested in seeing how others feel.

So as I've said in my First art piece of this year featuring my new main style- is that its made up of all the different small things i have tried in many different art pieces in the past all mixed together to make something new. So i'm making this journal as a way to show the process, the art history, and inspirations that went into making the "Shock N' Blaze" Art-style. 


So i originally started off as just a traditional artist in my drawings but once i joined DA i notice things were predominantly done as digital work so i soon decided it was best that i probably try to catch up so my first full introduction piece to digital work was my "Fallen King and Loyal Knight" art piece. Though i still mostly was doing allot more work in traditional for a time.

 (March 8th 2015)

----Lineless Art and Digital Effects----

latter i felt like i needed to put more into my digital art pieces so i soon made the piece "Fire and Lightning Strike" (could call it the original Shock N' Blaze lol). which was also my first time trying to make special effects in my digital art but that was short lived. though i tried it a few other times with some other pieces like adding textures but ill come back to that.

 (June 3rd 2015)   (Oct. 14th 2015)  (Dec.r 2nd 2015)

I went on making a few more digital art pieces but soon grew to dislike the quality of my line work so around that time i also started to feel really insecure about the quality of my art, until i came across 2 certain artist In April 2016 ( & ) and at that point i was re-inspired and decided that if i wanted to feel better about my art that i needed to better- then i soon came up with the thought of using a lineless art style as it seemed as an easier way to make my art look a bit more professional. 

 (May 14 2016)   (May 19th 2016)

A few months later i started feeling like i need to do a bit more with this new style to hopefully get noticed by at least a few more people so i started thinking of offering commissions, so a friend recommended a good place to start was head shots but instantly expressed that its something lots of people do already and i wanted to try something different- so they came to me with the remark " well you're a gamer and you want to design your game at some point, so why not try to work that in?". they soon helped me come up with the idea of the HP bar headshot commissions which i used as in introduction to drawing faces and art gradation in my works.

 (July 16th 2016)    (Aug. 2nd 2016)   (April 22 2017)

Around that time i also came into contact with the artists and we soon decided to do an art trade together that resulted in my first full body digital art piece I'd be making for someone so i took it as a way to finally put my most recent skill to the test which resulted in the art piece "Keeping the Peace". Where i soon started to feel i was geting the hang of my lineless artwork along with coming back to trying to implement lighting and glow effects. along with another art trade request with being "Mountain Guide" 

 (Aug. 26th 2016)   (Sep. 19th 2016)

----Texture overlays----
i soon started to feel slightly more confident in my work and decided to stay with the lineless style at that point, but soon had to switch over to a new art application and found it had a special built in feature to create texture overlays so i didn't have constantly try to draw every texture patter myself and though id revisit the idea though i only tried it on a few pieces... But fairly latter on tried to fully use it when i came across yet another artist that i found inspiration in that i made a fan-art piece for. 

 (Feb. 12th 2017)   (April 15th 2018)

----"Perfecting" the lineless Art-Style----
In more time i felt as my lineless work was starting to reach the best point it possibly could so i started making larger pieces mostly used for my video game character designs and getting more bold with digital art over all putting a bit more effort in than usual and soon thought i should test my current skill with another art piece being my Game Character art renders which were suppose to act as the "pinnacle of my art progress" but still slightly felt as though my art was still lacking over time in the coming years..

 (March 23rd 2017)   (Nov. 24th 2017)   (Dec. 1st 2017)

----Black Shadowing & Character Outer lines----
putting these together because the reasoning and use behind them is short...
At a point in time I came to have an interest in the Etrian Odyssey games and more so the  character artwork done by Yuji Himukai and the way he used solid black so shadowing on the character art works so i wanted to try capturing that a little with my traditional piece "Dawkness within Light". As for the character outer lines it was something i felt like testing out with the character cards for my "Project Sins" characters to give them a bit more POP which i soon simplified in my new style while making seem like something new by adding color gradation to them.

 (May 7th 2017)   (Feb.- March 2018)

---- Revisit to digital line work----
 As of October 2018 i made my final art piece using my "old" style/level of digital knowledge being my "Trinity" progect creating full art work of each of the main protagonists for my 3 game idea projects though i didn't use my long time lineless style and felt it was time to revisit the notion of me putting regular outlines to my artwork to see if i had improved on at all through my traditional works through out the years. But through the whole of 2018 i was barely happy with the quality of work i was doing and really wanted to move on and start making art i could at least 80% - 90% actually be confident and proud in so thought it would be a good tribute the the past skill level i had built up.



Its now 2019 and I'm striving to be in a better state than i was in years prior and devised that i needed to fully recreate my art presence to show that i am going to be fully devoted to creating better art that others can find inspiration in, just like i did with the artists i mentioned in this journal as i feel it only right to acknowledge some for the support they have given me and others for the boosts and impacts their works have had on me and i hope that i can at some point do the same for others. Art is one of the biggest forms of self expression in my eyes and helps people can help people show who they are and help open many doorways for people while helping them even find out more about themselves. Its the creativity and amazingly beautiful things that come from the minds of so many individual artist that i feel helps the world progress and evolve. My original motto was " I want to make something Amazing!", though i don't have it plastered up on my front page anymore currently it still is and always will be a mindset that i choose keep and believe in and feel its something all artists should be striving for and even beyond that. 

That was probably a bit to long and allot to read just to explain an art process but for anyone that took the time to read all of it thanks.               

 

So with the start of 2019 ive started to work up the courage to try and branch and hopefully expand my reach when it comes to getting my work out for others to see and hopefully meet other artists, with that said with a bit of convincing from a friend im now on Twitter. Though i haven't really posted much sofar i do hope i can soon make it into a new platform that ill be comfortable sharing my work on and being able to converse with other people. So hopefully this goes well    

My Twitter: mobile.twitter.com/ElrokF