FKA the piece I never thought I’d finish because I didn’t like it, but – I recently got round to it because my agency was asking for “space themed” illustrations, so that gave me a lil kick in the butt. Sometimes in life you just gotta finish things you don’t enjoy. I look at it now and think “ok, this and this part* could’ve been better, but people seem to like it anyway and at least I finished it!” Yeah that’s all.
Space Café, July 2021
* If you’re curious about what in particular I’m not happy with in this piece it’s: a) the skater’s right arm b) the seated woman in the front/right – her right arm, too c) then in general the sense of depth in this environment, I’m not sure if I nailed it; perspective is not one of my strongest suit but I’m trying to improve it.
On the other hand, I can also make peace with the fact that, in general, a more symbolic perspective is more important to me than realistic perspective, ie it’s more important to me to sacrifice correct perspective in order to show certain details. I feel like if I were to show everything in 100% correct perspective, certain aspects, like a person’s outfit, or the contents of a table, might get lost. I hope that makes sense?!
If we look traditional Thai (temple) mural paintings for instance, a lot of it is completely flat! It’s definitely not true to life, but there’s a charm to this kind of representation, because it tells a story. It literally gives us a full(er) picture of the environment and what is happening in it.
I’m definitely not knocking people trying to master 3-point perspective, OK. I just think there are different ways to art good, and that’s all.