Slow and steady

I'm starting to get into this series of illustrations I'm working on. Each image is a lot of work, but it's so nice to spend that effort, slowly. It builds up over time and I can really appreciate the results. I keep repeating how relieved I am to not be burdened by social media, but it's a really big part in this. There's no push to finish it just so that I can post content consistently. I'm happy to simply put an illustration aside and let it rest if I feel overworked on it. Clear my head, get some new ideas and get back to it later.

Here's the latest one! I think it took +15h like the last one, but I'm not really keeping track.

Making fun compositions with perspective, filling each image with details and all that takes time and patience. I've started doing more prep work, but I'm still pretty lazy with it I suppose. It's a really important step though! One where you do quickly sketched variations and experiment to find what might work best. I'm a compulsive tweaker and I tend to commit too early to some decisions, but I'm trying to get better at the iterative process. Here are some sketches where I try to find a good composition for this hacker lady I've started on.

The theme for the series is becoming clearer. The women depicted are rebellious, skilled and hot; put into dystopian milieus, they hold their own against the oppression through varying means. My friend Tashan (who creates games, go look) suggested the name Clutterpunk and of course it should be called that. I'm already envisioning continued series with different themes of this down the line, but the current one will be very 90s, with rad graffiti, walkmans and floppydisks!

Published 2 Mar 2024

Thanks for reading!