Artist Army Comp

"My Artist Army Comp Experience"



The Good news

Hey. So last month I entered an art competition.
I woke up one night to browse and watch some
YouTube videos as usual( because night plans are cheaper, of course).
I think that was on the 6th of August or so.
I came across a video by one of my favourite Youtubers, Jazza,
about an art competition. I watched the video and discovered that
it was a competition where artists were asked to make artwork based
on the theme of an Army of artists equipped with artistic attire.
The prizes were amazing and I just couldn't resist trying it out.
I knew how much I needed those gadgets he was giving away to winners
and decided to sign up for the competition almost immediately.

Complacent

Although I'm pretty sure I'm not a good artist yet
( even worse at the time I came across this info).
I was still super confident in myself that I could win and maybe I
underrated the number of talented artists who also follow
Jazza; "The Jazza Artists Army".
I believed if I put in the work I could win something.
Although this feeling made me sound like an arrogant
self satisfied little guy it was also what got me to
pick up a pen and sketch and get creative. Indeed I was
complacent at first but it wasn't all bad, it gave
me the push I needed.

Work
After checking people's comments and reviewing the rules
of the competition it was time to get to work. I got
some reference images from pinterest, made a rough sketch
of what I wanted to present and got to work (not really sha).
I still procrastinated a Little before I started working (on my computer).
I used a free software called Krita, which I was at the time
still getting a hang of. I started by making the line works of one
character in the army. This actually took longer than
expected as I had to go online to watch some videos on
how to draw better lines in krita. I took things very slowly
since the deadline was far enough and that gave me
the time to learn more and give my best.The other
challenge I had was a client work I had collected
earlier and had to finish up in time as well. It was
too important to forgo since I needed the cash and so I
had to set my priorities straight and make out time for
both of projects. I managed to do that at the end of the day.
After about a week or more I finally managed to make the line
arts for most of the characters. Over time I added a few more characters
and then I was done with that aspect of the work, or I was just too
lazy to add more characters. Next I tried colouring my work but even
that was difficult for me so I had to revisit my old friend, YouTube.
This was the part when I came across one of the best things I learned from
the work process, a style of panting(digital) called "cel-Shading". It is
the technique used mostly in animes and comics.
Why this was so helpful to me is that
it saves time and I didn't have to worry so much about blending
(which is something I struggle with). I then got the flat colour
of the main character and a few others done and stopped working
for some time. This was due partly to the fact that School was back in
session and I had to resume and move into the hostel. Now the deadline was
only a few days away, I needed to rush and finish everything up in time.
I sketched a logo and designed it on my PC. About two days to the
Deadline day I sat for about 6 hours at a stretch to finish up and
submit by midnight.I managed to achieve that,Submitted the work successfully.

Conclusion

Overall it was a fun experience for me, an enlightening one too.
Though I didn't get any of the prizes, I will always count this as a win.
My advice to anyone reading this is to always choose to do something over
doing nothing because in the long run those experiences will teach you new tricks.

I would like to say a special thanks to my friend and mentor Kofoworola(kofiann arts)
who stayed up with me to work on this project one certain night (due to a power failure in my room)
along with her friend Temi of course(who left early by the way).

Thanks for reading.#PEACE

INITIAL SKETCH

LINE ARTS

FLAT COLOURS

FINISHED