Been a while since I posted here. That’s a cliché line to start a blog with, but between this post and the last, I’ve had some time to think about my career as an artist. And one of the things I realized was that the reason why things seemed to go nowhere was because I was trying to control the trajectory of my career. What do I mean by this? Well, for the last 21 years, I’ve been trying to create my “magnum opus”; something I would be known for. My Dragon Ball. And since 2005, I’ve been cycling between different ideas for a shounen anime, and later pop surrealist pieces and my own aesthetics. I spent more time thinking of something to make, rather than actually making the damn thing. The art I would make were just things on the side. Bubblegum Fist, Freedom Day, Didi… These weren’t something I wanted to be at the forefront of my catalog. I was looking for fame.

Recently, I was redrawing AI images generated from sites like NovelAI, and it really opened my eyes to the fact above. AI redraws and art challenges have made me realize that I wasn’t doing my job. I wasn’t being an artist.

Above are some of the redraws I’ve done. I know AI is a rather contentious issue, but it is A source of visual inspiration.

So what’s the takeaway here? I’m just gonna let myself be an artist. Stop trying to control my career path. Whatever happens, happens.