Art during the apocalypse.

So yesterday I tried something new(ish) instead of little foxes and bears, which I enjoy. For as long as I can remember I've drawn but somewhere between 1988-and 1998 I mostly stopped doing a lot of art. When I started again my drawing muscles had atrophied in such a way that I kind of gave up. Since then it's been a sideline. I do the things I know come fairly easily to me, don't require a lot of practice or struggle ( much like physical exercise ) because at the heart of things I'm kinda lazy.
But you know, when you do the same thing often enough you start to get a bit bored with it...so I tried something harder ( for me)

There are A LOT of things I didn't get right and I see them, but that's the thing I see them. A lot of techniques I haven't figured out yet, practice and tenacity will make that happen.
In my head I see where I want to be, I already see the end goal which for me is half the battle. If I can see the finished thing in my head it means somewhere along the line it's done. It's part of the reason that in art college I hated doing sketches because in my head I had already done all of that ( this is not to say there's no value in sketching because of course there is and I really should do way more because this is also practice)

But anyway, yesterday I dipped back into harder things, and this was the result. It's okay, better than I thought it might be but no where near where I want it to be. I'm not fishing for compliments here, but I wanted to share the journey. I'm nowhere near the artist place I want to be but I will get there.
As you know, I've been avidly participating in the Dave Dorman watch along on Facebook  while he paints a variety of things. Dave's art is amazing and this has been exceptionally inspirational, so actually watch the process unfold, and be able to ask things like "Hey how did you do X or how do you get your medium to do Y" I don't work in oils but I have played with acrylics and I start to see that I use watercolours where maybe acrylics would work better. It's a step that will come but right now watercolours are my medium, just like they were for my dad.

So this is me, trying. Wanting to be a much better artist than I currently am, pushing my comfort zone to try and make the art I have in my head become a physical tangible thing. And this is what I worked on yesterday because I really want to do star wars art and get it right in a medium that's tricky and unforgiving of mistakes. And if you want to follow along and add your voice to the journey you are welcome to do so.