So I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that I knew I had “a couple” of sketchbooks in the attic at my parents, that I’d seen them once when I had to go up there a few months ago. I wanted to go over and grab them and see what was in them, mostly driven by knowing that some of my older artwork was lost. When I dug into the old HTML files for dates/descriptions of some of my older stuff, I found a lot of entries for stuff I simply no longer had. I knew I at least had to have the original linework somewhere, so that’s what I was hoping to find.
Well, that ‘couple’ of sketchbooks ended up being about 40 sketchbooks:
Dad had to go get a cart to roll them all out to my car!
I spent Saturday afternoon flipping through them all and it was SO MUCH FUN. I grabbed my phone and started taking pics of anything interesting. Figuring I’d end up with a handful of things to share… um no I have over 100 things to share. So I’m only going to share my favourites, and the things I think are most interesting.
I’m also going to go back through and add ALL of them into my blog around the time I would have done them. Maybe a little bit disingenuous but I’d like to have as complete a record as possible… and you know what’s great about my oldest stuff, particularly 98, early 99? I DATED EVERYTHING IN THE SKETCHBOOK. *goes back in time and shakes the hand of myself*
So once I get that finished, check tag “rescue” and you’ll find everything in there that I discovered this weekend, if you’re that curious. Should start adding stuff this afternoon.
So let’s start at the beginning – or rather, the front. A lot of my sketchbooks were decorated on the front, and I took a pic of a couple of them just as an example.
This was one was obviously from when I had jury duty in 2001.
There were at least 6-7 sketchbooks with a gazillion taped Buffy magazine cut-outs on the front and back.
And here’s one with a serious salad bar.
Now I’m going to show you some stuff I NEVER, EVER, EVER posted. We’re going way way back to 96/97, before I had a website, before I started posting my stuff online. I found my pre-anime comic book stuff.
At one point I had made up my own X-Men team, ala Generation X or The New Mutants.
On some of these oldest inked ones, the ink has faded down to a green tone. Which makes me feel incredibly old.
Wonder Woman with 2 large ink smears.
Dark Phoenix – one of my oldest things I ever coloured on the computer. This was a print taped into the sketchbook next to the lineart.
A Gambit. Hey I kinda like this one!
And a Storm!
Rogue
Mulder and Scully! LOL
First up in the SunDowner “segment” is this marker piece from late 98 — I have the scanned version already posted, but it was neat to see the original again.
Smokin’ Joe. I have no idea what this was or why it was made but when I flipped to that page I was like, “Oh look it’s Smokin’ Joe!”
So before I did the first issue I did these coloured pencil portraits of each of the characters — and somehow I never included the Yfandes one?? I didn’t even know it existed until I flipped open this page and was like wtf??
This marker Britan was on the front of my site for a while, early 99 – but for some reason I’d lost the scan of the original, and here it is! YAY!
Piper having some kind of adventure with an elvish looking dude.
Print out of a photoshop-coloured Piper.
This is another one that I did already have scanned and back in the archives — but it’s tiny, only like maybe 300px tall. It was exciting to see the original version in a full 11×14.
I really like this Ocha. This was probably like 2002.
I think I already had this posted as a sketch, but I didn’t realize I’d drawn it to match the “1874” Piper done in 2003 that I like so much.
I found several drawings where it looks like I found some historical costumes and drew my characters in them. They’re kinda neat.
Ocha, same deal.
The sketch version of my 2000 Halloween pic… Piper asks the important questions.
A rough sketch of the cover of the print version of SunDowner
Issue 7 that never got finished. Found about 4-5 inked pages and several roughed in pages, but no text so I’m not sure what was going on š
A Rei
I think this was allegedly an OC of my own but come on, it’s obviously Rally Vincent, and she’s wearing a pair of my pajamas. WTF.
The red/black/white Utena I had on the main page for a while. Also a Link.
I found several of these rough colour sketches of Utena drawings – spread out over 2 or 3 sketchbooks. I finally figured out they were rough ideas for a movie poster I did for one of my earliest Illustration classes — I’ve lost the finished pieces I did, which is sad, because I remember making an A on it and being very happy with it. It ended up being black/red/white like the above Utena, only in 24×36 format for a movie poster.
I have the finished version of this floating around the blog… but it’s missing the “Stoopid” note at the bottom like the original has.
A Ruby Moon and Suppi. I like this one!
Chun-Li, Ardyn, an ice skater?
Cammy!
This solves a mystery, when looking at my original “A Merry Good Page!” layout, this Morrigan is in one of the banners, but I didn’t recognize it and didn’t have it anymore. Here’s the linework at least! So it does exist! Coloured version lost of course.
A coloured pencil Squall that doesn’t look like it ever got finished totally.
Random Mucha inspired lady, prob from around 2002-2003.
A PSA
Playtime what?
Rub door for good luck
Design sketch for the way I wanted to design my new version of A Merry Good Page! Wow!
The Marauders, this was done for that calendar series I was trying to do.
Draco at the beach
My original version of Hermione at the Yule Ball. I scraped this version and started over on the next page, and that’s the one that got finished.
Another one I did already have on the site, but I erased the title of the piece in the online version.
This one isn’t all that old. I think it’s from like 2011.
Guys I was SO EXCITED to find this. This was the image I used on the front of my HP website Astronomy Domine for a long time, in straight black and white. And the version I have is still the web sized version which is very small. The original was 14in tall!! And had colour!! I had no idea! I was so happy to find this!
I ran a Bart (from Xenogears) site for a bit and as a result I have a bunch of art of him. He’s one of me molesting him, apparently.
Unfinished Qui-Gon from 99.
The rest of these are also more recent – I found a 2011 sketchbook in one of the drawers while cleaning yesterday so I threw them into the bunch (the Dumbledore above was one of them)
My original design sketch for my Marie Antoinette.
Martha – this went with the matching Rose and Amy but didn’t get as done.
Some more of my costume drawings from late 2011/early 2012 – the ones that got finished are in the art archives here. But several didn’t. Get finished, I mean.
Ok that’s it for now. Keep an eye on tag “rescue” for more!