Touchyu Kaiko's Artistic Journey
The other day I was talking with an artist friend about the illustrator I referenced in the aesthetics article. And the friend pointed out something really interesting about this artist's journey.
In the link here (CW: some blood and nudity), you can get a sampling of the artist's works six years ago versus now. It's specifically really interesting to see that the early works are simple but actually quite evocative, while the later works usually expands the technical scope of the work while maintaining the same sensibilities. For example, below is one of their earlier works – very few characters, nearly completely monochromatic, but still interesting enough in the subject matter for someone to pause and take a look:
Here's an example of the most recent picture. The colors are now very varied, there are more characters and they tend to have more dynamic poses, and the idea of “having something kind of surreal going on in the picture” is there throughout.
This progression is impressive because one of the central challenges in pursuing art is the difficulty of making something you would consider “good” compared to all the other really good pieces of art you've already seen. On the other hand, working purely on artistic drills can be really demotivating because they tend to be quite boring, you haven't “finished” anything in a while, you lose a sense of social motivation, and you are prone to start doubting your abilities longer you've gone without making a “completed” piece you are satisfied with.
There's a delicate balance between skill, motivation, learning, and ambition that's challenging to navigate, and in my opinion this artist has navigated it really well. A lot of their early works, despite their simplicity, are something that someone with a trained eye can still find something interesting in. Having this kind of subjectively interesting, educational, and reasonably scoped pieces goes a long ways towards motivating someone to keep pursuing art.
Personally speaking, though some of the art felt a tad oppressive and gazey for my personal tastes, I find the sense of mystery/meaning this artist has in their work to be pretty strong – and this is something I hope to be able to achieve in my own works as well.