My Digital Art Progress From 2014 To Now (Six Years of Art!)

A showcase of how I developed and improved my digital art over the years - from 2014 to 2021.

In 2014, I began to properly practice art, in terms of drawing characters and animals. Ever since then, I have been learning and developing my art, and so today, I’d like to showcase my personal journey in art, and the improvements over time. In this showcase, not all the art I’ve ever done will be shown, and most of them display a watermark with my old name (smochi_bird, now smochibird).

- All links listed below are not sponsored -

Year 1 / 2014

In my 1st year of properly practicing art, I mainly focused on traditional art. I drew very little digital art, but when I did, I used my desktop and the mouse to draw in MS Paint.

As you can see, I had a deep obsession with dragons. I didn’t have a proper understanding of how to use program tools (e.g. fill tool, brushes).

At the time I had a great love for dragons (2014)

Year 1.5 / 2014 - 2016

During this time, I focused on rather traditional art. I wanted to include this era anyway as it displays my practice, particularly to understand the human form and gain confidence in my line-art.

I drew not only dragons but explored the human form - Mark Crilley was my idol (still is, actually)!

Year 2 / 2017

After 3 years of completely focusing on traditional art, I took up digital art again. I remember I was frustrated with my art, as I could draw limited perspectives of humans. But somehow, I persevered due to my desire to draw comics (and comics are quite demanding in skill).

I used a touch-screen tablet and the app Ibis Paint X.

Left: Chise from Ancient Magus Bride, middle: Esmeralda from the Hunchback of Notre Dame (male ver.), right: random guy

Year 3 / 2018

In this year, I transitioned my equipment from a tablet to a touch-screen laptop and changed apps to Medibang Paint Pro. I still use Medibang to this day, and I heavily recommend it if you’re on a budget. This year, I continued to explore shading and line-art. As for the pen, I used a capacitive stylus (I remember I made a lot of homemade stylus’…I will link a tutorial once I make one!)

Left & middle: concept art for my comics, right: random artwork

Year 4 / 2019

During 2019, I still used the same equipment. Still practicing my art.

Left: RM from BTS, middle & right: personal concept art

Year 5 / 2020

In this fateful year, I bought a Wacom Cintiq 16 (remember, you don’t need to have high-end equipment to produce good art, but if you can buy it and want one - go for it!). So now, I use a touch-screen laptop and a Wacom to do my work.

I changed my pen name from 'smochi_bird' to 'smochibird'. Left & right: personal concept art, Middle: Apollo from Animal Crossing (human ver.)

Year 6 / 2021

All I can say for this year is that I drew a lot. Since 2020, I have been seriously pursuing digital art and hope to hone my craft with each sketch and piece I make.

Left: Lady D from Resident Evil Village (male ver.), Middle: Paimon from Genshin Impact, Right: Vyn Richter from Tears of Themis

Final Thoughts

In simple words, I believe I have managed to improve my art to a level where I’m satisfied with what I make. In regards to what actually helped me in improving at such a pace, I must give credit to the comics I drew in all those years. Personally, I found that comics really force you to draw a variety of objects, poses, characters, and environments. It forces you to draw things that you aren’t so good at.

All the other little things like studies and art theory helped as well. I will most likely expand on tips to improve in a future blog (I will link it here when I publish it).

Thanks for reading, I appreciate your time, and have a great day!

#digitalart #personalblog #artimprovement