Hello!

So ArtFight is finally over, and I wanted to write a little retrospective to look back on what I managed to do over the span of the month. I like to use ArtFight as a means of experimenting and improving my art, so I want to see how far I've come since the start of July, and take a look at my stats compared to last year.

I posted 29 attacks this year, 9 of which were friendly fires.
I defended against 24 attacks, 6 of which were revenges! I was also included in 1 mass attack.
I revenged 16/19 attacks I recieved.
My battle ratio was 54.72%.
I hit the milestone of 200 total attacks this year! I have not yet recieved my 200th defence, currently sitting at 193.
Overall, I accrued 1,135 points for Team Seafoam.

Compared to last year, it was a pretty quiet fight, especially in the middle. I was also struggling with motivation, so unfortunately I was unable to get around to as many of my bookmarks as I'd wanted. I'm looking forward to hopefully having a more productive July next year.

Last year, I posted 40 attacks, 9 of which were friendly fires.
I defended against 42 attacks, 7 of which were revenges! I was also included in 6 mass attacks.
I revenged 30/35 attacks I recieved (not including mass attacks).
Overall, I accrued 1,887.5 points for Team Werewolf.

So, yeah, definitely a lot busier last year, but that's besides the point! Once the ball got rolling again towards the end of the fight this year, I had a lot of fun. I'll admit, though, the slowdown in pace was very disheartening, as was the lack of revenges. But overall, I got a lot of cool art of characters I love from people I love! So I'm calling it a success! In regards to my improvement this year, though... that was less of a success. I didn't do much experimentation this year. Last year, my goal was to improve on the way I colour -- which I definitely achieved after taking some inspiration from Spiderverse's colour palettes. This year's goal was to get quicker and take more shortcuts... and by the image count, you can tell I failed MISERABLY!!! I'm still just as slow as I was at the start of the fight, AND my anatomy has gotten worse! What gives!!!!

I'd be lying if I said I didn't produce pieces I'm proud of this year, but MAN I wish I'd done more... and better TwT

Let's take a look anyway...

FIRST ATTACK

Posted on 1st July. @Mishamaru8773's character Sylvana.

I experimented with colour again here, as well as taking some artistic liberties with the character's design when turning a cartoony ref into a semi-realistic piece. I was worried the recipient wouldn't like it, but thankfully they did! :')

LAST ATTACK

Posted on 2nd August. @Willowfern's characters Zephiel and Roxiflr.

I'm incredibly proud of this piece. If there was anything I experimented the most with this year, it was absolutely this one! I'd never drawn a car in this much detail before (which is shocking considering how obsessed with them I am) and it was quite the challenge! I was working on this piece periodically throughout the fight, and finally got it ready to post just before it ended. I'm so, so proud of this.

FAVOURITE ATTACK

Posted on 31st July. @eldritchh0rr0r's character Beau.

Not only is this my favourite piece from the fight, but also my 200th attack on ArtFight! I struggled a lot with the anatomy, but after my friend helped me redline it I managed to come out with a piece I'm so incredibly proud of. I'm so in love with this guy's design, too. He's gorgeous!!! I love him!! He was so fun to draw.

FAVOURITE DEFENCE

Posted on 12th July. By @FRITZOVICH

I'm still absolutely obsessed with this piece -- it's the home screen background on my phone to this day. PLEASE go follow Fritz, she's absolutely incredible and I'm obsessed with her artwork and characters. This piece inspired me to make Lonnie's 70s AU into an actual developed story, rather than just an idea floating around in my brain. Thank you so so much again for this, I love it SO much!

REDRAW #1

Posted 18th July. @deargravity's character Ebon.

I redrew a piece from last year, which I wasn't super proud of at the time and am even less proud of now LOL. The new version, however, I am INCREDIBLY proud of! I think since last July I've improved an insane amount and I'm very happy with how I draw faces now ^__^ this redraw especially shows off how Goretober 2023 helped me improve, because I did a lot of experimentation there, too, which led to some stylistic changes I've carried through to now. Very very proud of this.

Original piece on ArtFight

REDRAW #2

Posted 26th July. @FRITZOVICH's character Ivor.

This redraw is INSANEEEEEE because a) my art has changed so much in the 5 years since I drew the original and b) so has the character! I'm so proud of both of us for how far we've come in our art journeys. Truly so so awesome :')

Original piece on DeviantArt

CONCLUSION

All in all, this year has been fun! It's been a bumpy ride with ups and downs, but overall I'd say I had a good time. I'm excited to see the results, but I'm pretty sure Team Stardust have this one in the bag. RIP my 5-year winstreak, but GOD DAMN Stardust went crazy! Properly deserved win, I'd say. But who knows, maybe Seafoam had a laft-minute clutch :P

Happy end of ArtFight! Feel free to share your thoughts too ^__^

Wen