Looking back on your past artwork

[Mirage]

I was looking back on some of my past artwork today and I about threw up. :lol: Are you able to look at your past stuff without a critical eye or are you automatically prone to seeing flaws in something that you once said to yourself "Ok this piece is officially finished!".

Some of you have seen the Dwight Schrute digital painting I did last year. I was looking at that today and I about gagged. I've spent the past 2 days or so working on a new piece and it's already 10x better than Mr. Schrute turned out.

Technically we could all go back and touch up or improve our older work but personally I have a policy against that. Once the signature goes on, I will never edit the piece again, even something digital. I'll just continue making new art. It's only natural to improve with practice. If anything I can look at my old pieces to see how my style has changed or improved since then. I think an artist is never as good as they can be. They will always be improving in one way or another.

 

[Malificus]

I can look at things up to 3 years old without being annoyed. Sometimes I can't stand it after a year.

 

[Rebeccaaa]

I had a big gap where I didn't draw anything at all, so my old 'artwork' is mainly stuff from when I was quite a bit younger, like early teens. I can't bring myself to critique it or let it make me gag because I don't take it or myself seriously whatsoever. That's not to say it's a bad thing to do so at all, just that I'm not an artist and anything I do is purely for fun.

 

[RJ-Cool]

When I look back on my drawings I sometimes laugh but it is encouraging to see how much progress I've made since then.

 

[jack3456]

I never laugh, gag or feel in any way bad about my past artwork. Sometimes, indeed, I'm quite impressed that I was able to master a particular detail at a particular earlier age. Like Hybrix, once the signature is on, it's finished. Once it is finished, generally I'm satisfied even years later, because even though my technical ability and my artistic vision are so much greater now than years ago, they wouldn't have been anywhere near where they are now but for the earlier work; they were crucial stepping stones of my progress, just as I hope my present stuff will prove to be when I look at it in future. I suppose that's another reason I don't tamper with old work and I look at it with some degree of pride.

 

[wolfheart]

I recently found some old pencil drawings I did on my bedroom wall at my parents place almost 18 years ago while redecorating, and I have to admit they are far better than I could now.
In the years have passed I have done a lot of damage to my hand to the point where it cramps up after a while and for a long time never even picked up a pencil.

The main thing I noticed about the wall drawings was the fact that I spent a long time doing fine line work, where as now its more of a block shading type sketching that I do when I can get some sort of interest.
I also found that I draw a lot more animals now, where as when I was younger I would draw whatever caught my eye.

 

[ewing9593]

I've just doodled for like the past 4 years, somethings I look back on think that't brilliant and others as you've said made me gag though I've got myself a new style which I love doing and other people also like it so I'm happy I guess

 

[IamDee]

when i look back some of the artwork ive done i think wow im quite good at this but then again some of the pieces are laughable.

 

[Jeremy]

I'm finding that even though I used to be terrible at drawing, I was far more creative a few years ago. Now I'm a lot better at drawing, though still pretty bad, but have almost no creativity left. Sometimes I'll redraw old drawings with my better skills and usually like the results. Old ideas + new skills = fun times.

 

[Jason_Kiriakosu]

yeah! I was drawing in an old paper today and on the back, it had some old drawings. I threw up! it's disgusting to see something you thought was good and it really is crap... I guess that's how I'll be looking at my current style in 3 years.