3 Years of Monsters

I feel like I'm becoming a broken record but it remains true: I'm sorry for the long break! Things got extraordinarily busy (hell, they still are) and there just hasn't been the time for more monsters. And that's terrible. There should always be time for more monsters.

But don't worry! I'm still here and I'm ready to post some more. And before a new deluge of monsters, I thought it'd be time for another anniversary post, this being my third year and all at doing this.

Looking at the artwork over the years has been fairly strange; some of the art I produced still looks pretty good and others really show their age. There are some monsters I remember being pretty proud of that I now find slightly embarrassing. You're always improving as an artist and it's good to acknowledge that for a moment. Even if you don't think you're getting better, you are.

Another thing I've noticed is how abstract some of the monsters have gotten. There's some truly strange and surreal looking ones made during this last year. A lot of pictures don't even really have backgrounds beyond some weird splash of the texture brush. I can't say there was ever a conscious decision in that regard ("Many, Many Monsters," has never been about conscious decisions), but it's somewhat intriguing. What will this new year of monsters look like? I don't know yet but I'd sure like to find out.

Until then, thanks for being a reader and I only hope I've brought to you some manner of enjoyment. All I really want to do ultimately is make people happy and I'd love it if this blog is a way of doing that.

Thanks again,
Ryan

Here are some favorites from the last year, in no particular order:

Two Years of Monsters

Hey folks, sorry for the lack of monsters recently. I've been super busy lately (storyboard tests, job interviews, etc) and monsters unfortunately fell by the wayside

But now we're back! And this month this blog celebrated it's two-year anniversary!

I talked a little bit about the origins of the blog in this one-year anniversary post and not a whole lot has changed since then. I still produce these things pretty fast as I'm trying to tap into my subconscious. I think it's really fun to discover the monster as I draw it.

What has changed over the year is how experimental the monsters have become as I've really started playing around with different mediums and materials. I now create monsters in Illustrator and Flash as well as Photoshop and I try to use as many different dry media brushes as possible. I really like texture so any opportunity to make the stuff I create digitally look more tactile is fine by me.

I'm still learning how to be a better artist and I'm really happy this blog has managed to gain something of an audience. Ultimately, I want to entertain and I hope all of you are having a good time.

Here's to another year of monsters!

Best wishes,
Ryan

Here are some of my favorite monsters from the last year:

The Happy Bear

 

The All-Seeing-Eye

 The Lelps

Tembo

Sydney

One Year of Monsters

Hey folks, earlier this month was the one-year anniversary of "Many, Many Monsters," and I thought it might be appropriate to talk a little bit about this blog and how it's changed over time.

The very original reason for the site was to teach me how to use Adobe Photoshop. I had just received the program earlier in 2011 and I wanted to get up to speed, fast, and I figured I needed something that would force me to constantly produce material. This collided with an earlier idea I had to make a website that hosted monster drawings. From there came the origins of "Many, Many Monsters."

I decided when producing the artwork that I wanted to work as fast as possible: no pre-planning, just  drawing. I like to think that by working this fast the drawings come straight from my subconscious, which makes them weirder and more entertaining. Even the drawings I'm not wild about I include because sometimes the flaws make them more interesting than the mild successes.

The early days of the blog were pretty interesting as I worried I wouldn't be able to continually produce material three times a week, but as time went by I really fell in love with the process. There's something fascinating and interesting about running out of ideas and then breaking through to find even more.

Here's the first week of monsters:

Trok

Strictor

Eckt

A few months ago I started getting tired of how flat the colors were. I'm always in constant fear of stagnation, so I started experimenting with digital painting techniques. I did some painting in college so I wasn't a complete neophyte, but it's been an interesting learning experience.

Dooley

Gepp

The Tropical Worm

The Forest Beast

You can see a lot of experimentation with line-weight, gradients and digital paint. How successful any of this is is of course up to the viewer, but I think I'm on a good path. At the very least, I'm having fun, and that's the most important part.

Here's to another year of monsters.

Best wishes,
Ryan