Man... time flies in so many ways. In the short term it's been a month since I last posted on HIVE, in the medium term it's been exactly a year since I left my day job to pursue comics and illustration full-time, and in the long term it's been probably 20 years since I last did any kind of artistic self portraiture. All of those spans of time are incredibly difficult for me to believe!
I recently finished up a batch of commissioned portraits in this style, I've done about 30 over the past year for a client. So I decided to do one for myself! I already had one small use for it in mind, a project I'll share here in the next couple days.
Self portraits are a quite common assignment in high school and college art courses, but I haven't done much in the way of self portraiture in my adult life. As you can tell I didn't really pull out a glamour shot expression! 😆 That wouldn't be my style.
Plugging away at this for a couple hours gave me time to mull over the past year as well. I didn't accomplish nearly as much as I'd hoped when setting out, but I've come to terms with that and am trying not to beat myself up too much and just move forward. Stepping away from the day job was certainly no magic bullet to cure the levels of burnout and depression I was feeling. It's only recently I've begun to put more focus on some pretty basic self care like sleep, nutrition, and exercise. So despite the perplexed expression above I'm actually heading into year two with some optimism and momentum.
Over this past year I have studied and learned and can actually objectively see improvement in some of my skills which is a big win for me. And I've done some work that I'm proud of, although not in the quantities I would have liked.
HIVE has been a big help. Pretty much all the freelance and commissioned work I've done to date has come to me organically through HIVE. I haven't even begun to seriously market myself in the comic industry! Those community connections and support are a blessing and I thank you all for that sincerely!
While April 9th isn't a holiday for most... with luck and a lot of hard work to come it'll hopefully forever remain my own personal "Independence Day!" (and not the alien invasion kind... that would suck) So join me in celebrating the year to come for HIVE and "the Imp!"
Ahh... the original slap...
-Bryan "the Imp" Imhoff
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Good to hear that things go... all right :) Being an artist is in many ways not easier than having a job, just different. To make things work I use a lot of time trying to optimise work procedures, be healthy, sleep, but first and foremost stop worrying about not getting things done and getting things finished and being a sad loser. Being in it, making the things, go crazy from joy whenever you earn a bit, that's what counts.
Great self-portrait. Your razor sharp style rocks! All the best, mate!
All great advice, I appreciate the support. It is indeed a mental game more than anything else and I feel like I've only just begun to find my way. Hope you're doing well yourself!
Very cool piece👍
Thanks! Much appreciated!
Noticed this nice sketch on instagram, figured I'd check here because I know the overall description would be better. Glad I did, feels like ages since I checked on here in general
Good to see ya! Heck, I've even been slacking here and I consider HIVE my online home... so I completely understand. Hang out anytime! I'm always on the lookout for more of your previews.
Previews will definitely be coming, frankly I'm interested in your progress. It's partly why I peek at hive, and to see the works of many more. Given all the projects you have, it sounds like you have a lot on your plate most of the time! I can relate to that and wish you luck, and when it all happens - I'll look forward to reading "I Thought it Would be Zombies" 😉
That's a cool portrait. Definitely in your style. Of course we love to see you post on Hive, but I expect you are busy. Drop in when you can.
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That's the problem, I'm really not overwhelmingly busy... just overwhelmed! 😅 Getting better though and I think I've got at least a couple posts in the pipeline for this week which will be quite a run of activity for me!
Now that's a really cool self portrait. I love how the glasses and beard was drawn. I should create a self portrait one of these days. It's been a pretty long time.
Thank you! I don't think I quite captured just how many white hairs are in my beard... 😬 I know some artists make a habit of regular self portrait work, but for most of us I have a feeling the practice kinda goes out the window once you don't have any teachers assigning it!
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