Happy 2021
Around this time of the year in 2019, I’m sure we all shared some sort of “Happy 2020” wishes. Here’s one of mine:
“Here's to a great 2020 and the best to all of you for the next decade!”
Little did I know, right? Maybe we weren’t so loud, so please, really mean it this time 😬
Jokes aside, while writing my newsletter (which you can subscribe to if you haven’t yet, here) to raise a glass and send good wishes to my followers, I kinda reflected on 2020 and noticed two things.
It has been kind of a crappy year for all of us in many ways. I, like many, have had sick loved ones, have been in confinement for many months (here in Argentina, strict lockdown was from March to October-ish, believe it or not), have been tired of being at home and without being able to do the things I like or hug people I love.
But also so many good things happened, at least to me personally. I got married to the love of my life, had a wonderful wedding (pre-pandemic), got eye surgery, released many pieces of new artwork this year (including my homage to the "Cars my dad Owned"), revamped the website, created the new branding look and logo, started the newsletter emails, a new photography section and even got one of my artworks published in a cars magazine!
I would love it if you could reflect on your year as well, trying to find the positive things that happened to you, so they can be used as a motivation and fuel to kick the crap out of 2020 by making 2021 an amazing year. Feel free to share that with me in the comments down below or by hitting me up on Twitter as well.
2020 in Creating Lightly progress
A lot can happen in a whole year, and part of that is growing up. I feel I grew up as an artist, by taking advantage of my extra time at home (due to lockdown) and motivation to improve.
I took some online lessons (with some others purchased but still pending), participated in Lightbox Expo 2020 (that was online this time around, so I could attend virtually), learned a LOT from reference, tried different art styles to get out of my comfort zone, and even challenged myself to a month-long affair that was very hard and personally rewarding (even if it didn’t have a lot of social media interaction).
All that work made me grow as an artist. Trying different styles, challenging myself with constraints (keep the values brief, give another medium’s look, or make one illustration a day with key aspects of a car, to name a few), reading art books and watching hours upon hours of videos. And I’m very happy to say I feel a much better artist than I was a year ago.
2020 in Creating Lightly artwork
But what did I do during 2020? Well, all this!
I think this year has been long for everyone, but even I didn’t think I did no less than 15 new pieces of artwork. This is more than one per month in average.
And I’m not even counting the 30 days of 1 artwork per day for the “Alfa Romeo 110th Anniversary homage” that you can check on this thread in Twitter or in my Instagram page by scrolling down until May-June because I’m so lazy I didn’t upload them to the website yet.
What’s in store for 2021?
Well, that, if you agree with me, is a LOT of artwork, right? Specifically car artwork.
I have been learning a lot of non-car related things in art, and would love to start illustrating and sharing some other things. Of course, cars are my comfort zone and what “I know I can do”, but I hope 2021 lets me challenge myself with some backgrounds/landscapes as well. Maybe some characters too?
I’ve been purchasing some books (physical and digital) that gave me A LOT of inspiration and learning assets towards this. To name a few:
Legend of Zelda (Creating a Champion, Art & Artifacts, Encyclopedia and Hyrule Historia) (Physical)
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse - The Art of the Movie (Physical)
Color and Light by James Gurney (Physical)
Creative Fundamentals Vol. 1 and Vol.2 by Devin Korwin (Digital)
TO:KY:OO by Liam Wong (physical, HUGE inspiration)
Komorebi by Djamila Knopf (physical)
The Sketchbook of Loish (physical)
And many more assets (books, online courses, videos, etc.). As you can see, we (don’t forget wifey and I are both artists, but she’s a lot more serious about it. Just look at her gorgeous work in her Instagram) have been investing a lot in our art education and inspiration, and I think it has been paying off. I hope 2021 lets us improve even further! Because we love doing this, and I love that you love my work as well (I guess! Since you’re reading this).
Does this mean I won’t be doing any more cars? Hahaha of course not. If my veins were wide enough, cars would use them as tunnels. I love cars, so car art will still be part of my artwork. I just hope to be able to share a bit more variety so I can widen my audience.
Some final words
2020 has definitely been quite a ride. I hope 2021 is a bit easier on our lives, but personally I feel it will be quite as moving, but for much better reasons. I don’t know, it’s a hunch.
Here I’m raising a glass for all of you who give me your support and kind words. You may think a like, a retweet or a comment is no big deal, but for us artists, it really means the world.
I am lucky enough not to need art for a living, so I kinda do whatever I feel like (the best kind of art inspiration, if you ask me), but the reassurance and heart warming feel your interaction gives me is just beautiful.
I hope I can continue to put out art you like, and we keep being together as artist and fans, but more importantly, as friends.
Thanks a lot for your support, and see you next year! Happy 2021!
Special thanks: I would like to give some special thanks in no particular order, to some of my followers who have been very supportive and kind in this past year. I try to respond to every comment and thank all the kind words, but sometimes I can miss messages, and also, when you give me a like, there’s no way for me to acknowledge and thank that, so this is it! This is by no means everyone and if I missed you, I’m deeply sorry and please take my thanks for you as well! I appreciate all my followers. Without further ado, special thanks for the support go to: