I’ll start this post with the tip of NEVER compare your work to someone else’s work. It’s not worth the heartache because you will always tear your own work apart and think it should look like something else. Makes no sense but the human brain isn’t logical.
However I do think it’s actually quite fun to compare yourself with you past self and that’s exactly what I’ve been doing recently!
At the beginning of this month I was feeling a bit burned out from deadlines so I decided to close my custom orders for a couple of weeks to give myself a break and to catch up on some new designs for the shop. I was ready to create but I had no inspiration. Instead I just stared at a blank page feeling the pressure to create something build up. So I decided to go back to some of my original ratty designs that I created 7 years ago and try to recreate them.
These original designs are so different to how I create now, I still love them but it’s also so much fun to actually see how much my style has evolved over the years. I love where my creative adventure has taken me and also that I’ve found so much love for textures. The next example gave me nightmares though…
Evie’s original toes (literally haunting my nightmares), the iffy inking and my poor scanning and editing skills have made me cringe so much since I found this one. But at the same time it’s also given me that fantastic feeling of achievement to see how far I’ve come.
The final recreated design I’m sharing today is my “Everything will be okay” design. This was a bit difficult as I along with many other people absolutely love the original design so I felt torn over recreating it with an updated style. I still love the original as it’s just so special but the recreated illustration also fills me with happy feelings. I’m glad I took the time to update the design with the others.
I’ve really enjoyed giving these designs a new lease of life and it was a much needed mental break from coming up with new designs. It ended up being a great motivator too as it showed me that I have made progress in the last few years even if I beat myself up at times.
There’s going to be lots of fun happening at Silly Badger Designs over the summer months and I’m super excited to share more but it’s a bit top secret at the moment. To be the first to get new updates and sneak previews sign up to my mailing list here (Don’t worry I only email when there’s something new happening, I don’t have time to spam you! XD)
And if you got this far thanks for reading my rambles! I hope May has treated you well and I look forward to sharing more next month!
Silly Badger Designs 