It's fitting to upload this image now; the previous image, a large poster of Spider-Man, was done when I was leaving comics and was in a terrible headspace and life space. I was a decent artist then, so even in that bad headspace there were still some good things about the poster. But it was definitely the 'old me' and the old style of my art, in my failing life.
I started having visions of a very different art style. This 'Lovers' pinup was one of my first explorations into my new creativity. I picked away at the first version in the late 1990s, then two more versions in the early 2000s. Each one got a little closer to the images I was seeing in my head. I just completed this fourth version, which is the closest yet. Still not entirely where I want to end up, but it's a happy in-between, and far removed from my old style of art.
I've been doing a few of these explorations, with characters of old, and characters I've been developing should I ever decide to create my magnum opus comic story.
'Lovers' features a couple of my old characters who I have morphed into something new and more advanced. I don't even know what I'll call them yet so they will remain nameless for the time being.
I have no idea how others will take my new style. I like my old stuff but I LOVE drawing this new stuff. I'm just scratching the surface of this new exploration but my rough sketches are in the dozens or hundreds and they run deep. It's so off-the-charts creative. Who knows what will come of it... but it's the exploration that is important for now.
Edit: it's a few days later after I finished and uploaded this image, and I've just attended as a special guest at a 2-day weekend comicon in a nearby city. Attendance of around 2.5K people. I didn't want to sell anything, so I offered comic art critiques, and made a bunch of photocopies of some of my pages to hand out for free, signed. Everyone likes a little free takeaway.
I'd figured one of the popular characters would be the most chosen free pages. Maybe one of my Conan pages, or Spider-Man, Punisher, even Untamed. But nope... it was this one. 'Lovers'. I told them that this 'lovers' illo isn't even published, just a recent drawing. Out of the dozen or so pages I'd made photocopies of... the occasional person would choose a Spider-Man or Conan or Badger photocopy, but most of them chose 'Lovers'. Even a little kid, maybe 6 years old there with family, wanted this one.
I loved the validation. I'd still be doing this style even if it was hated, because it feels authentic and I love doing it; still, nice to have the outside validation. People reacted viscerally to it and loved something about the style and subject.
Another plus: a lot of young artists showed up with their art in hand for a critique! I didn't think anyone would really show up for that, so I was pleasantly surprised. There was even a lineup for critiques, at times. A fun return to comicon life for me, even though it is decades since I left working in comics, and even longer - maybe 35 years - since attending my last comicon. For this one, I told the organizers I didn't want to make a dime from it, just to give and be helpful. So I gave out many photopies and helped many young artists with tips on their art.
