Freebird or Inspiration

When I'm daydreaming, without a care in the world, I find myself drawn to gaze at the clouds. They fascinate me. They feel like a wondrous thing even though I know exactly what they are and how to explain them. Like the aurora borealis, I suppose. I'm reminded of the opening scene to "A Boy Named Charlie Brown", in which Charlie Brown, Linus, and Lucy are lying in a field and staring at clouds, naming off what they see. To me, that's childhood in its purest form. No critical thought - just imagination that comes from the simplest of activities. What do you see when you look into the clouds?

As for me, I see stories in the clouds. I see monsters and strange creatures. I see worlds and sprawling landscapes. I see heroes and villains. I can see just about any given thing if I let my imagination wander and keep my mind open. These stories and shapes I see inspire my work. Sometimes I'll have no clue what to do for a drawing; and at those times, I look to the skies. Staring at white, fluffy clouds, which have such abstract shapes and can look like so many different things, helps free my mind and can spark concepts in my imagination that I would have never come to otherwise. The clouds are like a work of art, and every day is a new canvas that wipes the easel clean and starts over. One of my goals as an artist is to one day be able to draw something as beautiful as the natural sight of the sun shining through a sea of clouds.

Besides clouds, my other big source of inspiration is music. I write stories in my personal time, and music aids me in creating events and scenes. When I listen to music, my mind goes wild and I create images to sounds I'm hearing as if on instinct. I'm almost always listening to music while drawing as well; it helps keep me motivated and gets me excited to draw more. What are your sources of inspiration?

The girl you see here is named Sakiko - she is from a different story than Sei and the gang. I've been in the mood to draw new characters, but I didn't want to draw nobodies, so I tried out some characters from a different story that I hadn't designed before. I also wanted a girl with short hair, as far too often I give girls long flowing locks and, again, I wanted to try something different. I got a little lazy with her yukata this time; next time I'll give it some kind of pattern. So I started out drawing Sakiko in this pose, and that was it. I had no plan from there. Her pose made me think of a bird, so I played with the idea of drawing birds fly around her. From there, the direction of the piece got a little confused, I will admit. Is Sakiko in the same image as the birds? What is she standing on? Is she standing on air? Is she flying? I don't know! But she's there. You could say this is sort of an abstract like the most recent Suunuku drawing. As for the background, I took note of the way I portrayed shining light from my Halloween '11 image and used that to draw the sun. This is also one of the few times I've tried to competently draw birds, but they didn't come out too well. Here's some trivia for you - originally I was going for a much more realistic look and was putting shadows up on everything; all over Sakiko and all the clouds. But it didn't turn out well. Shadows are one of my weak points and I was having an off-day; it became a shaded mess. So I scaled back and took this more minimalist approach. I think it suits my style and my skill level better.