A story about how the foundation of my art is made of 'character-only sketching' + alpha

The person who wrote the 'note I'd like everyone who cuts, pastes, processes, and twists my art to readnote' that I introduced the other day has added an update.

They seemed very happy about the response to the note, so I was going to offer my sincere congratulations... but then I saw this cry from the heart (paraphrased):

…Well then.
Sketching is important, of course.
However, 'it doesn't necessarily mean still life sketching' …is what I think.
At the very least, I have very little experience with still life sketching.
Although, I did do it seriously, down to the finest detail, just once.

For example, although I joined the art club for the first time in high school,the part-time art teacher also gave up on me, saying 'I won't say anything to Midori-nu' (just draw whatever you want),' so other than in art and craft classes, I was truly self-taught.
I have written about this incident several times in the past.

So, even though I was in the art club, I skipped the plaster cast of Caracalla, which looked like a hassle, and only did the Venus head twice, and the Venus de Milo (this one wasn't a plaster cast, but a cheap, shiny, reddish-brown and black object that looked like resin) once.
Moreover, the second Venus head was done half-heartedly, and as for the shiny resin Venus, it was so shiny that before I could even draw the shadows like I would with a plaster statue, all I could see was the shininess, so it wasn't much of a sketching exercise.

However, I felt during that first Venus head sketch that plaster statues aren't used for so long for nothing.
That is because 'you can concentrate only on the shadows without being distracted by color.'
(I was able to realize this strongly especially when I drew the reddish-brown shiny Venus de Milo.)

And that first Venus head sketch was done by breaking it down into incredibly fine details, which was serious for me at the time.
It wasn't that I was driven by a sense of duty, but rather that I found it interesting to focus on the shadows and became immersed in it.
(Conversely, since the first time was so detailed, I didn't feel like doing it a second time.)
As I looked closely at the shadows cast on the white plaster statue, it was filled with a sense of wonder, thinking 'I see, so this is how it is!' Even now, when I draw the shadows of a person's head, the knowledge I gained when I was immersed in drawing that Venus head is still alive.

The experience I gained at that time is still having a direct effect today.

But after that, I never did plaster sketching or any other still life sketching again.
After that, I just enjoyed the sense of wonder by observing the objects around me, and in fact, I only did a proper sketch once, that first Venus head.

So, how did I acquire the rest? It was truly through 'character-only sketching'.
I have posted the art from those early budding days on a past note as well.
It was like this, adding shadows to the characters I drew.

So, I was drawing pictures with lots of fun shadows.
…Then (later, they became an event organizer, obtained my personal information, and evolved into a real stalker who would make silent phone calls in the middle of the night), a stalker of my art appeared, but that is another story.
It is a different story, but while I was at it, I tried to recreate the stalker's art, and it was very difficult…
Drawing a distorted picture while ignoring the laws of physics is too high a difficulty level…

On the left below is the recreation of the stalker's illustration, and on the right is my recreation of my illustration from that time.

…Drawing creepy pictures is difficult, isn't it.

I have digressed quite a bit, but the point is that my current art is the result of constantly drawing what is on the right side of this recreation illustration, which is exactly 'character-only sketching,' and layering those sketches.

The good thing about 'character-only sketching' is that when you put heavy shadows on it, the distortions in your own art style become clearly apparent, so the art style itself becomes more refined.
…is what I would like to say, but the first-generation stalker was not like that at all, so it might depend on the person.

However, speaking from my own experience,

my art was created only through many 'character-only sketches' and one serious plaster sketch as the +alpha stage before that,

is the story.