Hi Guys Long Time No Post! In An Attempt To Get Rid Of Art Block, I Drew One Ryan Ross Portrait Everyday

hi guys long time no post! in an attempt to get rid of art block, I drew one Ryan Ross portrait everyday for a week. here are the results lol

commentary under the cut:

I’ve been in an art block for about a year or so (read; I haven’t made any art im serious about for like a year), so for some reason I wanted to reignite my love of portraiture using Ryan Ross—why Ryan Ross, you ask? no clue, just felt like it. could have easily been Patrick Stump tbh. so anyway, I wanted to get better at using references so everyday I picked a picture of ryro off of Pinterest and drew it for a week.

here’s what I learned:

(above) this is day 1 vs. day 7 —I don’t think I can quite call this an improvement as opposed to me getting used to drawing again (I don’t think my skill level has changed, just that it took me a while to figure out how to use a pen again)

for the sake of consistency, I only chose pictures of him from this specific era (headband, vest, tie, dress shirt), but it’s so interesting to see how Ryan Ross has changed (appearance-wise) throughout the years. i would say the peak of his fame was his teenage years up to early adulthood, so this era of his life is remarkably well documented. for better or for worse, this is notably a time of a lot of change for most people (speaking from experience), so I can’t imagine what it feels like for all of those changes to be documented on the internet

along those lines, I can’t imagine what it’s like to be perpetually a teenager in the eyes of the internet. almost every image of him on Pinterest is in the pre-split panic era, which is unsurprising but it makes he hard to remember that man is well into his 30s now. there’s this weird pseudo-infantilism and martyrdom of Ryan Ross on the internet because (as mentioned before) the peak of his fame was when he was a teenager, and he essentially disappeared from the internet when he was a young adult. I wonder what it’s like for your legacy to be your teenage self? my teenage years were probably the worst years of my life, I can’t imagine being solely known for 17-18 year old me. me drawing seven portraits of like a 20 year old Ryan Ross obviously does not help combat this perception of Ryan Ross, but I figured that I’d post it anyway (if not for the art, then for the learning experience) —to make a long thought short, it’s a little odd to see such a big difference between Ryan Ross and his legacy/reputation on the internet. I think a lot of us have a hard time remembering that Ryan Ross is a 37 year old man, not a symbol of pre-split panic.

art wise, the biggest lesson here is that progress is not linear. which, to be fair, I feel like this is a very common saying. but I think the day four portrait is my favorite, and the day five portrait is the worse. go figure

as a side note, my theory is that every artist goes through a phase where their style focuses on one or two of the elements of art. I think im currently in my line and shape phase (and will probably be for the foreseeable future)

anyway, those are all my thought. thanks to u if you read through this entire thing, lolz, I appreciate u lots of

see u all next time <3