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Artist's commentary
Sylvie the Spirit Goat ver. 2025
Sylvie the Spirit Goat (灵羊秀菲) was a goat character I designed in 2015 to celebrate Year of the Goat. She wore a sweater made from her own wool. The first picture is a 2025 redraw of the unfinished 2015 sketch.
The second picture is Sylvie’s original sketch from 2015. At that time, a sweater with a chest cutout meme was popular among Twitter artists, which inspired my design for Sylvie. My creative state in 2015 was poor, and I was over-concerned about how my work would be received. However, the drawing process for this sketch was unusually enjoyable. Although it was quite sketchy when posted, the feedback far exceeded my average at that time. I personally liked this sketch very much and intended to refine it further.
Picture 3 was my first attempt in 2015 to clean up the sketch. However, I felt that the end result lost the original charm, so I abandoned it. When reviewing this unfinished line drawing in 2025, I realized that my focus on making the character look curvy led me to neglect overall anatomy. On top of that, intentionally expanding the composition below Sylvie’s knees negatively affected the entire picture.
Picture 4 was my second attempt at cleaning up the sketch, but I felt it wasn’t good even in 2015. The lines and shapes appeared stiff, and I forced the picture to show the full body, neglecting the original composition’s balance, which made it felt quite uncomfortable. At that time, intrusive thoughts unrelated to drawing disrupted my creative process; I was preoccupied with how to please others rather than focusing on creation itself.
Picture 5 was the final Spring Festival celebration picture I completed for 2015, largely based on a cropped version of Picture 4. Despite adding elements like a vinyl record player and refining the headphones, along with Sylvie playing an electric erhu and a censer, it felt contrived. The character appeared flat, had subtle perspective issues, and Sylvie’s lower half looked too heavy due to excessive focus on muscle lines in her legs, disrupting overall balance. The result was mediocre.
I spent nearly a month on these pictures of Sylvie in 2015, but the final version received much worse feedback than my initial sketch, which was a significant blow. I viewed it as a major failure and public embarrassment. Consequently, the 2015 Spring Festival picture was removed from my gallery. However, the concept of Sylvie later inspired the creation of Vela Cosmos the Snowgoat.
In 2025, while sorting through old works, I rediscovered these pictures. My mindset has changed significantly since then. Upon reviewing them again, I noticed that the initial sketches possessed some natural charm but lacked outstanding quality overall due to many noticeable flaws. The two unfinished line drawings and the finished Spring Festival Celebration picture didn’t seem as bad as I’d remembered. It’s clear that a negative mindset can greatly impact one’s judgment.
As a re-challenge to my previous failure, I redrew the original sketch in 2025. The process was smooth and quick, and I was satisfied with the result. I plan for Sylvie to have a support role in Spirit Animals in Disguise in the future.