this is the first sketch I made of Liar in 2011. I was probably drunk and sad. it’s just a sad square-headed stick figure, walking through a bunch of happy round-headed people
on the same vodka-stained notebook I ended up sketching out the truth about the square-headed character. it was a round-headed person all along, hiding.. or pretending
this sketch was the first hint at the Liar project not being grounded in reality, but being something more abstract and conceptual
with this series of chicken scratches I wanted to highlight the “loner” nature of Liar. I was also an emo teen at the time, going through a breakup. it was not as deep as I thought
after that summer I got my first graphic tablet, and I started experimenting with digital painting software. used my favorite colors (teal) on the sketches from above
that’s just ketchup, Liar can be a bit theatrical
another mixed media piece, featuring a long time dead Liar. the scrap of paper in his hand features one of my first signatures. I liked the idea of the butterfly, it meant that despite the death of Liar, life was still there, probably thriving over his remains, in a positive “cycle of life” way. I ended up re-doing this piece for the XIII - Death tarot card
I think this one was inspired by the song “Where Is My Mind?” by the Pixies, specifically by the lyrics “with your feet on the air and your head on the ground” or something. I was also listeing to a lot of Celldweller, and the album “Wish Upon A Blackstar” probably has something to do with the name of this piece. anyways, the gist of it that this is yet another surreal piece where Liar is literally breaking the ground from impact (has he been shot?), but there’s nothing below it, and he continues to fall
I was definitely getting the hang of my graphic tablet by now. the roses are 100% traced from a picture I had found online. Liar is trying to pose as sophisticated and elegant, but the truth is that nobody wants to have anything to do with him anyways. I think I missed the road to becoming an incel by a narrow, narrow margin back then
I tried experimenting with some brushes I had downloaded from good old DeviantArt here. the result is.. questionable, but there’s the first appearance of GOD, another character from the Liar universe. that’s the chicken scratch with a pyramid head. also mentioned in the IV - The Emperor tarot card
speaking of DeviantArt, look! I found my PFP from back then
this one is the last of my early-digital-art era, I think. tried some cloud brushes, ended up with this. meaning? maybe that Liar is not just a character, but a concept
some trippy sketch I made on paper around the same time
in this sketch, Liar’s head is actually made of wax, a candle burning and slowly consuming itself. he is actually encouraging you to do the same: use your brain, unlock your full potential, shine bright. won’t last long, but you’ll be seen
Liar trying to get away from me, trapped in my hand
probably the last of the traditional sketches for Liar, portrayed here as the vagabond he is, without a clear direction in his life
here I was in my MyPaint phase, a small painting program with a strong brush engine. there was something about its interface that made it very easy to start new sketches, something I never found in any other drawing program after that. anyways, I tried coming up with a design guide for Liar’s body
at this point, Liar was starting to take on a definitive appearance, as I settled on his final shapes and details
back in (probably) 2015, I decided to try out Patreon to make a comic or a book about Liar’s story. it didn’t work in the slightest, but I had made this as part of the cover of the project. there was another artwork that I can’t find anywhere now, picturing the same wall years earlier, with Liar and HER (another important character in his story, his love interest so to speak) holding hands in front of it. at the time, only the “HER” was present on the wall. kinda like a love letter. and this second picture was meant to represent the passage of time, and Liar covering up his old writings, hiding his past. that’s why he picked the name Liar for himself, because he built his life on lies and masks
I actually found the other drawing in question, although not as a standalone file, just this promo image above
around the same time I was learning how to use Blender, and I had put together a 3D scene with Liar. I had learned how to import downloaded assets, how to make audio positional, how to use cel shading and outlines, use noise to displace 3D models (like the rocks in the background), rigging, animating, cloth simulations.. I was really enjoying the process. in the end I had this short animation of Liar walking in the desert with a makeshift stereo made out of an iPod nano, some batteries, and a rude speaker. I remember the bandages taking an awful lot to wrap around the character, but I was very happy with the result. I even made it into a 3D-anaglyph thing, one of those videos you could watch with the blue / red glasses and perceive as three dimensional
to make this one I had definitely traced a 3D scene I had set up in Blender, OR downloaded from the internet. I don’t remember honestly, I was still learning and I was constantly mindlessly tracing stuff. anyways, this is still representative of what I like my drawings to be like: lots of references and tiny details scattered around the piece. on the left, we can see some small drawings of Liar, see the trash box on the left? that’s a stencil I had made IRL and I had begun spraying around town. on Liar’s mask we can see a sticker from the hardcore-punk band Attrito, something that became canon since then. Liar is spraying a stereotypical anarchy symbol on the wall. I had no idea what anarchism was back then, it was just some edgy stuff. finally, on a strip of paper above Liar, there’s a quote from my favorite book of all times, Choke by Chuck Palahniuk, “art never comes from happiness”
this is still one of my favorite drawings I ever made of Liar. it’s based on the bluebird poem by Charles Bukowski. Liar’s mask is itself a cage, and the bird that now lies dead on the ground tried to flee from it (as signified by the trail of particles coming from it). in the original poem the bird is alive, but apparently Liar killed it, or didn’t save it in time, here. to top it off, Liar is in a bigger cage himself, and maybe he’s the bluebird after all
here it was 2018 or close to it, and these were my first ever stickers. this is just an illustration I had made to promote them, but I had actually printed these two on some sticker sheets and started distributing them around. the quality was very poor, they didn’t last long outdoors
after this, I took an involuntary break from this little project. I came back to it in 2023, with Liar sticker 0