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WIP/Abandoned Stuff • Tips & Tricks

Honestly been so busy with these projects that I was constantly forgetting to post my usual monthly update. Don't worry everyone, I'm not dead...just slowly dying on the inside...

~~Old Art Showcase~~

Didn't really have any decent holiday drawings I did in the past since all of them make me cringe. This one I always have a soft spot for, as it's the first time I really discovered my style. Technically the BunnyKill fanart was first, but this one was when it actually clicked. I also really loved making this one too. The bed was a pain to get the perspective just right, but colouring everything was super fun. Plus I loved writing the description on that one.

~~>Last Month

Just been super hard at work on a bunch of these projects. Recently found an app that allows me to keep track of how many hours I work on these drawings just to keep the pressure on, and keep me focused at all time.

Wish I could tell you more about these projects, but that would just ruin the surprise for most of them.

~~>This Month's Plans

Just a ton of work. So much work, but it'll all pay off by the holidays. At least I sure as hell hope so.

There might be one project I'll need to delay it if it gets too tight with the scheduling. Heck, I practically suspended that one already just to focus on these more important projects.

Still somewhat worried about my potential living conditions I'm about to face at the end of the month, and even though that's still important I have to try to ignore that and focus on putting smiles on other people's faces. It's the least I can do right now, and it still brings me some joy.

Just gonna say it right now. Probably won't have anything for January. I'll still try, but I have no clue what's about to happen next year. Who knows, I could be stuck in a spot without my tablet and/or without internet. It's happened before, wouldn't surprise me if it happened again.

Well that's enough doom and gloom for one post. Don't want to bring everyone's morale down over something that isn't even their fault.

As always, see you next update. I know the next one will be special

~•Threads•~

WIP/Abandoned Stuff • Tips & Tricks

Boy, just when I thought things couldn't get any worse life has a way of kicking me in the shins. To briefly explain what's going on, I've got about 7 projects I need to get done before Christmas (some obviously quicker than others), I've partially given-up on the Sketch Collab (couldn't finish my animation, but I still posted what was finished at the time), and there a chance I might lose my apartment by the end of the year all because the new landlord hates me even more than the old one which I didn't think that would even be possible.

Ain't life just grand?

More info on that last one here

All I'll say is that I ain't going down without a fight, I'll keep this apartment for as long as I can because the new landlord definitely doesn't deserve it.

So yeah, things are about to get rough. Probably rougher than what I was doing in 2021 but in different ways.

~~Old Artwork Showcase~~

This is another one of my old drawings that aged surprisingly well. Even at the time I was surprised that this one only took me a day to fully complete, and I think I remember this one went super well too. No crunching like some of my other detailed drawings.

On occasions I like to revisit this one because it has such a vibe that's both calming and gloomy at the same time. Was in a special mood when I made this one that's for sure.

~~>Last month

Tried participating in the Sketch Collab, but I realized my speed is god-awful when animating. Had to scrap an animation halfway through because I realized it was way too complicated for the amount of time I had, so I tried to downscale it to a simpler animation...only to realize that it was almost as complicated as the last one but in completely different ways.

So not wanting to rush-out every single project I have planned for next month I decided to axe it all together, and just give what I had completed at the time to the Sketch Collab.

I'm also going to announce this right now: This'll be the last time I participate in the Sketch Collab. Not because they're all big meanies, but because I'm just not prepared enough to participate. This is also the reason why I've been avoiding animation collabs like the plague. I don't want to be that awkward kid that always hands-in their assignments last and makes the entire class wait. I don't do nearly enough animations to comfortably understand my limits, and last year's Sketch Collab felt like a fluke.

Will I finish these Sketch Collab animations? Probably not. What I really need to do is just practice animating simple things first so that way I can build-up my speed and get it out the door sooner. Right now how I animate is I smash shit together until I magically make something super smooth. There's no pattern or efficiency to my madness, and yet it gives me perfect results every time. It just takes me close to 2 months to make it which to me is kinda bad. Ideally I'd like to complete a full proper 3-5 second sketch comfortably in a day, and not in 2-3 month while crunching in the final week.

Also can't quite figure-out if I want to focus on drawing my comic, animations, or 3D modelling next year. It's gonna be a messy toss-up that's for sure.

~~>This Month's Plans

The only thing I'll even be releasing this month is a little holiday profile pic. Everything else I'm doing will be released in December.

Originally thought about doing a small drawing to practice drawing trees, but just looking at the amount of projects that need to be done made me change my mind. Might do it in January instead, but at the same time with what's going on right now...really unsure if that'll ever happen either.

We'll see when we get there.

That's all the news for this month. Let's hope I survive until the end of the year with everything going-on right now.

~•Threads•~

WIP/Abandoned Stuff • Tips & Tricks

[Gonna put this up here instead out of curiosity. Let me know if this is better or worse]

It's that time of year again, and unfortunately just like last year I might not be able to participate in the festivities because I'm participating in the Sketch Collab this year again. I'll try giving it a shot at the very least because this year's animation is a lot simpler to animate compared to the one I made last year which was a cruel joke at my own expense.

[the animation in question]

At least it got front paged, so it was still worth something in the end.

~~Old Artwork Showcase~~

Very old drawing I did while I was still challenging myself to do a drawing every day for a year straight. It's not my proudest work, but it's the only Halloween drawing I've made so far.

~~>Last month

Lots of computery nonsense. Though, not as much as I had planned. But before I get into that, here's the only non-computery thing I did last month: I did this little drawing where I went nuts with Inkscape

Only problem is that the day I posted it (which were these character's birthday) was on Madness Day. What a terrible coincidence, so here it is if you missed it.

To keep the techno-jargon brief because I know everyone here aren't as big of a nerd as I am. Last month I:

>Tried making a simple calendar app on my junk Linux phone, only to stop halfway when I realized how much work needed to be done with the graphics

>Played around with NixOS as a way to prepare for my rig update next year

>Studied how to set up a Windows server for some family member's business, and Windows kept fighting back over the stupidest things

>Tried modding my headphones to have a removable cable because the old one was on its last legs, but that only made things worse so I bought new headphones that included a removable cable instead. (gonna have to go to someone with better soldering skills than me to mod these old ones)

>I hacked a brand new Wii because the old one I had as a kid no longer wanted to play Wii games (both through a disk and through hacking it which is very strange).

Still did a lot, but the few things I haven't gotten to will have to be pushed to January.

~~>This Month's Plans

So...many...projects... ( ._.)

Granted most of these will probably happen around November/December instead, but still, the pressure is on to the max in these last few months.

For this month I'll mostly focus on the Sketch Collab animation, but in general there's like 6 really important projects that need to be done before the end of the year. Most of them Christmas themed, and I'll hop to them as soon as I'm done with the Sketch Collab which I'm partially hoping I don't finish late November like last year. No promises though.

That's all I have for this month. Hope I make it out alive next year.

See you next month...I think

So tired...been working my ass off for too long, so I'm just gonna take a good chunk of September off to focus on more computery things and relaxing.

Also had this idea to spotlight some old art that I kinda like, so here's a fitting one to start with

[One of the few early drawings I did that aged really well]

What did I do last month?

Short answer: Tons!

Long answer:

>Helped my parents fix-up part of their cottage

>Studied how to draw water

[it's a start. Not perfect, but I started getting the basics overtime]

[Had my tablet, but it was more convenient to take a bunch of paper with me and draw by the shore. It also feels better learn that way for some reason]

>Finished my little Birthday drawing

>I'm learning how to set-up a Windows server and VPN (no not the sponsored ones, a proper one) for another family member

[Yes, I'm a certified geek. Surprisingly more than the ones who graduated college according to them]

[Also, Windows is just plain bad for servers and it's the most insecure and convoluted piece of crap I had to set-up...I use Arch BTW!]

[Still not done setting it up btw]

>Helped my mom do some promotions for her little grocery business

[Forgot to take some screenshots of it sorry]

>Helped my mom with video editing to help train for her photography business, as well as teach her how to use a camera

[Don't you hate it when you're the only one in the family that's good with computers]

>Tried working on another drawing

[started work on it like 2 months ago I think, but I just been pushing it because of other more important things]

>And finally I was commissioned by my aunt to do this...kinda

All and all, I just felt like I was constantly running-out of time last month, and constantly doing favours for family members which only made things worse

Plans for September

Nothing!

Apart from the unfinished drawing (which I'll finish slowly), and a few little favour I made for family members, I just don't want to be bothered this month AT ALL!

September is probably the only "ber" month where I can actually catch a break, and I want to embrase as much of it as I can before I dive into the chaos that is the last three months of the year.

See you next update!

...Now time to play catch-up with my feed

Hello again!

It's been a pretty quiet month last month, and it wasn't because I overslept, I just underestimated how long it takes to actually construct something in 3D.

What am I working on?

Throughout the entirety of July I've been hard at work making a 3D model of that house I showed last time.

This entire kitchen (plus a little around the kitchen) was what I was able to get done in a month...needless to say I had to change-up the drawing a little because it was originally going to show the living room as well, and I was already burnt-out doing just the kitchen.

[Fun fact: all the texture used in this were mathematically generated by Blender. I didn't need to import a single image]

The good news is that I have the drawing sketched-out to an extent, so it should be smooth sailing from here.

...I just need to plan-out how to layer everything since I'm using two programs to make this, but that shouldn't be too tough to do...I hope

I've also tested something in Inkscape that allows me to essentially get an airbrush look just by telling Inkscape to blur shapes in a particular way. I really wanted to show it off this month, but it'll have to wait a bit (I'm thinking late Septembre). Depending on how things go, I might just end-up switching most of my workflow to Inkscape, and only use Krita for sketching, lineart, and making patterns that would normally be hard to do in Inkscape.

The Toronto Meetup

If you didn't know, I was in the NG Toronto meetup! It was my first time ever attending one, and it was also the first time I ever drove to Toronto all by myself, and I gotta say...what the hell is up with Toronto's signs! The whole thing was like navigating a labyrinth of signs that tell you what you can and can't do, but they never tell you enough info so you're constantly left confused.

Apart from the sign fiasco, I had an amazing time in the Newgrounds meetup! Met so many awesome people, got a few stickers, got a bunch of streetpasses, played some Mario Kart DS in the theater, laughed a ton watching a bunch of Newgrounds videos, had a dozen people draw in my little sketchbook I brought over, and I even met THE Tom Fulp!

Don't have too many pics of the event since I don't instinctively take-out my camera like most people (and all of them were kinda bad because they were all taken inside a dark theater), so here's some of the drawings people left in my sketchbook to make-up for that.

Unfortunately it's not all of them, and my little sketchbook was a tiny bit too small so most people drew on different pages instead which kinda makes it hard to share with photographs, but it something I'll cherish, and I'll bring back in the next meetup whenever that happens.

Plans for this month

Not much planned this time, I'm more so playing catch-up with last month because of how long it took me to make that 3D kitchen. I've got the birthday drawing I need to get done, and the vector drawing. In my downtime I do plan on writing-down all my water studies I did and put them somewhere (still not sure where...I'll probably make another thread just for that at worst).

I do have these little animation exercises I want to make (just simple head rotation exercises for each of my OCs), but I don't know if it'll release this month.

Another thing I want to do is a compilation vid of this little animation

The sketch collab peeps probably know about this but I actually posted the WIP of my animation every single day until the final sketch was done (you know...for funsies!). It was planned to be part of the 2021 Sketch Collab credits, but everyone working on it forgot to put it in, so I'm gonna do it instead. Though, depending on how things go I might start working on that later this month or sometime next month.

That's all the news I've got for now, see all of you next month!

~•Threads•~

WIP/Abandoned Stuff • Tips & Tricks

Hello everyone!

Gonna try making these little news updates a consistent (or as consistent as I can) monthly thing from now on, just because it gives me something to do that isn't drawing related, and it's fun to keep everyone in the know.

What happened?

Last month was a bit of a busy month for me. Lots of learning, and lots of preparing for upcoming events. Though, not much in terms of finished drawings, but I did finish my damn animation I made for last year's Sketch Collab.

I think part of it is because of the heat, its just so demotivating sometimes. Another being that animation is such a pain in the ass and takes forever to make.

In terms of learning, I've been exploring how to use Inkscape to make vector drawings. Inkscape is surprising me with what it can do with vectors, and I'm thinking of doing a lot of test drawings that pushes this program to its upper limits.

I've also been studying a lot with water lately. Specifically with waves and water reflections, and thinking of theoretical ways I can replicate that look in the art programs I use. It's surprising how simple waves are deep down. a lake is basically just a bumpy mirror, the challenge comes from trying to find shortcuts in the programs you use so that you don't spend a day just doing one wave.

And lastly, I went to my mom's cottage for a week before writing this (why am I getting a sense of deja-vu?). It was quite fun! We went fishing, rode on 4 wheelers, swam a lot, barbequed a lot, went kayaking for a bit, and we spent a lot of time with an old family member that we haven't seen in years. It was probably the best time I've had in that cottage in a long time.

Time well spent!

Plans for this month, and project sneak peeks

Firstly, I've been busy prepping myself for the Newgrounds Toronto Meetup that's going to happen at the end of the month. Very excited about it, and I even made business cards for the occasion!

Secondly, I've been keeping the tradition of "doing the time sensitive projects way in advance" by starting on my little birthday drawing for this year.

For this year, I decided to build the little house that's been living in my head for a good while in 3D, and I'll be using it as a background for some of my drawings. I've only just started modelling it, so it's still pretty primitive looking as I block-out all the important things and model them individually afterwards.

It's going to be a massive time sink, but it'll be very helpful for a bunch of things later-on as I don't need to manually calculate the perspectives and the lighting of this house that I don't have any references to.

As I mentioned before I've also been experimenting a lot with Inkscape recently, and I think I've got a decent workflow with all my programs right now.

Basically the sketches and the lineart are done using Krita; I vectorize things, add shading, and details with Inkscape; if I need a texture that's hard to do by hand, or anything 3D then I'll use Blender; and all things related to animations are done in OpenToonz

Every program I use has its purpose now, and I love it!

So expect a lot of drawings done in Inkscape this month, and a bunch of drawings with water in them.

Now if you'll excuse me...I need a break

God, I'm so tired...

~•Threads•~

WIP/Abandoned Stuff • Tips & Tricks

Hey everyone, been a bit since my last update hasn't it. Didn't post very much either for that matter.

So, what's going-on?

Well, not long after my last update I decided to quit my job. It was a decent job work wise, and the place did sell really good quality products...but it's just the owner's "strange behaviour" that constantly put me in a depressing mood, and after working there for more than a year with little to no changes (maybe worse too) I decided enough was enough and quit my job.

If you want to know the specifics, look here:

Straight afterwards I went and worked at my parent's cottage for a week, and occasionally doodled on my DSi

These ones here:

Just a bunch of tough physical work that pretty much left me sore for a few days. By the end everyone just wanted to go back home and relax for once [which kinda defeats the purpose of staying at a cottage for a week, but oh well]

Secret Projects

Another reason why I haven't posted much is because I was also hard at work making a drawing for one of my OC's "birthday", and for a 3DS collab.

Both of these are now finished, but one won't be released until the June 15th, and the other probably won't be released until early July.

Why didn't I start them later?

Well it's because both of them used Blender in ways that I wasn't familiar yet (one is a mix of 2D and 3D, while the other was full 3D), and I didn't want a repeat of 2022 where I kept missing my own deadlines. So I'd rather it be done as early as I can, and have a bit of breathing room for other projects that aren't so time sensitive instead of constantly crunching my ass off.

It also means I can do little teasers like this to hype things up

Sneak peek

Ooo, so mysterious! I wonder what it could be?

Well, that's all the news that happened last month, now I'm off to make myself a cake to celebrate my hard work

See you next update!

~•Threads•~

Photography (DOWN) • WIP/Abandoned Stuff • Tips & Tricks • Technobabblery (DOWN)

...I don't know what I'm doing anymore...

I feel like I'm at a point in my life where I want to be known, and to do crazy projects...but all of that takes time, and good connections. All of which can't quite be done with my 2.5 years of art experience, even if my skill improve exponentially.

Everything (including myself) is screaming at me that I should try to turn my happy little hobby into a job, but every time I try I just get overwhelmed, confused, and stressed-out. Doesn't help that my job at the bakery is on the line too. That alone spiked my stress levels.

I genuinely don't know where I should put my focus anymore because I don't feel motivated to do any of them right now due to the constant stress I'm feeling right now.

Been running around like a chicken with its head cut off for too long, and now I think I need some time to just flop-down and stop thinking for a bit because my brain hurts. Might even do some mindless vent-art to pass the time.

I know almost all of you never read these things, so I'm essentially screaming at the void for the 500th time...

...Don't even know why I'm still even trying honestly...Guess I'm still hopeful in a way that at least one person will see this...

...but for the few that do read this...

...thank-you

~•Threads•~

Photography (DOWN) • WIP/Abandoned Stuff • Tips & Tricks • Technobabblery (DOWN)

Haven't updated in a while have I?

Not much has been happening as of late. Just been stressed-out for a good bit as I was trying to figure things out. Which is why my drawings slowed-down drastically.

I've since calmed-down and been trying to formulate a plan, and scrounged-up enough money to build myself a new PC that I oh so desperately needed.

[Finally, I can do animations and 3D modelling without constantly micro-managing everything]

I want to ask everyone here a question:

Do you want me to do commissions now, or later in the year?

Been thinking about it for a good while now, and what's happening with my job made me panic about that too. Right now I don't feel like I ready for it, but I know that I'll never do it if I don't push myself.

I also want to know if there's even a demand for it. If a whole bunch of you want me to do commissions or other art/graphic design work, then I'll push myself to get it started. Otherwise, I'll just keep doing what I'm doing until I feel like my art has improved enough.

That's all for now. Se you next update

And Thanks for reading

~•Threads•~

Photography (DOWN) • WIP/Abandoned Stuff • Tips & Tricks • Technobabblery (DOWN)