Some writing, essentially

Also, today I watched War Horse. I cried.

The worst part was that the two German brothers made me think a whole lot about the two brothers I'm currently writing about, down to the situation (=potentially life-threatening). So my heart broke a bit when, and how, their story ended. Especially as the elder brother looks a bit like the story's elder brother. I was like, speechless. Dear god.
(and awesome movie, all in all. Really beautiful, if a bit romanticzed. The truce scene with the horse was absolutely genius. Not very believable, but who knows XD)

I didn't do much drawing this week. In fact, only an info pic for my compendium, which is still far from finished. I've been more obsessed with those brothers' story. So, here's a bit from the currently 14 written pages.

There's another tidbit available on Facebook that comes a short while after the one below. :)

(also, since I think about it: I guess this'd be an example of what'd be available on a Patreon of mine: not just these tidbits, but the entirety of the draft. And likely all sorts of assorted information.)

So it ends

As you have noticed, the daily challenge ended abruptly.

Aside from my computer needing an upgrade (which has since been performed), I got overwhelmed by the sheer amount of responsabilities I'd placed on my shoulders. Last week, as bf was on vacation from work, so did I take an unannounced vacation from life. It gave me time to re-focus. And made me see how much I needed to be less demanding of myself - or, rather, demanding in a smarter way.
Because, from doing so much, I lost track of a lot.

One fact is that the challenge didn't turn out, at all, as I'd wanted/planned. I made too many 'cop-out' pictures. This is one fact that made me realize the challenge is still too difficult for me to handle.
The other side of it is that I realized I was putting too much strain on accomplishing a lot, resulting in the important endeavours to be neglected - one, namely, was writing. And the couple of days I spent focussing solely on writing, I did no drawing. And it felt good.

So, for many reasons I can't detail because it's a jumbled mess in my brain still, the challenge is ended at 'unsatisfying'. It did help me a bit. But it's simply not helping me as it should - and, worse, it's detrimental to everything else.

The main focus now, is writing. I wanted to get my compendium done by end February, and clearly it's not going to happen, which means delay in getting my stories edited, and published. The second focus is ProjectComment, though I do have to be less strict with myself when it comes to replying to people because forcing myself is simply not yielding any results: I delay further. If I can do one note and/or comment a day, for now, at least I'll be going forward.

As for the Patreon, I'm still waiting on an answer from our Art Commission. Considering I'm delayed with everything, I can still give them some time... But, if they don't reply, I'll go through with it anyway. If you're curious, I plan on having a $1, $5, $15, and potentially $10 depending on what I can offer (or, who knows, what may interest people). The $15 will only be of worth to creative people, and may not have any luck selling, but I want to offer it anyway. More on this to be revealed later.

So, what's going to happen with this blog for this year? I'm not sure. When I have too many places to update at once, I get lost. Fact is I haven't updated my site in quite some time. Facebook's been a while, too. Considering I tend to add tidbits of writing on Facebook, I think I'll just keep this blog for the visual art pursuits. This does mean updates may become irregular, but I'll try to keep a regular schedule as before (Sunday or Monday), even if I have little to show.

It's time to put the 'right' back in writing. <<

#40 - Whyyy

I do think I took on way more than I can handle.

Longer post his weekend. For now, random (and simple) inspiration:

#39 - Ines Gaive

Happens now and again (and more and more often) that, while writing, I feel the need to draw. Well, I was in the middle of a scene with a character about to make his debut, and it hit me: I need to have an idea of what he looks like. Because his looks are important. As is his look. <<

I did try and give him a specific global look << for me, it says what it needs to. But then, I'm the one writing, so. XD

Waiting for bf to be home at a decent hour to upgrade my PC x.x the components are heeeeeere. I want my 16 GB of RAAAAAAAAAM. ;.;

#38 - Irony, part 2

I could have a comment, but I'll just say:

#37 - You have wings to fly

Born of a discussion between a good friend and I. I needed to get the idea out of my head.

Hopefully, once I got my 16GB of RAM, I'll be less limited. I would've loved to expand further on it, but I notice I get scared that my brush will lag, so I don't dare try as much as I could.

#36 - Irony

#35 - 'dumbass XD'

We had a couple good friends over last night. A few drinks as well. And a delicious homemade lasagna that she made. All this together made for a very lazy day today. XD

It does feel good to have some fun with good friends though. We still had to celebrate the new year with them, so. <<

So, my brain has been stupid. I know drinking too much isn't smart (and I had a had time sleeping), and that the hangover sucks. But. Once every six months or so is allowed? XD

I do try and play with anatomy with these little funny sketches too, though. They may not look like much, but like I said: when I don't try too hard to get things right, they have a way of being decent. XD

#34 - Please don't let me die

Honestly, I had fun with this. Started with a random pose, got a sketch that, I think, shows how much I love Egyptian art-anatomy XD... and then I thought: well, how about making it a bit more interesting? And then I went a bit wild. <<

I left the original stick-sketch because, for one, I liked it XD but also to show where and how I altered the final sketch. A fellow admin of ProjectComment directed me towards a coiling method video, which I used to try and get the leg proportions right. I mostly failed, but fact is I didn't try and get it perfectly right, either. I also didn't watch the video with sound << but, I try. I'm interested in building my understanding of anatomy, and that's what I'm doing ^^ just expanded a bit in this piece because I didn't want to upload a simple pose sketch. That and said pose beckoned me to be evil. << XD

Seriously, this was fun to draw. I notice that when I don't try too hard to get things right, things have a way of looking decent.

I also changed an option on G-Pen. I really like the pencil feel of some artists' lineart (case in point), but alas CSP seems to have no decent pencil tool :/ that and I like G-Pen. So I tried and set its opacity to 'random', which creates a pretty cool effect that may not quite show. Basically, instead of a straight thick black line, I get a line with greyish gaps. It's not really pencil-y, but it does create an interesting effect nonetheless. So I'll experiment further with it <<

#33 - Pensive

I'll admit, I think I may have taken on a bit more than I can chew with this art project << but, even if my pieces are unfinished/sketchy, I'll keep going with it. Sorry though that it may not be as interesting as expected XD fact is that for me the point is to improve, little by little. I start from pretty low down the ladder, so it'll take time for my pieces to be worthwhile.

In the meantime, I've started work on a compendium/encyclopedia of all my headworld information. This, now, takes precedence. If all goes well, I'll be done by end February to resume work on editing Nalyn and Corvis' story, which I'd like to get published by April. So I've got to juggle quite a few things. But I'm good at that. << XD

And I felt like trying to draw a character, so I did. With certain success. XD

#32 - Reach for the stars

Yeah okay so it's not yesterday's continuation. I had inspiration. <<

Dedicated to my boyfriend who supports me despite my crazy notion to become a famous published author and make a killing living that way.

When I improve at drawing, I'll redo this one. <<