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Rebuilding my frustration tolerance after my art hiatus was such a game-changer. It's so important to learn to be patient with yourself, and to trust that you can improve.

I still catch myself sometimes, looking at other artists' work and feeling small, but the mindset of "I could never do that" does nothing but wear you down. The process is ongoing, but I've learned so much just in the year that I've gotten back into art that I have no doubt I'll be better and wiser for it going forward.

Contrary to popular belief the biggest beginner's roadblock to art isn't even technical skill it's frustration tolerance, especially in the age of social media. It hurts and the frustration is endless but you must build the frustration tolerance equivalent to a roach's capacity to survive a nuclear explosion. That's how you build on the technical skill. Throw that "won't even start because I'm afraid it won't be perfect" shit out the window. Just do it. Just start. Good luck.

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Posting days 16-18 of my attempt at the 100 faces challenge last summer.

I can't believe it's almost been a year since I started all of this and tried to get back into art. It means so much that I've been able to love what I make again.

More art soon!

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A chance meeting leagues under the sea.

Part 2 of 2 for my MerMay art redraw.

It's been around a decade since I last saw and worked on these OCs and their story world. And this was such a joy to rediscover, along with a lot of other pieces in my first art book.

The lore gets a little wild but that just made it more fun for me to experience over again with older eyes. As I said in my last post, if anyone's curious I'd definitely talk more about this story I made when I was a kid.

I will be back to the regularly scheduled fanart projects soon!

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Celebrating the end of MerMay with a reimagining of an old mermaid OC and story that I created when I was 13.

My old art is so near and dear to my heart because it reminds me to be unafraid to fail in order to make progress and learn. Also, this story was so fun to revisit and I will absolutely talk about it if anyone's interested/curious to know more.

Part 1 of 2.

Hopefully the rest will be posted tomorrow.

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I've been working on redrawing and reimagining the art from my first ever art notebook. Most have been offline projects, but I wanted to work with an old mermaid OC and story world for MerMay this year.

This is a sneak peak of a larger project I'm still in the process of working on and finishing.

Here's the alt poster arrangement:

I plan to have the final art spread finished and posted before the end of the month, so stay tuned!

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With the new Superman movie edging nearer on the horizon, I figured it's about time I post days 14-16 of the 100 faces challenge I worked on last summer.

Just like its companion post, illustrating all of the Batman actors over the years, this is a Superman-themed review of notable actors who have taken up the mantle.

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I was very inspired by the wormhole sequence from 2001: A Space Odyssey... (though it wreaked havoc on my eyes!)

So, I wanted to watch a space movie for May the Fourth, and I'd already seen Star Wars for the first time a few months back. Found this odd gem instead, out of intrigue about the evil supercomputer plot that was very much up my alley.

This was a strange and wonderful watch, and I definitely have a few more ideas on my to-draw list thanks to this film!

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Back again, this time with some space nonsense in progress!

More soon!

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Wow wow haven't been able to get this out of my head since I read it. Got me thinking a lot more about how each of these characters interact with their symbols in the game.

From the moment Markus enters the Manfred home, one of the first things he can interact with is the cage of robo-birds in the entry hallway. And what can he do? He can turn them on - he brings them to life in a sense. It's a microcosmic moment that encapsulates his entire role in the game as a change-maker and liberator. He sees through the cage and can reach beyond. And later when we get that cinematic slow-motion shot of him falling into Jericho, it's so clearly a flight in and of itself, calling back to the bird imagery that defines his experience with deviancy.

Of course, Markus isn't the only deviant android to be tied so intimately to birds. My boy Rupert comes to mind next, with the hundreds upon hundreds of pigeons he looks after, and how he takes flight all the same when DPD is coming for him. And then there's Ralph and the helpless violence inside of him bursting through not only with the dead man in the tub but the bird Kara can find. There's just so much. About deviancy - at least, typical deviancy - resembling that bird-in-flight emotional & psychological journey, even when the paths differ.

Then there's Connor and the fish, imagery that I have seen a lot but never thought quite so deeply about until now. How his atypical path toward deviancy is punctuated by a completely different symbol from the rest. What it means for Connor to either stop and save the fish or walk past it to fulfill his mission in the first chapter, beyond the surface-level. Yes, it's a gesture of compassion - or at least a thoughtfulness to life and living beings - that is not in his mission outline and causes software instability. But it's also the very first interaction you can have in the game that does this for him. And from that point, water is everywhere in pivotal moments in Connor's story, which I hadn't thought about before but it's so interesting to me! The fish in the tank is only the beginning. There's the moment with Hank and Connor at the bridge that forces Connor to confront mortality and whether or not he's alive. There's the pool at Kamski's where he has to either see a soul in the Chloe or kill her for his mission. All of the rain and the moody weather during the investigations, and how that rain eventually follows him inside his mind to the Zen garden as tensions mount...

Oh I'm talking myself into another playthrough, aren't I?

And that's not even diving into how Connor and Markus are connected to each other's symbols, albeit less directly. (This point is much less developed in my head, so I'd love to hear anyone else's take here!) I'm still thinking about Connor and his pursuit of the deviants, especially Rupert in The Nest; how his role is to capture those "birds" as they try to fly free, not seeing himself in them or realizing the depth of his own confinement. Something about seeing the startled pigeons flying away just before the chase sequence has always been such a striking, vivid image that latched onto my brain since I first experienced the game. Now, I feel like I'm beginning to understand why.

Then there's Markus and the water, with Jericho at the docks, and how in the end, this nest of all the deviants is the place Connor is fully confronted by the path be needs to choose for himself. He's finally over that bigger body of water and understanding his confinement, with Markus the liberator on his home turf and ready to push him to see it. Just. The confrontation between deviant leader and deviant hunter taking place over the water is the perfect example to me of how that save-the-fish moment becomes symbolic of Connor's deviant path entirely.

I don't know. Some of these ideas are probably only half-baked but I'm thinking about parts of the game that never stood out to me so much before, and I'm so jazzed about it! Analysis is one of the biggest things I love about fandom, so I hope some of what I said might add a little something to it too.

The Pets

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Here's days 12 and 13 from the 100 faces challenge I worked on last summer.

Sorry to have dropped off the face of the planet this month. I was hit with some unexpected burnout, but I'm on the up and up again now.

More soon!

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Ranibow sprimkle

I made this by following shuiondigi (on Instagram)'s tutorial! :)

The colour wheel got chopped during the gif making process <\3

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Based on a post by @rk80jacks about Markus in bad bunny fashion. It looked fun and I thought I'd take a stab at it!

I'm bouncing back from being sick at the moment. I've had this project over halfway finished since the beginning of the month but I'm just now getting some energy back. So, so glad to have it finally done now!

Anyway, I'll probably be back to posting semi-regularly if nothing else goes awry in the near-future.

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He likes dogs, but does dogs likes him?

Found this ultimate Connor t-shirt in a shop window at the mall, I had to take a picture of it and do some sort of random sketch, so here it is

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spring mode is now activated 𓂃 ࣪˖ ִֶָ𐀔

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all the food i eat is cold

leftovers from a once hot meal i don't mind, because it's still food and it's still good cause it's still food but it doesn't ever quite taste the same as when it was freshly made

all the food i eat is cold

because it's easy to forget it you just let it sit, and sit, and sit until all the warmth has left it and you're left to wonder why you didn't eat it right away

all the food i eat is cold

and i don't mind, because it's still food and even when it's not so good i still eat it because it's food and even if it's not the same it's better than it wasting away

all the food i eat is cold

because i simply can't be bothered to eat it when it's ready to sit when i rather move to linger in the finite time when the food is still food

all the food i eat is cold

because i never stop to reheat it i just eat it, and eat it, and eat it because it's still food and it's still good and it won't change since it all tastes the same

because all the food i eat is cold

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Posting another round of pencil portraits from the 100 faces challenge I worked on this past summer. Days 9, 10, and 11.

Art progress is a bit slow right now with day job stuff, so please accept this humble offering from my backlog in the meantime.

I'll try to get back into the swing of things on here when I can!

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Which oddly specific colour palette are you?

Thank you for the tag, @citrus-moonlight!!! This is... quite literally my wardrobe color on top of the eyeshadows/lipsticks I wear on the daily so this is actually quite spooky skfjsdkf

Link to quiz.

No pressure tags (and you if you see this!): @sixpennydame @nube55 @littlerequiem @pinkberryfox @thechaoticarchivist