#I haven't drawn in my notebook for 3 years

[rainbow-journalist]

I'll leave this here, hope you don't mind 🩵🐰🧸🎧

I made this drawing of Pucci in my notebook today when I was in my course, the second time I make a raincode character painted in my notebook. (The first ones were the female versions of Yuma and Makoto)

To be honest I have a sketchbook that I could have done there, but I left it at home, so I did it in the school one. A little edit to her bow being blue instead of pink, I think it looks cute. My drawings in the notebook are simpler than digitally, especially in relation to the colors, sorry about her hair.

It's been a long time since I drew her, the last time was this one, maybe I'll do more? I don't know, but I'll leave it here.

[32bitterra]

(December 3 - December 31, 2024)

Another year full of PN stuff. I hope for more in 2025.

@magicmvx's Bird Raz (again.)

I found a notebook under my bed from when I was in school. Shockingly, I found zero doodles in it, so I fixed that. I haven't drawn on paper in a long time.

Elton and my OC, Aquamarine.

Lineless is tricky.

I drew 395 (or so) things this year. LET'S SHOOT FOR MORE NEXT YEAR (jk my arms almost fell off several times. next year let's learn to pace ourselves.)

[lychgate]

i haven't posted a really poorly drawn thought piece adventure in years so here's a brief update!

hope i hit the read more thing right oh well anyway:

"Spent a lot of time applying for a home loan. I had to pay -fucked up- to have a convincing income for a decent loan. It was very confusing but cody helped me a lot."

"Cody proposed to me It felt wonderful that someone wanted to share their time and love with me. Cody proposed Anthrohio weekend, it's the con we really met at."

"We saw the listing that sunday morning before we had to go to our table to vend."

"It was a perfect house. We were the first people to view it and we immediately put in a bid. And we got the house. Many papers to sign."

"Moving was not easy. It took 2 whole months. Cody was out of town helping their grandma recover from a big surgery and we had to sell their old house/move that as well as move from my apartment. ALSO THE PETS: My cat dick wolf + Cody's 3 birds. Until we could get some doors installed and separate the house, I had to live between two places every day to feed and care for them."

"Still, life was good. I bought my first house! It has a swing in the backyard. I've never had my own backyard. I've never even lived somewhere that had trees (in said yard) It felt nice. Living together with the love of my life and 4 pets."

"Through all this i never closed my shop. How could I? It was my income, and I just bought a house. It needed to stay open. Moving that much inventory, setting up a new office, the house is a nice size but it's not huge, so, very careful organizing had to be executed if I wanted my apparel laid out right. (Which I totally managed to do)"

"but i Did get really good at baking pies. the two are connected."

"sacred_crow on instagram!"

"there's like 25 of u bastards i would absolutely die for, and about 75 more that i would go nearly dead over."

"We have an extra bedroom so I got to turn it into a toy room. There's games, crafts, stuffed animals, movies, a sick loft I painted the shit out of. It rules. It brings me a lot of Joy."

"Under the loft we have a dug out where we can watch VHS tapes. I love to sit with Cody and watch movies and play Donkey Kong."

"I am not good at Banjo Kazooie, but Cody is. Cody is so talented. I love watching them play games. (Depicted is not banjo kazooie but donkey kong country 2 as we are currently playing that. I'm good at DKC but I will still swear and make sounds like im about to throw up)"

"Half the basement is finished, so we turned it into a dual office space. It rules. Cody has a whole side for fursuit crafting, and my side is mostly my gigantic gamer computer area/shipping area. I took a whole wall to put all my non apparel merch like pins charms and notebooks also. for hte love of god someone buy the notebooks they take up more space then i wanted"

"I love to look over from my computer and see cody working. They always look so focused, yet peaceful."

"It's winter but it rains. I miss the snow. I lived by the lakes growing up. I miss piles of snow. It's just wet and cold here. Yes i'm quite aware of global warming"

"I got kicked off both my health and car insurance. I fixed the car one but health insurance still no. All my meds have gone away. The past few months have been hard. I think way too much lately. I can't get myself to do anything. -this is a whole page of downer bullshit and i cropped it!-"

"We had a leaky ceiling that took a month to fix. Cody did all the work because they are smart and kind."

"Oh yeah I had my uterus removed earlier this year. They let me keep it. It's in a jar in my living room."

"We threw a very nice halloween party. I was the green m&m. Cody was the monarch."

"We adopted 8 beautiful kiwis from a crane machine at the mall. we spent over 100 monies to get them but it was worth it."

"

It was a rough year. My health is in decline. Our country may try to end my life for being trans soon (lol?) I am in hte middle of a colossal mental breakdown of my core fundamental behavior (depression advanced) BUT ALSO: I am engaged to my favorite person. We bought a house together. I'm beginning a new chapter of my life. I have a swing in my backyard. The negatives suck but there are also many positives. The cycle of emotions is immense, but there is beauty in it. There is beauty in life, and isn't that wonderful?"

[floatingxendlessly]

Omg an early post!...at the expense of no post tomorrow ;A;

So instead here's a page of sketches! I really liked the central one so I'll prolly remake it at a later date

Ive got a bit of info for some of the sketches, and then some bonuses at the end!

So I've been digging around in some of my old notebooks, not sketchbooks, and I found this!

I don't know why I lost that artstyle, I really like the eyes (I'm realizing that I technically haven't drawn seriously in two years, not a month, whoops, time flies by quick.) but it'll look really good now that I'vs gotten more expreience! Anyways, I decided to talent swap Kaz with Fuyu, since I presume that's what I was gonna do years ago. There's so many possibilities alone from just talent swapping! :0

The central one is Fuyuhiko somewhat ranting about Natsumi, his parents, and general, vague events from his 'work.'

The far right sketches are loosely based on my Yakuza AU where most of class 77 either formally joins the Kuzuryuu Clan or have a mutual/secret alliance with the Clan. I've got two versions, but the one that matters at the moment is the Kuzusouda one. This one involves the two getting married with Kaz taking over the duties of the 'wife', which basically means he's Fuyuhiko's shadow. He's gotta learn everything Fuyu knows, be trained and be just as involved as he can. After all, there's the possibility of death at every corner and it's not just his hubby's life on the line. I introduced Harue but how could I forget her little bro, Akinori?

And you also deserve some concept art of the kids since you made it this far! :D (Don't mind the makeshift piano lol)

Anyways, I'll be back on the 10th :3

[eadrey-the-iptscray]

Ten Questions Game

I was tagged by @itstheenglishkid - thank you! If you're reading this, you've been tagged as well 😁

1. if you could trade places with one character (yours or someone else’s) who would it be?

It's a tie between Tendo Choi from Pacific Rim or a background character from the Borderlands video games. Can't decide because I enjoy writing fanfiction for both franchises.

(I'm on AO3 at eadreytheiptscray. A few drabbles are public, but most of my works are limited to registered users.)

2. who’s your favorite author role model?

Michael Crichton. I enjoyed his writing style and the way he incorporated science with fiction.

3. where’s your favorite place to write?

My desk. I have a mechanical keyboard that looks like a typewriter, and it's so fun to write with. My office setup also has a separate computer monitor, which comes in handy for research.

4. if you could rewrite a famous novel what would it be and how would you change it?

Let me preface this by saying I'm a plot reader, not an art reader. So I'm more drawn to the story that the author came up with than the way the story is written. And admittedly, I have a hard time getting over the archaic language in classic novels.

With that said, I would love to rewrite Les Miserables by Victor Hugo. I got lost in the Parisian sewers and never finished the book. At least there are action-packed musical adaptations?

5. what book made you want to write?

I don't remember. But I do remember being a voracious reader as a kid and writing little stories on wide-ruled notebook paper in my scrawly, child-size handwriting.

6. where do you see yourself as a writer in 5 years?

Hopefully continuing to write for fun, although I would love to publish a novel... maybe repurposing "A Rare Thing, Indeed"?

7. what’s your WIP about?

Which WIP

I've planned out a nearly 20-chapter fanfiction for Borderlands inspired by the "Caught on Fire" series by @wilwarindi. It's a slow burn enemies-to-BFFFs involving Brick and Mordecai.

And if I ever get the time and headspace to write it, I would love to do a continuation of "A Rare Thing, Indeed" (my Pacific Rim AU) focusing on Yancy Becket and Chuck Hansen.

My WIP folder is also full of half-finished drabbles, most of them once again involving Brick and Mordecai from Borderlands.

8. favorite bookstore?.

There's one in my hometown that's been around for decades - I'd say that's my all-time favorite. But there's also a used bookstore a few minutes from where I live now that I enjoy going to.

9. what color do you want your first book jacket to be?

Oh, like if I publish something? Haven't given it much thought, honestly. Maybe a classic black or red?

10. how many words do you plan on your WIP being?

Sheesh, no clue. My Pacific Rim AU was supposed to be a one-shot and ended up being close to 150k. Fingers crossed that my Borderlands fic is less than 100k because I don't want to spend five years writing it!

[jokerx-art]

what year is it…

*looks for my last ews post* 2019?!

so... lately i've been thinking about this AU again, but for very personal reasons (death of someone important to me) and i've been thinking about the past a lot these days for the past 2 years. i've been thinking about the AU cause a version of my younger self was there and that's the past and i've been thinking of this AU in a way to kinda help me process things.

so while the AU has been on indefinite hiatus for years now, i have been thinking of writing for it again (and i have written a little), at least just for me right now.

i have not drawn these four in years, except for Tord where i did draw him very recently (to make fun of him, but i make fun of all my faves so that's just the norm, but i have also been drawing one of my OCs with Tord again cause god damn it, their friendship is nice and i drew them for years and that OC makes me happy even tho i'm separating her from fandom stuff now. it's like having 2 versions of her). and Edd i did draw a few months ago for a little sketch in redrawing something i found in my old notebooks (which a friend has seen, and i may post it but i would wanna add other sketches first).

i have been sharing some ews stuff with a friend but just sharing it. i have not said why i've been doing ews stuff again until this post.

i ended up drawing their hair closer to how it actually looks in canon than whatever my past self used to draw them as (while staring at screenshots and references cause i haven't drawn them in years).

i think this AU has become a comfort thing to me again. altho not as much as Ion (Game of Dice) brings me comfort cause of how much i just relate to him, including IonNea since their relationship is just so healing. then again, i don't think anything will top how much comfort i get from anything Ion related, he's #1.

also a little note, Persona 3 Reload is also why i've been thinking about EWS again (what listening to Full Moon Full Life on repeat will do to a mfer). plus its theme of life and death. everyone say thank you P3RE. go play/watch it right now, it's peak. i cried. i cried hard. like sure i played P3P already and it hurt, but P3RE hit HARDER.

(i am normally a very private and closed person, i typically don't like talking about myself so typing/saying all this was quite a lot for me to admit.)

[ethosiab]

🖍, 🎁, 🌗?

 🖍️ When did you start drawing? Do you remember?  

I got my first sketchbook from a friend from my martial arts club who was clearing out her house after moving about 5 ish years ago- she found an empty notebook and brought it in amongst the things she wanted to give away, so I took it. That was when drawing kind of became a thing for me, but I have genuinely been drawing since I've been able to hold pencils

🎁 Do you prefer drawing fandom stuff or your own characters?

For literally the longest time I only liked doing original character stuff. Etho is for some reason the only character who actually interested me beyond my own ocs, and I haven't drawn most of those guys in months oops

At the moment, it's mostly hermitcraft/life series stuff thats been calling me, but I always return to my ocs, they're my babies <3

^^ this is iggy, he's the main protagonist of a project that's been brewing in my head for abt 3.5 years now ^_^ shes a grumpy bastard I love her

🌗 Is night or day better for drawing?

Is it cheating if I say twilight? I end up drawing the most during those hours where the sin is technically still high enough in the sky that you could go outside without street lamps and be fine, but also it's no doubt dark. I don't think wither one is 'better'- I tend to have more time later, but I have more energy if im drawing during the day

[dearayei]

Holiday Break Productivity

As a lady born in the year of the "Horse" 🐎, it is a natural characteristic of ours to always do something productive, even during breaks. This holiday break should have been a rest or game day for me, but instead I practiced my drawing skill and continued reading "Ikigai," which I hadn't opened in weeks.

I've been practicing different "emotions or feelings" in chibi, as I haven't drawn chibis in a while.

I used to sketch "anime" rather than chibis or illustration back in elementary because I was a big fan of ✨ 90s anime ✨ like Fushigi Yuugi, Ghost Fighter, Ranma 1/2, Flame of Recca, Hell Teacher Nūbē, Oh my Goddess!, Sakura CardCaptor, Boys Be, Gatekeepers, Slam Dunk, HunterxHunter, Sailor Moon, and many more.

Unfortunately, I don't have a copy of my sketches today because I used to draw on notebooks or pad papers - I remember back in primary school, my classmates would pay me PHP 5.00 - 20.00 💰💰💰 (yup! business-minded since I was a kid 🤣) to draw their favorite anime which technically honed my skill in creating anime art and marketing/sales, but as I grew older, I outgrown drawing animes and now I prefer to draw still life or illustrations/chibis since I love anything kawaii and sketching beautiful landscape or places.

Book Review: Ikigai (Chapter 1 to 3)

I promised myself to finish this book by May 🎯; please don't get me wrong, on why I'm still not done reading this book its because I didn't have a time for reading this past few weeks due to my workload (my job), but this holiday I made sure to allocate 3-4 hours just to read this book and discovered that...

Ikigai is one of my favorite book out of my 7 new self-development books and I am now currently on Chapter 4: How to turn work and free time into space of growth - very timely to what I need nowadays, isn't it? 😀

To give you an idea why I love this book so far, one of the reason is that it tackles on how we determine our life's purpose and reasons to live more, like the centenarians in Okinawa, Japan. It also emphasize the importance of maintaining physical health by staying active even after we reach the age of 60, since sedentary lifestyle can lead to hypertension, imbalanced diet, cardiovascular disease, osteoporosis, and even some cancers. Sleep plays an important role in how we can slow the aging process and build our immune system because "melatonin" is a powerful antioxidant in our bodies that contains an ingredient that protects us from cancer, Alzheimer's disease, aging, and other diseases.

This book also discussed "Logotherapy," a therapy developed by Victor Frankl that focuses on people's search for meaning in life. Unlike other therapies, logotherapy takes a spiritual approach. Frankl's logotherapy incorporates three philosophical and psychological concepts: freedom of will, will to meaning, and meaning in life.

Freedom of will asserts that we have the ability to chose and take action in response to both internal and external circumstances.

Will to meaning states that we have the freedom to follow our goal and purposes in life, which means this is our major motive for existing and doing, allowing us to bear pain and suffering.

Meaning in life is a subjective experience, but the meanings exist within us and waiting to be realized by us in any moment or in any situation.

One of the therapies that this book also tackles is the "Morita Therapy," a therapy based on the Buddhist perspective and developed by Dr. Shoma Morita, wherein the therapy focuses more on accepting the fluctuations of thoughts and feelings, embracing negative emotions, and learning how to blend with nature - if you ask me, it is quite similar to what we've learned from Grandmaster Lao Tzu (Taoism) which is

"Go with the flow, Be like water 🌊"

Sounds very profound, isn't it? 🤔 The first time I heard that, I was perplexed: how and why be like water? Then our Grandmaster taught us the value of being fluid, soft, and flexible in any situation, just like water, which takes shape wherever you put it and can adjust to any environmental changes.

Change is inevitable and if you resist it, problems will arise in your life and that's why our ancient philosophers taught us the importance of adaptability, because change is constant and not fixed; our lives are the result of constant change in our environment, feelings, emotions, interpersonal relationships, religion, and so on, and those who adapt easily win life, whereas others rot in the past, are unable to move on with their lives, and are depressed.

Like "Morita Therapy," embrace the imperfections in your life, welcome them with open arms, and acknowledge that the sentiments or emotions you're experiencing are valid. Simply accept how things are and then figure out how to mend them or overcome your own demons.

I'm about halfway through the book, but I'm looking forward to get more insights and teachings from Ikigai.

I definitely suggest this book to everyone who has ever felt empty on the inside, unable to discover their purpose in life, or simply lost.

Sincerely, Ayei 🌻

[nebulous-rain]

Hello! My name is Moriah and I am a junior in high school. I was wondering if I might be able to get your insight on a few questions I have?

I am in my final years of high school and am starting to think about college but I have no idea what I want to pursue. I know I love art, so for a long time I have been thinking about getting an art major or going to an art school.

I’m reaching out because I ABSOLUTELY LOVE YOUR ART and I think you are a very talented artist! I have been in love with your art for so long and I am curious and wondering how you are able to fit drawing into your life?

1.) If you are going to college for art, or went to college for art, what is it like? Do you think going to school for art or having an art major is worth it?

2.) how can I fit art into my everyday life? I’m sure you have work and other things to do in your life so how do you balance it out? (I just want to know how you can draw as much as you do!)

3.) do you do art as a hobby or a career? If it is a hobby how to you balance art, work/school, and home life? If it is a career or part-time career is it an alright source of income?

Thank you so much! And sorry if these questions might seem personal. I just want to know how other artist manage to draw and create their work and still have an adult life. Thanks again, and thank you for being a huge inspiration in my life to create the art I love! Your art means so much to me!❤️❤️ ❤️

i am going to CRY this is the sweetest message ever. i'm happy you found your niche and i'm even happier that i could help inspire that!!! i'm not sure if i'm gonna be able to answer all your questions, but i'll try to squeeze in some possibilities where i fall short:

1) growing up i definitely figured i was going to end up in art school because that's what everyone told me i should go into. but as i got older in high school i was kind of panicking cuz i really didn't want to turn my hobby into a job, and i figured out that i wanted to go into education!

but that's just me- my wife is actually going to college for graphic design sometime soon because she loves what she does. if it's something you really enjoy, and that you think you can monetize while still enjoying it, then it's definitely worth it! money is important but you need to put you and your happiness first.

2) to be honest, i haven't had the time or energy to do much art lately (if you look at my post dates you can see how spread out they've been the past year)- but this entirely depends on how you manage your time and your workload. i'm horrific at time management! so that's my problem. BUT, i think sneaking in drawing time in little ways helps a lot, as i tend to sketch small panels of a potential comic or animatic on notebooks and papers while i'm listening to lectures. i've even posted ms paint doodles i've drawn during class

i always have plans for what i'd like to draw once i have the time. it's kind of motivating, but also frustrating, and it's hard to efficiently empty my brain of ideas while still keeping up with everything else. this might be something you'll have to wiggle around once you get settled into a routine each semester!

3) i really wanted art to stay as a hobby for me. the idea of drawing and creating art every day for things i wasn't inspired to do made me really nervous, because what i really wanted was to make fanart and draw my little guys all day lol

if you take anything away from this, i think the most important thing is that if you want to keep art in your life, you will. if you desire having time to make art just for yourself, you'll find time to work that into your life, one way or another- but in order to do that you absolutely need to have a positive mindset about what you're going into, and if you can't find that positivity, maybe it isn't for you

thank you for asking!!! i'm not sure if this'll be any help, but i appreciate the questions <:')

[rainbow-journalist]

The masked man 🎭💜☔

I'll leave this here too, just like I left Pucci drawing. I did it again today in my course, but the difference is that I did it in my real sketchbook. 🥺

I cut out the drawings I made in the notebook and pasted them into the sketchbook so I wouldn't lose them. I took advantage and made this Makoto there. Sorry about the colors, I don't have the right colors for the characters in real life. So I just try what I can. The eyes didn't turn out well, but let's move on.

He will be recorded in the sketchbook, I haven't drawn in 2 or 3 years and this notebook (+ another one that I have everything drawn and worn out) is full of drawings from Undertale, Your turn to die and Danganronpa. I like looking at the things I've drawn and remembering them, so I'll leave it to Makoto, maybe I'll do more in the future, who knows? I liked it.

[vampireantihero]

March Good, Bad,Ugly // April Goals

Hello everyone and welcome to the first monthly check-in! Before we launch into the blog post, how are we all feeling? Have you gotten your coffee? Drank some water, eaten a bit today? Let's settle in and get cozy!

Now that you're settled, let's jump right into the goals for April, and then we'll recap for March!

April Goals

Top 3 Goals -- The top three goals for April are pretty straightforward, and lean into some of the bigger projects I'm already working on. Dracula and Tales from the Night Garden are heavily on my mind right now, and Wax and Wings is in the perfect position for us to get started on the concept art involved for the unnamed Hades and Persephone project.

For Dracula, I need to finish reading the novel and annotating the portions that I need to pay attention to. Once I finish that, I can start working on some of the character concept art. My heavier handed goal is to get initial character sketches ready for Johnathon, Mina, and Lucy before the end of the month.

For Wax and Wings, Tiffanie and I have started talking about the concept work that we're doing for the unnamed Persephone and Hades project. For this, I'd like to refine some symbols that I started to put together for each God/Goddess, and get started on some temple design stuff (both ruins and in-tact temples). I'm really excited to dive into this, it's a really fascinating project!

Tales From The Night Garden has been both a drawing and writing project for a few years now, and I'd like to make more art for the series. Some of it is needed for the books, but some are just self-indulgent drawings of my favorite characters. If the books do well, we're hoping to release an artbook as a companion eventually. If this is a goal, then around now will be when I really want to start pushing to make more artwork of the characters and important places. So, my first push for that, is to do a drawing of the main characters -- Acanthus and Cypress-- together, as a couple. I haven't drawn them together since 2023, so it's time to draw them again.

Other Goals for the Month -- I have several smaller goals throughout the month that I can do in a few hours instead of several days, so I'll bullet them out here.

I'll show the sketch below in the March recap, but I'd like to finish the "digital watercolor" painting that I started last week. That shouldn't take me too long.

Youtube has been going steady with 2-3 shorts per week, but I'd like to get a longform video up once a month, which means that I need to work on a long-form video for this month.

I've been making (and hitting) a goal of writing an average of 3 hours a night each month since January. I didn't hit that for March, but I'd really like to hit that for April. That means my goal for writing hours this month is 90 hours total. That should be do-able, so long as I am mindful about my other goals and free time.

I'll be at the 4th Annual OAC Artist Show at the Gibson on April 12th, from 6pm-10pm! If you are local please stop by, show me and other local artists some support and have a fun night out on the town! I'm hoping to do some drawing while I'm at my table to try and show off my skills while I'm selling my prints and stickers.

Something I'd like to get started on when I've got a bit more time, is a gouache journal. I want to get better at using it as a medium, so I'd like to start doing studies and stuff like that. I have a lot of fancy notebooks that are completely empty, because I used to bullet journal and now I don't really take the time to. The paper is perfect for gouache, and so it'd be a great way to both use the journals and get better at painting in the medium. As an added bonus, I can record footage for Youtube and make a video of the process, as well.

The last lower-tier goal I have on my list is to re-imagine the cards for my Gothic Esteem tarot deck. This is a deck that I've had in mind for a few years now, but never sat down to actually plan out the cards. I'd like to get started on that project around some of my other, higher-priority projects; this will move to a higher priority once I have some of the cards actually concepted. So, this month, I'd like to start working on a list of what each card could be in this deck.

Phew, that's a hell of a list! The thing about this list, is that it's not limited to this month. Anything I don't finish this month will roll over to next month, so long as I can get some work done on these during this month. But, I'm pretty sure that's about all that I am looking forward to this month! With that, let's start talking about March.

March -- The Good

Top 3 Goals Completed! -- This is one of the biggest, and also one of the most empowering 'Good' happenings of the month.

The first goal was to finish my commission examples last month, which was the most daunting and important to do. With these being done, it gives me the option to add my commission details to Ko-Fi, and share my details a bit easier for potential clients to see.

The second goal was to get started on my illustrated version of Dracula. I not only started the project, but I finished the first drawing, which is a title page for the interior. This puts me slightly ahead of where I wanted to be on this project going into April.

 The third goal was for the "digital watercolor"/texture-heavy digital pieces. I had an ambitious goal of two, but I'm happy with having one completed. I'll try and complete the other as a lower-priority goal in April. I'm really enjoying this look, though, and I think I'm finally starting to find where my style lives when I try to go more exaggerated and stylized. This is good, because I'm trying to push more into that realm.

 Ultimately, I'm really pleased with how much I was able to finish for the month of March, especially around some more intensive obligations that have started.

Wax and Wings-- The Wax and Wings project officially launched this last month! Tiffanie and I are ecstatic to share our journey with you all, and to jump into this project headfirst. You can follow the project on Youtube.

OAC 4th Annual Art Show -- I'll be tabling in person at the OAC art show on April 12th! Currently I'm working on getting a couple of new merch items for that, as well as refining my display for the table. I'm really excited to be tabling at a market again, and I can't wait to be surrounded by a bunch of awesome artists again. If you're in the area, you should stop by and say hello! :)

March -- The Bad/The Ugly

Writing -- Unfortunately when it comes to writing, a lot of things have been put on the back burner or subject to delays. I try to write for three hours a day, and this is the first month since I started tracking my writing time that I've been significantly under that goal. I've been busier in other areas, which is a main part of this, and also my energy levels have dipped a bit since I haven't had time to properly rest.

On the bright side, we've started to work on Aloe again! This may be back to a pausing point, but we did get about 40 pages added to the draft, which is fantastic! I've also been working on short stories and unrelated projects in the meantime. A Pirate's Moon, Acanthus' story, is up to about 100 pages in the draft and has gotten to a pretty intense point in their story, so I'll likely be focusing on that for my April writing project.

Lemon Balm is still in edit limbo, as well. We haven't been able to get the next chunk to our editor quite yet, but we're still hopeful for a 2025 release! We'll see where this month takes us.

 I believe that's about all, for now!

What's everyone else working on this month? Let me know in the comments below! I'd love to hear about what you have going on, and maybe we can hold each other accountable this month :) Have a great day, everyone! Drink your water, take care of yourselves, and do what you can.

Note: If you'd rather, you can have these updates sent straight to your email if you follow me on Ko-Fi or Patreon.

[rosieuv]

I have just realised that it's new year's eve.

Well, staying up past midnight is easy for me as my sleep scedule's a bit of a wreck. I don't have anything that I'm really thrilled about for 2024 (apart from deltarune chapter 3 and 4 possibly coming out that year) and I'm ending on a really lame year art wise as I still don't have my computer and I don't want to have to reinstall drivers and stuff. At least I have the excuse to make the 2024 drawings folder on my backup USB.

I like having things in chronological order.

Anyway, here's the first and last drawings from each year because why not.

2019:

This one only dates back to the 20th July as this was before I took art seriously as a hobby. I drew this in MS paint for a roblox game I was making.

This dates back to the 25th December and I drew this in ibis paint x on my dad's old phone that me and my brothers shared. To play music in the background, I would have youtube as a window at the top and listen to the same 5 songs on loop. This took a considerable amount of time for some reason.

2020:

This dates back to the 18th January and I drew this on my phone as I just got it at this point (the same phone that I still have currently). I had no idea what I was doing and it shows.

This dates back to the 29th December and it seems like I've discovered undertale. This was when I started using my crappy laptop again and I drew this with the touchscreen it had (it was one of those hybrid laptop-tablet things) with my finger and autodesk sketchbook.

2021:

The first one is technically the first of 2021 as it dates back to the 16th of January, but I've posted that one a lot whenever I redraw it every year so here's the drawing I drew the day after. It was for an animation meme but I saved it into the folder anyway for some reason.

I was trying to model in blender for the first time towards the end of 2021 so the last picture is a boring sketch of anatomy from the 31st December to be used as refrence. The last actual artwork was a day before and at this point I had a little drawing tablet and was posting art on Newgrounds. I also started using medibang paint pro as autodesk sketchbook stopped working.

2022:

The first drawing I have in my 2022 folder was technically from 10:30 PM on the 31st as I got impatient, but I put it here anyway. It's a gif but I made it into a png so I can put it on a tumblr post. Technically the first one was this drawing I made about 12 hours later on the 1st January. On newgrounds it's regarded as being in 2021 as it's in EST and my time zone is a couple hours ahead.

The last drawing I have dates back to the 27th December where I was experimenting with art styles as I had just gotten a new idea for a game (what is now known as Roboska LV).

2023:

Both of these date back to the 1st January however the seccond one was exported 40 minuites later according to the meta data. The first one is another redraw while the seccond one is a character profile and I just realised there's no shading on the hoodie.

This dates back to the 9th December and I haven't been able to draw anything digitally since my computer's botched surgery on the 16th. I have drawn some stuff in my notebook though, so here's the "final" drawings of 2023 (basically anything in my notebook since the 9th). The dates are in the bottom corners. I didn't bother with fixing the lighting.

I drew that picture of Kokichi Oma in the dark with only the light of my phone torch as I drew it while a film was playing in my school sports hall with dominos pizza. The last 2 I drew on the last day of school while completly ignoring everyone partying in the form room.

I got a book on how to draw in a manga art style so this is me trying to figure out how to adapt the tips into my artstyle to make it not suck.

This is technically the last drawing of 2023. I drew it on the 26th. It also featured in the post about my personal best pencil drawings of 2023 too: https://pearlhikara.tumblr.com/post/737810429204643840/best-drawings-of-2023-notebook-12-and-13

Looking back, I don't think my change in art style from 2023 is as stark as the other years. I don't like how my art keeps changing and I want to just keep it at a consistent "very very good" and leave it at that as the little changes annoy me as I like consistency.

In terms of actual new year stuff, I'll probably just rewatch "who framed roger rabbit?" and go downstairs when it's near midnight to watch the fireworks on TV.

[bookwyrminspiration]

free space for you to talk about literally anything you want! rant about something?? write out a thought that you haven’t had the time to translate into words?? post the song lyrics or poetry you scribbled on the back of a paper?? idk just whatever you want. you’re cool :)

Oh oh this is perfect!! Also thank you, being cool is such a lovely descriptor!! Anyway, all the searching through my camera roll for pet photos recently has taken me back very far

Far enough that I ended up seeing some of my old photos of art from an intro level art class I took back in spring 2021, and looking at it I went…this is kinda good! But the only person whose ever seen it is that professor, so I’ve been considering sharing some!! And now you’ve given me the perfect opportunity!!!

i haven't included any of the reference photos I used for the art, but if you'd want to see them I can share them as well. Moving forward, I’ll put everything under a cut to save space :)

(all IDs are in alt text)

Okay so this one's a negative space drawing of some plants! Fun fact the one on the far left is an onion that had sprouted because we hadn't eaten in in time, because at the time I didn't have a third houseplant I could use for the reference and I needed 3

This one is a line weight drawing of a glass jar filled with water, a wyvern figurine, and an ornament! The ornament shows up a lot because it was required

This was just some notebooks, cloth, an ornament, a jar, and a piece of folded paper. A random arrangement drawn in charcoal but I think it looks nice. the cloth in the back is actually a pillowcase because that's what I had on hand:

And then this is another random arrangement of things, but this time drawing with white on black paper instead of the other way around! And it's got a twilight book in it so :) very me

then this one was done on a scratchboard! essentially I used an exacto knife to scratch away the black and reveal the white to draw this owl:

this isn't everything I drew in that class, as some of it is mundane line exercises and such, and some of it just didn't turn out in a way I'm proud of.

like my final. ugh. the requirements for that one fucked me over because she wanted us to have a certain number of things in the piece, but in doing so I was just cramming things into the composition. The sketch was cool! But the inking...not so much. I might still have the sketch if you're interested

but yeah!! these are some of my realism art pieces/studies from that one art class I took to fill a credit over a year ago. that class actually turned out to be my most difficult and stressful one that semester due to executive dysfunction, but I learned a few helpful tricks :)

thank you for the opportunity to share them, Nonsie! I miss doing art more often, so I can't wait to explore it again when the wings au is finished

hope you enjoyed! i will now be taking compliments about how cool and awesome and talented I am (that's a joke you don't need to do that)

[iricathel]

🎀 1, 3, 16 🎀

ART ASK GAME

How would you describe your style

I have two quite marked styles: A semi-realistic style (Since my redemized is close to realism but I use lineart and draw some more cartoonish features like hair) and the cartoonish style (Although it's true that it's not purely like a cartoon, the difference with my other style is noticeable).

What's your least favorite thing about your style

Semi-realism takes me a long time. I use a lot of references to make sure the lights, shadows and anatomy are correct; in part it's what it entails and although I still do it it's because I love the final result, but it's very tedious and tiring.

For example just to make the skin, it takes me 2 hours and a half to do it.

Favorite media to work with when drawing traditionally

It's been many years (I think since I was 16 years old) that I haven't drawn anything serious in the traditional style since I discovered the magic of digital drawing.

But when I drew it was a simple or special paper for watercolors, I really liked to draw with chalk, charcoal/pencils and with watercolors. Nowadays if I draw traditionally it's boredom doodles on napkins, my study notebook or something else, they are usually eyes, trees, words, hair or body parts. But they are never complete drawings as such and they are in pen.

[tallyzwolf]

I haven't drawn baby in years.

This is my first and most important OC Tariya!

Drawing this really made me want to break out my old Naruto notebook and do some redraws ... would love to dive back into the AU I made and draw some of my first loves <3

[bunnyreading]

My top 5 reads of the year

1. Birthday by Meredith Russo. This is the only book I read this year that's going on to my list of all time favourite books. Everything about this book was so perfect and so measured and outstanding, I absolutely adored reading it.

2. Memoirs by Tennessee Williams. One of the things about being out of education due to severe mental illness is how lonely it is. I read Tennessee Williams for the first time for A Level and really fell in love with his work and writing. Reading his memoirs was so incredible and so fun, he has such a distinct voice and style of writing and I'm trying to get ahold of Notebooks to read as well.

3. Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman. I read this one because of the hype of the TV show, and though I haven't managed to watch the show yet, I really really enjoyed this book. It was just so fun to read, everything felt so perfectly put together and measured.

4. The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue by Mackenzie Lee. This was another book that was just really fun to read. I really enjoyed reading this book, I adored the characters, I loved everything. As fun as it was to read as well, I really enjoyed the dive in to Monty's mental health, and I really felt a lot of empathy for him.

5. Days Without End by Sebastian Barry. I was recommended this book from my friend who's studying English at uni, and I wasn't expecting to like it as much as I did. I'm not really drawn to US civil war novels exactly, but it was a really wonderful book to read.