#i used a lot of screentones(? i think that's what they're called?)

[aeliem]

for @hiro-doodlez's dtiys

not completely sold on the background so there's a version without it below (to be clear my entry is still the one with the bg)

timelapse & version w/out background under the cut

[pine-niidles]

Looking Back on 2023

Heyyy folks! Long time no news from me huh. 

I'm struggling to think of what to even say about my silence. I've not been doing so bad I'd call myself depressed, but I'm doing a tad worse than just a slump. It's been a rough 6 months, not because of one big thing. Instead, a bunch of medium-sized reasons all piled up on top of each other to leave me extremely drained. I've mostly been working on the two commissions I still had in my queue (thank you to my commissioners for being so patient with me, I'm so sorry to make you wait so long <3). I've done a little personal art other than that but didn't have the leftover focus to keep up with sharing it on social media or writing up any updates about my situation. I've pretty much only been active sharing things in my art discord. I'd like to say I've been doing better in the last month or so, but I hesitate to make any promises at this point! We'll just have to see how things go :)

Artfight

So you were promised a more in depth artfight review but I think I missed the right timeframe for that... instead have this look at 3 years of unfinished artfight thumbnails from my new year's wip clean-out!

Year of Art Summary

All things considered I made a lot of art this year, and I'm really happy with how most of it turned out ☺ I did a bunch of experimenting with more playful techniques and color schemes and I think they suit my style a lot. I want to try and much those limits even more next year to see what kind of fun art I can create! Something with colors specifically really clicked in my brain after that witch drawing I did in April, before then I would spend a long time figuring out the perfect color scheme and doing a bunch of adjustments but ever since that drawing things have really been coming together super quick? I'm not sure what changed but no complaints from me. 

Life Drawing Summary 

I rarely post my life drawing but I've been keeping at it! Actually, I put together a few pdfs showcasing all my life drawing going back to 2022, you can download them for free in my itch or ko-fi shops! :>

I also put together a yearly art improvement comparison going back to 2015 that I was planning to put here. However, seeing how long this is already getting... I'll make a separate post for it.

Commissions

I've been gearing up to open commissions again after that unintended hiatus. I don't want to open slots until I'm sure I'm back to being able to finish them in a reasonable timeframe, so I've been using that leftover energy I do have to think about revamping some things and new styles to offer. Back in November I ran a survey on what people want to see from me (it's still open if you'd like to fill it out and help me get more stats!) 

here's a preview of what's to come based on that & my whims:

- stamp commissions were super well received so they'll be added to my main repertoire

- A combo of me reading too much dun meshi and wanting to offer some kind of comicky commissions led to this idea of comic pages of characters eating together, I have a couple examples in progress, when they're done I'll add this style to my main offerings!

- I'm still not 100% set on sketchpages but I like the idea of them so if this test goes well I'll add them as an option

Onward to 2024! 

I already completed my new year's resolution on day 1 of 2024, it was to pet a cat. I've made a second one which is to get a library card whenever my visa is approved and I move back home. It's been something I've been wanting to do for a while but never got around to, hoping this will be the excuse I need to do it.

Art-wise it's not a new goal, but I've been trying to focus on improving my rendering! Though I've also been playing around a lot with screentone... the two don't have to be at odds 🤔 

I'm dedicating this year's personal art time to making new references for as many ocs as possible with nude bases so I can easily design new outfits for them whenever I want to without fully making a new ref from scratch.

Otherwise I'm just trying to take it slow, work on things one at a time and see what happens from there.

[arsquare]

please what is that kaishin marxist meme manga ("they mean nothing... if you aren't redistributing the wealth") originally from i cannot find it anywhere. also its too funny and i love ur art and memes

Hi! The reason you can't find it anywhere is because it's directly sourced from my silly little brain. It's not even an edit of a Kaishin doujin or anything; it was born directly looking like that. I just thought it would be funny if it LOOKED like an edit of a Kaishin doujin but like... I would have felt bad editing something someone else worked hard on drawing lol. So I just made it from scratch by myself. Is it perhaps a deranged level of commitment to the bit? Yeah, probably <3

Here's the post for anyone who doesn't know what I'm talking about

Anyways here are some images of the work in progress as proof. I'm sorry the rest of this fake doujin doesn't exist bestie

here are some of my favorite bits of text work on that meme. see what I SHOULD have done is put some placeholder text and then edit it out in MS Paint like a real one, but for some reason I just did it all in Clip Studio Paint. whatever

So firstly. my watermark is also in the top left, I completely forgot I watermarked it but just in case anyone came for me like "OP why don't you credit the original artist :///" I can point to that and say "Hi I am the original artist actually lol" Anyways it's a well known fact that you can't rotate text in MS Paint so I thought it would be really funny if "You've" is rotated but "only acheived [sic] false consciousness!!" isn't. Also the slight misspelling of "achieved" sends me every time

this is also hilarious to me. the little "r" floating next to the "You" CLEARLY unaligned. The random capitalized "B" in "Bourgeoisie" (AND THE FACT THAT BOURGEOISIE IS SPELLED CORRECTLY AND ACHIEVED ISN'T) since they're capitalists. keeping the "they mean nothing. They mean nothing!" from the fake original context.

and finally. the white scribbles above the tone marking out the old text. the use of bold for "redistributing the wealth..."

idk I would not call this my magnum opus or anything, if you want to read actual genuine honest-to-god Kaishin content by me, there's a 98-page doujin called Breaking Stasis on Ao3 about Kaito and Shinichi getting stuck in a time loop here: https://archiveofourown.org/works/35883097/chapters/89472589

Is the art lower quality than what you see in my shitpost marxist doujin? Yeah, but I also whipped it up in 2 months for the Kaishin secret santa as another ridiculous "commitment to the bit" moment so I think that's excusable. Now that I've got more time on my hands, I'm actually editing Breaking Stasis to actually have screentones and better backgrounds and less fucked up faces <3. I'm about a fifth of the way through LMAO. Which is not a lot, but granted, I had to draw a high quality 24-page original oneshot in the meantime so I'm going easy on myself. That is going to be posted in July, after the competition results are out, I hope everyone looks forward to it!