So Excited for Artslam.

 

Sooooooo excited.

Some progress!

Its taken me a shamefully long amount of time to get this far on this. But its coming along and I've learned a lot of things just from working on these three panels. One. To save time I should use the overlay layer feature. A Lot. Two, try to work in as few layers as possible because SAI hates the size I'm working in. Three, find a way to make panels faster. Shit.

So this is the opening scene of Chapter 1. The city of Sharkshallow, bathed in sunlight. The panels zoom in on the clock tower overlooking the bay and the lighthouse. And the next panel leads inside with the orange sunset light beaming in through the window across the clocks.

I feel like maybe there is innate knowledge inside me telling me where to go or what to do. I just need to work more and work harder to access it. I regret to say that I still have not worked on Frolic that much and I intend to rectify that soon. I've got the most up to date version right here:

It's coming a long as well. But I need to add more life to the buildings below. Perhaps some people and carts on the trail. Definitely some smoke from the houses and I need to make sure I don't forget the birds. I've learned so much doing both of these respective pieces that I feel like they are transforming me. I just need to work harder. Soon I won't have nearly as much time for this and I'm sure I will miss it.

I also did this commission for a kind person on Furaffinity who was one of the many that helped me through a difficult situation with my mom's car. I hope to get this and other's wrapped up soon. I've got a long list of stuff to do before I can relax. But overall I am happy that I've made it this far with my work. I saw my ex boyfriend the other day and he commented that I'd improved dramatically since I'd left him. That boosted my confidence a little. But I'm increasingly realizing that maybe all of these ideas and juice I'm getting really isn't coming from me, but my 'muse'.

Thank you, Pressfield.

This is Significant.

How long I have been putting this off I'd rather not say... but I will confess that it was this very same tendency to put off the arduous process of overcoming my inner performance anxiety that killed the last comic I had great ambitions for: Oriental Misadventures.

But the fact that I say myself down tonight and hammered out even JUST the base sketch of the first page of the actual chapter... that WORKS as a composition... I cannot help but feel at least a little relieved. It seems that what Pressfield was going on about muses is true, for a lot of the stuff in this page came from a place I didn't know existed in me.

Perhaps, as I go on, I'll get better at listening to them.

Right now I'm a bit let down to report how hard this was to do. I kept wanting to put it off and work on something else or stop and watch a movie. But I didn't. I worked for three hours making a grid and sketching this page. Hopefully it gets easier from here on out, because if I want to keep up any kind of schedule I need to work a bit faster... Hooray for me, I beat resistance for once... I'll do it again tomorrow.

Hipster Mind Flayer.

Even though I love this one I've not been arsed to post it anywhere. It was done during my vacation to see Natalie and the commissioner liked it very much. Its a great picture. But I can't put my finger on exactly why I just haven't put it in any of my galleries.

Maybe I just don't need to. I got acrylic nails while out with Nat btw, makes it hard as HELL to type. How the fuck am I supposed to RP with these? LOL. Oh well, I've been managing somewhat. My nails make a neat sound when they click against the keyboard.

I'll post this eventually I suppose, but for right now I'll just leave it right here. Its a nice place to leave it and I should focus less on the attention and more on the art anyway. I bought "The War of Art" by Steven Pressfield... Its a great book, anyone who struggles with creativity should read it. Srsly. Its like, changing my life. I hope it lasts....

My next post is relevant to this thought.