Just Keep Swimming

Ahh hello everybody, sorry again for another unexpected hiatus. Hard to believe it's August and it's almost already over wah!

Basically what happened was I fell into a depression, one of those that sneak up on you and after a while you get used to it unfortunately. It's sad when you don't realize you're even depressed, it just becomes a black hole of numbness. I unintentionally pushed away many of my friends and family without realizing it. It wasn't until I was in danger of losing my relationship that I finally noticed something is wrong with my current lifestyle and it needs to change. One of those steps is to start posting here again and to be more open about what's going on in my life!

Anyways, I made myself an art schedule but I have a hard time keeping up with it. I focus too much on the short term things that make me happy instead of the long term. I want to work on changing that, especially since I need to get a job. I have no savings right now and it scares me that if something happens to me or my car that I would go into debt. Right now I'm looking for a new day job since my hand is feeling better but eventually I would like to replace that with either a studio job or freelance. I am even thinking about relearning 3D since it would be nice to do something else for a job and still keep my art personal.

In the meantime, I will continue working on my studies and also continue finishing work (still my biggest struggle after all these years!).

Alright, here are some pieces from the past few months, just really experimenting with my process. Next week I'll put aside more time to scan some sketchbook drawings and also some current pieces in progress.

Confession Time

Alright guys, I have a pretty big confession to make.

I am... addicted to Neopets.

I used to play all the time when I was younger. In fact, it was meeting other young artists on the site that really hooked me onto pursuing art as a career. I would constantly draw my pets and write stories about them, it was great.

I took a hiatus when I was in college because I felt I out grew it. When I was under going physical therapy, I got back into it to keep me busy. Then when I was able to start drawing again, I began drawing my pets and other person's pets, and now I'm having fun painting them.

I was really embarrassed about this fact for the longest time because my feelings about fanart are conflicting. Especially with Neopets, I found a process in Photoshop that helps me pump out pictures pretty fast and I felt like I was being a half-ass.

The few friends who I've confided about this addiction with have all said the same thing - art is art. Even fanart still has the word art in it.

Plus, I'm having so much fun and am learning a lot from these pictures.

Here are some of my favorites, a mixture of my own pets and others.

Phew, that felt good to get off my chest. Bouncing between this fanart and also gift art has kept me busy, I hope to get a few more posts in before the new year!

Also, my blog has broken over 10,000 pageviews. Thank you everyone!