solstrix

[solstrix]

Thalassophobia - 3/4

Local catgirl impulsively speaks up on feelings she has not yet processed, more at 8

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[solstrix]

Page 3 is now up! :>

Thalassophobia comics soon?

Hello! Thank you for your question <3

I post new pages of Thalassophobia according to my regular posting schedule, which is to say on Fridays or Saturdays depending on when I remember

That being said, I am overjoyed to hear that there's interest in the rest of the story! Monster High and its characters have been a huge inspiration for me these past few years, and I had a lot of fun working on this project... So I hope it's just as fun to read, especially for anyone else who loves these characters as much as I do! Stay tuned, I promise it'll be out soon!

[solstrix]

Thalassophobia - 3/4

Local catgirl impulsively speaks up on feelings she has not yet processed, more at 8

1 2

[solstrix]

Thalassophobia comics soon?

Hello! Thank you for your question <3

I post new pages of Thalassophobia according to my regular posting schedule, which is to say on Fridays or Saturdays depending on when I remember

That being said, I am overjoyed to hear that there's interest in the rest of the story! Monster High and its characters have been a huge inspiration for me these past few years, and I had a lot of fun working on this project... So I hope it's just as fun to read, especially for anyone else who loves these characters as much as I do! Stay tuned, I promise it'll be out soon!

[solstrix]

Thalassophobia - 2/4

Scripting a room full of people is all fun and games until you have to like. Actually DRAW a room full of people.

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[solstrix]

Thalassophobia - Page 1/4

Extremely excited to finally be posting this comic I've had in the works for months now! Featuring: a catgirl and a fishgirl forming an unlikely bond... Page 2 will be coming out next week <3

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[solstrix]

My art throughout 2024!

[solstrix]

ART RESOLUTIONS OF 2025

Looking back at my progress this year, I can see how much I have grown…. And exactly where I want to improve in the future! To help me figure out how to improve in those ways, let us make a list to further define my goals and objectives, as well as to consult if I ever feel I am losing my way. But the most important thing to remember, is that every piece made gets me closer to being the artist I want to be.

As a disclaimer, this list is extremely specific to my own goals, please! Feel free to share your goals if you have them! I’d be curious to see, and I genuinely feel inspired by hearing what other people want to work on.

Therefore, without further ado…

Work on comics!! When we really get down to it, this is my most significant and most important goal. I have always wanted to be a comic artist, to tell stories using my art… But I’ve been holding myself back, feeling that my skills were not good enough, not consistent enough, just… not enough in general. That’s a lie though, and it has been a lie for a long time. I’ve been drawing characters since junior high. Backgrounds have never been my strong suit, but that is something that can only be improved by drawing more of them… Which I would have been motivated to do for the sake of my comics! I can only get better if I make them. And so I simply must make them.

Stay in my lane! Make less fanart, and more original work! Now don’t get me wrong, fan art is fun to make, and if making art of your fave is what keeps you picking up the pencil, then do it! But for me… I always find myself at the end of the year, wishing I’d dedicated more time to my own projects, my own stories, my own artistic voice. So this year I want to commit myself to finishing the first chapter of my webcomic, to draw my own characters, to draw from life or reference photos I’ve taken myself. Fanart will now be an occasional treat, not the everyday meal, so to speak.

Embrace my own pace! I’ve talked about this before on here, but the fact that I’m a slow artist has long been a struggle of mine. To make a long story short, I’ve decided that thinking of this as a flaw was in itself the real problem, and that what needed to change was my mindset. After all, it is when I take my time that I end up most enjoying the process. This means I might occasionally have to skip posting for a week, but most difficult… This means I have to give up weekly/monthly challenges. I keep trying to do these, and I keep failing, and it keeps making me feel burned out and worse than before. I have to let go.

Explore and define different approaches to making finished pieces. This one is a little hard to explain, but perhaps one of the most important for this blog. In the past, I’ve convinced myself that there was only one way to truly finish a piece: start with a sketch, do clean lineart, then flat colours, and then shading and rendering. Only once every single one of these steps was done, could a piece be properly considered “complete.” Not only is this completely untrue, but it is also incredibly limiting, and… perhaps even part of what makes me a slower artist… And what really broke through to me last year, was that many of the artists I looked up to and admired, often didn’t even follow these “necessary” steps! Vespertiliu’s hatched inks are just as complete as Abigail Larson’s flat colours as Julia Lepetit’s blocked shadows as PricklyAlpaca’s painterly renderings. I have such a range of options at my disposal, and I’ve been limiting myself to just one! I hope to explore more of these options and become comfortable with each of them, until I can approach illustrations with an intentional style approach in mind. And not every illustration needs to be done the same way.

Draw more scenes! Like I mentioned above, backgrounds have been something I’ve struggled with, and which I wish I was more comfortable with doing. But drawing a background for the sake of drawing a background has always been a bit boring to me… And it’s only recently that I realized there was an extremely simple solution to this “problem”: throw in a character! Not only will this motivate me to draw the background in the first place, but it will help me improve at proportioning things, considering compositions, and, of course, it will make it easier to draw scenes for my comics.

Sketchbook and journal regularly. So here’s the thing: I actually LOVE making traditional art, just as much as digital art. In particular, traditional art tends to be my sanctuary of sorts, the art I make truly and only for myself. Most of it will never be posted, and that’s part of the point. Sketchbooking for myself is how I practice and warm up at the start of an art session, but most importantly, it is how I nurture my own creativity and my love for making art. I must ignore the voice that tells me that art made behind the scenes serves no tangible purpose to my presence online: it serves a purpose to me.

Find my audience. Now let me be clear: I appreciate every single one of you who follow my blog, watch my progress, share my art… But I have to be brutally honest with myself, and with you, here. The fact that my original art gets little to no attention compared to my fanart, is… a little soul-crushing. But this is something that can change. By prioritizing my original works this year, I hope this means I can eventually find those people who would love my original creations for what they are, and to whom my art speaks to and compels in the same way that it does to me.

Have fun, and enjoy the process. Avoid the traps of perfectionism and succumbing to social (or invented) pressure.

[solstrix]

Merry Christmas and a happy Yuletide to all who celebrate!

A little late, but I hope all who celebrate had a good one!

[solstrix]

At long last, I can share my Magnum Opus of this year! Simon and Anastasia, teetering on the edge of realizing that their feelings for each other are, in fact, very reciprocated.

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Another piece I originally made for Monster High March! I’ve always been amused by the fact that Frankie’s room is like, a bizarre amalgamation of a teen’s bedroom and a mad scientist lab.

[solstrix]

Art log: My quest to try embracing being a slow, non-linear artist (2024.12.08)

I’ll get to the point: it’s still something I’m working on, and I haven’t really figured it out yet. And while these logs are always meant to be about my own experience with art, and my own feelings, this one may very well be only applicable to me.

All that to say, it seems as though this issue of mine is not one that is commonly talked about. So let's talk about it.

I'm a slow artist. There are very few pieces I've been able to complete in under an hour, and I'm sure it's easy to spot the ones I have. My piece for the upcoming Window to Worlds took me, according to Procreate's in-software timer, around *30 hours*. If you've ever watched my Twitch streams, you'll know I was working on the same piece for WEEKS. I have a webcomic I started in 2020, for which I am STILL working on the first chapter.

Whenever I’ve talked about this with other artists in the past, they immediately try suggesting tips and tricks to sketch faster, steps to skip, how to streamline…. And they mean well, I know, and I don’t begrudge them. But the truth is! I genuinely enjoy my process as it is! Every step of the way! And I enjoy the way those steps add up in the final product!

I like polishing my sketches until they look like clean lineart, erasing and adding until it looks right. I like to take my time pushing and pulling my shading, blending smooth in some places and sharpening planes in others. I enjoy experimenting with more complex lighting settings, different temperatures of light and shadows. Lately I've been having fun differentiating how I render different textures, which, again, means I'm spending more time on pieces. I like doing these things! I enjoy my process as it is, so of course I am resistant to changing any part of it!

To make art as efficiently as possible, to me, sacrifices a lot of its weight and meaning, and further takes the fun and pleasure out of it.

But at the same time... Yes, I do find frustration in the fact that I'm not faster. In part because I wish I could participate in those daily art challenges, but mostly, because the faster you are, the more you can make. I look at the amount of project ideas I have, and then I look at the amount of projects I've finished in the past couple months... I will never be able to execute every single idea I have ever thought of, and I have to learn to be alright with that.

To embrace my own pace, for me, has meant approaching my art with more intentionality, and by focusing on the long-term rather than the short-term. This means I'm pickier with the pieces I start and commit to, I establish clear goals for what I want to improve in each piece, I do more planning and iterating instead of jumping into it blindly, I keep track of what I'm working on and when... And I allow myself to take my time with each step, to dwell on it, to bask in it, to enjoy it, flaws and all. I allow myself to switch projects when I feel my motivation draining, so I may come back with fresh eyes later. I work in seasons, not in days, and I let my inspiration and motivation ebb and flow as it will.

Only time will tell how this approach will change my output. But all I can say for now, is that the pieces I've finished recently have made me happier and prouder of my art than ever before.

Our society emphasizes productivity and efficiency, short-term pleasure and immediate returns. This pace may works for some, but I would argue it harms many more, me included. I have given myself permission to quit the race, to go hiking instead. And I hope you can give yourself that permission too.

[solstrix]

Vandala's colour scheme is So Peak and that peg leg??? Top tier doll.

[solstrix]

Art Journey Log: What is Artmaxxing... and Why Does it Bother Me? (02/12/2024)

There's a specific type of art content creation I've noticed, especially on Youtube, that I've been wanting to talk about for a while. I'll admit though, even now I struggle with exactly what I want to say, and how... But I really want to try, it feels important that I get out what I've been thinking.

So this thing I've noticed is something I've been calling "artmaxxing", which I define as content centered on attempting to and explaining how one can get as "good" at art as fast as possible. Here's what makes this tricky: there is nothing actually WRONG with that type of content. Sometimes, often even, it can in fact be a very helpful form of video, and suggestions from these videos can, in fact, help you improve on an objective level. But...

(I will not be pointing at any examples, as I don't really want to draw negative attention towards these creators. Just know that they are very common on Youtube's art space, and you wouldn't have to look far to find one.)

(These contentmakers also tend to be the type of creator to make "critiquing/roasting your art" videos, which I also have severe issues with, but is not the subject of this current blog post. Perhaps another time...)

But here is where my issues start. The idea that the pursuit of improvement is not only necessary, but MANDATORY, I find, can be extremely harmful to the art mindset. "Soli, that seems, like, really counterintuitive," I hear you say. And you are correct! But here's the thing: unless your artistic goals begin and end with growth for growth's sake, you will end up standing in your way. And I'm gonna dare say that, for most people, the point of making art isn't inherently just to get better at it.

Most artists start making art for a purpose. Whether it's to make comics and tell stories, make characters, to externalise the visions you are plagued with, for fashion design, or just because you liked a piece of media so much that it inspired you to create something new based on it... There are endless reasons, and they are rarely Just For Arts's Sake, or Just For Growth's Sake. So the problem is when an artist holds themselves back, keeps themselves from creating the things they actually want to make, because they see themselves as not good enough yet. They want to wait until they are better, until they've improved,

The problem is that "better" is a constantly moving goalpost, and one which, simultaneously, you may never actually get closer to. Your own improvement is not always obvious, and there is always something more to learn.

Do the thing now. Do the art you actually want to make now. Pursue what inspires you, what makes you want to create. Improvement will follow, because every time you draw, you get better. If you're struggling on a part of a drawing, find reference, look for advice as to how to improve that one part, and remain specific. Remember that you can always come back to the same work, the same themes, iterate and improve on them, your piece doesn't have to be one and done. Do not let yourself get too general, or you will stand in your own way. Ignore the voices telling you you aren't good enough yet, that you NEED to work to improve.

Don't stand in your way, and don't listen to anyone telling you want you Should or Need to be learning and doing to improve.

You are good enough right now to start being the artist you want to be.

[solstrix]

I am so pleased and excited to announce that I got to contribute to this year's edition of the Window to Worlds zine, "an art zine series showcasing original worlds, characters and stories." This piece will be featuring characters from my upcoming webcomic, Anastasia and Simon!

Keep an eye out for the zine's release on @windowtoworlds to see everyone's amazing contributions!

[solstrix]

Lately on my art journey (25/11/2024)

As I mentioned in my last post, I've had a couple weeks now of feeling completely disheartened. While I officially feel like I've come out of it now, it's given me time to reflect on my relationship with art, and with the way in which I share it.

Making art is a spontaneous action for me. It's something I do almost daily, but there is no set time for it, no deadlines. I work on things as I feel like it, and sometimes, that means I don't work on anything at all. I have endless ideas. It's intuitive.

Posting art, however, is the complete opposite. I have to think about it. I have to remind myself to do it. It does not come to me naturally, and I always struggle to figure out what to say about it. Every step takes effort, and I have to draft even just the captions to feel even somewhat confident doing it.

I think that's part of why I've started doing these long rants. I want to normalize posting for myself, I need to let out all of the complicated tangled thoughts someway so that I can be left with just the clear heart of it when I finally do share my art.

Whenever I make these posts I feel like they really don't make that much sense but honestly? I've been looking for this kind of content from other artists I follow. I wonder if anyone else struggles with this, and how they've overcome out, what they've tried. So I'm gonna be honest and talk through it, stream of consciousness style.

Me, right now, I've decided to try and develop a structure, one which surrounds the art making, while supporting and enabling the art posting, as simply another step in the process. This is all fancy-talk to say, I'm trying out a posting schedule, where when a piece is finished it goes on an organized list of upcoming posts. I am at my best creatively when I get to be loose and freeform with it, but if I did the same for sharing, I would almost never post. And that's not how I want it to be.

[solstrix]

It's Been Too Long

Due to personal reasons, which have only been exacerbated by the current state of the world, I'm sorry to say... I haven't been in the mood to stream.

I wish I had the time, and spare energy, and I do miss it... But unfortunately, it is not possible at this time.

I will instead attempt to update this blog more often.

So yeah TLDR: I'm taking a hiatus from twitch-streaming until things start falling into place on my end.

Cheers and godspeed, I appreciate you all <3