#and tbqh I think my art is better for it! I'm drawing MORE and I'm having FUN what a CONCEPT

[blujaydoodles]

2022 lil art wrapup (template found on twitter!) :3 I made a lot of progress this year wrt drawing more of whatever I felt like just because it makes me happy, and it felt really good! Lookin to keep that energy going moving forward 💕

[heartlites]

so, i suppose as a little update in the diary that is my tumblr blog.

out of all those books i bought, i've finished two and i'm on the third one. it's taking me much longer to finish the third one because it just didn't grip me like the first two books did. the one's i have finished are my darling dreadful thing by johanna van veen (highly recommend for a gripping gothic story) and the last story of mina lee by nancy jooyoun kim (also a good read, but didn't grip me as severely as the former).

i'm currently reading nura and the immortal palace by m.t. khan. i think it has fantastic world building with a lot of fantastical scenery and people, very fun and imaginative setting, but the writing style is a bit simpler. i think it's a book better suited for a tween to teen audience.

i tried painting yesterday once again. i picked up some small i believe 5"x5" canvases over the weekend to give myself something small to work on. i didn't like what i made, tbqh, and i did end up throwing it away. the acrylic paint set i have is kind of limited and didn't capture what i wanted and i think i've forgotten a lot of painting techniques. i don't remember how to work with acrylics much anymore. i used oil paints more in the past. i'm wondering if i should maybe look up some stuff to help me figure out and re-learn techniques. however, this does also have me thinking about digital art again because i wouldn't have to struggle w finding my colors/mixing paints or the clean up lol. i wish i could find my old tablet.

i'm excited for fall coming in, i want to try to spend some more time outside again but i've been struggling with a lot of pain, boredom, and loneliness since i fell. i can't do as much around the house and it's frustrating and leading to some boredom to me. i've turned to video games more but i'm currently feeling a little unsatisfied with them.

generally just kind of really depressed as a whole in life, though. so much stress and little way to relieve it. socially i feel crushed and devastated. i feel like some kind of creature trying to imitate humans. i feel so distant and disconnected. my therapist is retired and i still haven't found a new one. idk what to do

edit: oh! an addition. i started playing dead by daylight recently. it wasn't as scary or intimidating as i thought it'd be. it's also not really that scary. horror media has started to surround me in life more and more in my life and i'm unsure how i feel about it these days. its not as traumatic of an ordeal for me anymore but some of it i just do not "get" but i'm trying to make peace with the fact that i don't have to "get" everything. so far i think my favorite form of horror media i've engaged with is probably written/novel forms. suspense and mystery intrigues me and draws me in more.

[bluering8]

6, 8, 9, 10, 15, and 27 for the artist ask meme! (tbqh i want to ask ALL the question but i will refrain.)

6) anything that might inspire you subconsciously

uhhh i don't know! i feel like i'm very bad at being inspired by art honestly, i kind of just do whatever i feel like without thinking about it too hard. so probably all my inspirations are subconscious and i can identify exactly None of them

8) what's an old project idea that you've lost interest in

pretty much every comic idea i've ever had! also every few years i like to go "i'm going to draw all 151 original pokemon" and then my enthusiasm for that idea inevitably peters out around pikachu

9) what are your file name conventions

i don't really have one! i've got a lot better recently at naming my psd files something relevant to what they are so i can find them later, but i still have a really shitty habit of naming the flat version after a line from whatever song i'm listening to at that moment. some picked-at-random examples of what i name shit: "2card mahou shoujo outfits 2 winston", "are gifted just for being human" "eszry but make i t goth", "wheneverlifegetsyoudownkeepsyouwearingafrown" "work work work big copy". my current wip is called "splatted toons".

10) favourite piece of clothing to draw

okay so fun fact the most offended (joking, affectionate) i've ever been about a comment someone made on my art was "trust hap to make it regency era" when first of all i had absolutely not done that all i had done was was indulge my love for floofy-sleeved shirts and big stupid coats and second of all EXCUSE U i hate regency fashion actually i think it's hideous my TRUE LOVE lies almost a century earlier in the first half of the 18th c when waistcoats were worn long and coats had full skirts & cuffs big enough to smuggle a four-course banquet in.*

also i really like drawing poofy pantaloons. they are very cute and the shapes make me happy.

15) where do you draw

sitting at my computer desk! even traditional art mostly gets drawn here bc it's where all my supplies seem to end up. i am not a tidy man the most i ever do is keep things in vaguely-accessible piles oops

27) do you warm up before getting to the good stuff? if so, what is it you draw to warm up with

i don't do specific warm-ups but i always do rough gesture sketches for everything i draw which serves pretty much the same function as far as getting me loosened up goes. if the speeddraw videos i watch on youtube are at all indicative of how the average not-me person goes about drawing then this does not seem very common? other people seem to launch directly into it, the absolute madlads. terrifying!!

--

*okay this is irrelevant to art questions but i need to make it clear my affection for early-18th c. clothing has nothing to do with the gay pirate show and everything to do with a couple years ago i got really really obsessed with frankenstein for a while. this may or may not be more cringe than liking it because ofmd actually. also i got into sea shanties years before those were briefly popular so in conclusion god just super wants me to be an i-liked-it-before-it-was-cool hipster about stuff