Yeah, taking a critical eye to what sells–even things that I think are masterful–is a great way to realize that a lot of those things are also not nearly as refined as the standard I’m holding myself to. Not all comics are smooth or hyper detailed. Their lines aren’t always 100% PERFECT (whatever that means for fictional characters portrayed in a style that isn’t even pretending to be close to realism) and yet… they’re great.

They’re also laden with shortcuts, sensible shortcuts that sane people implemented for efficiency.

Simple, non-detailed backgrounds are an example. It took me far too long to realize I did not need to draw and redraw the same chair in the room I envisioned this conversation taking place. I didn’t even need to draw the room. But, just as I am wordy I am…whatever the drawing equivalent is. It’s taken me a long time to learn to be “concise.”

Suddenly, it’s become a lot easier to progress as I’ve learned. But it’s been a very conscious effort. Lots of letting go of things too.

I suspect this is true. I can think of no other reason and honestly it does not endear the digital medium to me in the least. However, for sharing and playing with color (and not making a mess) digital can be very nice… I think. I’ll let you know if/when I find that wretched stylus.

I do it with drawing too. I’ve been doing a lot of sketches geared toward playing with expressions lately. Somewhere along the way, I became convinced I needed to draw things in some undefined “right way” (not life drawing, purely comic) and that’s been interesting.

Unwinding it has been fun, though.

I am jealous of your powers. Overthinking is my special skill, but often it results in just not being able to get something done…or only being able to blitz through it (minimal edits to avoid getting trapped) which leaves me something far less refined than the amount of thought I dumped into it would suggest.

Ahaha! I AM TIRED actually…

But, that aside, I actually have a couple fics I am hoping to start on this weekend… one of them is more like a restart for the umpteenth time.

I’m trying to allow myself to be a bit more “ridiculous” when it comes to storytelling… to not worry if something is too goofy or over the top. It’s a weird thing to worry about, especially in fanfic, and yet I feel like it’s relatively common.

I’ve also been toying with drawing, but my attempts to transfer anything to digital have been largely thwarted by a missing stylus so… >_<

Ah well. At least it’s not my primary medium.

How is everyone else doing?

A good distraction can be priceless. There are some great stim toys on craft sites. People make them as jewelry, gadgets, what have you. :)

I honestly may take advantage of this Finish What You Started challenge because I DO have some fics I’ve been wanting to get back to eventually.

I’m still on a Pokemon kick, but I’m becoming more and more obsessed with Dungeon Meshi so I may start exploring the fandom for that soon. It has a strong set of characters. No writing this weekend, but plenty of R&R which I badly needed. :)

I’m eyeing a run through of Pokemon Crystal because I am still on that kick. XD

My husband just picked up the Demo for Unicorn Overlord and to be honest it looks pretty good, so I’m tempted to also give that one a try. The pacing is nice and snappy and the game play seems straightforward enough. The story is a pretty standard hero’s journey, which isn’t high praise but certainly doesn’t count against it.

Who doesn’t enjoy the occasional boxed-mac-and-cheesesque storyline?

Not late at all! I hope things are improving.

And I hope Tumblr has not yet given into the darkness…

Health can be…fun… I’m sorry to hear yours seems to be particularly… in it right now.

I’ve only heard of one of those fandoms. I’ll need to explore some more. :)

Noooo! Tumblr! Not you too!

Anxiety is brutal when amped and it can take a long while to recover from being emotionally maxed out on top of things. That is genuinely okay, just in case it helps to hear it. (I have to remind myself often enough.)

I am apparently cycling between “too dead to function, much less write more than a few sentences” → “writing a fill for a prompt in one sitting in a feverish daze” → “struggling to typocheck and post because too tired” and back to the start. That’s… not ideal.

^
This is such a mood.

I wrote an entire fic in one sitting as a primer, and now I’m stuck halfway through another, but brainstorming maniacally.

Am very intrigued by this “Finish What You Started” event, despite not generally being a big events type. (I don’t dislike them, they just don’t always align with my energy and therefore they’re not as useful to me much of the time. )

This weekend was a bit more busy, but in a pleasant way, as we got to see some loved ones and we’re making progress on acclimating a couple of adopted cats. :)

The brief snippets of gameplay I got to experience weren’t half bad. It’s not one I would necessarily discourage other people from trying and I might even recommend looking into it depending on what I knew about their tastes.

Objectively, I don’t think what I experienced (limited as it was) was a bad game. I think it was a frustratingly paced intro to a game with potential. How much potential, I don’t know. I’ve heard mixed things.

You’ll have to let me know what you think if you give it a play through.

I don’t feel like I played it enough to give it a full or fair assessment, so this is just “at first glance”:

The biggest issue I had with it was getting a firehose of gameplay tutorials only to be provided very little opportunity for gameplay. I felt like I was frequently darting from cut scene to cut scene, and while I love story this was so start and stop as to be frustrating. The pacing was just…off.

I also admittedly didn’t care for the brief glimpses of characterization that I got, especially the “every adult character is a completely miserable human being” which was just draining. The protagonist not getting much characterization is less an issue because player characters are often blank slate. It really was overwhelmingly the side cast, and most were NPCs.

It is possible that I will pick this game up again at some point and completely fall in love with it. The art style is beautiful and there is a quality to it of playing through an anime. Maybe if I liked the story more or any of the characters had grabbed me I’d be more excited. Sometimes it’s just about timing, you know?

I got about45 minutes into Persona 5 Royal (so almost through the intro!), but I don’t think I’ll be going much further with that one. I’m still playing Platinum otherwise, and debating a Fire Emblem run soon, just because it’s been a little while.

I don’t have the brain power to crochet, so… XD

BTW I somehow missed the part about crocheting a cake the first time, but that is FANTASTIC!

Plans are really just guidelines. I’m sorry to hear you’ve been dealing with so much! It’s lovely when it all just aligns too, isn’t it? I hope you feel better soon. 'Grats on getting in some writing everyday…that’s far better than I do when I get derailed.

I am halfway through one fic (writing), and juggling ideas for two others that are spin offs. I’ve been dividing my drawing time between fanart and original. I attempted to draw from a new source of inspiration, but having finally played the intro to Persona 5…I don’t think that’s going to be it for me. XD

On trend, as always. ;)

Thanks! Things are going a bit better now. It can take some time, but you’ve just got to be sure to take extra care of yourself when you’ve been going through it for a bit.

Honestly, I’m really excited to have the motivation to draw again. For years that was my passion and I think I just let the weight of how I thought I SHOULD be pursuing art kind of squash that for a long while. It’s amazing how in your own head you can get.

As I’ve started to let that go I’ve been able to relax more and just enjoy myself again.