It was a rough start, but I'm finally settling into 2021, and what will hopefully be the general pace for the next year. Though I've yet to exceed my own expectations, I'm proud of how I've been holding up and meeting most of my goals amidst this workload.
February Summary My goal this month was to complete C3 within the first two weeks of feb; then complete the lineart for C4 within the final two weeks. In a way I accomplished it, but I also fell short within reason. Firstly, I did manage to complete the entirety of C3 (hurray!)
This took me three weeks instead of two, however. That's because the first two weeks, I spent on illustration work, which I will get to later! The past final week of Feb, I came close to completing the lineart for C4, but not quite.
As you can see, I have most of it complete, however I still have 6 pages left to lineart. It will likely be completed in another day's work. To put it loosely, I have more or less completed my goals in having a relatively steady pace in regards to my webcomic work.
So what have I been doing in the first two weeks of the month? Firstly, I completed the illustration wip from the last update: Sherrey! Finally, the Witch's crew is complete, and so is the landing page of the Arcanus Crucis character profiles! But in addition to that - perhaps my biggest accomplishment yet, was the surprising completion of a new illustration (below) ... which means I have already officially completed my annual illustration goal of at least 4 OC illustrations ... within the first 2 months of 2021! I don't think I've had this much success with any of my illustration goals before! Let's hope I can keep up the illustration work throughout the year!
I am very proud of this illustration, because it was an accomplishment on many levels. To begin with, it had been a year since the last time I tackled one of these detailed illustration projects. I stopped drawing them since The Witch's Flower Festival artwork, after a sort of realization that all my efforts put into BGs was not going to be fully appreciated by the viewers. Artists at the time had told me that it was unnecessary to detail backgrounds to that extent, and I agreed with them. Furthermore, those illustrations tend to take me months due to the scale of it all, so it felt like I was just wasting my time.
I stopped drawing them for a year.
Recently, I have been re-inspired by artists I've been following, and realised how much I missed putting detail into my background works - putting small easter eggs and mini stories that perhaps only I know of. But that was what made it fun - not only the process, but also looking back to go through all the small things that I put into it later on in the future.
Thus, I took it upon myself to draw another detailed piece. Completing it was not the accomplishment - I always completed it in the end. The accomplishment was that I managed to complete it within 27 hours of nonstop work over a period of 3 days. I guess all the comic work during this time really built up my endurance such that even detailed bgs like these are nothing to me (lol).
The most important thing of this all, was that I learnt how much I love drawing art like this. It doesn't matter if other people think the detail is unnecessary - all that maters is that I enjoy the process, and enjoy the art. The biggest difference between this illustration and the past detailed illustrations I've done is that I've learnt how to strike that balance between fun details and a well composed piece. Enough detail to make it fun for myself, but not so much that it becomes a mess to look at.
I will leave off this reflection with the poem that I wrote to go along with the piece (also another thing I hadn't written in a very long time):
Won't you show me, tell me, what love is?
Is it something that is sweet, something I can eat?
Something I can touch, something you can teach?
Look at me, listen to me, let me call you darling.
On your knees, tonight, I'll have you hand me your ring.
March Goals My goals this month will be split between illustrations and comic. Comic-wise, it will just be to see C4 completed, with bg, flats, and shading. Illustration-wise, it would be to get the backlog of art I've accumulated out of the way such that I'll be able to spend the following months more focused on comics without the lingering doom of debt over my back.
That's the end of this month's update! See you at the end of March! Ciao!
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