Creative Resolutions 2019

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I enter 2019 with:
– 1 shockingly neglected WIP (didn’t update once last year *guilt, guilt*)
– 6 fic ideas on the ‘to be written’ list

One of those ‘to be written ideas’ is for a rare-pair, from a cancelled TV show and … I don’t care. I was out of fandom for 10 years, I started writing fanfic again because of Rumbelle – Rumbelle is literally why I am here typing this! The other five ideas on that list (plus the WIP) are Rumbelle, I’m not going anywhere, but I did far more for other shows this past year than I did for Rumbelle and I’m ok with that.

My first resolution is..

.. to do what makes me happy.

Nobody likes feeling invisible but the response to my other show stuff has been, well muted at best, and I’m ok with that. I write and draw what it is in me to write and draw. I like making other people happy but the first person I have to please is myself. I need to do what I want, what I feel good about doing, and forget about ‘should’. I talk a lot about guilt because feeling guilty is a permanent state of being. In 2019

my second resolution is..

.. to cut myself a creative break.

I’m never going to stop feeling guilty about life but I can try and stop beating myself up over things I choose to do – things that should make me happy. For instance I find it difficult to choose what to work on because if I pick project A, then I feel guilty I’m not working on project B, even though logic does tell me I can’t work on more than one thing simultaneously (only have one brain and one set of hands hehe). Therefore in 2019 my resolution is to forget what I ‘should’ be working on and rediscover my joy in just working on what I please.

My third resolution is..

.. to institute a routine and stick to it.

I respond very well to a routine. The only reason why I go to class 95% of the time is because I’m supposed to, it’s on the schedule and so I do it whether I feel like it or not. For the past week I’ve set myself a task for the following day and miracle upon miracles – that task has got done. So in 2019 I’m going to do the 4thewords 444 word minimum everyday. I’m going to go with that rather than a potentially more punishing ‘update schedule’ because if words are happening, then things will be being written and that has to be enough.

I know myself and it’s all very well to set a bunch of deadlines now, during christmas break, but come January 14th I’ll be back at uni and instantly exhausted and stressed out from having to be around all the people. So as much as I would love to say I’ll update once a week, or even twice a month, and as much as I’m desperate to do other things like I would love to start a comic, I want to do it so bad, but it’s just not realistic. Which brings me to

my fourth and last resolution is..

.. to forgive myself.

I want to do so much and I get so frustrated because I continually fail. I need to accept that things will not get done as quickly as I’d like, and they won’t be as good as I want, that improving is a process and it takes time. I need to accept that good enough is good enough. When things don’t work out how I want I beat myself up and that is very counter-productive.

Basically in 2019 I need to be nicer to myself

/the end

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This is my latest piece. Number #8 I think as it goes. So what did I learn? Oh so many things! Obviously it’s still not great but it’s a learning exercise.

I did this in a mix of Clip Studio Paint and Photoshop, so #1 of things I learned was how to use Clip Studio. I posed the characters in Poser but I had to do the clothes and everything myself, same with the faces.

For what I’m pleased with I think the texture looks good on Belle’s robe and boots. I think the lightsaber blades came out ok and actually at this size Gold’s armor doesn’t look terrible either. I think Belle looks reasonably like Belle, not so sure about Gold, I never can seem to get him :/

Anyway learning! Well first of all composition is a major thing. I started off trying to do a lot of detail and from studying comic books, actually they keep the backgrounds very simple, and usually you can’t see them very much. Everything is often very zoomed in or very zoomed out. This would be more like a cover pose I guess as it’s full body.

I relearned that I really need to start with a good line drawing before trying to move on, I had to redraw parts several times as I tried adding colour much too early. I guess it’s the power of lines – the power of ink because for the comic book style, a lot is achieved with lines rather than with more complex shading.

I did a new thing with the shading. I painted in black with a soft brush for the most part, and then put the soft light filter on. That and the eraser is all I used pretty much, didn’t use the more complicated color-pick/blend brush technique which I think might turn out too soft sometimes. This has some definition to it, which is more appropriate to the style as well I think.

For next time I want to consider the composition better to begin with, and also the light sources, and take my time getting the basics right before diving in.

Ooops it’s been nearly six months

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I’ve had a funny relationship with time lately, in that it seems to be disappearing far more rapidly than ever before. I have no clue how it got to be September 2018. I swear it was 2016 last time I checked.

Anyway, the new expansion Battle for Azeroth has been out getting on for a month now (4 weeks at 11pm UK time tonight). What do I think? Well … I’m still not max level.

There is so much story and I’m playing Horde and Alliance at the same time. My main, my beloved Alliance paladin is currently 116 and just started the second zone in Kul Tiras. My Horde Demon Hunter is 114 I think? and just started the second zone in Zuldazar. That makes two zones completed, Drustvar and Nazmir. I also did the end dungeons for both of them.

I haven’t started the war campaign. I have the quest to choose the foothold but I wasn’t sure whether I was supposed to be max level or not. I’m guessing not because I got the quest at level 110 but I’d rather focus on one part of the story at a time anyway. I’m also going after all the rares and treasure boxes that pop up. My theory is that we’ll be max level for a couple of years, so there’s no rush to get there.

I’ve been doing other stuff in game too. I finally got my Bone White Raptor and Spectral Porpette from the Isle of Giants. I also took my level 90 Horde Paladin to the Argent Tournament to get the Horde pets. My Void Elf Priest is level 75 and when I’m online, there’s an invasion, and I feel like it, I’m taking my Death Knight to level 110.

Like I said we’ll be level 120 for a couple of years. However, it’s more than that. The content will only be new and shiny once, so I’d quite like to savour it and make it last. One of the last things I liked when I resubbed … wow a year ago now, is that there was a lot of variety to the game again. I’d like to keep it that way.

Given that I’ve barely scratched the surface and haven’t hit 120 it’s hard to render a verdict. However, I know that world quests are still a thing (yay!) and the fact that I’m still levelling says a lot about the depth of the game. I really do love all the voice acting and sometimes I’m blown away by the visuals. The zones are pretty and the animations of the mobs are top notch.

Also I haven’t yet encountered any problems related to the squish and my paladin, demon hunter and shadow priest still feel the same (phew!). I don’t know about my kitty druid or outlaw rogue yet as I haven’t touched them. One thing at a time.

So thumbs up for now!

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My first ever attempt at a pencil sketch. Up until now I’ve been purely digital – as evidenced by my fingers going ‘Ctrl – Z’ when I made a mistake /facepalm.

I’m hoping by going back to basics I’ll improve – can only hope 🙂 If anyone has any words of wisdom to share don’t be shy. I’m here to learn!

#first attempt so the only way is up – hopefully#it’s pretty bad

Rate the Expansions

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In the queue yesterday on BlizzardWatch somebody asked about how people would rank the expansions. I didn’t really go through and read any responses because I’m sure it got a bit vicious with the Cata and Warlords hate among other anti-comments. Anyway despite all the discourse I do think it’s a fascinating question. The answer is going to be different for everyone depending on when they started playing the game, and what it is about the game that they enjoy.

Personally for me I didn’t rank Vanilla-Wrath because I started playing at the tail-end of Wrath and I didn’t think I could really evaluate what I hadn’t experienced. My list went:

  1. Legion
  2. Cataclysm
  3. Mists of Pandaria
  4. Warlords of Draenor

Which would probably be odd for most people because it’s quite common that the expansion you went “all out on” e.g. when you raided, when you were in a guild, was when the game was at it’s peak for you etc. Yet that was Mists for me and I ranked it 3/4 and I’m going to blather on and say why now 🙂

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Looking forward (and back)

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I actually started this drawing before either of the other two. I had BB-8 mostly drawn last month and I’d started on Finn’s outline. I suspect that’s where things went a bit wrong in terms of improvements I was hoping to make.

For christmas I got a Star Wars drawing manual which is what enabled me to draw BB-8 because I basically followed the step by step instructions. With Finn I generated the pose using Adobe Fuse and Unreal Engine (same as I did with my past two pieces). So what did I do differently on this one?

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My two favourite characters from the new trilogy.

#as always I’m not very happy with the face or hair#I am pretty happy with BB-8 though#learning from last time I tried to give Finn’s clothes more texture

One step forward, two steps back

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I’d had the bare bones of this Valentines drawing started before I did the last piece (my Fitzsimmons comic). Still there was plenty of scope to apply the lessons I’d learned and #1 was don’t mix styles.

So as you can see there’s lines around the hair.

I think some things on this came out well. I’m pleased with the shading on some of Belle’s skin, I think Gold’s collar looks ok and I like the hand that is placed on her side (apart from the fact that it looks like it’s floating). The biggest success with this was the faces. I looked for tips on YouTube and then I drew the faces by eye. It’s not perfect but it looks loads more like Belle and Gold than last weeks Fitz and Simmons attempt.

Ultimately it’s not a terrible job but as always there are lessons to be learned.

The angle on this was awkward. It involves foreshortening and again – just like with Gold’s hand – I think I have a floating issue with their extended legs. In fact everything sort of looks like it’s floating – that chocolate box is definitely not grounded. Belle’s hair is too red and Gold’s hair should have more grey in it.

Plus I’m still kinda mixing styles. I didn’t think I was until I thought about it after it was completed. The digital painting which gives the shading doesn’t really match with the solid lines. I should really have chosen whether it was a digital painting or cartoon/comic book style.

The biggest takeaway from this though is materials/textures. I used the same painting/shading technique on everything and it’s alright but it kinda looks too polished. I struggled particularly with Gold’s feet (in the socks), though some of that was down to the awkward angle.

My next piece is going to be Finn and BB-8 from Star Wars. I’m going to aim to make that a true digital painting and I’m going to do a deep-dive on YouTube for how to differentiate materials. After that I think I’m going to scream into reverse and try and do a true comic book style, as I have another comic to draw.

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Blind taste-testing at home on Valentines day.

Drawn for @a-monthly-rumbelling​ in February. The Prompt was Love Letter, Candy Hearts, Chocolate, Roses, Blind Date.

#I also learned from the fitzsimmon piece more about doing faces#I learned not to mix styles from my last fitzsimmons piece hence the lines around the hair#I think this might look a bit like Belle and Gold and I did it by eye – a first for me#I was so unhappy with how fitz and simmons came out I did a deep dive on YouTube for tips#socks are impossible note to self not to do that again

A Mix of Styles

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This is a comic I posted yesterday. It’s for Fitzsimmons, the prompt was ‘Coming home to you‘, and it’s a slight AU of their Academy years to post-show when they are happy in a cottage in Perthshire.

I was a bit short on time when I did this and it shows because once I realized where I was going wrong I didn’t have chance to go back and fix it.

You see I decided to try and go for a simple “comic book” style hence the black lines because I thought that would be faster. I got discouraged when it started looking like my old art and that’s when the mess with the hair happened.

I think it would have looked more coherent and better if I had stuck with the black lines over trying to ‘merge’ the methods. The same with the cheating I did with the posters in the dorm-room, they are just photos from google.

The other real issue is the faces and the fact that they don’t look anything like either Fitz or Simmons. Faces have long been my bugbear and I’m not sure how to resolve this, I think a deep-dive on YouTube is in my future.

Coming up next is a Valentines themed Rumbelle picture. Bearing in mind what I learned here about how not to mix methods I’m hoping it’ll be better.