A Christmas Miracle in the form of a Competely Finished Comic from AppleStorm

At the end of 2020, one of my New Year's resolutions was to draw and complete one long-term comic project before January 2022.
Beginning as a side-gig (just something I did in the background while I tried to brainstorm my Purity comic... cuz my brain needs variety) this ended up becoming my full-time focus when I realized I wanted experience and endurance before I put my whole heart into the thing I really wanted to look good.

And I took the advice of other comic artists to start off with something that was 20 pages or less.
This was 20 pages exactly.
And Purity was going to be over 20. Maybe even over 40 or 50.

So yeah.

Began drawing the thumbnails in mid June. Kicked and screamed and cried through the challenges until December 24. Then promptly praised God for blessing me and for giving me strength and courage for seeing this through to the very end. Despite everything.

Is it perfect? I wish it was. It is not.
But would I do it all over again? Absolutely.
I learnt A LOT about perspective, anatomy, paneling, writing, perseverance, patience, and self-discipline. Amongst other things.

 And overall I am pretty content.
I'm looking forward to doing it aaaaall over again when I next have the energy to spare. XD

And now whenever I go back to look at my old art, I shall probably cringe and hastily scroll past and pretend I never drew any of this. XD
Ah. Such is the life of an artist.

But in all seriousness, this was probably the hardest thing I had to do all year. And 100% self-imposed to boot.

The last time I completed a comic completely was in 2016. Five years ago.
I've tried and failed drawing comics dozens of times since then, so the fact that I am here now - despite ALL the temptations to give up and the burnouts - surprises me a lot.

Man. What a good Christmas gift for myself. And what a way to end the year!
Never going to top this, that's for sure.

Anyway. That's all from me for now.
I've got some shenanigans to do with my family now, so I'll see you dudes in 2022.

*raises glass of apple&mango juice*
Here's to this year finally being over, and let's hope the next year will be a little better than we dare hope!
Or in the very least not quite as bad.

Cheers. And a very Merry Christmas and happy holidays to you all. And thanks for reading.
*Drinks up*

Rainbow Misery

Ah. Should've supposed that this week couldn't possibly have been as good as the last.
Still good. But it had it's down sides, too.

Such it is. :)

 My laptop crashed yesterday and I lost a good half hour of drawing progress on a big art piece I was working on.
That didn't phase me, actually.
I mostly shrugged my shoulders and went 'Ay. Could've been worse. Could've lost the entire hour of work. That's fine. I'll just have to do the work I lost again later this afternoon; but better!"

And then my laptop crashed again and it took literally the entire afternoon to restart itself.
Yeah. That completely killed the mood for me. So I was rather frustrated, and sulked for a good hour or something while I tried to process my feelings.

Then I grew bored and decided I was going to draw anyway, but for fun.
Something sparkly and rainbow sounded good.
So anyway. That's the story behind this drawing.

Pretty experimental? But I think it's okay. I had fun. Even if I was still a little miffed.

Scottsmen, Snacks and Space Spiders

WOW. This week was good!
I did a stupid amount of comic work (sketched all the backgrounds I had been neglecting for 4 months, colored 2 pages and redrew a bad page from scratch.. AND inked and colored it!) did a whole buncha light and shadow study work, and even had time to draw for fun in the form of my Interstellar Institute kids! (AKA my sci-fi found-family space adventure)

So yeah!
Despite how tired and nauseous I am, I feel great.
God's been good to me.

Tried putting that shading theory into practice here.. dunno how correct the shadows are, but boy I had fun with the colors. <3

Kinda sunrise-y, kinda homey. Which is what I was going for, cuz this is Hamish's last day on planet earth. He won't be coming back until 10-15 years later; when he's over 30 or something.
Being a part of a massive social experiment takes time, okay?? XD Ah, but in all seriousness, he's super stoked to be getting the chance to visit literally hundreds of planets and to help further the connections between alien species.

A bit naive atm, but he'll grow. :)

"Howdya get here without a boat, old dude?"

 3 more weeks until Christmas, an only four til New Years.
I do not like this information. It alarms me.
Last I checked we still had ages til 2022.

On an unrelated note, I'm still playing LoZ Phantom Hourglass. And I've become invested enough to create my own fake screenshots.
Make of that what you will.

 I've gotten the last sea chart a few days ago. Kinda cheated by looking up how to bypass all the rooms with minimal damage, but I didn't feel like I needed that extra stress, so I don't feel guilty.
Kinda sad my adventure is coming to a close, but that's what replaying the entire thing is for I guess. :)