12 Years

 It's that time of year again, folks! My imaginary kids are getting older and I'm getting wiser.

Or if not wiser, at least more skilled in art, which is something infinitely more practical I think. 

Originally I was planning to make two pieces for today, almost as mirrors to each other and to express that even if my characters change shape and get put into a different world, they're still the same at the core.

But then after drawing this I realized "Wait. I don't want to redraw these five characters again. NEVERMIND, this is good enough!" but at least I got the important version of my idea onto paper! XD

Just look at these idiots go. The OG terrible trio with my other favorites on either side. Y'know, thinking about it now, if Reginald and Harland had been there while this was still an AJ plushie blog, it would've been so fun to have bought a big wolf plushie and just stuck it next to the long noodle-boy that was Midnight's plush. Would've been very funny in my opinion. XD

 But anyway! Cheers, you funky lil animal weirdos that still haunt my brain to this day. Can't wait to see how you infiltrate through my other stories and grow into new exciting flavors of yourselves!

Mapping our World

 Ha! Well, it's that time again folks! A time where the fourth day of April lands on a Saturday.
It's happened once already - 2020, I believe and fact checked! - and now it's happened again.

On the one hand? I've felt a year older since January/February, so like. Officially reaching 24 years of life is like *shrug* "yeah, I know. No big deal." And on the other hand...? Well, it's just funny because I'm glad I've reached to the point where having another birthday isn't sending me into bad spiral anymore.

In fact, I'm almost looking forward to seeing what kind of shenanigans I can cram into my life until the next birthday happens!

But anyway- enough introspection and musings. Here's this week's art showcase from yours truly! 

Last week I bit one bullet (I had many bullets to choose from) and decided to try playing Minecraft again. And it's been inspiring me to draw again! I was kinda going through a writing phase during March, being more interested and motivated to write instead of draw... but it feels good to wake up in the morning and feeling excited about art again.

... also it feels good to wake up in the morning and get excited about playing Minecraft like a kid again. Except this time I'm being an Adult(TM) about it XD  

So yeah! Let's see where this year takes us. I'm planning to celebrate my birthday properly when my twin gets to come home from studying, but until then let the Emotional times roll!

Happy Birthday to the best Vampire Kangaroo this side of Fantasy Australia

 *Confetti pop!* Tis the season of September! Which is something all of us have known for the last few weeks of our lives

HOWEVER! It is also the season for celebrating the birthday of this blog, a half-buried story full of loose threads and vibes, and also a character that I owe literally 90% of my artistic and writing skills to!

Friends and enemies, I give you: Ruby DeathDancer! Vamparoo extraordinaire!

 

Featuring Harland, because what's the point of a birthday party if nobody lets him dance with his spouse? XD

 Did I spend all morning doing this instead of eating lunch! Yup! But I'm pretty pleased I could keep up tradition this year with slightly more sleep and spirit.

Cheers to Ruby, who is arguably one of the most important characters I've got inside my head. You and your friends and family are far from forgotten. <3

UV 10th Anniversary comic

I shall preface with this post by saying: I have not gotten enough sleep. Part of me wishes I had made more of an effort to do something special for the 1st decade birthday of my blog/UV story, but honestly? the irony of "10 symbolizing completion" feels correct because none of this is complete and I feel less pressure because of it.

SO. on that note, allow me to present my out-of-context thoughts in the form of Aeron giving me emotional support or whatever I was thinking of when I drew this last week XD

Feeling exhausted and bitter about sleeplessness is not the energy I wanted when I planned to post this, but you know what? It's fine and I think the vibes still work.

Completed and perfect UV is not. However, a delight and treasure it is because I still love these dorks an unreasonable amount.

Let's see where the next 10 years take us!

almost late but technially still within the month so it's on time Vamparoo Anniversary (9th year addition!)

 I had the energy to draw my yearly anniversary picture for the blog (and story) that has been with me since I was a kid, but despite my best attempts to remember I forgot to post this one my blog on the correct date XD But Birthdays are a weekly event, and since I correctly did the math that Saturday still counted as 'September' I was like "Eh! Good enough. Not gonna be perfectionist about the timing. The intent still counts" so that's what I'm doing.

Even if I haven't been drawing much of my UV kiddies, they are still important to me and I hope I can write their stories or draw their shenanigans more one day. When the ADD fixation lets me go of Ninjago of course XD

Til then, cheers Ru! You've grown a lot since you were a spunky and sensible lass in my head all those years ago <3

The Time has Come

 The time has come, brothers and sisters. It is time for me to join the ranks of the higher and holier multitude of education and learning.

... And by that, I mean open University.

 I am terrified beyond belief, but optimistic things will be fine despite my crippling fear of... well, a lot of things! But I'm optimistic all the same.

I've survived this week, even if I was confused and lost and hopelessly ditzy. Hopefully next week I'll understand what I'm doing a little better.

If I don't make it, I hope my dearly beloved friends and family will find my body and give me a good funeral and a delightfully witty gravestone about "She died as she lived: heart full of love and head empty of everything except anxiety and Christmas colored ninjas"

But that's future problems and no one has to think of that yet. Least of all me.
For now, I've got a night of joy and peace to comfort me. That's all I need right now.

8 years of this blog and my weekly shenanigans

 Ay. So, out of all the things I was expecting this week, becoming overwhelmed with life's trivial challenges was not one of them XD But! Despite those little setbacks, I managed to create what I wanted. It might not be clean or pretty, but it's mine and I think it sums up the mood of this very special day adequately.

 

Since it UV's 8th anniversary, I figured it'd be appropriate to draw our favorite dragon-spider getting a special-... *squints closer* birthday sandwich? Sandwiches. It's clearly just a lot of individual sandwiches stacked on top of each other with candles jammed into any corner that would take 'em. But it's festive! Who doesn't love eating a flaming tower of bread with thin slices of savory fruit, meat and cheese in it? XD Fang would! And he is! <3
Haha ahh... seriously though. It's nice seeing this dork again.

But that wraps it up for this year's little dedication to the blog that has seen me through all my teenage years and beyond. I'll keep trotting along and throw my art on here every week as usual, rain, hail, snow or sun. Or tornado. I hope there won't be any tornadoes, but if there are I'll still do my best and give you something nice to look at! It is my pleasure and duty to do so after all! <3 And it's a habit that's harder to break than keep, so why not! XD
*Raises sandwich high in the air like a cocktail* Cheers, y'all! Enjoy your day, and I wish you all the best in your journeys! Hope to see you all next year <333

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*

7th Anniversary

 Not gonna lie. Kinda had my eye on the calendar all month for this day.
Not because I had anything special planned. It was just because today gave me a wonderful excuse to draw my favorite vampiric nerds again. :)

They're all still living rent-free in my brain. And I don't intend to start charging them anytime soon.
*Raises fruit juice into air* May you live long and prosper, my children! And Fang too. And may you continue to give me joy and headaches for years to come. *Drains glass*
That is all, folks.
*Slams glass into table and accidentally cracks it*

AppleStorm through the Ages

Well. It's that time, again. Time where I draw myself in an exaggerated and flattering style, just for the heck of it.

Well actually, not just for the heck of it. I'm doing this was because my green splatoon key-chain broke (I wear it around my neck), so I had to replace it with another colour.
It's teal now. But I also figured I might as well make it official and draw myself with it, because otherwise how else would people know about this very insignificant and subtle change to my appearance?

 And, uh... Yeah?
Might've gone an extra mile further than intended?

 I've drawn myself a number of times before. But I think this is the first time where I've purposefully added information that - to me at least - is a little private...
Although I suppose it's not big secret that I play video games, or that I have my head in the clouds a lot. And I'm sure by now everyone on here knows I'm Aussie. If the kangaroo protagonists didn't give it away, then my random bursts of national pride would've tipped you off... 

And me being part of the furry community? *pfft* Yeah. Never would have guessed that. XD

But, uh... for arguments sake, let's review some old art of my persona, shall we? Just for reference.
And because I spent almost half an hour digging up all my old art, and I don't want to do that again next time I want to review my art journey-

********

2021/Feb/16. This one was a special sketch done for one of my baby cousins. Not coloured, but I think it's still an important link in this (now that I'm looking) art chain. So I'm including it.

Me and my twin sister's baptism, 2020/Dec/25. Literally drew it on the day of the event. Quite special to me, even if I was still figuring out how to use my brand new drawing tablet, and had trouble adjusting to the new angle and bright colours (which didn't match up on my laptop screen).
Still. I like it.
The water came out quite nice.

2020/April/4. Birthday Special. Turning into legal adults and walking into a world that 3 years earlier would've made me want to scream in despair. Because as a teenager, when the only thing that you remember anyone telling you as you were growing up was about a future you didn't want to live in, you too would want to cry.
But I'm now making my own path. And I'm trying not to let anyone force me into a life I don't want to live. So I'm now less depressed about getting older now. Which is good. And I'm not alone in this. Which is also good.

2019/Nov/8, back when I was in full swing with my 'crayon sketching style'.
It's kinda cute. A lil blurry, but not as much as the previous method was. And I liked the colours a lot.

 

2019/July/11.
Fast and loose with a new laptop, with an adjusted paintbrush for all my sketching needs.
Not sure what I was doing here. Experimenting, probably. Which is good. But not what I would go for nowadays.

Ah yes. 2019/June/1. The good old days when I outlined my work.
No real comment. But I do like how I drew my name. Very satisfying.

 

2019/April/19. I still adore this piece to bits, even after all these years! I drew myself so cute! I was so fluffy!
Head empty! No thought! Only spider webs and brain fluff! <3

2018/Nov/24.
I remember this was supposed to be part of a bigger project, as a gift to my grandmother for Christmas. I was planning to draw my whole family, but I think I ended up getting so sick with stress I dropped the idea and literally couldn't draw for a whole month or something because of it.

I had no idea what an anxious child I was until much, much later. But it was examples like this that forced me to acknowledge that maybe I wasn't as carefree as I thought I was.
Hooray for self awareness! 

2018/Sep/18. I drew this as I was sick. But I still put as much effort as I usually did, though. But that's because I was an overachiever; because if something was worth doing, it was worth doing 'perfectly.'

But I'm now of the school of thought that if something is worth doing, it's worth doing poorly. Better to have loved and died then to have never loved at all. That kinda jazz.

Makes brushing my hair and teeth a little bit easier... and actually spending time doing the things I want to do, too.

2018/Jan/1. A fancy new years' piece I did for fun.
WOW, I had energy to do special things like that back in the day... Ha. I struggle enough as it is without adding extra holiday pictures into my day.
Aint nobody got time for that! XD

 2016/Sep/3. Another artwork I did while I was sick.
Me in my ancient leather recliner, with mum's fuzzy orange blanket, and my comfort rug around my shoulders like a shawl. Back in the days where I depicted myself as a fox, instead of a hyena. Because Animal Jam.

2016/June/2. Me with the good dragon boys, and being excited to share my first 'public' comic.
I'd probably find it cute if I looked at it now. Or maybe I'd cringe internally. Or both.
I like how I drew the special effects, though.

 

 2016/April/4. Hey, I actually posted this on my birthday! Didn't call attention to that fact, but I still did!

Yeesh, my characters look colourful here. Midnight, why are you wearing a banana jacket? Ruby, pink and red should never be seen! Especially on you! And Sapphire! You're clothes are too saturated! Turn it down, you're giving me a headache girl! Haha, good grief.

2016/Jan/23. I made these two drawings on the same day, but I only shared one of them for some reason.
Odd. But, I'm happy I get to share both of them now. My younger self would probably be having a heart attack for breaking protocol, but I don't care. It's cool.

2016/Jan/9. I cry at my attempt to be clever with perspective, but I'm still so proud of 14 year old me for doing it anyway. That girl was brave.

 

2016/Jan/2. I find this piece oddly charming and beautiful. Honestly.

Imagine what I could do now, with all my skills and experience today.

Food for thought, anyway.

And finally. 2015/July/28. The first official time I drew myself.
I didn't even have that much to work with back then; just a silly Pokemon spinoff game, which I used... probably way too much, now that I think about. And a few notebooks and a good old fashioned pencil, with my dad helping my with the printer whenever I wanted to share something to the internet.
That was it.

Ha. Simple. Yet, I made it work for me.

**********

My personal art journey has taken on quite the magical adventure so far. It changed a lot. I got a little better. I've shed blood, sweat and tears for my hobby. And poured more heart and soul into it than anything else, too.
But I'm far from done.

*Picks up tablet and pencil again*

See you guys next week! Hope you take it easy, unlike me, who just spent almost two hours on this post instead of eating dinner. XD
*waves farewell and starts drawing some more*

Christmas Rebirth

 Hah. Well, how are you lot doing? I've been quite busy this week... Family coming over to visit, cousins to entertain, Christmas shenanigans to do...
Not to mention getting baptized with my sister. That took a little bit of my time. :)

Because of the mayhem of everything, I wasn't sure if I was going to draw something special for it or not. But an entire afternoon before the event and a brand new toy for me to draw on found me itching to at least try.

So here's what I've done!

 First time drawing with my new Christmas Gift! It was a little weird, but I think I'm warming up to it quite quickly.
In a week's time I'll be wondering how I managed to draw for so long with my old tablet, I bet. XD

Anyway! Suffice to say I've had a pretty special Christmas this year!

And I'll be... *checks calendar* seeing you lot next year!
Dang.
This year is almost over.

Y'know, despite 2020 being horrible in a lot of ways, I think this was one of my best years so far? Sure, I've been stressed, but I've been learning how to deal with it, and I know I'm coping a lot better than 17 year old me did. Burnouts? Yeah, I've had a few. But I've also had so many drawing highs it's been kinda ridiculous? I've made almost twice as many comics as I did last year? That's pretty cool. (It's still not a lot, but it's a step in the right direction!)

And I'm just... Frankly, I'm content. I'm content with myself at the moment.
It's not always I can say that truthfully.

*huff*
*raises a hand in salute*

I'll be seeing you dorks on the other side!
Have a great new year.
Here's expecting the next 12 months to be slightly better than the low bar of the last 12! *pfft*
Ah we're probably jinxing ourselves...
Well. We'll give it a good go, anyway! >:)

UV's 6th Anninersary

Whelp. After a busy day doing comic stuff, and about an hour trying to finish this piece before it ticked over to the 25th, I think it's time I celebrated my blog's birthday. How 'bout you?

Heh. It's kinda weird how I've been posting on this blog for 6 years, though. My cute shenanigan stories about an Anthropomorphic Vampire kangaroo and her various friends and relatives has turned into quite the adventure since then!

And despite my typical radio-silence about the subject, I'm still deeply passionate about the world of Undercover Vamparoo. Very much so.

It's a top priority in terms of me wanting to make it a graphic novel series or something, but I realize in order for me to make it a reality, I need a lot of self-training and discipline. And courage.
That last one will be the hardest to overcome, but I have time to work that out.

But I'm tired now. I think I'll go read for a bit and let this day end...
For those of you who (for some reason) are still here, or just the odd person who likes checking up on my blog every blue moon *raises cup* cheers. I bid you all goodnight! *drinks fruit-juice*

Growing up

Hm. April 4.

Fourth of the Fourth.

...................

I've been thinking about this day on and off for the past... long while, actually.  And I've been debating with myself whether or not I'd do something special, or just let it slip past like we usually do...

But, obviously you can see I've decided against it. So...

*snaps fingers*

Yup. It's my birthday. Well, our birthday... And not only that, but this is the day we legally turn into adults. 18.

We're 18 now, guys.

I suppose normal people would feel excited about that. But I've never been normal ever, so I don't feel obliged to fake anything. I'm indifferent to this.

Well okay, not indifferent...

But not stressed anymore.

*****

I remember turning 13 (which coincidentally was also on a Saturday) and going into denial and hating pretty much everything about life. Well, just the parts that I didn't want anything to do with. Like... growing up. And the piano. And math. But mostly growing up.

I was a pretty melodramatic child in certain areas... 

And I remember watching cartoons and reading comics and books like an addict. Like... spending every single moment obsessing over animated shows and movies and comics and fan fiction, like I was scared my enjoyment for these things wouldn't be the same when I grew older. Too old to appreciate the things I loved so much. That by the time I'd turn 18, something inside me would just switch off and everything would go grey or something (I dunno, those years are hazy to me looking back now).

By the time I had turned 15-16 I think I realized what an unhealthy little zombie I was and started the long road to turning it down a notch or ten, and gaining better self-control and drawing habits... which then made me into an overworked stressed teenager who thought that anything but your best and working at 200% was not good enough. Which still meant I didn't get much done. But for different reasons...

Haha, and there was still that fear of growing up.

But ever since last Christmas (or just before that.. during the last 6 months, in any case) I think I must've gotten more mature or something, because I suddenly stopped caring about my age. I let go my fears and anxiety about how this was supposed to be a turning point in my life, and just accepted that this wasn't going to change who I was or what I was going to do and it honestly didn't matter and nobody cared.

I cheered up considerably realizing that, let me tell you! I could take years learning to drive a car if I wanted to. I could stay home until I was 30 or 40 and nobody would mind. 

And hey, if the world ended before that, I wouldn't have to worry!

*****

I try my best to not be too personal on this blog. But I know I constantly look back at my stuff and enjoy what I wrote and I remember so much more when I do. My thought process, my mental state, even what I was planning to watch or play to reward myself for posting another picture on time!

And, well... our birthday DID land on a Saturday, didn't it? Like it was fate or something. Planned. Destined.

Definitely wouldn't have put this much effort if it was on any other day, I can say that much.

SO... Happy Birthday to us! I got a good feeling about this new year of our life.

And I understand I've got to work on myself AND my stories a lot, but I know I can do it!

Hope you guys enjoy your week in isolation! Treat yourself kindly and remember that whatever your going through will seem like nothing in a few years. Have a good one! :)

*Bonus after-math picture*