Early Courtship

 March is almost over. Finally.
Not been my favorite month this year, in all honesty. But I wont hold it against it. I still had some good days, and I spent a lot of time with my sisters. And Pokemon. Amongst other things. So it's cool.

My Art Studies are going well I think? I can tell in less then two months my understanding has increased, even if my hand is having trouble keeping up... I'm just worried I'm giving myself too much information all at once, then too little because I'm worried about forgetting anything. But I'm also too excited to stay on one topic for too long? Because there is A LOT OF GROUND to cover, and I want to see it all?
But then I just get scared and don't learn anything new anyway.
*shrug*

Anyway.
Still struggling to make art, but I think the worst days are over. Just have to persist and push through the rest of my frustration, but also make sure I don't burn myself out before I've filled up my tank again.

... I can probably do that? Maybe...

*... doubt*

I made this, in any case.

 Ruby and Harland in their early twenties. Slowing making their way through a more romantic relationship.
Ruby isn't convinced this will go anywhere, but Harland is optimistic and doesn't mind taking things slow for her.
At least they're dancing. That makes Harland very happy on the inside. :)

Simple Friendship

Another slow week for me, I'm afraid.
Drawing takes a lot of mental energy lately... It's getting better now, but I clearly need to play some more pokemon in the evening for another week before I go back to drawing for 5-7 hours a day.
Hopefully I'll only need that much time to complete my Nuzlocke run... so long as no one accidentally dies just before another important match.

But anyway.
Figured if I couldn't share something cool, I could at least share some of the little sketches I've been doing for the past two days.

 I like them. I had some good references while I drew them.
They have a nice low-key happy vibe about them.

Good kids, they are.
I like them a lot.
I wish them well in whatever it is they want to do.

On the Edge of the Distortion World

A'ight. Second verse same as the first... Not a terrific week, but apparently worse than the last one, because I couldn't even draw anything cool. So I'm pulling a super sketchy concept piece that I did last week, in place of an actual artwork.

It's not... bad? But it didn't turn out the way I envisioned it. Which means I'm biased, so this is probably still okay to literally everyone else.
But I'm hard to please.

Eh.
It's a thing, anyway.

Gotta have some bad to make the good look better.
All in the name of progress.

At least the spacey sky was kinda fun.
I like space.

Chibi Saturn with Croagunk

 Hm.
Been one of those weird unproductive weeks for me.

Not a bad week. Just didn't get that much done, for whatever reason.
*shrug* Oh well. It be like that sometimes.

But if the only thing my brain wants me to draw is a small evil nerd with his frog, then I guess a small evil nerd with his frog I will draw.
Who am I, a mere artist, to argue with inspiration on a slow week? :)

Besides. This makes me feel happy on the inside.
That's enough for now.

Vampire Wife with Fashionable Husband (10/10 Would Marry)

 This week has been an odd mix of activities for me. I got out of the house twice in two days (which is very social for me), watched two movies (also pretty weird for me) and spent a good amount of time doing odd house chores? But not much drawing.

So. On the one hand, it feels like my week has been packed. On the other hand, it feels like I've done next to nothing. No big drawing projects or a pile of fun sketches to show off... Practically nothing.
But if I tick off this week as a 'holiday from serious drawing' I think I can get away with it. *hopeful thumbs up*

But yeah.
Still didn't change the fact that I needed to draw something for my weekly art post.
But thankfully, as I was doing some drawing exercises on Friday, I drew something kinda sweet and thought "Huh. Ruby and Harland would be pretty fitting to draw in that position. But aw man, it's for human proportions..."
"Wait."
"I can still work with that..."

And about an hour or so later I had this on my hands.

My favorite penguin and kangaroo couple! But humanized! <3

 I've never ever drawn any of the UV cast as humans before. Which sounds odd, but I guess it's something I'd never considered trying to do?
Mostly because my characters being animals play a huge part in the grand scheme of literally everything. Why it's such a big deal for Ruby to marry someone who's not one of her species; why having hybrid children can be amazing or terrible, depending on the parents or magic blood; why some magical species are going extinct because of inbreeding or mixing too much... etc etc.

But! I still think this is pretty neat. For what it's worth.

Obviously, if I was to draw them like this again, I'd want to fix/improve on some details... but that's not important.

I'm content with what I've created. It was a neat experiment. It brought my joy for a little while. :)
Best odd couple! <3

The Boys

Hey.
Guess who finally drew something that wasn't pokemon yesterday?
*bright neon sign flashing on and off above head*

It's me.
I was the one who finally drew something that wasn't pokemon.

 And even better, it's UV related!
I manage to draw some good boys with some good kids!
Overall, it's a good day in AppleTown. :)

It's times like this where I realize that most people are going to look at these characters (more specifically Harland and Vincent DeathDancer) and go "Oh! Look at these lovely green girls!" while I'm in the background snickering like "Yes, those dudes are indeed very lovely."
What started as a perfectly innocent joke when I was but a wee lass has turned into a perfectly innocent running joke which I love to bits.

I dunno. I just adore seeing guys in dresses and skirts.

Reginald is at least wearing a kilt. Very masculine. No mistaking him for female. (Probably)
Flavio is the only one who you don't immediately second-guess yourself on what gender he is.
Until he starts brainwashing you. Then you start doubting yourself! XD

The background was a bit of a surprise. Wasn't planning on doing that when I started drawing this. But I did.
Didn't turn out too bad, I think.

Anyway it's almost 8pm now so I gotta go.
Hope you guys have a nice weekend! May you end up being less stressed than you started!
*salutes myself out*

Cyrus!Giratina

Aaaand I'm back with another Pokemon sketch from my Archives! Yay.
I would've made something not pokemon if I could've... Really! I would've. I did try! And it ended with me being sad for a few minutes and then giving up and resuming drawing Team Magma.

I can't tell if I'm digging my own hole deeper every day, or if my hyper-focus ability is always being redirected to something similar but just different enough to keep my imagination chugging along happily so that it FEELS like I'll never draw anything but Pokemon ever again...

???
Who knows.
I'm not gonna let it upset me that much though. I am enjoying having an interest lasting for longer than a week or two. And I think I've gotten better at drawing human faces because of it.
Like... not useful? For UV? But still a skill that I've neglected over the years.

Anyway. Here's what I managed to draw yesterday.

I've never really paid much attention to Cyrus before (mostly because there were so many other Pokemon Villains I had my attention on) but he's been growing on me slowly over the past few weeks.

Giratina was my favorite legendary from Sinnoh, though (I love that good centipede dragon! <3) so when I made the decision to draw this sad nerd... - possessed? I'm gonna say possessed - possessed by Giratina it was a lot of fun.
And it was a whole lot easier than drawing Maxie!Groudon or Archie!Kyogre.

Love Maxie and Archie very much, but out of the three of them Cyrus was the easiest for me to draw.
He just hit all the right sweet spots... None of this wearing weird wetsuits or having three layers of clothing and LEGGINGS, Maxie. *pfft* Dork. :)

Screaming into the Air Conditioned Void

 Hello there! I have no idea how much time I have tonight, and because I completely forgot to prepare anything yesterday afternoon, I'm speed-running this just in case I have to be called away to do other things...

Basically tho, I hadn't really drawn anything impressive this week, so I'm doing what I predicted I was going to have to resort to last week...
Which is post another of the drawings I made last week.

But that's okay, I guess.
Could be worse. :)

 The only reason why I drew all of this was because I wanted someone to be screaming into an electric fan. Because the way your voice distorts when you do that is a lot of fun, and seemed like something Maxie's Jigglypuff would love to do.

Love that little heavy-singing puffball. 

Also drawing windy hair is a lot of fun. Need more practice doing it, definitely, but I think it's a cute look on Courtney.
Pasta's lil' blep tongue brought me joy too...

Movie Night

Hm. This week has been pretty productive, if I do say so myself.
Made four complicated and fully coloured sketches that I was reasonably proud of, as well as a half a dozen little sketches that brought me minor enjoyment.
My stress kept itself purely professional - which was nice - as we had to go to the dentist yesterday, and the only way I could keep myself sane was by focusing all my attention and stress onto my work, one day at a time.

My anxiety can work for my benefit too, occasionally...
But I'm curious to see if I can do a repeat performance next week, since I think we'll be going to our yearly optometrist appointment in the next few days... And I hate going to the optometrist.
So I'll either draw lots, or crash and burn with stress.

We'll find out when we get there, I suppose.
Worse case scenario, if I draw nothing in the next 7 days I'll just post another of the sketches I made this week on here and ramble for a bit. I think no one would mind if I did that.

This was just one of the four fancy sketches I posted on Instagram this week... I did this one on Monday, I think. It took me almost two hours to do the floor because perspective and I are still strangers and I hate it with burning indifference.

But the rest of the drawing was fun to do!

I've been drawing Team Magma a lot over these past few months, and it's gotten up to the point where I can draw most of them from memory, and be comfortable with them? Like... Tabitha is almost a comfort character for me to draw now, because he's big and round and soft and has a cool horned sleeveless hoodie and he's an utter mad brat and I love him. So much.

And it's thanks to Maxie that I'm getting better at drawing glasses.. even if I think his Mega Glasses look stupid. Also, anyone that decides that wearing a turtle neck in a sub-tropical climate has my scorn and respect.

Courtney is still giving me some trouble, but I blame Nintendo for giving her such a weird outfit in the first place and wont hold it against her. She's a lovely psychotic child, even if I think she defies the laws of fashion.

*mmm* yeah, I think I'm done talking now.
I wish you guys a lovely weekend, and hope to see you in good spirits next week! :)

Rainfall

 This week's been a mixed bag. I've had my highs, and I've had some lows. My anxiety has returned to it's usual hum at the back of my head, but I'm remembering how to live with it again. That's okay. I can deal with that. Even if it is annoying feeling like I can't eat lunch. It's fine.

I've also taken the first (of hopefully many) serious steps to making my dream come true this week! Scared? Oh yeah, a lot. I've never done anything like this before. But I've got time. And I know in the end I'll come out better for it. With any luck I'll have a clearer map to the rocky road that I've decided to travel on over the year.

But enough about that.
Let's get on with the post so we can enjoy the art I've decided is good enough to share tonight.

I wasn't expecting anything special when I sketched this out. Just assumed it was going to be another unfinished doodle in a nameless folder that I'd never look at again.

Instead, it turned into something that.... actually makes me really happy to look at?
It sparks joy. It's not perfect, but I'm proud to call this my creation.

 I missed drawing this idiot. Missed drawing his stupid kangaroo face, short tail and clawed feet.
Just... Aeron taking a second to appreciate the weather, in a time period not his own, and probably thinking weirdly poetic thoughts about the beauty of something as mundane as rain.

He knows it's been done before. He's aware that this moment, and his feelings, aren't special. But he thinks it's still pretty neat anyway.
When you've seen countless marvels of the universe you sometimes have to relearn to appreciate the little things in life.

*sigh* MAN I love this idiot so much. Ruby's disaster son, doin' what few mortals have done before.
By that, I mean cause Minor Problems for the Immortals and do ridiculously bizarre things for the sake of saying you've done them.
Well... one could argue that's what most of the UV cast does. But not on such a large scale.
Few people can claim to have accidentally become Merlin the Wizard For Real while role-playing with a group of crazy Fey. Amongst other things...

"Mightyena's shouldn't be allowed Ice Cream..."

I remember when doing my weekly art post was easy. Well, not easy... but more organized? No, that's a lie too. I usually scrambled to come up with something at the last minute. Not always, but usually.

But if feels like I've gotten a lot more lazy over these years. Which is silly, because I probably draw a lot more than I did when I was 15. And harder, too. But because I don't spend an entire day devoted to a single drawing and making it as over the top and detailed as possible, it feels like I'm falling short.

It's probably time I moved the goal posts, but I'm a perfectionist. If I'm not working at 120% then I clearly don't care. Even if I care a lot.

Which is probably why I still feel physical pain when I try and post something... less clean. Like this. Even when I like it, it still hurts when I do this.

Hm. I was probably going to go somewhere with that train of thought, but heck if I can remember what it is now. Oh well.
I'm tired from this week and want to go to bed.
I think that might be the basic gist...

I push myself to my limits far too much.
Don't believe a word of it, but that's probably what's happening.

Mm. Anyway.
I have a splatfest session with my cousins tonight, so I should probably get to that.
I'll probably feel better tomorrow. A good rest will cure any depressing mood... or so I'm told.

See ya! *picks up controller and prepares to murder the innocent*

Vampire Kid (Redraw)

*Raises hand in salute* SALUTATIONS, my beloved comrades!
We have come to feast on some leftovers tonight; recooked, and re-imagined!

Take a bite out of this!

 Decided to do younger me a favor and re-draw an old picture I absolutely loved. It was nice and relaxing to do.

While not particularly impressive, I had a lot of fun and it refreshed me from all the pokemon fanart I've been doing for the last three months.
(probably refreshed all you guys too)

Original picture - (2016, July 2)

HA. Wow. My style both changed dramatically and not at all? That's cool.
I think I grew more simple, and spent less time shading and texturing everything. The eyes are still pretty big, though. Haven't changed THAT at all. XD

Okay. That's pretty neat.

 *****

... I just got a WEIRD sense of Déjà vu just now. Did... did I plan to redraw this?? When I made the original, did I... unintentionally PLAN to one day come back and redraw this???

Huh.

So maybe I did have a point doing this after all.

.....

YOU'RE WELCOME, PAST ME! <3  

Ah. Self-love is such a nice feeling.

"Look, I'm not sure what you want me to do about this, Shelly."

A brand new year and a brand new post~ What could be better than that?
Nothing I can currently think of, anyway.

Have some more fanart, because I have literally nothing else to share.

It's been three months and I'm still drawing Pokemon art for my sister. This shocks me.

I think it's because every time I try and draw for myself I end up being depressed? But drawing for someone else is far easier, for they are less critical of my art and are easily satisfied.
*shrug* Who knows. Either way, I'm drawing a lot, so I'm not seeing this as a bad thing.

I ride the wave until it washes me ashore. Then I go forth and catch another wave!
The cycle of hyper fixation is a wonderful and exciting one. :)

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! >:)

Death and a Snake

If I could think of anything witty or nonsensical to say, I would. As it is, I'm still feeling like I've got too much going on in my head to bother with such things. Plus, I wish to get this over with so I can go and read something.

Also my brain is still being annoying, so we'll have to settle with a sketchy post instead of what I was originally hoping for tonight. But that's fine; pretty sure none of us care that much anyway. Plus, it's OverKill related! :)

Mortality is pretty fun to draw. Hard, but fun. I like drawing old patchy sweaters and big round glasses...
Definitely contrasts to Dr. Antidote's more formal appearance, anyway.

Also weird colourful eyes.

*Hmmm*

Yup. Guess it's just one of those days again.
I'll be catching you guys later! Gonna just quit for the day and try to relax.
*waves*

Hope you all have a nice week! <3

The Personification of the Will to Live and an Old Retired Detective

Hhmmkay just type out words to form a sentence, comeonyoucandoit, it's not rocket science..
Wordswordswords...

Introduction.
Introduction...

*slams sketch onto table and takes a step back*

.....

 Head filled with cotton. Too much traffic going through my fuzzy brain...

Enjoy a ridiculously tall grumpy being of pure spite with his favorite human companion.

*huffs out*

Making Better Life Choices is something Other People do. I shall instead Look Out of the Window with my Murderous Pokemon and Plot how Best to Ruin the Entire Ocean.

 Ah, December. Season of heat waves, mangoes, and ginger bread cookies. Of staying up late playing video games, reading or chatting until the wee hours of the morning. And chocolate.

As well as kicking back in my favorite chair so I can work harder and longer for days on end, because the School Routine has been dismissed until January. There is still an outside structure dictating when I must stop, but that is necessary, because otherwise I doubt I would stop. If only out of principle.
And my principles demand to be heeded.

But anyway. I didn't post last week because a) didn't have any prepared, b) I was on a brief seaside holiday and had no internet, and c) didn't have the emotional energy to care.

But I'm here this week. And it's something fanart (and fanfiction) related!

This picture is based on a fic me and my elder sister have been working on since last year. We've just gotten to the point where the main antagonist(?)  is properly introduced, as well as her Beheeyem.  

Beheeyem would have to be one of my favorite Psychic type Pokemon ever. Hypno is a close second, but it's not nearly as fun to draw. And the Gothitelle line is fun to use in game (especially if I get a male Gothita), but trench coats trump ribbons any day. Also cool flashing finger lights.

Dark types are more my flavor, but I can respect Psychic types for what they are.

Heh. I think I also spent more time on the background then I did on the characters. WELL.. okay, maybe 50/50. Drawing someone from behind is never easy, and the amount of good references you need in order to be confident to even START drawing deserves it's own little time table, but I'm digressing.
Rain is a pain. Especially moody rain with lightning. But I think it turned out cool, so I'll say no more on the subject.

Hm. Well, I've had enough of this. I wish to do something else now.
*Salutes myself out* Have a good one, folks!

Kitchen Visit

 Hm. Nearing ever closer to December, I see... Feels like it should already be over to me. But it's not. 

...

The Laptop hasn't been treating me well this week. Drawing on paper has felt a lot more natural and painless then anything I've tried to do on CSP. Which sucks, but what else can you do? I'm riding it out the best I can.
But obviously I still needed to post something on here. So I dug around in my folders and found this little unfinished picture of mine.

So here it is. I guess.

 Drew this back in mid October, but never got around to finishing it (or posting it)... I think it was one of those Inspired moments that go as quickly as they come. But that was fine, because it meant I could draw the Castle Kitchen for the first time.
A very important location in UV. Well, for the children anyway...

Backgrounds give me a lot of trouble. Especially ones where I have such a clear mental picture in my head from like... hours of daydreaming.
Which is weird because that feels like that should give you less trouble. But it doesn't.

Anyway. The little Charles spaniel cook is one character that's firmly rooted in Midnight's permanent staff. Her real job is at a little bakery a few streets down, but she spends a lot of her time helping Midnight prepare meals for all his starving orphans.
She's sweet and very practical, and enjoys all the shenanigans at Sanctuary Castle with a good sense of humor.
Pretty sure she eventually marries one of Reginald's brothers, too. So yay for strong blood-thirsty wolf husbands!
She was fun to draw. Very round and curly and petite~ <3

The kids are just... generic, I guess. Although I have come up with some fun powers for Sunny (the rabbit). His ability is kinda healing magic? But solar powered. So if he scratches himself or something his body just regenerates super fast if the sun is out.
And the opposite is true if it's cloudy; his body just doesn't know what to do and kinda does nothing to help his bruises and cuts if it's dark.
So you'll either see him super bright and healthy or covered in scars that refuse to heal. There is no middle ground.

He'll make for a fun adventurer, that's for sure...

But that's enough of that for now.
I'll be meandering off into the sunset. Got nothing else to write about anyway.

I hope you guys have a nice weekend, wherever you are and whatever your doing.
*waves*

HufflePuff Girl

 Whelp, almost 8 now. Haha, but I don't mind.

This week has been a whole lot better for me than last week. Low bar, sure, but I'm actually pretty happy right now.

Got the new Steam Powered Giraffe album this week, as well as drew a lot of Pokemon stuff, and I'm almost at the Elite 4 in my Nuzlocke game. Only one other Pokemon has died on me so far, but nothing I couldn't recover from.
That's pretty good in my books!

Anyway, here's what I've decided to share with you all tonight!

Ooh, a Harry Potter Wizard Girl with Spider~ I wonder who this could be?

I thought it would be best to do something easily and fun for a change, instead of pushing myself to new and difficult heights that would've brought me to tears even in a good mood. So when a Harry Potter song came up in my Discover Weekly list on Spotify, I was like "... Eh, sure. Let's draw a HufflePuff wizard. Nothing else is working today."

The HP dress code is basically everything I love? Long robes with hoods, fancy colourful ties and the potential for fun patterns and skirts.. It's great! And so satisfying to draw.

It was also the first thing in a few weeks that didn't feel like pulling teeth. *thumbs up* 

Anyway. It's pretty late, and I have things to do now.
See you all next week, then. <3

It's Friday Afternoon, not Saturday Night... *shock*

 Okay, so I just started doing my drawing exercises a literal minute ago and I'm now crying.
I have no idea why this keeps happening. I've been crying almost all week any time I try to draw something.

It's now been three weeks, brain. I have Things to Do. I don't want to take another week off because you feel like any frustration is intolerable, so you shut everything down...
This isn't fun.

I have Things to Do!

(...)

These two drawings were the only things I could manage this week. I don't mind them, but I don't love them either.
I literally can't do better than this.

I'm tired of crying when there's work to be done.
If this happens for a 4th week in a row I'm calling fowl.