January check-in

My December has been thankfully uneventful. I got all my holiday shopping done in time, but we are postponing our Christmas present swap  anyway due to family getting sick. Everyone is fine though and it’s not covid, thankfully! 

I've been feeling really burned out lately for some reason. Finally being on holiday break has been an absolute godsend... but I'm still too tired to function for some inexplicable reason. It's frustrating. Despite my mysterious exhaustion, I have ventured into some new territories at last, which is my excellent news for the month! 

First, I've finally started experimenting with Clip Studio Paint. I’ve worked out most of the friction and now it’s just as fun as SAI2. My favorite feature of CSP is the timelapse export. The brushes are very customizable. SAI2 has sophisticated brush customization but CSP takes it to the next level. Being able to use multiple materials for one brush is incredibly helpful for things like floral stamps. 

But the best thing to come out of this month: I AM FINALLY MAKING PROGRESS ON MY STORY!!! This is such a huge deal to me and I want to bask in that victory for a bit. I've been trying to write this story for like... 15 years? I've been spinning my wheels but now I'm sitting down and writing it, but this time things are actually coming together. I just finished drafting the first part and it's ready to edit.  I sat down and wrote exactly how I would get this thing done. This time is different from all my other attempts because I tried different strategies in approaching the project.

Of course, who can say if my story will be any good or not. But what matters the most to me is that I get this out of my system. It's one of my life ambitions and I won't let this story die in my head. I am very excited.

I haven’t sat down to reflect over my 2022 just yet, but to put it briefly I am happy with my progress this year. If you can look back at something recent and already think “I know better”, that’s a good sign. So keep learning. Stay curious. Keep experimenting.  Discover awesome new things.

My goals for 2023:

• Finish writing my story
• Start DRAWING my story
• Re-integrate into society
• Draw more of my artwork ideas (and maybe find ways to get help)
• Perfect my art style as much as possible