I said I would do it. And now it’s here.
It’s the year of Chaotic Creation. And my, what a year it has been.
Ah, I see it is the 13th of January.
[insert the endless shriek of a thousand souls withering in the icy grasp of a godless universe]
How have I passed the time so far? What have I created, aside from the very, very brief animation above?
I made fan art of my own characters. I started out with Iris, from Nightmare Born:
She’s outlined in purple because that color is a theme in the book.
I tried to cartoon-ify Sophie from The Boss, too, but I forgot her shoes and, as Bronwyn Green noted, it looks like Sophie is aware of the oversight:
Please note, I left plenty of room to do shoes and even a shadow on the ground but I was like, eh, fuck it, good enough.
Look, I’m just getting the hang of digital art, okay? I’ve never used a Wacom tablet before and although I am an eternal child, I am also an old. I’ll get better. I’ve even got plans for what I’m doing with this skill when I do get better!
I’ve also started learning some very, very, very basic game design. Will I ever make a game? Who the fuck knows. But it will be nice to know how they work.
“But Jenny,” you may be saying to yourself, “What about your Patreon posts and other posts here?” You’re probably not saying that because you’ve been following this blog and you’re so much nicer to me than I could ever possibly be, but never fear, it’s been lurking in the back of my mind. I’ve been working on those things, as well, but my brain has been pretty overwhelmed with the violent insurrection and the whole civil war thing we have going on of late, so I can only do a little at a time. But you know what? I’m actually very, very, very proud of what I’m getting done, even if it’s not a huge word count every single day.
I hope you’re all staying happy, healthy, and not-seditious. If you aren’t already subscribed to my YouTube channel, it might be worth your while; I’ll be uploading some content soon (internet issues have made uploading anything a total nightmare) and it’s gaming oriented, so if you’re into The Witcher, Stardew Valley, or Graveyard Keeper, smash that notification button or however the kids are saying shit these days.
I adore Stardew Valley. It’s just so damn satisfying and I love every single person living there.
As far as escapist fantasies go, there are worse ones than running away from my soulless corporate cube job to grow potatoes and raise bunnies, in a place where the most disturbing news is that some of the villagers want me to give them specific fish to put under their pillows at night.
Digitsl art, especially using a drawing tablet and not a like screen you draw on takes time to adjust to. I’ve been doing it for years, have a screen I draw on, and I’m still learning things.
These are FANTASTIC beginnings.
(BTW, if you want program suggestions, on PC I’m a big fan of Clip Studio Paint [goes on sale a couple of times a year and has levels of cost/access]. I find it super intuitive and enjoy the way the brushes work.
Or I’d recommend Procreate for MAC/IPAD)
That animation is really cute. 🙂 But thinking of it, shouldn’t it be 2021?
Well done for the digital art. *thumbs up* Using a tablet is hard. If you’re looking for drawing/painting software, I’d recommend MyPaint. It’s very simple to use, free and available for all the usual operating systems.
I also like the brush you used for the curly hair. It gives a nice depth. If you’d add some purple-ish shadows it would blend better with the outlines I think (is constructive critique in the comments ok?).
Yay, art!