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a beautiful monet painting.
So... why journalling online?
I've always been into journalling/keeping a diary! I don't have the best memory, so it's really fun for me to keep one to look back on. My oldest diary that I still have is from when I was in 2nd-3rd grade, but I for sure had ones older than that (does anyone remember password diaries that were voice activated?? me and my sister could never get ours to work!)
For a while in my early 20s I kept a sort of vent journal but it was making me have a negative association with journalling because I'd only ever write when I was really upset. And to be fair, it kept me from saying nasty things and would actually calm me down, but it was upsetting to re-read later after I had gotten over whatever was bothering me, and made me feel like all I ever wrote about was what was upsetting me, which tended to suck me into a depressive spiral. Like, it made me feel like 'wow, can I write about the good things too? If anyone else read this they'd think my life is awful and I'm always miserable! But I have things to be grateful for, right??'
There's plenty of real problems in the world to be upset about, without a doubt, far beyond my own personal problems! But there's so much good that's worth talking about and sharing, too.
Goals and concepts for this space?
I want this to be a space where I can ramble about anything (I am very good at that.). I don't want it to be strictly a journal about my own day to day, but also stuff about whatever shows or books I'm into, little mini tribute/shrine pages, the occasional rants, my various hobbies... lots of things! Anything! Art, animals, what projects I'm working on, random rabbit holes I'm falling into...
I've noticed I have a habit of sectioning off my hobbies into their respective 'zones'- my instagram is JUST for my art; I have an art tumblr for the same, but a separate blog for fanfic, and another for my comic, then another for my main thoughts and personal stuff and reblogs and like... this will be an 'everything goes' place! The goal is to post a few times a month- once a week might be too ambitious, so I'll say maybe my tentative goal is twice a month for now? I want to be realistic, but also keep this as a pretty lowkey little hobby that I'm not stressed over up keeping. I want to have fun with it!
Anyway, that's all I have to say for the intro! I hope anyone reading this will enjoy it as much as I hope that I'll have fun writing for it!
2024 was a good year for my art!! This year I:
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- I experimented with watercolors a little bit
-redesigned my mewsona, ponysona and fursona
-did a ‘daily may’ challenge where I drew a rough illustration every day in may
-entered two zines (here and here, both are free to download!)
-did artfight for the first time (my profile!! I ended up getting way more attacks than I expected, everyone was so nice!)
-Made the aqua dress-up game (3~4 months of work on and off! It’s here!)
-Posted a page of the tm2 comic every single week!
this was a particular highlight for crafts this year! taking a lil kitty toy and making it into aqua's kitty robot form ^_^ (giant godzilla for scale but also because they're friends)
I like to consider what I want to do going into the new year, art-wise, and I’ve been thinking about it for a few weeks as the year wraps up. I don’t want to be too strict or hold myself too hard to any goals I set…
Something I’ve been thinking about (or, maybe worrying myself in circles about??) Is how SLOW the webcomic progress feels. One page a week means roughly 2 ½ chapters a year. If I’m right, it should end up being around 50 chapters, give or take a few. At the current pace that would take 20 YEARS?? Like, I know, reasonably, there are webcomics that have gone on for 10+ years, but my goodness… It freaks me out to think about the passage of time. Like, it’s a constant source of anxiety for me! I get frustrated, thinking ‘I should be faster’, and something I have to constantly remind myself is that with big comic and manga series, there’s usually entire teams behind them inking, toning, coloring, lettering… it’s not usually one person doing everything, and when it is- a lot of the time it's the person’s full time job. And yet my brain wants to hold me to those standards!
If I could somehow crank out a full chapter every month, that would be 12 chapters released a year, and roughly 4 years of time the thing would take overall- which feels a lot more reasonable to my brain. Is there a way I could realistically do that without burning out or hurting myself a la carpal tunnel? I’m…not really sure. If there’s something I can do to streamline the process, I want to consider it. But until then, I’ll try to continue on with the one page a week and being kind to myself even if I feel like it’s going slow!
For other 2025 art goals… I would LOVE to do more IRL crafts. More watercolors and some crayon drawings (I have a huge pack of crayons I haven’t even touched in my craft drawer!!) really, I just want to work with the craft stuff I already have but don’t use a ton.
I also want to learn to sew with a machine! I’ve handsewed some stuff before, but I feel like learning with a machine would really be useful and a lot faster!! Of course I have to save up and research which machines are easiest for beginners and also durable first, but at some point in 2025 I want to at least get started on that! I found a place in town that offers lessons for that AND painting lessons, and I’ve never had formal classes for that sort of thing so I’d really love to check the prices on those and maybe attend a class or two!!
I made the poncho thing here when I saw chappell last year !
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and this jacket and bowtie! the sequins were soo tedious, and while I think I'd still have to do those by hand probably, a sewwing machine would've sped up the other details, esp the sleeves...
The same would be true for woodworking… I’ve always admired people who are handy and can build stuff… but there’s no classes for that sort of thing nearby :( I’ve been slowly trying to teach myself more about that too, though. Earlier this year I helped my mom redo her outdoor swing- it's several years old and the cloth seat/backing part dry rotted, so we tore it out and replaced it with wood for the cushions to go over!
I’m also building my nephew a wooden train for christmas…which is ongoing, but I feel like it’s going pretty well so far! It does have me wondering if woodworking is a poor choice for a hobby for impatient people though because wood glue takes 24 hours to cure and I am nothing if not a weekend project hoe. My concept for that is using wooden milk crates for the traincars so he can have a BIG train to put his other toys in and pull around! I’m going to install a bell he can ring and a headlight, and stencil his name on the side when it’s complete. He basically asks for trains every year, so I wanted to make a one of a kind one!! I can’t really start the fun part (painting, decorating) until the wood glue is all done curing, though. -_-
(I actually took him on a real train ride a few weeks ago and it was delightful. 10/10 America get more passenger trains NOW!!)
IRL crafts aside, I really want to do more digital zines in 2025! I love free, smaller scale collaborative ones. When I first started entering zines online, I pretty much only applied for ones that had a limit for participant numbers, or were for-profit so there was a lot of pressure to 1. Get accepted and 2. Maintain a high standard. These days, I find myself drawn to the free, anyone can enter ones! It’s a lot less pressure and anxiety about being rejected (good for me, a sensitive person) and a lot more chill. The big ones kind of lean towards very… how do I say this.. Marketable styles and people with bigger followings lol? (NO shade, I get why!) Artists of any skill level and many unique styles seem to be in the smaller ones though, and that’s a vibe I love.
I wouldn’t be opposed to hosting/organizing one if I have any fun ideas, either! (actually, fandom-oc ones and magical girls in various fashion decades are two ideas I’ve loosely considered, but are they too self indulgent for me specifically?? I wonder if anyone would want to enter those lol…) either way, if I see any that interest me, I might join in! And if not, I can always make some myself :) I think one centered around oc playlists would be really fun for a solo zine idea and I have a lot of songs I’d associate with them for it!!
I'm not sure if I'll do artfight again in 2025!! save for the last two, I did manage to revenge every attack I got, but I did end up a little overwhelmed lol;; (I don't have that many followers on any given social media so getting almost 40 attacks/revenges is CRAZY??) I would love to if I have time, but I have no clue what I'll have going on around then, so I'm leaving that as a tenative 'maybe' goal! I really only want to do it if I can get back at everyone who draws me something, otherwise I feel guilty ;w;
Anyway, I think that’s about it for realistic art-related goals! I’d love to hear anyone elses goals (they don’t have to be art-related! I do have a few resolutions that aren’t as well x)) happy holidays and happy new year if I don’t write before then! ^_^
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