A rough start, but we turned things around in July and finished off strong (Art Fight really saved my ass!). I managed to continue my upward trend in consistency, and I feel my shading and lighting skills have improved greatly, though my coloring has suffered from primarily doing mono- and duo-tone palettes. My backgrounds have also improved, though I'm definitely not fast with them!
All in all, a good year, even if I didn't finish anything until May.
Template by Papakkapao_.
One last piece for the year, bumping up my total count from last year. In my brilliance I decided a reflection piece with a detailed, real-world background was a great idea. Every time I thought I was finally done with something, I remembered I had to flip the canvas over and do it all over again.
But I'm very happy with it! I struggled with every step of this piece, but it got there in the end. I could not find a color palette I was happy with and almost left it in black and white, but I'm quite glad I slept on it and gave it one last try. Even the sketch gave me a hard time, and I ended up completely scrapping my original idea when I couldn't get the composition down, and even moved the entire piece to Photoshop for a bit to work out a pose.
Drawn 12/29/24, Chickensmoothie.
The Journalist having a delightful Midwinter's Eve, lost deep in the woods around the West Pole. I'm very happy with this - I put this off worrying about the background but I think it turned out nice. This piece serves as both my contribution to Arctic Fight and my entry to the Whumplovers server art challenge. One more drawing to cram in before the end of the year to beat last year's number!
Drawn 12/23/24, Chickensmoothie.
I have officially completed No Sleep November with no losses! Week four only had one art day, as I knew from past Novembers that I never do much art over Thanksgiving Break and planned ahead. I filled the week with a lot of research on Catholicism, France, and alchemy.
 |
| François Artis & Ophelie Bellerose |
I've made it through the third week, and my streak remains unbroken! This week we returned to Merecily to work on some more character designs and stubborn backstories.
I still have to make it through Thanksgiving Break, which is historically a rough time for my art, but this is also the first year I have reached the break without missing a day. I also planned ahead and scheduled mostly research tasks for the final week, so here's hoping I've set myself up for success this year!
 |
| Day 16 - Nyx |
 |
| Day 17 - The Queen's Council |
I have decided to rename my NaNo-adjacent activity calendar to No Sleep November, since that is what it really ends up being. This week I worked on designs and scenes for the phantom thief story. Having a clear vision in my head of some of the locations has made me feel much more confident.
 |
| Day 8 - The Pied Piper |
 |
| Day 9 - Side Characters |
A solid first week of my NaNoWriMo-adjacent activities. I knocked out some character designs and did some brainstorming for the map and the university uniforms. I'm quite happy with Kaia and the queen's designs, though I couldn't quite settle on an outfit for the queen. Luckily, I'd imagine she can afford to own all of them, so she can wear them in different scenes.
 |
| Day 1 - Kaia |
 |
| Day 2 - Queen Eleonora |
