Apologies for the sudden disappearance for the past few days. Haven't been able to touch art for a while due to being a little stretched for time and energy from house-sitting and also getting used to being solely on my own for a little more than 2 weeks. I've been enjoying the independence though and finally been able to clear my room out a little

I've been able to draw a little as well as finding an old pixel art piece that I hope to remake, but nothing's been finalized yet. However, I am close to working on a redesign for my self-oc since their initial version felt a little too rough around the edges. The idea is a creature that exists in the realm of abstract thought, and thus, consists of simple shapes and cannot stay in a consistent form for too long

Clothing is the one thing I need to work on since I really such at trying to come up with something unique. You can tell my wardrobe in real life is a little shallow x_x

As a first-time player of the series, I can definitely say I've had an absolutely awesome time playing Pokémon Black & White! While the few days of grinding I did prior burned me out a little, it was well worth the wait against the final bosses. For now, I'll probably take a break in favour of changing the scenery with a different franchise, and I then hope to try out the sequel (B&W 2) and maybe the 3DS games

Overall, while I still have a lot of learning to do regarding the intricate systems of Pokémon, I'm glad everyone recommended me a game that was very helpful with introducing me to the series

And as a Dorkly fan, you know very well what I was going to nickname my Reshiram

It's funny because music is the one of the few things that I've had a consistent interest in through games such as Club Penguin, My Singing Monsters, and Incredibox, but just never ended up becoming a hobby for some reason

That partly changed last year when I was inspired to try it out through a YouTube channel by Levi Niha who made a lot of cool mixes using sounds from video games which lead me to learn a lot about music, VSTs, and just audio engineering in general through self-teaching and a ton of YouTube videos. At the moment, I've recently been trying it out again and starting off with simple BPMs and time signatures, and from my observation, I'm definitely into the more fast-paced, energetic feeling tracks but also calmer genres like Lofi

My current goal (which might also be a good video idea) is to make a small track using samples that I had ripped straight from that DJ minigame from Club Penguin; The game that probably started my interest for music in the first place.

Hopefully, it won't suck

So this was supposed to be the day I drew something for that dumb Mario animation idea I had in my head, but I have now become hooked on Pokémon

It's funny because although Pokémon was everywhere around me in child-hood, I had surprisingly never indulged in the series as a kid outside of the anime series (and a ton of Dorkly videos). That changed a few days ago when my friends (devoted Pokémon fans) noticed me recently being interested and recommended Pokémon Black for my first game, and to be sincere, I'm having such a blast!

The first 2 gyms were admittedly a little rusty because the systems of Pokémon took a little while of getting used to, i.e., not immediately killing every creature you see, but once the 3rd gym kicked in, that's when the fun truly began!

My current intentions is to record my playthrough of the game and compile it into small episodes for my friends and other people to watch. Suffice to say I've already poured a fuck-ton of hours into the game, so I have some work to do...

Congratulations Pokémon, you have a new fan!

Completely forgot Mario day even existed, so I kind of missed my chance to do art about it. However, it did make me wonder whether I should try making some random Mario animation or something. Nothing big; Just something to introduce me to that sort of thing. That does mean I might have to voice him which'll be fun (and definitely not cursed)

And to update on what I posted previously, I've been scouting for inspiration and have managed to make a pretty confident mood board on what I want to do. Still stuck on a new name and characterisation, but I'm sure I'll figure it out. It also reminded me of what sparked the initial idea of Juno in the first place; Vanny from FNAF Security Breach; Such a waste of a character

Still one of my favourite characters of the series but it still baffles me how badly Vanny was fumbled despite being the supposed future antagonist and having an entire game before-hand to build her up.

Now that I've gotten in the swing of things (and hopefully my motivation won't run off again), I'm thinking of reviving one of my old but favourite OCs of mine: Juno!

The synopsis of her character is a rogue actor who stars as the main character of an iconic kids TV show, a gameshow-themed bunny called Juno. However, after being betrayed by her superiors and fired on the spot, she goes AWOL and vows revenge against the company, later doing so by causing a freak accident and scarring the show's reputation

Now, continuing under the guise of the mascot she once donned long ago, Juno returns to cause mischief and make sure the franchise is buried for good!

This was her first design I drew many months ago, a crudely-coloured, static doodle I gave up on half way, and now that much has passed, I'm thinking of giving her a proper shot. However, I do plan on revising a LOT, including her name, personality, etc., so I expect she'll end up turning into a completely different character if I'm not careful

I also commissioned a few artists to draw her too which I had intended to use for the new redesign, so they'll come in handy when I plan to draw her this week. If I am lucky, she might actually look good this time...

I must admit that I had some doubts as to whether it was worth joining Newgrounds many months ago. While I did know of its existence when I was a teen and saw 1-or-2 things on YouTube which originated from there (pretty much just Hands Up, and Henry stickmin), Newgrounds remained a place I barely interacted with outside playing the odd flash game

I was also told consistently about Newgrounds being the unapologetically edgy, 'anything goes' sort of deal; Basically meaning you were bound to see something you shouldn't if you didn't know what you were doing, so teenage me probably did the smart move of not taking any chances for a long time

Now, I've come to realise that my initial opinions towards Newgrounds were a little unfair and I've actually grown quickly to like it. People are really friendly and supportive to artists who are new, experienced, or rusty like me who've been struggling to keep motivated over the years. It's a nice change of pace being on a platform that truly feels like a community rather than a group of cliques

So, there you have it, the site I kind of avoided for a long time (albeit, for an understandably safe reason) quickly ended up becoming my favourite. Shows me that I really don't know much about the internet despite using it for years

I think I might actually be getting into a rhythm here

Been thinking of changing my main OC a little over the course of the week, mainly the proportions since my primary goal of this character is to convey an "always off-model" shape-shifter sort of vibe since my strengths so far tend to lean towards free-hand drawing. I think the jumper I gave her was probably a little too chunky, so I'll probably make the clothing a little thinner next time

Currently been seeing what I can do by exaggerating her features a little more and will probably try to see if I can make the lineart a little bolder too

After combating a few weeks of self-doubt, I finally managed to publish something I'm proud of. Kind of realised that I shouldn't expect immediate quality and that improvement is simply part of the journey. I'm just glad I was able to make something that I liked for once

I'll probably update my OC's design in the next few days because I plan to include her in some projects I have in mind

Also been making a game design document for something but unlikely that it'll come of anything

So, I've decided to cut down on my caffeine for a few reasons: 1# is because I don't want it to become a dependency, and 2# was because I've slowly just grown out of that kind of stuff since I cared more for the taste than the actual energy part

So far, things have been feeling a lot better despite initially feeling a little drained and hungry; Stress levels have gone down for the moment and sleeping finally feels rewarding for once. Did sort of kill my drive for drawing though, but I have at least attempted to finalize a piece a few times

The biggest issue atm is trying to design an OC that I feel works as a mascot of sorts, one that can represent my accounts. I have a lot of ideas, just not a good way of gluing them together. Once I do though, I wanna do a few random videos on stuff since I've had a sudden itch to play Minecraft again and try that Team Fortress 2 game than everybody totally hasn't heard of

For now, have a sketch of an OC I quickly abandoned after my friend became angry at me for taking so long with it: