all made up with nowhere to go

# I have eczema on the side of the knuckles of my right index and middle finger, and I have no idea what triggered it re: contact, so I can only assume it is stress-related, sighs. FUN.

# I have been drawing trees, mostly, this week, and enjoying it! Turns out even if you think you know what a tree looks like, you don't. I have also painted some card with acrylic paint for collaging because a) I haven't even touched the new paints I bought over a month ago(!) and b) I found a video on yt where someone had done just that. And it is something I've thought about, because I've got a book that suggests doing that, and also: those gelli plate prints I did back in January(!!)

(I'm mad that I was so excited to get that plate and then I've used it exactly once since I did).

# I'm going to move my print on demand stuff from Redbubble to Society 6. I've been thinking about this for a while. Not because I think I'll earn more on S6 (I'll probably have as much interest as on RB, which is to say not very much at all) but, in part, because RB suspended a friend's account on there, and refused to reply to his requests as to why that happened, or reinstate his account.

So I'll probably work on that this month, and close the RB account at the start of October.

# Talking of selling stuff, I updated my ko-fi shop with some new prints! There are frogs! And mushrooms! And other stuff as well!

# On Friday, Jane streamed a game called Bear and Breakfast, wherein you play as bear called Hank, who runs a B&B in the woods. It is adorable. And just what I needed after Life is Strange, tbh.

# Although, talking of Life is Strange, I have been continuing with the series.

I watched Aoife and Johnny play Before the Storm. And I wasn't that into it. Partly because the time frame was WAY too condensed (all that in three days? COME ON. Maybe if it had been across three weeks). And I didn't like Rachel. It was nice to see her being alive and stuff, but I didn't get why Chloe found her so awesome. I also still don't really like Chloe.

There were some good bits, though! Mostly with Chloe and her dad (although the one part was a gut punch I did NOT need). And I did like Steph a lot, and I'm glad she makes a return in True Colours!

And then I started watching Life is Strange 2. I absolutely get what Dontnod are saying and going for with the narrative, but I agree with a comment which someone left on the Episode 2 LP, which is that Sean and Daniel's story is constantly shit stuff happening all the time, and there's only so much of that you can take. Also it having a nine year old child in it, and me having a nine year old nephew make for unfun times in my brain.

So I'm taking this a lot slower, and interspersing it with other stuff (like Jane's stream linked above) instead. Also I absolutely skipped about twenty minutes of the LP of Ep2 because of That One Thing that happens, because I knew it would upset me A LOT. I'm not going to say what it is, but if you've played the game, you know what I'm talking about.

# And that is where I am at right now!

I have updated my sketchblog with some autoposts for ~a week and a half - that will start from Tuesday. I hadn't updated since September! But that was when I had my last holiday from work, so that sort of makes sense.

But also I seem to have been drawing a lot, but not posting a lot of it. Mainly because it either feels like more of the same (and therefore not imaginative*), or I didn't think it was good enough to post.

I've also updated my Redbubble shop with one (1) new design. I did it yesterday, and I'm really pleased with how it came out, although now I wish I hadn't drawn it on layout paper, but such are the regrets of an artist, I guess.

~

In other news, my tablet arrived on the day it was meant to, and it works like a dream. It is smaller than I thought, but I am bad at imagining screen dimensions at the best of times.

I've watched a few streams on it, and the only times it buffered were because of problems on the streamer's end and not mine! \o/ which is categorically not what used to happen with the old one.

I am looking forward to being able to use it to update - for example - my ko-fi gallery, and possibly even my sketchblog!

~

*this is my brain being an ass, btw.

While we were in Lockdown v.2, my sleep patterns weren't great, but they were certainly improving. i.e. I wasn't waking up at stupid o'clock and then not being able to get back to sleep (or thinking it wasn't worth it).

The day I returned to work, I woke up at 5:30 am. You know, because why not.

I haven't been able to sleep till seven since. I mean, I did last night/this morning, but I was awake for an hour (or more, because who knows how long it took me to fall back asleep) during the night, and only woke at seven because the heating came on.

(I woke from a dream in which Aoife from Eurogamer was teaching me Irish. Which is quite possibly one of the most "me" dreams I've ever had. Except I'm not really familiar with Irish apart from what I've picked up following theirishfor for the past several years, so my brain was probably making stuff up!)

I'm sure things will settle down again, but it kind of felt like it wasn't fair, you know?

~

It snowed on Thursday night, which made me gleeful, although it wasn't a lot, and it was already melting by the time I left for work on Friday morning :(

~

One benefit to being awake at five bloody thirty on Wednesday morning was that I could work some more on the acrylic painting I'd started the day before, and I have since finished it!

( pic here! )

I am really pleased with it! It's the first finished acrylic painting I've done in about nine years! \o/

I am also pleased that I am nearly at the end of one of the sketchbooks I made! I have one page left! Normally, I would have abandoned it by now (I am bad at leaving blank pages at the end of note/sketchbooks), but I feel like because I made it, I have to use it all up. So that is what I am doing!

~

Finally, in case you're interested, I have also added two more prints to the thread I made of things I have available for sale, and you can find them in this tweet.

So, a quick heads-up in case you're interested:

If you have ever wanted to buy some of my art, that is now a thing that can be done! You can get prints or you can buy original stuff, whichever you feel like/have the budget for!

I just need to get myself together and actually put up a post on my sketchblog. I was going to add stuff to my Etsy but a) fees, b) I'm trying to move away from there, and c) ko-fi just opened up shop functionality, and I want to check that out to see what it's like.

I also plan to put up a tweet (or two) about it, so I'll link to that when I do, so you can actually see what's available. Also if there's anything you would like available as a print, please let me know, and I'll see what I can do!

~

I watched a few Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice playthrough videos, though I haven't seen an entire LP.

I really like the look and feel of it! I do like games (and other things) with a strong Japanese aesthetic (I used to be a hardcore weeb, back in the late 90s/early 2000s, but I know I was obsessed by/interested in Japan even before then? I've been trying to figure it out, but I don't know what sparked my interest initially, but it defo wasn't anime because that wasn't a thing over here when I was younger!)

However, I will probably never play it since it's a) still £30 even for a used copy, even though it's been out well over a year, and b) it's a From Software game, and we all know how I feel about those, right?

Anyway, it led me to digging out a bunch of my history books about Japan, because it's been forever since I looked at them (and also my books of prints, because I've been meaning to pore over them for literal years at this point). It also made me think about trying to replay and beat Okami, because again, it's been literal years*, and I think I might be able to do it this time!

There's two reasons for this:

1) the soundtracks for both Sekiro and Okami are traditional Japanese sounding (and I like that).

2) the main character of Sekiro is called Wolf, which is Okami in Japanese.
(you can bet I was like, no way, I misheard that!* when I heard someone say it, but no, that's correct. That's why Okami is called that, because Amaterasu is a wolf. I mean, it's also a pun on Great God, too, which she also is).

So yeah, I might give that a go. It'd be nice to beat it, especially given I got pretty close to the end the first time.

ETA: I'm also going to watch Ellen from Outside Xtra play through Ghost of Tsushima, because I don't know why I skipped out on that when she was livestreaming it???? [/eta]


*Ten years (!!), according to my tag on here??? :O

**And also, like, I haven't done any serious Japanese study in years, so I'd forgotten the word for wolf anyway.

~

Outside Xbox, Dicebreaker and Eurogamer did another multi-stream game of Among Us and it was just as hilarious as the first one (imo).

I forgot to say, I've got four of the zines made! I just need to do the others (I'm looking on doing another batch tomorrow).

So if you're still interested, I will post soon/post pics, and then you can buy one if you want! Any leftovers I'll sell through Etsy or something. (Though it will be cheaper if you buy it directly from me).

Talking of Etsy, I updated on my shop on Monday with two quail amigurumi, but then totally forgot to mention it, because I was too excited about the new scanner. Er. Whoops.

~

In unrelated news, I realised yesterday that it is FFXII's ten year anniversary this year (on March 16!), so I feel like I ought to do some sort of fanart as a celebration of that fact. I'm thinking about a painting, but I don't know that my skills are up to it.

(I also feel like I ought to replay again, but maaaaaybe not).

Bet you thought I've forgotten about the zine, didn't you? I haven't. I just haven't done any work on it for a while (where the hell has the time gone, eh?)

I am working on it, though (lack of space to Do Stuff means schlepping printers/scanners/etc around, and then cat dodging. YAY).

Talking of things I'm selling, both my redbubble and big cartel stores have been updated (and there's more to go in the RB shop this coming week).

Also a reminder that if you can't pay for anything in a chunk, I am totally willing to work out a payment plan with you :)

~

I am in a Maggie Stiefvater shaped hole. I know.

( Read more... )

~

I'm determined that I'm going to get better at using coloured pencils this year (and also improve my watercolour skills, but that's overlap from last year, so it doesn't count). So I guess I have a goal for this year after all.

I buy coloured pencils a lot. If I see art supplies, and there are coloured pencils, I will want to buy them. ( Read more... )

I looked at zines on Etsy (following ruuger's suggestion that possibly I could sell copies of mine in my shop there). That was really interesting! And a whole section of Etsy I didn't even know about or thought existed!

Talking of which, I have a working prototype for mine!
( picture under here )

~

In other news:

~ I set up a Big Cartel shop, for things I feel don't belong in my Etsy shop. There's going to be paintings, eventually, but right now, there's two very expensive things.

~ My new artblog is up and running, by the way! It's here, if you want to look.
(In case you're interested, I will crosspost the stuff from tumblr to here till we're up to date, but I don't know if I'll do the same from wordpress. We'll see).

~

Got to see my nephew today. He had a book with different animals in, and was going through, pointing to different ones and asking me if I liked them. And then there was the page with dinosaurs, and he said, "Do you like dinosaurs?"
I replied, "I love dinosaurs."

He made me read out all the names because obviously he doesn't know how to say them (he's three) (luckily they were ones I was familiar with or were easy to pronounce). He's pretty good at repeating multi-syllable words if you say them to him. He got Deinonychus after only hearing me say it once ♥

I have a commissions post up on my tumblr! http://muladhara.tumblr.com/post/114582148317/would-you-like-to-commission-something-from-me

So if you want to: BUY THINGS FROM ME!

~

Usually, when I play ME2, I run around, nobody gives me their loyalty missions, and the plot does not advance. I do not know what is different about Lucas, but everyone gave me their missions all at once. I barely spoke to most of them! (Thane wants so badly to give me his, but I took him on and will not speak to him again because I do not like him).

I accidentally acquired Jacob's and Samara's loyalty (I wanted to bork Samara's on purpose but that did not happen, and I don't know why. Going to look it up on the wiki later). Now accidentally acquiring Jack's because of waiting for the IFF to be installed.

( nattering, including some spoilers and also a bit blah about me3 )

~

I got my story on the laptop, and the final word count before I started shaping it into a tentative first draft was 16,665 (I've literally added 520 words today, but I wasn't really pushing myself because I spent all day inputting it yesterday).

Since I've set myself a target of 60,000 words (it will possibly run to more than that, eventually), I am dead pleased with the fact that I managed to get a quarter/almost a third written in five weeks. It just proves I can do things when I put my mind to it!

(I've also knuckled down and tentatively asked a couple of friends if they mind giving feedback on the entire thing for me, although I don't have a shareable version yet. Go me!)

I'm probably going to mirror this on my tumblr, so apologies if you see this more than once.

I've got some questions!

There's a few things I am planning on doing this year. One is that I'd like upload stuff to a print on demand website, so you can buy things there (not just prints, but other things, too!) Another is that I'd like to open a Patreon, but I'm really unsure about how that's going to work right now. The third is that I might open a shop with Big Cartel in addition to my Etsy shop.

So. This is where the questions come in:
(this would work heaps better if I still had a paid account, but it ran out in December, so. Sorry).

1. Which print on demand site do you think/know/have heard is better? Society 6 or Redbubble?
1b. Do you have an alternate suggestion if you don't approve of either site?

I've heard more about Society 6, myself, but I know they slap HUGE import charges on everything coming into Britain. I'm more inclined towards Redbubble, because I haven't heard anything about ridiculous import charges. I did, however, read an angry blog post from a guy who got kicked off there because they wouldn't allow his designs on the site. So he had a hissy fit, and now he goes around telling everyone that Redbubble is a scam. ANYWAY. So that's what I know.

2. Do you think a Patreon is a good idea?

I mean, I do not think I have masses of fans with masses of disposable income. I know I have about three (who do not have masses of disposable income). I do not expect masses of income from this (also the reason I've never bothered with a kickstarter (or similar), aside from the fact that I don't know what I'd kickstart).

3. Do you have any opinions about Big Cartel?

I'm not 100% on this, to be honest. I think about it because it might be vaguely easier than joining another craft-focussed site or selling oddments of stuff via ebay (which I don't really want to do).



Anyway, any input would be helpful, if you've got it.

I find it kind of hilarious how I keep getting orders on Etsy when I least expect them. I just got one last night for some custom made friendship bracelets last night, which was great, although as I said, I didn't really expect it (I love the design as well, and I think it's the most favourited thing in my shop. Several times I've thought about taking the listing down because nobody was biting, but now someone did and I'm so happy).

Which yeah, obnoxiously, in case you didn't know, I have an Etsy shop! it's here

This is my first order to go to America, which is also cool, since my last order on there was my first international one (it went to France). So I'm kind of jumping up and down like an overexcited puppy and being very unprofessional :D

(P.S. computer is still OK! I don't even need to fiddle with getting Ubuntu to see the massive drive because it sees it now it's been switched off and had overnight to come to terms with it. So that's also good news. Now all I need to do is put stuff on it).