Just Create - Herein Edition

[silvercat17]

(I was helping mom decipher lawyer-stuff from the 1900s)

What are you working on? What have you finished? What do you need encouragment on? Are there any cool events or challenges happening that you want to hype? What do you just want to talk about?

Chores and other not-fun things count!

Remember to encourage other commenters and we have a discord where we can do work-alongs and stuff, linked in the sticky

This month I'm hosting:
Pirate Fest on AllBingo - digital or nautical piracy themed prompts for anything you want to make

Comments

[zenigotchas]

I did complete my month long drawing training arc, so not only do I now have a lot of pages in my sketchbook filled!! But I also notice a change in my technique and how I approach drawings. Am I some master now? No, but I did improve and that feels really good. I also learned a lot about scheduling and what does and doesn't work for me, so take THAT executive dysfunction! I've made a bunch of notes during this time and I'm happy about that too. Kind of amazing how much progress can be made even if you're just doing small things.

ANYWAY. I'm actually having fun brainstorming for my fiction now. The OG stuff is still in the early gestation period so it's a bunch of ideas being thrown at the wall to see what sticks, but at least I'm still fucking with it and making cards and rearranging/editing them is fun.

Sometimes it can be so fun to do that that you end up accidentally putting in so many details in another project that it goes from a 3 sentence fic into a very detailed look into someone's pysche with themes of trying to make positive change while remaining stuck in the past, social awkwardness and doing your best as a single mom who may or may not also be a bit of an irresponsible cop. Oh and the timeline for another one of my fics is finally being worked on. I need to do more with these things, I think I am not doing enough because I feel I could get them finished faster if I did.

I need to figure out my next plan of creative attack. With charts.

Also I keep procrastinating on random fandom posts I've been dying to do. Not like.... Analysis but close enough to that??? I just need to sit down and finally write about the game I'm currently playing and how its character and level designs add to the surrealist symbols the game is using to tell its plot and themes. And then I need to write about the manga I'm struggling to finish (because it sucks) and how I think other adaptations from the same series handled the manga's themes better.

AND THEN I need to make ANOTHER post but about all the albums I've been listening to because there's a lot! And there's a lot of neat themes to dissect from the songs! And–

Yeah you get the idea it's a lot.

Oh and I still need to draw more.

[a_natural_beauty]

Congrats on finishing your drawing training! That sounds nice :-)

What sorts of charts will you make to help you?

[zenigotchas]

Thanks, it is a good confidence booster I will not lie.

As for charts: A lot. Scheduling stuff for starters, and mindmaps as well. Anything else I may throw at the wall to see what sticks, I'm experimenting.

[a_natural_beauty]

That sounds like a good way to stay motivated! I'm curious as to what a mindmap is, too... that sounds interesting.

[matsushima]

I would love to hear more about this drawing training arc! Did you follow a specific program or make it up as you go or…?

[zenigotchas]

It was planned a month in advance but basically:
1. I decided I would focus on ONE specific technique/aspect of drawing I wanted to improve at, in this case it was accuracy.

2. I looked up the different exercises for that and found blind contour drawing.

3. I spent a day collecting articles and vid tutorials and made a megathread for myself.

4. Then I picked a theme for my subjects and compiled a bunch of seperate folders, one for practice/studies and another for final images

5. After that I just would schedule my art projects week by week, doing 2 studies and 2 final images per week.

6. I also made small goals for the days I didn't have the energy to do much but still wanted to get things done.

Thanks for asking.

[matsushima]

I'm really impressed with how you structured this! Would you be OK if I borrowed your idea? (Like I said in my comment below, I'm not an illustrator/visual artist but I think I could benefit from doing something like this with my writing.)

[zenigotchas]

Yeah go for it

[dianec42]

Wow, that is a lot! Huzzah for accidental project planning lessons, those are the best.

[zenigotchas]

Thanks, it's..... A lot. Doesn't feel that way because it's been so small but yeah, it's been a lot lol. Yeah I almost want to make the original version and then make like, an extended cut because that'd be pretty funny, like I'm some movie director.

[a_natural_beauty]

I have been keeping up a pretty steady habit of uploading two pages of my webcomic Promised Memories a week. Right now I am on chapter 16.
I feel I need some personal motivation to get other art projects started on. I'd like to paint more.
And I do have a few more art projects related to a site I am on (Comic Fury) I plan on working on this week.

[dianec42]

Yay for sticking with the habit of posting!

What art projects do you want to do? Do you know what's stopping you?

Good luck and go get 'em!

[a_natural_beauty]

Thank you! :)

Currently most of my time that goes into my art is for my comic I share online. It's all done traditionally. But I also like to paint, draw and sketch. When I was younger I used to do embroidery and sew more and also make crafts.

I think mostly it comes down to having so many hobbies and trying to make time for everything. But in winter months I have more time to devote towards indoor actives.

[zenigotchas]

That's a lot of work, nice!

[a_natural_beauty]

Thank you! :)

[matsushima]

I didn't think this was something I could show off because I go through yarn like it's going out of style but I finished crocheting a baby blanket. It's a defictionalization of the scrapghan the protagonist of my book makes. (I made a simpler version of the blanket as the "second draft" of the book but now that I've revised it and I'm starting to query I wanted to make one that reflects the blanket from the revised version I'm sending out.)

[dianec42]

Oh how pretty! Finishing things is always something to show off!

Also I love everything about "defictionalization of the scrapghan", that is the best phrase I've read all day.

[matsushima]

Also I love everything about "defictionalization of the scrapghan", that is the best phrase I've read all day.
Haha, I'm glad you enjoyed it! My two favorite things, really: crochet and weird metafiction.

[zenigotchas]

That's a pretty cool idea for a project: Make an object from your own story real. Was there any particular reason you decided to do that?

[matsushima]

The original (smaller, simpler) blanket was the "second draft" of the story. I'm a writer but not an illustrator and I don't have much visual imagination and I wanted to see what it would look like in real life. The newer version, the one I just finished recently, was the same idea: the story had expanded (the gray rows in between the colors are new to later drafts) and the second draft (first blanket) wasn't a scrapghan. I finally had enough of a stash to make it a little more true to the book.

It's nice to have something to (literally) hold onto while I send the book out into the void, too. Querying is so stressful and disheartening, it was nice to spend some time with the story in a way that felt soothing.

[zenigotchas]

That's a beautiful way to think about it, it's like you can still say the story/book is with you because you have a physical remnant of it that the void doesn't. :D

[aleteoryx]

i have been writing ducktales stuff for the fandom_empire challenge, and am considering replaying shadow point and maybe writing something for it, cause there's like no fanworks for it anywhere despite it being a really good game

[zenigotchas]

It's cool to be that one person in a fandom who finally kickstarts the fanworks corner! :D Good luck with the Ducktales stuff too.