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March 2024 Check-in
a year ago
~Milachu's Journal~ Heya there~
Just wanna do another lil check-in. More updates on:
- the state of my projects & what I plan to work on
- what I’m thinking of working on
- any other updates
- and let any of you all ask open-ended questions you’d like me to answer.
— Projects & Plans —
I’ve swapped out “commissions” for “projects”, since I don’t really do commissions all the time like I used to. I’m more focused on big projects now than single-image commissions like I used to make.
I’ve ordered samples of the Mila Dakimakuras (body pillows). Now I’m just waiting for them to send me the samples so I can check for quality before I order the rest in bulk~
I haven’t moved much on the comic projects for Stormy and Path in a while. Some progress, but slow on my end.
I have 2 YCH projects on my plate at the moment. One is the winner of a YCH I sold in December - that one is in the sketch detail phase. I suspect I’ll only need a couple more days to finish that. The other is an animated YCH I sold with Nine-Volt on Twitter - that one is in the initial sketch phase. I’ll be making some of the animation for this YCH, and Nine will be helping me - he is way more experienced with animation than I am!
Like I mentioned last journal, I was doing daily practice drawing, and it was very satisfying! I started out practicing anthro Mila, and then switched over to practicing animation, because I wanted to start getting involved with that. I reached a point with both of those areas and felt confident stopping. I now feel way more confident drawing tall and thin anthro forms, and also making very rough-draft sketch animations. I’ve been posting the doodles of anthro Mila on Twitter. You’ll see some of the animations I made in practice there soon too!
— Ideas —
I’ve been learning a lot about how to animate, especially in my art program Clip Studio Paint. I started out just learning some basic principles, such as making things move in arcs, having slow-in and slow-out movement, and more. Also, I just recently learned how to use keyframes.
With my newly acquired animation knowledge, I am planning on doing something that’s been a dream of mine ever since I was in middle school - I’m gonna make an animated music video! :3
I’m not going to share what the song will be, but it will mainly feature small mouse Mila.
Last journal I mentioned I’ve been finally writing for the Pushing My Buttons comic again. I do plan for it to be a rather large comic. I want to tell better and better stories, especially about my own experiences. I mentioned that I came up with a theme to help me center my writing around, and that’s helped a ton! I initially planned to do 45 minutes of daily writing, but I can’t do short daily story writing like I do with drawing practice. Instead, I’ve been spending 1 day per week going out to a coffee shop and committing about 3-4 hours to just writing. I want to do this more than once per week, but I want to give all my projects the time they deserve.
— General Updates —
I’ve been going through a weird phase lately where I just don’t feel like drawing. The act of sitting down and drawing just didn’t excite me like it usually does. So instead of forcing myself to draw until I feel like it again, I focused on cleaning the space I do drawing in. I’ve been cleaning my house daily for the past few days, and I do feel better. I still didn’t totally feel like drawing though. So what I’m doing now is returning to short and daily 30 minute practice sketching. The idea is if I get myself warmed up to the feeling of drawing each day, just a little bit, then I’ll be willing to focus on larger projects. 30 minutes is very low-commitment and easy to maintain for me each day. And I specifically draw the same character each practice session - it takes the guess work out of who to draw each practice session.
I’m playing bass guitar again, that’s been fun. :3
I haven’t touched it in probably over a year. I am so out of practice. It was a little frustrating at first because I wasn’t playing as well as I thought I should be. So I took things back to basics, slowed myself down, and now I’m just practicing one very simple song each day. If you’re curious, that song is “Fireflies and Empty Skies” by God Is An Astronaut.
— Feedback —
If you have any feedback you’d like to give or questions you’d like answered, feel free to ask. Suggestions, technical stuff, how I do certain things, if I’m okay with something, anything.
Just wanna do another lil check-in. More updates on:
- the state of my projects & what I plan to work on
- what I’m thinking of working on
- any other updates
- and let any of you all ask open-ended questions you’d like me to answer.
— Projects & Plans —
I’ve swapped out “commissions” for “projects”, since I don’t really do commissions all the time like I used to. I’m more focused on big projects now than single-image commissions like I used to make.
I’ve ordered samples of the Mila Dakimakuras (body pillows). Now I’m just waiting for them to send me the samples so I can check for quality before I order the rest in bulk~
I haven’t moved much on the comic projects for Stormy and Path in a while. Some progress, but slow on my end.
I have 2 YCH projects on my plate at the moment. One is the winner of a YCH I sold in December - that one is in the sketch detail phase. I suspect I’ll only need a couple more days to finish that. The other is an animated YCH I sold with Nine-Volt on Twitter - that one is in the initial sketch phase. I’ll be making some of the animation for this YCH, and Nine will be helping me - he is way more experienced with animation than I am!
Like I mentioned last journal, I was doing daily practice drawing, and it was very satisfying! I started out practicing anthro Mila, and then switched over to practicing animation, because I wanted to start getting involved with that. I reached a point with both of those areas and felt confident stopping. I now feel way more confident drawing tall and thin anthro forms, and also making very rough-draft sketch animations. I’ve been posting the doodles of anthro Mila on Twitter. You’ll see some of the animations I made in practice there soon too!
— Ideas —
I’ve been learning a lot about how to animate, especially in my art program Clip Studio Paint. I started out just learning some basic principles, such as making things move in arcs, having slow-in and slow-out movement, and more. Also, I just recently learned how to use keyframes.
With my newly acquired animation knowledge, I am planning on doing something that’s been a dream of mine ever since I was in middle school - I’m gonna make an animated music video! :3
I’m not going to share what the song will be, but it will mainly feature small mouse Mila.
Last journal I mentioned I’ve been finally writing for the Pushing My Buttons comic again. I do plan for it to be a rather large comic. I want to tell better and better stories, especially about my own experiences. I mentioned that I came up with a theme to help me center my writing around, and that’s helped a ton! I initially planned to do 45 minutes of daily writing, but I can’t do short daily story writing like I do with drawing practice. Instead, I’ve been spending 1 day per week going out to a coffee shop and committing about 3-4 hours to just writing. I want to do this more than once per week, but I want to give all my projects the time they deserve.
— General Updates —
I’ve been going through a weird phase lately where I just don’t feel like drawing. The act of sitting down and drawing just didn’t excite me like it usually does. So instead of forcing myself to draw until I feel like it again, I focused on cleaning the space I do drawing in. I’ve been cleaning my house daily for the past few days, and I do feel better. I still didn’t totally feel like drawing though. So what I’m doing now is returning to short and daily 30 minute practice sketching. The idea is if I get myself warmed up to the feeling of drawing each day, just a little bit, then I’ll be willing to focus on larger projects. 30 minutes is very low-commitment and easy to maintain for me each day. And I specifically draw the same character each practice session - it takes the guess work out of who to draw each practice session.
I’m playing bass guitar again, that’s been fun. :3
I haven’t touched it in probably over a year. I am so out of practice. It was a little frustrating at first because I wasn’t playing as well as I thought I should be. So I took things back to basics, slowed myself down, and now I’m just practicing one very simple song each day. If you’re curious, that song is “Fireflies and Empty Skies” by God Is An Astronaut.
— Feedback —
If you have any feedback you’d like to give or questions you’d like answered, feel free to ask. Suggestions, technical stuff, how I do certain things, if I’m okay with something, anything.
2. When collabing with others, do you feel any sorts of like doubts or like worrying feelings? Like I’m terrified in working with others because of my stuff not being up to par with said partners.
3. Do you have some sort of schedule for doing your creativity? Like you mentioned daily writing for 45mins, anthro Mila drawing practice, 30 mins practice drawings, stuff like that.
4. Also about OC and stories, like your Sona is in a story you made and it fits perfectly, just perfectly and you had to change somethings and keep drawing and moving forward. I did want to make a worldbuild with my sona but I keep getting conflictions and it makes me have to switch around but then I’m not happy and then makes me take a step back. So, how do you know when you got something right with OCs and stories?
5. Finally when you said you clean your drawing space to feel more inclined to draw, does it help?
That’s all I have for questions.
2. Actually yes I used to get that feeling! I remember I was 1-2 years into making Milachu stuff when I was drawing next to my pal Roy McCloud in a collaborative drawing board, and I felt slower and lower quality than him. I felt kinda inferior. But I was also really happy he was patient with me, and he even pointed out how I could improve sometimes. It felt very good and it helped build my confidence. I don’t feel that way so much now.
3. I don’t have a set time of day to do it. It’s just something I look forward to every day, like “I wonder what neat thing am I gonna make today in just 30 minutes?” So I usually do it early in the day.
4. I go back and forth like that too, all the time! I’ll keep adding and changing stuff to try to be better than the last version, and I just never stop. What got me to stop doing that was coming up with a theme for my story to be based around (like “loneliness”, “revenge”, “pride”, etc), writing down how my characters change their beliefs over time, and then writing how their actions reflect their change in beliefs over time. Idk if I understood the question right - let me know if it was something else.
5. Yes! Having a clean living space makes me much more likely to draw. Having a messy living space is very distracting. It’s a big weight off my mind when my place is clean. I just feel good about myself, and mood boosters like that are helpful.