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April 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 —
The Mila daki samples arrived! I checked for quality between a couple different materials and decided on the 2-way Tricot. I also put out a Twitter poll asking what sizes of daki people tend to have, and most people said theirs were around 150x50cm. So now I have a bulk order of Mila dakis on their way to me! I’m excited to ship these out when they arrive! ^^
I got all caught up with the Fireballs for Two comic! Just a couple more pages to go now.
I finished the Xmas YCH for Obsidian and posted it to all the places it can be posted! (Reminder that not all of my art can be posted to Furaffinity or Inkbunny. To see all of my art, check my Twitter, Itaku, or my Discord server)
I finished my first major part of the work on the animated YCH with Ninevolt and passed him the WIP file to continue making the project.
I’m now returning to work on the Down in the Dungeon comic. Now that I’ve got caught up on a lot of my other work, I’m hoping to start getting one page done per week for this comic, as a baseline level of productivity.
I’m still chipping away at the writing for the Pushing my Buttons comic! I keep running into several little roadblocks that slow down the writing process, but then I overcome them and keep going. Now that I have my characters and themes more clearly defined, writing the scenes is going faster! In terms of writing out all the scenes I want to have, I’d guess I’m about 15% done.
— Ideas —
The music video idea I wrote about last time hasn’t moved much, because other things have been occupying my time this past month. What I’m doing is I’m planning out the visuals for each section of lyrics before I draw them. Then I plan to storyboard some still images along to the music like an animatic. Then I can add the motion and color (I expect this part to take the longest).
— General Updates —
I got out of my weird phase I wrote about last journal - where I don’t feel like drawing as much. And actually, I’m doing better than ever now. I’m keeping my place cleaned up, I’m getting regular exercise, I’m checking my messages every day, I’m posting stuff regularly, and I’m privately streaming to supporters again.
I usually struggle to keep up with answering messages and posting art regularly. I’ve recently solved this issue by hijacking my coffee addiction. Basically I’m not allowed to have coffee each day until I check my messages and post some art or pay site promos. This has helped me a ton! Now having my first coffee of the day feels like a big reward.
I do stream privately to supporters. I want to get into the habit of streaming twice a week at least. Streams are great for helping me focus on projects, because as long as I’m live, I feel like I have to be doing something. I don’t like the feeling of dead air when the audience (or potential audience) just sees nothing happening. I’ve been doing these streams a bit more lately and I look forward to making them even more regular!
— 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 —
The Mila daki samples arrived! I checked for quality between a couple different materials and decided on the 2-way Tricot. I also put out a Twitter poll asking what sizes of daki people tend to have, and most people said theirs were around 150x50cm. So now I have a bulk order of Mila dakis on their way to me! I’m excited to ship these out when they arrive! ^^
I got all caught up with the Fireballs for Two comic! Just a couple more pages to go now.
I finished the Xmas YCH for Obsidian and posted it to all the places it can be posted! (Reminder that not all of my art can be posted to Furaffinity or Inkbunny. To see all of my art, check my Twitter, Itaku, or my Discord server)
I finished my first major part of the work on the animated YCH with Ninevolt and passed him the WIP file to continue making the project.
I’m now returning to work on the Down in the Dungeon comic. Now that I’ve got caught up on a lot of my other work, I’m hoping to start getting one page done per week for this comic, as a baseline level of productivity.
I’m still chipping away at the writing for the Pushing my Buttons comic! I keep running into several little roadblocks that slow down the writing process, but then I overcome them and keep going. Now that I have my characters and themes more clearly defined, writing the scenes is going faster! In terms of writing out all the scenes I want to have, I’d guess I’m about 15% done.
— Ideas —
The music video idea I wrote about last time hasn’t moved much, because other things have been occupying my time this past month. What I’m doing is I’m planning out the visuals for each section of lyrics before I draw them. Then I plan to storyboard some still images along to the music like an animatic. Then I can add the motion and color (I expect this part to take the longest).
— General Updates —
I got out of my weird phase I wrote about last journal - where I don’t feel like drawing as much. And actually, I’m doing better than ever now. I’m keeping my place cleaned up, I’m getting regular exercise, I’m checking my messages every day, I’m posting stuff regularly, and I’m privately streaming to supporters again.
I usually struggle to keep up with answering messages and posting art regularly. I’ve recently solved this issue by hijacking my coffee addiction. Basically I’m not allowed to have coffee each day until I check my messages and post some art or pay site promos. This has helped me a ton! Now having my first coffee of the day feels like a big reward.
I do stream privately to supporters. I want to get into the habit of streaming twice a week at least. Streams are great for helping me focus on projects, because as long as I’m live, I feel like I have to be doing something. I don’t like the feeling of dead air when the audience (or potential audience) just sees nothing happening. I’ve been doing these streams a bit more lately and I look forward to making them even more regular!
— 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.
1. Do you have any hinderances? Like things that get you down, off track or just distracted etc. I have too many things that slow me down or stop me from drawing/writing, overthinkning, overtuning things, comparing art etc.
2. How are you always inspired and/or motivated to draw/write everyday or on a schedule? I always have either one or the other or none and when I go to do it, it feels off or wrong or unsettling, and then it kills or lessens the mood to do creativity.
3. How do you not worry about how much time you have to draw/write? I have a horrid sense of keeping time, like I'm drawing then then it suddently time flys when I barely drew anything and then it is time wasted. Then I I try adding in anything to possibly help me, I'm decrease the amount of time to get drawing in
4. How much do you value your art in your life? Like not like commissions I mean your overall happiness, acceptance, and satisfaction. I still have that "I hate everything I draw" mindset at time and even if some say they like it, I still don't like it. But I still like drawing and won't give that up but then at times it gets me up but mostly it brings me down.
5. Last question: Do you trust yourself when making corrections in your art? I don't trust myself as often as I should heck I hate myself. But when I'm drawing and I have to make the corrections, I distrust myself so much that I ask around, but then I feel regret that I may bother people for something that is simple and fun.
Those are all my question, keep up the good work, much love
1. Usually yes, I have them. I think there will always be things like that. There will never be a time when there are no hinderances. I just keep going though, because I enjoy making things, I get bored otherwise, and making stuff makes me feel better, especially if I have a lot of hinderances going on.
2. Sticking to a self-made schedule is the hardest thing I’ve ever tried. I’m terrible at it, lol. As for drawing or writing every day, it’s a muscle that I’ve trained over time. When I’m in fine spirits, I gravitate towards making stuff. When I’m playing a video game for more than 2 or 3 hours, I get antsy, because I feel like I could be drawing or writing instead. I know I could be getting much more out of my time. And if I sit down and I don’t know what to do, it has helped me to have a few different things to work on: 1) commissions; 2) big personal projects to make progress on; 3) I have a note where I write down ideas for drawings when I randomly think of them and then reference that note later when I’m actually drawing.
3. I’m not sure what you mean. Are you saying you struggle to figure out how to draw or write certain things? When I go to draw something, I usually imagine a rough image in my head and then draw stick figures or basic shapes to get the general idea down on paper. When I’m writing, I will fill myself up with coffee and go out to a cafe so I don’t get distracted. Unfortunately I don’t have a lot of good methods for writing yet.
4. I love drawing and I love seeing the stuff I make. I don’t think I always felt this way. I used to barely draw anything, and I thought the stuff I did draw was not good. But I kept coming back to try again and improve my art. I think I didn’t want to give up because I was determined to draw the characters in my fantasy and have it look good. I would sometimes draw something that looked very good, and I would go back and study those drawings to understand what makes them look so good, so I can make more like it.
5. Nope, lol! When I make corrections in digital art, I always make a copy of the layer just in case I really mess things up. But sometimes I have breakthroughs and learn new techniques by making corrections. I also never asked others for feedback on my drawings tbh. I was very shy and never asked for help when I was starting out with drawing. I didn’t like feedback because it sounded like I was being judged. Honestly, I think I could have improved way faster if I opened myself up to feedback more often. I would recommend asking some friends for feedback. Ask them if anything looks “off”. You can always re-draw stuff better than before.
I do think I would like to write more. I’d like to be writing twice each week instead of just once, because it’s new to me and very hard, and if I could write more often then I know I would get better and faster.