Hello all!


It's been a while since I made a journal, and as you probably have seen lately I have been attempting to be more active on here! And actually a few other places. I'm making an art only instagram, reopening a new deviant art, and starting up a tumblr. I MAY try twitter, but twitter pisses me off so we shall see XD (actually tumblr does too but twitter likes to blow up my phone with stupid shit)



Art: While on my hiatus I have been working more with my art, trying to figure out why I don't pump out as much as I used to. What I pretty much learned is that I seriously need to stop trying to do what everyone else is doing. My brain does not work like everyone else's and I keep trying to force myself to work how everyone else works, kinda screwed me over .3.

I kind of went completely back to basics, rereading all my old art books, watching some art videos and just kind of refreshing myself on things. Really helped! Like a lot! Also giving my babes a makeover helped quite a bit, as well as experimenting with an incredibly non-canon idea. Really helped me jolt back into art like I used to be!

So lately I tried a process I feel comfortable with that just works for me.

First, I decided to just stop trying to force myself to be more of a digital artist. At least when it comes to drawing and line art. It doesn't feel natural to me. Coloring? Is perfect! I love coloring digitally cause I can change it up however I want without ruining my lines! I still love my markers but it's nice to color to my heart's content and not ruin my favorite line art.

My new process is pretty much this, it may seem a bit tedious but it actually works perfectly for me given how I work.



1. Traditional sketch: Sketching before I had such a problem with, mostly because I am a huge perfectionist so if I don't get it right after a few tries I will get frustrated and kind just be like "Ugh, screw it!" I don't like ruining good sketchbooks with fail sketches so it kind of halted me quite a bit. This new process actually helps me out of that and makes it more enjoyable for me. Now for a full illustration type piece or for ref sheets, I will sketch out on cheap computer paper

2. Scan and adjust: This is what I mean, I do a quick sketch, get it to a certain point, then make any adjustments I need on photoshop and then-

3. Print and sketch over: I print out the adjusted image and sketch in any detail I need

4. Lightbox and line art: Put the computer paper on the lightbox, and put some nice cardstock over it to do my line art! Super clean lines, love it! No risk of erasing and damaging my lines or paper!

5. Scan for color: I like this cause I can do both digital coloring, AND marker coloring! Also, I can just save my original lines, either cause I just want the lines or if I decide to do something else with them later.

6. Finish! I really love this new way of doing things, mostly cause it combines digital stuff with traditional and I can make my art stronger by doing a process I work best with. Maybe someday I'll find another that works even better, but I sincerely love this as it combines the best of both worlds!


Oh, also, I am thinking about finding a new way to shade, either practice in my own time, or just keep my style as being simplistic with little to no shading. I do have a new creature hallucination I was designing, and hyper detailing that one might make it creepier against a simplistic world.



Comic stuff: I have still been working on my comic, simply staying to doing script stuff. As soon as I get 10 chapters written out, I will start putting ink to paper! I pretty much figured all the things I needed to figure out, like genre, comic or manga, blank and white or colored. So now it's a matter of getting it written which I do have a lovely person helping me out with that! So it should speed it up a lot more


Work: First, I finally got a raise! And a very good one too! It's about time -_- however, my hours still are horrid and my schedule is bipolar as all get out! Last week worked a 13 hr day, this week several people kept calling off so instead of 9 or so hours I was working 10 (I'm only supposed to work 8 dammit! TTmTT) Honestly, those horrible hours and needing to actually have a chance to clean the house is pretty much what has been slowing down my art. Balancing relationships, me time, work, and cleaning gets kind of exhausting. Slowly starting to work it out, hopefully, after all the vacations are over and done with it won't be so bad! Supposedly they are working on hiring more people!



Plus side, I have a vacation to Newport, Oregon coming up! Like, leaving this Friday coming up! I plan to do some cute little drawings on the beach while I'm there ^^ Man I need this! Also, with the nice paychecks, it'll help fund me and my boyfriend's move. Don't know exactly where we are going yet, have some ideas but nothing concrete. We just want to get outta here




Well, that's all for my yammering,

Best of the best!,

Poe