Not gonna post today. Maybe I will tomorrow, maybe I’ll just go on hiatus for a while.

I bruised my ankle really badly so between icing and elevating it and limping around my house to avoid putting pressure on it, I’ve kinda lost motivation. I’ve got a lot of stress building up and causing issues with people in my life that I need to attend to and other personal stuff.

My point is, though I promised a post every day for a month (which I did so I could improve), I don’t know if I’m going to be able to continue that for a little while. I’ll post when I can, but I don’t know how often that will be.

Thanks to everyone who supports me, it really means a lot. I’m sorry for the complain-y journal, I’ll get back to actually being productive as soon as I’m able

SO! I didn't post today 'cause I was looking at procyonid (That's plural. Pro-see-on-id. From the family procyonidae). That is the family of animals that raccoons, coati, ringtails, cacomistle, olingo and olinguito, and kinkajou are in.

They eat fruit, insects, small animals including lizards, birds, and rodents, and bird eggs. Also, their diet varies a lot depending on what's available during the season. They'd eat more eggs when birds are laying, more fruit when fruit is available, more rodents when rodents are breeding, et cetera.

They can be found in a bunch of different habitats. Raccoons live in heavily wooded areas, like the temperate rainforest I live in that is filled with Douglass fir and red cedar trees (coniferous with the odd big leaf maple or birch or something like that), ringtails live in Arizonian deserts in riparian environments and kinkajou, cacomistle, and olingo and olinguito all live in lush tropical environments in trees. All need decent access to water.

Most procyonid are nocturnal, with coati being the only diurnal example.

Most species in the family are plantigrade, with the exception of ringtails which are at least partially digitigrade, though they still kinda waddle like raccoons XD

A lot of them (coati, raccoon, ringtails, cacomistle) have black and white striped tails. Tail length ranges from as long as or longer than the body. Most also have distinct facial markings, with exceptions being kinkajou and most olingos or olinguitos.

Kinkajou are also one of two carnivorans with a prehensile tail, meaning it can grab onto branches like a monkey.

So... I'm going to end up making Neon an OC rather than a fursona...

Sad day, I know. I just don't feel connected to him like I used to. It happens to the best of us, I know, but I really do love him.

I also need to completely redraw him because I am getting better and therefore he needs to be less ugly lol

So that'll be a thing that'll happen eventually

Other than that, I'm tired and have someone to flirt with so Imma go do that XD

Unless otherwise requested (or wanted by me, I might get bored) I'm going to be focusing on domestic cat anatomy for a couple of days. After that I'll probably either switch animals or work on people for a bit, since it's kinda weird that I can draw other species better than my own... ^~^'

So yeah. Here's my reasoning behind this:
- Firstly... I don't wanna be one of those artists that isn't in the least bit anatomically correct.
Because I don't think that anyone really wants that. Also I'm the kind of person who likes to know everything about something before actually doing it, and learning anatomy is a step to knowing everything about art. It also helps me with biology which is always fun.
(I'm a nerd... But genetics are fucking amazing and the best thing ever)

- There's a lot that I'm actually surprised to learn that I don't know or that I need a better way to do.
A good example of this would be the kitten jump practice in which I learned a new way to place toes on kitty paws.
(By the way, am I the only one who's absolutely obsessed with cat paws? Both the pads and the paws themselves. I can't with kitty feets XD)

- I am a biology/zoology nerd
And this is fueling it. (see reason one for slightly more info)

- I have a strategy
So it takes a month to get sorta decent at something, right?
Four weeks in a month
If I practice four different animals per month, I'll have a week to spend on each animal. That way I won't get stuck on one species, and I'll be able to (hopefully) draw any animal by examining proportions since most animals are built with the same general parts.
Each of the first six days, I'm going to find a picture of the animal I'm working on in a new position. (for example, I started with a kitten jumping, next I'm working on a cat sitting at a slightly different angle than 90° angle from the camera.
Along the way, I may find things that I struggle more with, which means doing some research and finding a new way to see things to to do things.
By the day 7, my goal is to be able to draw the anatomy of the animal I've been studying well enough for my tastes (which is the difficult part) from my mind. Hopefully this means trying a totally new position, but I am open to that not being the case.

Things I need to work on:
- How to place limbs on opposite sides of the body

- How to draw perspectives

- How to decide upon a "line of action"

- How many different layers can there be?

- How to draw humanoid figures

- How to draw from mind

-How to proportion body parts
(sections between joints, body length, head size compared to body)

- How to position claws

Closing
I hope whoever cares supports me attempting to better myself at something that I'm actually enjoying for the first time in years. I'm going to be keeping you all updated per post on things I learned newly, things I need to figure out still, and things that I learned from other days like I did in my kitten jump practice. Both the things I know and things I need to learn lists will probably grow over the course of the month, and that's okay. The first part of getting better at something is accepting that you don't know everything, right? Even after this month is over, I'm still probably going to be practicing anatomy and improving as I go.

Also, if you'd like to join me on this quest for knowledge, feel free! Let me know in the comments, I'd love to check out your process! I promise I won't get too jealous if you get better than me ;3