Last day of spring break (the last one not involving moving back). I have a couple things I could finish before then, notably the pangolin picture, but also another project I've been working on.

There's a natural tendency I have towards pictures that take a long time to work on, where I start doubting myself and my ability. It's easy to lose hope at this stage, and make it take longer than it should. That being said, I estimated last night that it would take 2.25 hours to finish.

I'm not terribly open about my unusual love for Aromatisse, and it's hard for me to explain. All I know is I love fat pink hairy puffballs with beaks, and I went and made another indulgent picture about it. And I'd like to finish that today as well, so I may as well add it to the stream.

And finally, I've still got the Hune to ink. That should take another 2 hours. But I already inked the hardest part of the ref, so that should be much smoother.

Don't be surprised if I stop for 15-minute breaks in between each project.

https://picarto.tv/Rimme

JackTheLizard has gone and written another TF quickie, a pangolin TF at a gas station mart. This is an idea that he and I have discussed for a while now, and I'll be happy to try drawing the whole thing today and tonight.

How many hours will it take? There will be three-ish characters involved, and a whole background to work up, and that's on top of drawing scales... I plan to just keep working until it's done, but it's useful to do a bit of planning on how to execute it.

So, I'll be starting right now on the sketching for 1 hour, try to do the inking in 1.5 hours, do the coloring in 1 hour, and the shading in 1.5 hours. If all goes well, I'll stop at 8 PM ET. Otherwise, I'll just hold it for tomorrow, the last day of spring break for me.

Feel free to stop by at https://picarto.tv/Rimme to offer encouragement or just to chat about TF or music or anything else.

EDIT: Apparently the connection is very poor. Sorry if you were hoping to see more of my progress live. The chat still works though.

I didn't get to work on   JackTheLizard 's human-like race last night, and I've got another dinner tonight, so... it's time to draw the Hune for a while, hopefully ink a couple of figures on his sheet. Then I can finish the inks by Saturday. (Ideally, I'd like to finish the Hune by the end of March, so let's see if I can make that happen.)

(Actually, keeping in mind yesterday's notes about "professionalism", it's probably more problematic to always be sharing my art plans in my journals. Though I don't write down everything I draw, just everything I stream.)

Okay, it's the hour mark, so here it is: https://picarto.tv/Rimme (I'll be working until around 6 PM ET.)

Maybe I should be less emotional in my journal posts. Maybe I shouldn't be worrying people who find a disconnect between my normal day-to-day emotionless self, and these overwrought journals. Maybe it would be more professional if I kept things neutral and only discussed, say, the latest techniques I used on each picture, or what I plan to use for the next picture. Or maybe I should do like every other artist does, and simply stick to announcing the stream with a link and a time. Then I could truly annoy people.

Or maybe the biggest thing that worries people is when I write a long rambly post. Maybe I should stick to simple topics. How do I balance sharing insights into what I do with sharing information that people might actually be interested in?

I overthink things too much. I also take too long to write journals.

Tonight I'll be finishing up the sketch on the kangaroo page, followed by finishing the sketch for the Hune, and then inking the Hune. I'll start at around 6 PM ET, and finish at 8:30 PM ET. See you at https://picarto.tv/Rimme

What's more valuable to society: someone who is confident in their work, or someone who is always improving their work?

I'm sure if you could, you'd have both. Perhaps the more important thing is being committed to your work. At any given time, there is a vision and someone working towards that vision until it is accomplished; and only after it is finished, is the vision adjusted, and new goals made.

Hmmm. The reason I say "only after", is that if the vision is constantly changing, then there is no finishing the project. The vision should be clear and understood to everyone, though it does not need to be definitive, and should not be exhaustive. It should focus on the most essential elements, and the workers must be experienced enough for those core elements.

Everything else is up for grabs. A picture doesn't need clean line art as long as it carries the emotion. A comic doesn't need coloring and shading as long as the expressions are readable. Find the most important elements, and commit to excellence on those parts.

I say this because I wonder if my beaver TF picture is really that good. I focused so much on just getting something drawn, and then on getting the skin tones and the shading right, did I really make sure the line art was clean? Did I really make the expression readable? Did I really use the most interesting pose? Should I have more closely paid attention to the anatomy? Did I not forget to add wrinkles to the clothing? Did I not add enough details to the clothes? Did I not add enough detail to the hair? Is it obvious that fur is growing? Should I have added outlines to the fur? Should I have added outlines to the eyes? Is my shading mix too murky and muddy and not making it pop? Do the colors line up with the other beaver picture? (Probably not, now that I think about it -- I sampled colors from it, except for the fur color.)

I've got the evening busy with family, so I made sure to schedule some time today to sketch. I am now doing page 5 of my 14 page kangaroo sequence, so now's a good day to hop in to see a lot of mid-TF stuff. If you like seeing sketching. I'm at https://picarto.tv/Rimme right now. See you there!

This drafty house is so cold and poorly insulated. It looks like the weather will be cold all week long. Nothing to do but survive it and huddle by the heating vent.

I'll be coloring and shading a beaver TF picture now. Hopefully I can post it tonight. I wish I knew of better ways to interact with online people besides posting art, buying art, or making occasional comments. (Free art to people? I tried that...)

Ah well, such is life. Streaming is at https://picarto.tv/Rimme right now. See you there.

It's spring break, and I finally found a place in this cluttered house to set up my computer.

Tonight is another kind of return: I'll be returning to the Single Earth Saga with the fifth species, the Hune. They're by far the most humanoid of the races, but they do have a few features that distinguish them from humans. I'll be drawing and figuring them out tonight at 6:30 PM ET, at https://picarto.tv/Rimme

If I'm late in starting, that'll be because of traffic getting back from takeout. See you soon!

Okay, so after all that homework, it's back to a full night of sketching. Last page's changes were quite subtle (apart from the ears and tail bulges). This page begins the muzzle and hand changes, and will show off even more of the tail. If I sketch in the dialogue as well, you'll also see the rapid simplification there as well. Good stuff that doesn't even bring us to the halfway point of the sequence.

I keep saying there's one stream tonight, but let's be real and just say there are two streams tonight: first from 6:15 - 8:30 PM ET, second from 9:30 - 11:00 PM ET. Both are at https://picarto.tv/Rimme

See you then!

More bad news: unless I somehow finish both of my class projects by tomorrow, there will be no streaming tomorrow, and almost certainly no streaming tonight. I will do another tiny amount of drawing for myself without streaming.

Commissions will remain closed.

Hope everyone is out turning into fun animals and enjoying the weather today.

The funny thing about deadlines is how time-sensitive everything else becomes as they get closer. Yow! I've got 3 different things in 3 different classes to focus on, 2 due Wednesday and 1 due Thursday. One of those is a team project with a deadline that's more self-enforced than mandatory, but the other two are going to require a bit of work. So no streaming tonight or tomorrow night.

I will be doing a tiny bit of drawing to myself, but I won't be streaming it.

Also, I've decided to close commissions for now, just so I don't have it hanging over my head. It figures that the week before spring break would be chock full of assignments.

I almost called this "commission TF stream" tonight, except that might imply I was taking commissions in-stream. I'll be making a semi-quick 1-stage commission of Zhen from Kung Fu Panda 4 at 6:30 PM ET at https://picarto.tv/Rimme . See you then!

Question for tonight: have you ever done a YCH, either as a customer or a creator?

So tonight I'll be working on the beaver post-TF picture, and then sketching more of the kangaroo sequence. That will be at 6:30 PM ET at https://picarto.tv/Rimme, with a break at 7:30 PM and continuing at 9:00 PM.

There was a recent comment on one of Wheatart 's journals about how most people don't mind frequent journals, as long as they're not just stream announcements. Now, the thing is, I do these journals primarily for me and my friends, and I will likely continue to post these journals, unless I get some good reasons to convince them and myself not to keep doing so.

Do you consider daily stream journal posts annoying? If so, is it because they tend not to have any substance in them (in which case, I should try harder to include more substance in each journal)? Or is it more because of the constant flood they create in people's inboxes (in which case there's nothing I can do about them)? Is FA just not the right place for stream announcements, and it would be preferable to post on social media instead (perhaps with an automatic system like Picarto)?

Please leave your thoughts below.

I'm feeling a bit inspired tonight, so instead of drawing TF, I'll be drawing a quick portrait of my husband as a beaver.

I'll be on at 6:15 PM ET at https://picarto.tv/Rimme

Okay, I have some more time to stream today. Pursuant to my plan from yesterday, I'll be moving onto the next sketch for the kangaroo sequence, where the two of us go from 2% kangaroo to about 10%. And instincts slowly start to take over.

I'll be at https://picarto.tv/Rimme at 6:30 PM ET. See you then!

I wonder... what if I sketched one night, inked another night, sketched another night, inked another night, and so on?

I know that a professional artist might do nothing but sketch until the whole sequence is done. Professional artists, I suppose, don't get tired of doing the same type of work for 10 days in a row. I can only speak for myself, and I know that doing the same thing over and over is a sure road to burnout. So I have to change it up: a night of loose creative expression, a night of tightly precise linework, a night of mechanical coloring work, and a night back to loose creative shadework. (Coloring tends to be the closest I get to burnout, incidentally.)

But maybe I can do a compromise. Switch between sketching and inking to stay loose but maintain a steady output.

Hey, these personal sequences are opportunities for trying a new workflow.

Inking begins at 6:30 PM tonight at https://picarto.tv/Rimme . See you there!

You know, other people don't put anything under the descriptions of their stream announcements in the submissions. So why should I put anything here?

Because they always delete those announcements, while I don't.

Why don't I?

Because sometimes I do have opportunities to use these as actual journals, that's why. And because I find it satisfying to keep them.

After a weekend spent with my husband (an all-too-short weekend), I'm ready to get back to streaming and drawing. He's working on a history of the Sem-Starborn wars for his world, and I have a fairly detailed thumbnail nearly finished for him (that I might post as a standalone piece, because it's pretty good). I still have to shade it, although "shading" would more accurately be called "detailing". I've already detailed the Sem, so now I just need to add an appropriate level of detail to the Starborn, and that should only take 15 minutes at the most.

After that, I'll be sketching the second page of a long TF starring me and him becoming kangaroos. I've been looking forward to this for months now, and I'm ready to start drawing it.

Stream will be at https://picarto.tv/Rimme at 6:30 PM ET. See you then!

I really should put together commission information at some point. I miss drawing for people. I love drawing my husband's stuff because it makes him happy to see his ideas come to life, and it makes me happy to share ideas and bring them to life.

I... still haven't gotten money from the one commission I have, so I'll be streaming more tonight:

https://picarto.tv/Rimme

at 6:30 PM ET

I'll go ahead and color it if I have time as well. There will not be any more streams until Monday, the 4th. See you then!

https://picarto.tv/Rimme at 6:30 PM ET

My usual break will be at 8:00 PM ET, if I finish the kangaroo picture by then, then I'll do something else at 9:30.

Repeat to myself:

Favs measure popularity, not quality.
Favs measure popularity, not quality.
Favs measure popularity, not quality.

Just focus on making myself happy.

I'll be continuing my admittedly rather slow sequence tonight, but I'm sure I'll be able to finish it. And I can use the techniques I tried out on the gryphon. Even if said techniques didn't attract a lot of popularity, I'm sure it wasn't a measure of their quality.

Starts at 6:30 PM ET, at https://picarto.tv/Rimme

https://picarto.tv/Rimme

Sorry, didn't get time to write this earlier, no time to write more now.

A somewhat productive day today. Going to do more sketching and hopefully inking tonight. Another personal project.

https://picarto.tv/Rimme at 6:30 PM ET.

This might even be half of a stream tonight. I don't expect to get on until 9:30 PM ET tonight, at https://picarto.tv/Rimme

I have a test on Monday that I'm studying for right now, and I don't expect to be on until later. I don't know if I will finish shading, but I will get started on it at 9:30.

Also, be sure to check out my husband's work on his Single Earth saga. His early history of his world now deals with the earliest encounters between the human-like Hune and the reptile-like Kustah, and ends with their meeting with the Sem. He's got more history on the way, and it's worth following, for those who like detailed fantasy anthro worlds.

Edit:
It's been a long day and a lot of studying. Going to get some sleep instead of streaming. Hope to stream tomorrow.

Well, homework is taken care of. Time to return to streaming at 6:30 PM ET https://picarto.tv/Rimme

Those of you who want music tonight are out of luck. I've got some video essays to watch (might go into adventure games, depending on how these film essays go).

So many tools, so much debugging. It's not enough just to deal with Java; it's not enough to gather the JAR libraries for JavaFX; it's not enough to make sure the team is using the same versions and dependencies; it's not enough to deal with Git and GitHub, and merging branches; it's not enough to deal with VS Code; it's not enough to deal with databases and JDBC. It's dealing with all of them, some of them, or a different combination of them, all the time, hours and hours on end.

No stream tonight.

I've got to keep my ego in check. I've got to remember why I write these journals and announce these streams.

Here's a question for the TF content creators out there: how much planning do you do for a TF? Do you rearrange the changes specifically for certain mid-stages, or do you just draw/write it out and let whatever happens to happen?

Stream is at 6:30 PM ET at https://picarto.tv/Rimme