We made it to the end, folks.

2021 is on the horizon and I don't need to be the one to tell you that I'm sure all of us are ready to get out of this year and move on. I know I am. However, I've been saying this all year on my Twitter, but if there's one thing that this year gave me, it was my return to art, and with the exception of June, I'm proud to say that I've drawn/colored something for every month of the year. This level of art hasn't been something I've done since 2011: fewer new drawings than 2011 but more files and projects than 2010.

So, I'd like to go over all of the selections and why I picked them!

[center]January
⚡️ Mischeivous Mouse ⚡️
The first month of the year happened to be one of the most active months, ever since I made a retrofit of 2018's art of Rae, which I unfortunately have recognize as the cause of my return to art. The first new piece I made this year was the initial redraw for Rae. However, as March shows, that didn't go over well with me. But thankfully there wasn't much of a design change between redraws, so this gift I made for LilArrin still stands. This was one of two gifts I did for the year, featuring both of our Raichus together, and is actually the only inanimate transformation art I did all year. A bit of a surprise, if you ask me.

February
🐷 Oink-Oink "Hoagie" Doyle 🐽
The second month of the year also was very active for me, I believe it was the most active for me as I recall sketching alot of things in February. January was much of a mixed bag, just coming back into art after years of absence, but it didn't stop me from roughly sketching up a number of things that I've either drawn many or few times before, or for the first time, such as Dragonite, Raichu, and now an Eevee. In February, however, was where I really started trying to draw new things. I tried drawing a Pikachu again (it took a redraw as well but it came out incredibly well), and for the first time, a Togedemaru and, my selection for this month, a pig. Like I shared in the original upload, Oink-Oink was a character concept that LilArrin actually came up with, but I decided to give him the reference treatment.

March
⚡️ Rae Doyle-Raichu | Version 2.6 🌴
I started to slow down in March but even though I started to work on this one in February, I completed it in March and wanted it to represent that month instead. But as I had shared, this was the second of six redraws I did this year for characters I had introduced, all of which had the same reason: I just didn't like the way they were done as time went on. It wasn't seen with Primrose as I never colored her first sketch, but it did with Rae and when this came out, I couldn't have been happier with the result. I remember sitting on the sketch for a long time as well, wanting to get every detail right and getting the drawing right as well, and when I finished it up and started to color, nothing satisfies my drive to complete a drawing quite like this one.

April
📱 10 Year Later and Apple Still Confuses Me 📱
Funny enough, my birthmonth doesn't have the reference I made for myself but rather an anniversary picture to commemorate 10 years on DeviantART. But it's all the more important that I do so, because this started a new chapter in my life, and would be responsible for introducing myself to so many new friends that I never would've met without this website and without art. And it all started with this picture, where Yoshi has no idea how to use an iPod.

May
🐢 Macintosh "Mac" Appleseed 🐢
The fifth month of the year was also rather quiet, but it also saw a project that I've wanted to do for years finally come to be, and that was drawing a Koopa. It was something that I had as far back as 2011 or 2012, I believe, but I never saw it through. So this year, after having a hard time drawing the head, I finally got it!

June
Sadly, the only month in the year that could not be featured on this summary. Nothing was sketched, nothing was colored. I remember feeling really down about not wanting to do anything for this month, so unfortunately, this one's a bit of a downer for me that I couldn't fill out everything.

July
🦊 Chocolate Doyle-Eevee | Version 1.9 & Flower Boy 💐
Coming out of June, I was still in love with the redraw of Rae and I wanted to start applying this momentum towards other drawings I felt needed a redo, and next up was Chocolate. However, this was one of two times this year that I did something I usually frowned at, and that was reusing a sketch for another piece of art rather than drawing something brand new. So instead, I used tracing paper to just get the shape the same, and adjusted the rest of the body instead. It helped save some time on the coloring, and helped give one of my favorite Pokémon the proper respect he deserved.

August
🦖 King Kye O'Doyle | Version 7 🦖
🐲 King Wing O'Doyle-Dragonite | Version 4 🐲
🐲 Prince Goldie O'Doyle | Version 3 🦖
Month 8 of the year also proved to be an explosion of new ideas, and it all started with an update for Kye, my first true character to this site. Working on some designs for him resulted in more ideas for the world he lives in, including a flag design and emblems for the Royal Family. Later, Wing would get an update and Goldie too for his tenth birthday. All three of these I was very happy about so it was hard for me to choose just one of them, so all three are squished together in August's slot.

September
🦖 Prince Alex Dragon-O'Doyle 🐲
As a special present to my good friend SDragon01, I created a reference for his character Alex, after we had realized that other than a picture of him done by LilArrin when he was an adult, but nothing while he's younger, so I decided to fix that. It was fun to have some freedom in creating this reference but everything else was Simon's decision, but it also means that I had something to present for September when things got quiet again.

October
🍎 Oakley Doyle-Appletun 🍏
I recall not having much drawn in October again, but I did really wanna do something new, so just before September ended and my flight to California in the beginning of the month, I sketched out a bipedal heavyset Appletun using some inspiration I had on here, Twitter, and FurAffinity. The result was a big round sweethearted Appletun who loves the outdoors and the nice people in his life, and a shoutout to some of my favorite new Pokémon from Sword & Shield.

November
🍪 Kyle the Doughshi + Dot | Version 6 🍪
When I decided that my own Yoshi needed a redo, I knew I had to do it before the year ended, I desperately didn't want to let this be a 2021 thing. So I put in all of my effort to figure out how I wanted to redo myself, and in the end, I figured it out. A base sketch, and using tracing paper, draw the outfits I wanted to include. Color everything together into one multilayered image, and then go from there. This ended up being one of the largest (unnecessarily, I might add) images, both in actual size and file size, that I've ever made. But I'm finally happy with the results.

December
☕️ Cinnamon Hazelnut | Version 3 ☕️
Cinnamon ended up being the second example of reusing a sketch for a new piece of art this year, but I couldn't help it this time either, I was so proud by how well the sketch for me came out that I didn't want to butcher a second fresh attempt. It was a very fun project to do the entire day while I was waiting to go to work late that night.

I was really excited to make this, realizing that I had enough content to make one of these summary charts. My hope is that next year, as I continue this momentum, is to focus less on making new references and more on original drawings, more things featuring these characters. I hope you all will stick around for that.

Thanks for looking and reading! Have a Happy New Year!