A Quiet Year

It's been a long time since my last blog post, in fact this is my first blog 
post of 2023! I wanted to make one now, because my birthday is not only a time 
of reflection for getting older but also the same time that I started doing 
art, which I've now been doing for 4 years! Of course I started with 3D 
modeling, so for illustration I've been doing that for almost 2 years. 

The reason I haven't made more blog posts, is because like the title suggests I 
haven't had all that much to blog about. I'm still busy helping take care of my 
mother and grandparents, I'm still grinding away in art and learning how to 
improve, and still working towards the point of being able to upload 
consistently good weekly content ;). I think things can often end up taking 
longer than we think they might, especially when we are learning and 
understanding them for the first time, and art is no exception. I thought I'd 
"have it all together" by early this year, yet I'm still working on basic 
things like understanding better shading and quicker, more consistent uploads 
as of the time of this blog post! But that doesn't discourage me at all, 
because these sorts of things can't be rushed. I either understand or I don't, 
and I need to understand art at a high level to be able to make a career out 
of it! 

I recently decided to take an art course on Coloso, it was expensive so I was 
on the fence for awhile if it would really be worth it, but I felt like there 
was only so much good free information on sites like YouTube, and I could 
really use a consolidated, organized professional video course on how to do 
things better. After watching those videos, I can wholeheartedly say that I 
feel they were worth every penny! I now have spent over a week understanding 
how to make my art in a much different, yet much better way, even going as far 
to switch to a more professional drawing program from Krita to Clip Studio 
Paint. I always used to think that Krita was just about as good as Clip Studio, 
and it wasn't until I saw it in action and used it myself that I realized how 
much smoother and more polished it is overall. In addition to that I've learned 
so much about shading and colors which I had been struggling with for a long 
time, and many other things like better details, rendering, filters, and more! 

And so I can't wait to start implementing everything that I've learned. I have 
a certain vision in my head for how my drawings should look, I really 
appreciate well-made illustrations, and I care about drawing more than just 
making random sexy stuff for commissions or such. I have stories, characters, 
and ideas that I want to share, and I want to make sure they are expressed in 
an appealing and engaging way, because that's what all of my favorite artists 
do well! And I feel myself getting closer to achieving that every day. 

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