a Tiny Little (Something...) studio

I did not take a break in between outline and inking. I also doodled this without using reference screenshots while coloring. I was hoping to bypass these steps to expedite. NOPE! BAD IDEA. I was not particularly happy with this.

1.) It is a morning market. Not. Night. Market. The background could have been different.

2.) Inking. I went too heavy with the lines… Now, there is no clear foregrounds and backgrounds.

3.) I wish I also did not put the two fish together. Their colors were too similar.

Well, at least, the hands looked better than what I would have drawn months ago! Yay! Each of the food items looked pretty good on their own… they really just could have looked better if I arranged them a little differently.

So, lessons learned: Don’t skip breaks. Don’t skip referencing. Spend a little bit more time planning the layout next time.

I had so much fun drawing that bear. I realized I haven’t drawn animals for a while. And, animals were the only subjects I worked on when I was in high school! How far I have come! I can draw so much more now! The people I draw now don’t look like “Sailormoons” anymore… which was the only “style” I had back then. I also had (and still have) great difficulties drawing fabrics. I still have a hard time drawing hands too. But, I can definitely see improvements. I am very shocked to see my progress over just a few months.

This process went from a “slow pace”, “self directed” experience has become very… “not alone”. I mean, I do expect my friends and family to look at my things on social media and say something about them… I do expect having IG people dropping by to like/comment… follow you and then unfollow you… the usual. What became unexpected were the shoutouts from the Youtubers themselves! People giving me fancy art supplies that they no longer use. Also, the “technologies” that I had to learn while engaging all these “new and unexpected” events… (i.e. How to digitize images… scanner? Phone camera? Snapseed? Other apps? Geo Data Stripping?)

While coordinating these… it got me to reflect and (hopefully) learn the finer points of Email, Instagram DM, and Youtube Comment Etiquettes. So, I don’t go full-tard on this again…

Email:
Like, at work… You don’t spam the same person multiples on the same topic. Especially when they haven’t had a chance to reply your first one.

Instagram DM:
I would assume that to be the same as Email – don’t send new messages until the last ones were read/responded to.

Youtube Comment:
Okay… here is where it gets interesting… You just comment and don’t expect it to be read or replied to. But, still, don’t spam. And, don’t troll. Simple as that.

So you see? I KNOW ALL THESE… but when I was trying to send over images… All these rules just ran out the window… WHY?!!! I know I need to be gentle with myself because I am still learning. But, I would have liked it so much more to have seen myself handled it better…

What I did with Email:
I made a bad mistake of sending out emails late at night when I was about to sleep, not being my most alert self to make good decisions. I sent over something… I needed to send over something again to correct an error. Then, the next day when I realized I should have sent something else over… So, that was already 2 emails too many…

Then, can you image the horror, that inner storm, I experienced when I realized I did NOT STRIP THE GEO DATA ON THE IMAGES I HAVE JUST SENT OUT!?
1.) The GEO DATA!
2.) What? I had to send ANOTHER email?! No!!!!!!!!!!

(Luckily, to avoid having to spam, that motivated me to learn how to deal with this problem without having to bother the other end. I am so glad that my husband knew how to fix this and stepped in to help me out!)

What I did with Instagram DM:
Whenever I had finished a sketch, I got excited and started sending it out. I got very kind and sincere replies on how excited they see them everyday/they look forward to see them everyday… So… I sent them out… Then, my messages don’t always get read/replied duh, because people are busy! Then, I started to feel… “Maybe I should stop DM. I am starting to… spam. Not good.”

What I did with YT Comment:
Well, I don’t comment. LOL. But… I do know it is weird to think that when you comment, you don’t expect replies. So… when communicating with people who are used to reading YT comments directed to them… at the receiving end of other forms of communications… it becomes easier to… forgive “spammy messages that are not always met to be read/replied to, but people send them anyways”?

Argh, I am sure, no one spends this much to think about this other than me. And, it is GOOD that I am spending time thinking about this… so, hopefully I learn and don’t do it again.

WTFBBQ man… I don’t make these kind of mistakes at work… why do I make these mistakes when it comes to my “hobbies”.

… I am exhausted just typing this as I relived this… And, I am positive that this really does not matter on the scheme of all things that truly matter. BUT, DAMN! THAT WAS CRINGY! AHHHH!!!!

——————– ok, let’s calm down. ——————

It has only been 10-ish days that I doodle as soon as Chris upload a vid on his bike ride. That is 10-ish days of me doing concept, outline, text, ink, and color 5-8 hours a day. I have learned so much in this process and I wrote about that in more depth here on this blog.

Okay.
Time for Dinner.