Also, there are people on my Plurk list that are doing Art Fight too!! The more the merrier!

So, I have my characters set up like this: Elvis is first (an inside joke character between myself, Parcel, Carbon and Groove) and will stay in the first position to maximize the chances of him getting attacks.

Preston, my Dating Sim Minion Facebook Mom Meme character (TM) will stay last in my character lineup to act as a jumpscare.

I usually like to make a goal or a huge mass attack each year, but there's no way I'm going to be able to do that this year.

Reasoning: my 2 year old daughter. I love her so much. She is a motion blur.

I think I can only really draw during her naptime and bedtime, so.

I guess one hope I have for this Art Fight is that I'm able to start and establish a solid routine for drawing more frequently.

Since I have work to do during naptime, the other time that works is after her bedtime, so that gives me about...2 hours per day to work on attacks. Maybe 3 if I go straight to bed afterwards.

I've got a very healthy bookmark list going on, so there's no shortage of people to attack.

I even know I'm going to crochet an attack. Which character will I crochet? You'll see!

evil laughter

Every year, in my bookmarks, I make a note of people that were on my team and prioritize them for the next year if they choose an opposing team from me.

I've done this since 2022 (Bloom vs Wither), so people that were on Bloom and Werewolf, but are now on Seafoam are my guaranteed targets

So, I've got 7 guaranteed attacks following that criteria. I hope I'll be able to get through them all this upcoming month!

Cat took over the desk so I had to relocate to bed

So, in order to attack the people I want to attack with only about roughly 2 hours each day to do it, I think I gotta draw fast. I'm thinking, like, 30 minutes per attack?

we speed painting this

It'll be a good exercise too in not overworking a piece, since I have a bad tendency to do that.

Something else I want to try out are some style challenges. Maybe draw like three different pieces in the same style? Like, I'm thinking about replicating styles from artists I like, like Charles Schultz, for example.

Ooh, but I also feel like going back to the basics and really focusing on my foundations. Maybe...3 pieces that focus solely on line, 3 pieces that focus solely on space, that kind of thing

I want to use this time to really get a boost in improving my art!!

I'll spare the self depreciation and just say that I want to be at least a little bit better than where I am now by the end of Art Fight.

Though, most importantly, I want to establish a routine in drawing regularly at the same time that I can carry through even after Art Fight.

Hmmm...maybe I should make a list of different styles and foundations I want to try making a few pieces focus on? Again, I want to try and make about 3 pieces devoted to a single style/foundation skill, so it's like a little taste of improving at a single subset.

I know that I really should focus on one foundation skill at a time for longer than 3 pieces, but you know what? I wanna have fun with Art Fight and this is how I have fun.

15 minutes 'till it starts, but I can't actually work on anything until daughter's naptime, and even then it's still up in the air.

But! I'd like my first few pieces to focus on line.

There was this character design on Tumblr that the artist deliberately used tangent lines as much as possible on, and it was so surreal. I want to mess around with tangent lines too!!

I want to fuck around with tangent lines, this isn't going to be portfolio work or anything

Under the guise of line, I also want to try out making a stained glass-esque piece too. There's this character I have bookmarked that practically looks like it flew out of a stained glass piece, so.

And, I want to try out doing dotted lines? Or, like...multiple separated lines, kind of looking like where you need to cut the piece with scissors. like that.

OH I forgot to mention this, but I think the majority of my attacks this year are going to be done on Procreate, because I really want to get used to drawing more on Procreate

And also it's portable, so I can draw while following my daughter around

Got a couple of attacks done! For these first two, my main focus was on line.

This is a character from a user who is on the Discord I help moderate! Her name is Sabrina!

You know how I mentioned before about how I really wanted to fuck around with tangents? This was the character I was thinking about trying it out with. Making the background turned out to be a lot of fun!

I used the marker brush on this piece, which I found to be uh...hm. Well it certainly lives up to its name!

Probably won't use the marker brush for lineart anymore.

I also got a revenge from the user featuring one of my characters I just put up for this year, Tanya!

Look at this isn't this so cute ;;

ALSO I didn't even notice this until now, but this user is apparently 14???

GEEZ this is amazing for someone who's 14!!

I hope they keep up making art, I want to see how their pieces look a few years from now, they could make some incredible stuff.

Okay, next piece! This piece, I want to try out a line style where I made thick outlines and thinner, dotted lines on the inside of the piece and with any details. I just wanted to see how it'd look. This piece features one of my friends!

Again, since the lines were really the only thing I focused on, the coloring in this is a bit blah, but...again, that wasn't the point of this piece. The point of this piece was to try out this little line style.

The verdict is...eh!

It was a fun little exercise!

I think I know what kind of style I want to try next.

I recently have found work by Ed Emberley and I cannot believe I haven't seen his work yet to my memory his stuff is GREAT

So simplistic and minimal, but the use of color and lines work SO WELL with his work!

I want to try out that.

OH YEAH HE MADE THE MONSTER BOOK

The 'Go Away, Big Green Monster!' book!! I remember reading that as a kid!!

Okay, made a few more pieces, now I'm gonna talk about them!

So, I did indeed try out the Ed Emberley style with these next few pieces, with various results. We'll start off with the first experimental piece: it's Toni's OC, Owen!

I mainly wanted to see how to translate his sweater and his magma-like scars into this style. It was fun adding this kind of detail into this, but I also noticed that this level of detail wasn't really what Emberley's style is like. So, one thing I learned was that I like to make pieces with a bit more detail into them.

I also felt kind of weird not adding any sort of background, he's just. Floating. I like backgrounds, I want to do more backgrounds.

So, I then tried the same style with a different character - this is a friend's OC, Ditto!

So, this time I laid down the color first and then I drew the outlines on top of it, and it ended up with this very messy, loose feel to the piece.

Maybe it was because it was night and I pretty much went to bed after making it, but I noticed that my hands were suuuuper shaky when doing the outlines.

I have a friend that really harps on me to use the stabilization and make the stabilization more often, but

I don't know, I don't think that'll help me with drawing lines in the future? It kind of feels like a crutch? I mean, there's nothing wrong with that, but I don't really want to rely a lot on stabilization.

But, that's just me.

Yesterday, I had some major brain fog, so I just wanted to draw whatever I wanted however I wanted. Just taking it easy! This character has been on my bookmark list for the longest time, it's Count Patchery Battias V!

At first I wanted to do a cell shading style with this piece, but then I tried adding in some moonlight and blurring that in ever so slightly, and I liked that more, so I just went with that instead.

It also made me realize that I wanted to practice shading some more, it kind of feels like I've lost my way on how to shade? Or maybe, I haven't actually known how to shade at all in the first place? Maybe the next few pieces I'll work on that.

I went back to the Ed Emberley style one last time later that day when I wasn't brain foggy, and I think this one was the most successful yet in capturing his style. This is a friend's OC, Alki!

I think it turned out pretty charming, and I think I got down juuuuust enough lines to make it look simple enough.

I also remembered after submitting this piece that Jigglypuffs don't have a white belly, even though...the reference I saved did.

Artistic rendition, artistic rendition!

And then I fucking did this

The stars of 4Kids sing the National Anthem

OH YEAH I forgot to commentate on this attack too! This is a character from a user on the discord I help moderate, their name is Blue Bishop!

Once I saw that the character themselves is a stained glass-like creature, I knew I wanted to try making a stained glass type of piece.

More playing around with lines yeyeyeyeyeyeyeye!!

Okay, for the next few pieces...I'm about to get started with my crocheted attack for the year, and I have a cute idea for a simple attack.

But I'd like to focus on shading next, since I've noticed that I've been feeling very '?????' about my shading skills

OKAY let's see what else have I been cooking lately art violence-wise...

Did something relatively simple for a friend, this is their OC, Komori!

Goin' down to a Pokemon Center, buying up all of the Leavanny plushies.

Building an army. As you do.

Then!! This past Sunday, I was tabling at a market, so during the...extensive downtime, I sketched out these attacks! Honestly, going back to the basics and just drawing with a pen? Pretty fun!

I have found out that I actually like hatching and cross hatching.

Let's see...left to right, we've got Harrison, Argent and Nebula!