Admin Post: Community Check-In for January 2020

[goss]

(Hi guys, it's been a while! Happy New Year to everyone. Sorry I missed posting this yesterday.)

Yesterday was the last day of January, we'd love to have you check in and chat with us. How have things been with you this past month?

Did you sign up for or take part in any fandom activities since the New Year began, or have you been working on any personal art projects? Are you currently trying to meet a deadline? Feel free to share upcoming challenges that have got you excited, any frustrations you've been experiencing, possible goals for the next month, and so on.

Are you considering working on our latest drawesome challenge (#28 - Makeover Challenge)? Reminder that the round-up post will be made on 24th February. :)

Comments

[goss]

My Fanart

I feel like January month has been much better for me art-wise than basically most of the last year. Mainly because I properly fell into a shiny new fandom - The Untamed (a Chinese m/m drama). It's been spurring me to engage more, including expanding my circle of fannish acquaintances, being more vocal about my fannish interests, and of course inspiring me to create.

Over the last 4 weeks, I've been making and posting artwork to my journal every couple days, and it's really been exciting having that level of output, and interaction with other fans and creators, once more. :)

Artworks for 31 Days of The Untamed - Days 1 - 9

For these, I'm enjoying mixing things up in terms of media use. So far I've used watercolour, chalk pastels and coloured pencils. I've also posted some pencil sketches as unfinished WiPs, with the intent to add colour later. I've been trying to limit how long I take with each piece before posting online, in order to prevent the perfectionist in me from taking over. :)

I also worked on my entry to the sundial_exchange, for another Chinese drama fandom - Guardian. I experimented with chalk pastels and really like the textures achieved:

Love lays bare by goss
Shen Wei/Zhao Yunlan | Teen

So I would say, on this front at least, the year is off to a good start.

Drawesome Challenge

Hmm, this one's a bit of a challenge for me. Mostly because nothing's really standing out as something I'd like to go back and redo. I have a *ton* of unfinished WiPs though. IDK, I'll have to give it some more thought...

[mific]

Love Lays Bare is such amazing work - really beautiful pastel work. It's been great seeing all of your Untamed pieces as well, even if I don't really know the fandom (not for want of friends posting their pretty faces to tumblr though!) Maybe you could use a WIP and redo it so it IS finished, or add colour, or something?

[minoanmiss]

Great google moogli that's. beautiful!

[enemytosleep]

I am very in love with your style, and I was particular drawn to the Lan Room WIP. The sundial exchange piece is *chef's kiss*

[olivermoss]

I am still slowly working on my next isometric drawing. I need to work on other types of drawing, too, so I don't forget how to do anything else.

I did upload a scanned version of my most recent drawing.

[mific]

The little rooms are so cute, like dollhouses!

[olivermoss]

Thank you!

[enemytosleep]

Baah, the image won't load for me for some reason. I hope you are able to get to work on some of your projects, though!

[olivermoss]

Thanks!

Does this version of the link work for you? I think I was pulling a version of the url with extra junk on it because I was viewing from my own account.

[enemytosleep]

Sadly I think it's something on my end (like a plug in maybe) as DeviantART is loading, but the actual image window is blank. Thank you for trying a new link for me, though. ♥

[olivermoss]

Ah, too bad. DA is also causing lots of glitches due to the new site design they are trying to switch people over to. It's default not when not logged in it seems and doesn't always work.

Thumbnail:

[enemytosleep]

Aaaaah two point perspective!!! I’m having classroom flashbacks hahaha. This is really well done. It’s also a really cute studio space! I love all the design work and details that make this look loved and lived in.

[olivermoss]

Thanks! I've been using isometric angles so there isn't a vanishing point. It's cute, but it definitely uses a different part of my brain than other types of drawing.

[mekare]

Great job with the perspective!

[olivermoss]

Thanks!

[mific]

I don't have all that much completed from January, but I have six artworks underway at the moment, so I'm definitely in the mood! (For Romancing McShep, the Makeover challenge, more portraits, and illos for a friend's longfic). It's partly as work's busy with stuff I should be doing so as to wrap up my current job end of Feb, and art's a distraction.
I just posted pics from a gouache portrait Skillshare class that I did, and before that a gouache portrait of John and Rodney from Stargate Atlantis C'mon Rodney, Catch a Clue. I like their faces but I think I should have left the background simpler. There was also digital art in Venom fandom, a fluffy H/C comic What's Wrong Eddie.
As we didn't have a checkin since Inktober, I'll also mention another McShep watercolour piece Yes, Him, For Me, Him (Rodney came out well, John not so much), and some Captain America art I did for a Big Bang story, end of last year.
I was mostly working for challenges up to January, and now I feel more energised generally to make art under my own steam. Plus I'm going through a gouache phase it seems, and I want to keep practising that.

[enemytosleep]

I really love the color and backgrounds for many of these, particularly the Stargate Atlantis and Captain America pieces. The Cap piece was actually my favorite all around (the proportions were very pleasing). Lovely stuff!

[mekare]

OMG that Venom comic is precious! Re SGA, I don't think the background detracts from their faces much because you used lighting to focus our attention there.

Thanks for linking back to these peices, because I missed some of them when they were posted.

[alias_sqbr]

I was inspired to think about a redone version of an old fanart by the theme, and came up with an idea... and didn't draw it. But! That got me in a thinking about drawing mood and I drew a f/f Labyrinth picture with Rihanna/Rihanna which was a lot of fun and is the first thing I've really drawn in a while.

[mific]

I like it! Jared!Rhianna is very wicked-looking!

[alias_sqbr]

Thank you!

[enemytosleep]

I am HERE for Rihanna!Jareth! ♥

[alias_sqbr]

:D

[mekare]

Oooh sexy! Love the posing.

[alias_sqbr]

Thank you!

[enemytosleep]

In January I drew something for chocolateboxcomm (currently unrevealed so I can't share) and I also did some D&D art for the groups I'm in:





I have to skip the Makeover prompt to catch up on a WIP project, but maybe I can join for March.

[mific]

Were there pics posted? They didn't show I'm afraid.

[enemytosleep]

Whoops I think they were access locked. They should show now!

[mific]

Hee, I love the cat-knight and the grumpy fennec-knight especially!

[enemytosleep]

Our party is light on humans and heavy on variant races haha. It makes for some fun art, though.

[mekare]

Huh, your original comment with the links is 'screened' for me. Why? Could you link again, please?

[mific]

Agh, did I do that accidentally? Should be unscreened now.

[mekare]

It is! Thank you.

[mekare]

Love the fierce lady in the first piece. Did you draw these with copics?

[enemytosleep]

Yes these are alcohol markers, but a less luxurious brand haha. The elf lady was in a cheap sketchpad and was a lesson in paperweight as the markers bled like crazy. The other two were done on bristol paper where it was much easier to work with.

[olivermoss]

Paper is so key sometimes. I wish I knew that ages ago.

[olivermoss]

These are cute! The armor detail is great!

[enemytosleep]

Thanks!

January in art

[mekare]

Ah these check-in posts are so very good! Because my memory is for shit.

I actually did more art in January than I thought:

• A Happy New Year piece experimenting with gold ink on black cardboard (Guardian, G)



• I could reveal two watercolour femslash pieces for different challenges: Due South Bigbang and Nirvana in Fire Exchange.



• a Miss Fisher piece strangely inspired by reading Captive Prince fanfiction



• my sundial_exchange assignment, another femslash/genderswap piece with lingerie shopping (Guardian)
  

Re our current challenge, I went through folders of old artworks yesterday, had a good laugh at some of them, indulged in some nostalgia for fandoms past and finally chose a piece to rework! It's a finished pencil fic illustration for a Bagginshield series I originally planned to rework in pastels. Now that I am more confident with watercolour I'll try my best with this medium.

ETA: I also did a 2019 review of my fanart here.

Re: January in art

[enemytosleep]

Inuyasha!!!!

All of these were lovely, but the two that stood out the most to me were the gold fireworks piece (striking!!!) and the playful vs. erotic wrestling piece from the 2019 review. Besides the solid anatomy and posing, it just has something very endearing about it (like we caught them in a sincere, sweet moment)