Admin Post: Community Check-In for December (Sorry it's a day late, guys)

[goss]

Yesterday was the last day of the month (and year!), and we'd love to have you check in and chat with us. How have things been with you?

Did you get a chance to take part in any fandom activities in December, 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, New Year's Resolutions, etc.

Also, I would like to take this opportunity to say THANK YOU to you guys for your friendship, encouragement and support, and for making this community a joy to be a part of. *hugs everyone* Happy New Year!

Comments

[amberdreams]

I've been a bit quiet here because I'm busy trying to get some designs submitted for various sculpture trails taking place in 2018, plus I currently have a 6ft hare in my spare bedroom, waiting to be painted! Plus November/December was a bit mad for fandom challenge deadlines too.

Thanks to you chaps for thinking up this little community, I hope to be reasonably involved and active again this year!

[jainas]

Now I'm curious... A a 6ft hare (...), waiting to be painted???

[mific]

I can’t resist asking . . . Will you have a happy new hare?!

[goss]

Thanks to you chaps for thinking up this little community, I hope to be reasonably involved and active again this year!

<3333333

Yay! Looking forward to it. :D

[jainas]

I have been a bit quiet as well, but I did manage to get some drawings done, mainly christmas cards, and a few fanarts either in cards or as present for friends!

Lastman Fanarts :
- Elorna vs Iguane : https://jainas.deviantart.com/art/Elorna-vs-Iguane-720666804
- Charles and Howard : https://jainas.deviantart.com/art/Lastman-Charles-and-Howard-723169333
- Christmas Howard : https://jainas.deviantart.com/art/Lastman-Christmas-Howard-723170253

Wonder Woman Fanart :
- Diana : https://jainas.deviantart.com/art/Wonder-Woman-720577902

Dance of the vampires fanart :
- Von Krolock/Alfred : https://jainas.deviantart.com/art/Dance-of-the-Vampires-723168149

Star wars fanart :
- Building snowmen (Poe, Rey, Finn, BB8) : https://jainas.deviantart.com/art/Star-wars-building-snowmen-721875211
- Rogue One: a K2SO christmas card : https://jainas.deviantart.com/art/Star-Wars-Rogue-One-a-K2SO-christmas-card-722386689

Various other christmas cards (not all of them):
- Deer : https://www.instagram.com/p/BdN4o6kgxkK/?taken-by=jainas
- Various cards : https://www.instagram.com/p/BdFN6-LAmRs/?taken-by=jainas
- random drawing (Lady with tea and cat) : https://www.instagram.com/p/Bcs0SqwAjQ-/?taken-by=jainas
- christmas cactus : https://www.instagram.com/p/Bcss4Etgy0h/?taken-by=jainas

[mekare]

Aaaah the Star Wars card with the snowmen is too cute! And K2SO!

[mific]

They’re all great, and the Star Wars snowball one is especially cute!

[goss]

Cute Christmas art! ^____^

[syntheid]

Aww, both those Star Wars cards are cute. I love K2SO, hah.

[mekare]

Right now I am still doing some things for fandom_stocking, finished my piece for artyuletide yesterday and did two things for the perfect_duet advent challenge. That was quite a lot ^^
Christmas was good minus some minor things and I am glad I still have one week to prepare for going back to work. I’m still very much in love with Fraser from Due South and have started two artworks for him. Paul Gross is a beautiful man, *sigh*.

[mific]

Yes, I was down to the wire with Art Yuletide as well, after endless tech hassles at home with no internet for days. And yay for Fraser, and Paul Gross!

[goss]

OMG, so I spent a lot of the last 2 weeks marathoning all of Season 1 and 3 dueSouth while getting stuff done around the house. I forgot (blasphemy!) how amazingly gorgeous young!Paul Gross is. Often times I would stop whatever I was doing and just...stare with a glazed expression... *___*

[olivermoss]

I've gotten two things done for Fandom Stockings, and hope to get one more done before I leave tomorrow.

I've gotten lots of sketches done, even if I only get 2 or 3 fills done.

[mific]

Sounds like you’ve been busy! :)

[mekare]

Hey I did two things for fandom stocking today as well. Hope to do a couple more tomorrow. Good luck on your trip.

[tarlanx]

I'm still writing furiously for various winter challenges and any art has been restricted to digital manips rather than drawings :(

[mific]

I’ve gone the opposite way lately, all art all the time and less energy for writing. Swings and roundabouts!

[goss]

Good luck with your writing! :D

(BTW, totally jealous you have fic-writing skills in addition to fanart-making ones. :b )

[mekare]

Good luck with your writing goals!

[minoanmiss]

This community is one of the best things about my 2017. and I continue in delight into 2018!\

also, I need to learn to draw older people.

[mific]

Aw, that’s great - me too!
And I’m intrigued about the older people - for a project?

[mific]

​Happy New Year, everyone. I’ve had a bit of a frustrating time, as my home laptop hard drive melted down suddenly 2 days before Christmas, then my telecoms company made my very old first-ever email address defunct (changed it without telling me), while simultaneously cutting me off from wireless internet due to some tech glitch, for 4 long days. I lost everything on the laptop, but of course almost all my fanstuff is archived on line, and the art is on my old pc which runs my preferred old version of Photoshop 5.0. I lost a podfic I’ve been stalled on, and a few fic WIPs, but mostly I’ve lost work stuff, and that side of it hasn’t fully sunk in yet. I had cloud backup but it’s not working and no reply from their helpdesk as it’s the holidays. So dealing with all that's mostly what I’ve been up to.

In between that I did manage a few art things:

Hand painted Christmas cards for friends and family. These were inspired by a youtube vid with white baubles with delicate shading and patterns - mine were ... not so delicate! But cheerful! Using masking tape to to keep the edges clean worked well, largely as I have a roll of cheap masking tape with less stickiness than a good brand - ideal. :) 

Safe and Happy Animals. Art made as a present for a close friend who's had a tough time across 2017 with her health. Learned that the masking tape edge doesn't work so well if you paint heavily or with quite a wet wash across it. Will be more cautious with RL art in future - may be better to paint down the line of the edge, not across it. 

Theseus bull-leaping for Art Yuletide. This one was for minoanmiss *waves* and I was thrilled to get the prompt, as I love Mary Renault's books.

Overall, I've realised that although I do like experimenting with and trying to learn watercolour techniques, I'm mostly using watercolour like gouache - that's what seems to come most naturally to me. I'm not going to stop doing watercolour-type things because I do like some of the effects a lot (washes, special effects, etc.), but I think I'll experiment more with gouache as well (hello youtube teachy vids!) 

ETA: Oh, and I forgot the art I did for the due South Seekrit Santa: Home in Time For Christmas - it features a flying canoe and a somewhat jerky gif.

One good thing to come out of the laptop disaster is that I've replaced it with a sleek new Surface-Pro laptop/tablet (it can be either, and runs Windows so good for all my work stuff). So that means I can use a pen and do digital drawing more easily. I've always drawn with the mouse before now, which, I know! Daft and not great for my carpal tunnel! But I never had an art tablet before. I lost my modern CS version of Photoshop with the laptop - hopefully can get it restored as was a download, but as usual, holidays so no reply to emails. While exploring alternatives meanwhile I happened on a gorgeous digital programme for tablets called Rebelle 2. It's relatively cheap ($50) and designed by a trad artist to mimic watercolour and similar traditional media brushstrokes - even does drip and wet-on-wet effects. I found it easy to use even though (typically) I rushed into playing with it and haven't properly learned all its bells and whistles. Here's pic I made as a first attempt - not fannish, just an imaginary  portrait. 

Clarissa (click for full size)


 

 

So that's me for the past month. RL Work was frantic up to Christmas. Quieter now, but still steady with a big project due 15th January. I've loved interacting with you all and getting more into art, especially traditional media, through Drawesome, and am looking forward to more across 2018. \o/
(oops - did this as a post not a comment initially, sorry to be confusing)

[goss]

Oh my goodness! So sorry to hear about your laptop, especially the work stuff. D: Good thing you keep some of your other stuff backed up online though.

I keep meaning to back up my own art and work stuff, but haven't done it in quite some time. :/ *makes note to get that done*

[goss]

Hmm, busy month in real life, not so busy month fandom-wise. I had student exams to deal with in the first 2 weeks in December.

So I was only left with the week before Christmas in which to do a mad rush of gift shopping, house cleaning and decorating, and of course making my own holiday cards, which has become something of a tradition over the years:
- Christmas cards
- New Year's cards
- Putting up the Christmas tree
- Decorating for the holidays

Fandom-wise, I wisely ;) kept challenges to a minimum after remembering how stressful and not-fun art deadlines become this time of year. I only participated in 3 activities:
- Prompt Generator challenge (Toph, Avatar: The Last Airbender, G)
- Puzzle Piece group project here at drawesome (and WiP photos)
- Art Yuletide Exchange (here's my entry at DW and AO3)

And that's pretty much it. Hope to get one or two days of quiet now that all the Holiday excitement is over, and work starts back on Monday (new school term).

I was hoping to start January with the Fandom Snowflake challenge, which I really enjoyed doing last year. But it seems like I've hit the ground running with so much to do IRL these last couple days, I haven't had the time to write or make posts to my journal. Oh well. There's always next year...

[mekare]

Hey good planning on your part, I definitely took on too much this last year. Btw, you can always join snowflake later or any day, it's no problem if you miss a day. Last year I didn't even do half of them.

Oh and your Christmas card finally arrived!!!! It is so beautiful and has a place of honour in my hallway with all the other Christmas cards (which aren't as beautiful by a long shot).

Snowflake Challenge

[mekare]

A thing for the noticeboard: tons of authors have posted their wishlists for the Snowflake challenge (< a href="https://snowflake-challenge.dreamwidth.org/34108.html">Day 4) and almost every second one includes the wish for fanart. We are in demand I'm telling you!

Re: Snowflake Challenge

[goss]

Awesome, I'm gonna be making a noticeboard post this afternoon, and will be sure to include this! :D

[syntheid]

Late to this... December is always my worst month. I was going to sign up for fandom stocking but didn't really manage that even. I had a conference I flew to in the beginning of the month then I caught a cold and kind of struggled to get presents out on time so end result was basically nothing fannish and very little art. Very slowly making progress on another GW2 portrait, trying to do a proper greyscale value underpainting to get better at values.

I did also attempt to Steven Universe-ify my friend that I was going to paint a card to give to her as part of her gift exchange gift, but then never really did the finished version so I only have the concept sketch.

I'm contemplating doing Chinese New Year cards as I sometimes do when I miss the December holiday deadline ahah, so we'll see if I can scrounge time to do that. But mostly I want to finish the portrait above and have other non-art projects that need to get done so January is probably also going to be a bit art-light.

[mekare]

doing Chinese New Year cards

That’s a great idea! Looking forward to seeing the finished portrait, it looks very promising. But as a non_digital artist I have to ask: what’s an underpainting and what is it for?