Admin Post: Community Check-In for August 2018

[goss]

Today's the last day of August, and 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 in August, 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.

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Upcoming Group Project?

mekare has suggested having another Drawesome Group Project in the coming months. I am all on board for it, but would like to know when would be the best time for you guys. So please take a moment to fill out our poll by selecting 1-3 months. We appreciate your input. :)

Poll #20397 Drawesome Group Project

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 7

View Respondents

Which month(s) would you be more likely to participate in a group project?

View Answers

November 2018
3 (42.9%)

December 2018
3 (42.9%)

January 2019
5 (71.4%)

Not sure which month is best, but I would love to participate in the group project
1 (14.3%)

I will probably not be participating in the group project
0 (0.0%)

In addition, we're open to ideas for this group project, so please let us know if you have any suggestions.

Comments

Sorry this is wordy.

[mekare]

Oh yay, I'm finally on time for a check-in again. So, lots of stuff going on in August:

1. I fell in love with a new fandom because jainas recced the Be the Serpent podcast to me and they were waxing poetic about this one fic by astolat, so I checked out the canon and fell into a deep hole. (The fics are full of D/s, lovely hurt comfort and just all the loyalty, fealty and team-as-family tropes). And then I did the book cover challenge and the 10 day challenge in this fandom, and have been binge reading at the same time.

2. I got drawn into a pretty dark fic by butterflyghost (which I think was mentioned in a chat of the dsc6dbang?), made art for it and am currently betaing the sequel. My art gave the author a push to finish writing their sequel which honestly was such a boost!

3. wipbigbang: my second piece was posted on the 29th in the comm, a cover art for a Grimm fic by trobadora (again a sequel of a fic I read some time ago). It's great, but pretty dark (aftermath of noncon warning) - somehow this month was all about the angst? I tried to make the art reflect that. You can see it best embedded on AO3.

4. ALL THE BANGS: marvel_bang and Cabigbangare still going on, Cabigbang is coming to a close though and I'm going to get cracking on that this weekend. I've got my first choice of fic for the Marvelbang (a Stucky-epic) so I'm pretty happy. Unfortunately (see No. 1), I also unwisely signed up for the Person of Interest Bigbang this year (which is a little later thank God). Aaaaaaand the ds_c6d_bigbang is almost over, my pieces are 99% ready and I have been matched with the lovely clarasteam who will do a complementary work for my art. :-D I've never been on this side of a bang before and it feels great.

O_o Reading all this, it just seems absolutely crazy what I've had going on.

Re: Sorry this is wordy.

[minoanmiss]

Crazy AWESOME!

Re: Sorry this is wordy.

[mekare]

He, it was a lot of fun certainly!

Re: Sorry this is wordy.

[goss]

I've really been enjoying you in fangirl mode discovering new fandoms. Your enthusiasm is infectious. ^____^

Also, YAY Big Bangs! Reverse Bangs are so cool. :D

Re: Sorry this is wordy.

[mekare]

I‘m glad. I love being enthusiastic about things. And the dsc6d isn‘t a reversebang per se, but sort of anything goes. Mific and I did art, and the other participants wrote fics.

Gateway

[goss]

Also, funny how your gateway to POI was via fic by astolat.

A similar sort of thing happen to me for how I ended up in Stargate: Atlantis fandom (more than a decade ago). Someone posted a rec for this SGA fic by astolat, and raved about how wonderful it was, so I read it even though I was only vaguely familiar with the show. I totally fell for the characters, I just had to find out more, so I went to check out the show, ended up marathoning Season 1 and proceeded to fall hard for the fandom.

In conclusion: astolat = best gateway drug. LOL. In fact, thanks to her fic, I am right now neck deep in the Brienne/Jaime Lannister ship, having never actually watched anything of Game of Thrones besides the pilot many, many years ago. :b

Re: Gateway

[mekare]

Ha, I don't remember how I got into SGA but it certainly was somehow via fandom discussions... and yes, astolat is a great gateway drug *g*. Thank you for the fic rec, I read some of her SGA fics but not all, and certainly not this one.

I did watch all of GoT and Jaime and Brienne are one of the few pairings I can get behind. Even with all their ambiguity and the moral complexity of Jaime...

Re: Sorry this is wordy.

[felicitygs]

Wow, that's so much!! Good work!!

Re: Sorry this is wordy.

[mekare]

Thank you!

Re: Sorry this is wordy.

[mific]

Wow, busy busy, like me! For me, it was a Resonant story that was my gateway to Stargate Atlantis, and I’ve never looked back. My recent TV show discoveries are The Magicians and Person of Interest, but I’m saving Astolat’s stories until I’m further ahead with PoI. I loved all her Jaime/Brienne ones.

Re: Sorry this is wordy.

[mekare]

:-) I'm still chuffed that you're watching POI too, and yes, it's a good idea to see some canon (and experience certain events without being spoiled) before reading fic. I already majorly spoiled myself on the finale of the whole series which was a downer :-(

[minoanmiss]

I am currently switching my creativity up by writing a story.
I am not sure this was a wise decision.

(I have some more art to post, though)

[goss]

Best of luck with your writing! As long as you're producing work and expressing yourself, that's always a good thing. :D

(I have some more art to post, though)

Great! :)

[mekare]

Good luck with your writing! I‘m looking forward to the art. Your last pieces were amazing.

[minoanmiss]

blushes so much and so happily

[mific]

Yay for stories and art! I find fic more taxing, and have one in SGA to write as well. I feel a schedule coming on!

[goss]

Drawesome

This month I actually managed catch up on completing previous Drawesome challenges (#17 and #18), thanks to the 10 Day Challenge, which forced me to sit and draw something everyday. I went back and found ideas that I'd begun putting together for those challenges, but had later abandoned them when RL stuff took over. So now I'm all caught up. :)

Big Bang Challenges

Also, this streak of being able to produce work continuously has given me the incentive (and confidence) to enter a couple Big Bang challenges. I signed up for both marvel_bang and dcu_bang last week, just in time to claim fic. Am in the process of reading the rough drafts and planning out my artwork. So I'm really looking forward to getting those done.

Work/RL

Yesterday was actually my first day back to work from summer vacation. Felt soooo hard to go back out to work. My actual classes start on Monday, and it's gonna be a really busy term. So I'm hoping to be really organised with my fanart, and make time for it, so that things don't get stressful when it comes to deadlines.

[mekare]

I went back and found ideas that I'd begun putting together

I really should do that more often, I have so many ideas which could be realized lying around in sketchbooks... maybe we could have a challenge for that one time/ or regularly? To get back to half finished stuff? That would be great for weeks where we need a breather.

I hope you have a lot of fun with your Marvel and DC fics! I haven't gotten mine yet, so I'm all focussed on Captain America for now.

here's to regular art time!

[goss]

maybe we could have a challenge for that one time/ or regularly? To get back to half finished stuff?

Good idea! Could you add this one to the Prompts post?

We could probably call it something like a "WiP" challenge maybe? Come to think of it, there are quite a few that I've posted here as sketches on watercolour paper, that I meant to ink or paint over, but never really went back to finish.

[mekare]

Absolutely, I‘ll do that.

[felicitygs]

Nice work! Good plan going ahead too :)

[goss]

Thanks. :)

I really want to complete all my Big Bang drawings by the end of this month, because I'm planning to take part in Inktober this year as well, which will probably take up most of my free time once October begins.

[mific]

I loved all your 10 day challenge drawings. I’m so glad the earthquake wasn’t too bad in the end, for your neck of the woods anyway.

[goss]

Thanks! :)

(Sorry for the late reply, since work started on Monday, I've just been going, going, going...)

[olivermoss]

I tried learning more Copic techniques and drew this MCU comic. I am using the Tumblr link because it has a screenshot that explains what the comic is about if you don't know. (Man, Tony's nose is so wrong in my drawing.)

I did some stuff for the ten days challenge, but it's been a messy week and I only did like 7 out of the 10. Mostly of them were trying to just draw and redraw a pose I've been wanting to do. I may post my attempts later on.

[goss]

drew this MCU comic

Hee! Oh Tony..

I may post my attempts later on

Oh yeah, totally. You can post whichever days you got a chance to work on the challenge (doesn't have to be the full 10) and I'll add it to the Round Up list. :)

[olivermoss]

Thanks!

I will :)

[mekare]

Hahayour comic made me laugh! And that screenshot is indeed amazing ;-)

[olivermoss]

Thanks! My love for Tony's ridiculous lifts is endless.

[felicitygs]

Oh, nice!

[olivermoss]

Thanks!

[mific]

Heh! The comic’s a hoot. Is that how they minimise the height difference in the Avengers movies? Hilarious.

[olivermoss]

Yup, RDJ is constantly in lifts and/or high heeled boots while filming MCU stuff. Once you notice the shape and that distinctive 'wearing heels' posture, you can't unsee it. His outfits are custom to try to his the shoes a bit. He also wears custom hidden lift sneakers at press events that add about 3 inches.

They hide it better sometimes than others. But that one shot is just ridiculous.

[felicitygs]

I did the 10 day challenge I posted here, and started two different illustrations! One is just a random illustration of a betta fish mermaid I've wanted to do for a while, and the other is a portrait of Taako and Geryl from The Adventure Zone. Not sure when I'll get to them--work just started back up for us--but I'm looking forward to it!

I also did a bunch of figure drawings, but I don't usually share those online.

This month I've got a mini-challenge to try and draw 10 minutes or so every day.

[mekare]

That sounds great, also MERMAIDS! I‘d love to see that when it‘s ready.

[goss]

Awesome that you're continuing into this month with the 10 mins daily drawings! Have fun, and feel free to share links to your other works if you wish. :)

[mific]

I really enjoyed your landscapes, and go you, for continuing the daily drawing!

[felicitygs]

Thank you!

[mific]

It’s been a pretty packed month with challenge deadlines and RL work deadlines as well. Some of the art I’ve been doing is posted but not revealed yet.
The main challenge that posted in August was the WIP Big Bang. I did SGA art for Brumeier’s story ‘What Could Go Right’ and for a James Bond/Q story by voculae that won’t be posted this year. I also posted the 4 Wicked and Wrong book covers to AO3.
The unrevealed art is a primary work for the due South Big Bang (done now), and for Remix Revival (fic remixed as art) where I picked up two pinch hits in fandoms I’ve never worked in before (Discworld and Drakengard) as well as my initial assignment (Captain America TFA). Remix goes live 16th September, the dSBB not until 8th October.
I’m also working on 2 illustrations for a friend’s story, and complement art for two dSBB fics. Plus an SGA Reversebang story I’ve only outlined and now need to write.
So, busy busy, as usual!

[goss]

WHOA! You are, and have been, CRAZY BUSY with art challenges. Sending you lots of good luck for the coming weeks especially.

[mekare]

Oh wow, that is even crazier than my month LOL. I am SO SO EXCITED about your DSBB art! It's so hard to wait until the 8th to see all the pretty stuff. If I hadn't so much going on I would have loved to do something complementary for you.

Btw, your link to the SGA art and James Bond art doesn't work. :-/

[mific]

Posting from my phone must have messed up the links. I can’t edit as people have replied to it. Just see my AO3, the top posts. https://archiveofourown.org/users/mific/works

[olivermoss]

Heya! With Inktober coming up I was wondering if y'all were going to make a 'preparing for Inktober' post where we could talk materials, troubleshooting inking, different lists, etc. I thought it might be cool to have one well before the month start in case people want lead time to buy materials.

I don't mind starting post for inking tips/troubleshooting/inspiration, but I thought I'd run if by you first in case you wanted to make it like a community post.

[goss]

I don't mind starting post for inking tips/troubleshooting/inspiration

Oh good idea! You can do one now, and later on I'll do an official Inktober challenge post, in about 2 weeks time, with the official list of prompts, challenge guidelines, etc.

[olivermoss]

Thanks! I tossed one up :)