Admin Post: Community Check-In for December

[goss]

Tomorrow will be 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.

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We've had a wonderful year here at drawesome. It's been exciting to see our community growing and taking shape. We've been quite productive over the last 12 months, made lots of new friends here, and enjoyed encouraging and supporting each other. Wishing all of you a New Year filled with fun, creativity, love and kindness! :)

Comments

[syntheid]

Mostly I was working on the card for the exchange (which, for the record, went in the mail, but I'm not really sure exactly when everyone's going to receive it) which was... really hard for me to come up with something for ahah. I have some ideas about what I might like to try next year if we do it again, though. But I drew a thing for a friend, too. Did anyone else do a 2018 summary of art thing? That was kinda fun to see for myself a snapshot of everything I did this year.

Goal-wise, this past year I was working on completion and wrapping up some projects I've had languishing in a WIP state to prove to myself I could finish things to a state I felt okay about, but next year I want to work on speed, I think? Maybe limiting myself to 60 or even 30 minute paintings, at least a couple times a month. I have a hard time limiting myself because I don't really like the way my work looks when I spend so little time on it, but that's kinda the point, to figure out how to do loose, quick pieces I still enjoy.

As kind of a maybe-goal, I'm thinking about trying to find some shows or zines to submit work to in 2019, too.

[mific]

Ha, my last overseas cards go into the mail today, so will hopefully arrive not too far after New Years. Not that they have any relationship to any holiday!
I hear you about getting faster - I tend to obsess a bit over details and find it hard to do looser pieces. I like that painting for your friend - great colours!

[syntheid]

Hah yeah, I just noticed at least one overseas card someone sent around the 8th arrived sometime around the 25th for me, and I'm like oh dear it'll probably take at least two weeks to get to some people then.

I'm trying to follow some tutorials about loosening up, and it's so hard. But thank you!

[olivermoss]

Oh hey a Sylvari! Great work!

[syntheid]

Yeah! You play GW2? And thanks!

[olivermoss]

I used to play GW2 a lot, but I can't take the amount of screen flashing or the thing where all our characters go spinny in newer content. So now I just poke my nose in now and again.

[goss]

I have some ideas about what I might like to try next year if we do it again, though

Me too! I was a bit rushed this year to get mine done before I left for vacation, but I do have an interesting idea I'd like more time to develop for next year's holiday card. :)

Did anyone else do a 2018 summary of art thing?

I haven't as yet, but maybe we can create a post at the community this week for members to share a summary of their art for the past year.

this past year I was working on completion and wrapping up some projects I've had languishing in a WIP state

That was a great goal to have achieved! I have so many WiPs that never get finished. Maybe making it into a formal task will help me complete them. :)

[mekare]

We could make it a challenge sometime this year? To finish one WIP from the pile?

[goss]

Good idea! :)

[syntheid]

I haven't as yet, but maybe we can create a post at the community this week for members to share a summary of their art for the past year.

Oh yeah that'd be neat. :)

I have so many WiPs that never get finished. Maybe making it into a formal task will help me complete them. :)

Yeah it's kinda hard to balance, since obviously I wasn't participating as much with prompts here since I was focused on finishing that stuff, so it'll be nice if I can get some balance on that. :) Good luck with your WIPs too.

[mekare]

I had a bit of a blank spot too when I started looking for ideas for the cards. In the end I went with something simple.
That painting looks really good! I still want to do an art review after having done it for the first time last year.

[syntheid]

That's kinda what I did too-- I wanted to do custom ones for everyone but I didn't really have time to do that either.

Thank you! I look forward to seeing your art review, too!

[jainas]

I struggled a bit on the cards too... congrat for getting them done!

I did a 12 month recap, which is an accomplishement for me to have managed for the first time in many years! Some months were very productives and other not at all and I did have to go digging through some sketchbooks for some unpublished drawings, but I did draw every month this year!:) \o/
As for a 2018 summary it is a good Idea as well! I suspect it may be way more time consuming to make, but it is nice to be able to look back on all the thing one drew in a year!

Good luck with submiting for zines! I did it this year with fanzines, and had a lot of fun. :)

[syntheid]

Thanks!

Did you post your recap? I also had to fudge a bit, hah. But yay for you, drawing every month! That's basically what I meant as a recap, it's just one piece from every month in 2018.

Do you have tips on finding fanzines? I've been having a hard time figuring out where to find stuff I might be interested in, ahah. Maybe because I was never very good at tumblr, but I feel like I only find things after they're published.

[jainas]

The first fanzine I participed in was recced to me by a friend who knew I low-key shipped a pairing, and the other one was from peoples I was already following because they had already made Hannibal anthologies in the past.
So I'd suggest letting your fannish friends know that you are on the lookout for fanzine and what fandom/theme interest you; and following people who already made fanzines... My first fanzine was by https://thezinezone.tumblr.com/ and so far they made fanzines in 3 different fandoms.
I'm pretty sure also that there is a gdoc floating around where people can add their planned fanzines, I may be able to track it down again. Maybe a post on the community fictional_fans could also help, people may know of fanzines in the work or have useful tips on where to look.