Today is my brother's birthday! Erick is not only my brother, but one of my closest and best friends. He helped me get into art and comics when we were younger, and some of my fondest memories are just us drawing together, swapping our favorite comics, and laughing so hard until we cry at anything we find even remotely funny (mostly monkey memes. We've been there for each other in our hardest times and in our happiest, and I want nothing more than for him to be as happy as he can be.

Erick makes art and is absolutely amazing at it! He's been working on his art business for the past couple of years, and so for his birthday, I think he'd love it if you could check out his website (and maybe buy a sticker or a print from him! He also takes commissions!) and his Instagram!

¡Feliz cumpleaños, hermano! 💖🎉

Just wanted to let you all know: I'm not dead! I've been having some unexpected health issues for the past month that I've been attempting to get under control. Nothing life-threatening, but certainly needing attention (and LOTS of appointments I gotta keep), so art's been on the back burner for a while now. I hope to bring back soon!

Thanks for your continued support and hope you're having a good one!

I made a seamless pattern for something I'm working on, but I can't decide which I like better! Maybe you guys can help me out?

Y'know, I was just thinking to myself, "My first frontpage was for fanart, so now my goal is to get frontpaged for original art."

Well, it looks like my goal's been accomplished! Thank you so much and thanks to the new followers!

On to the next project!

Thanks to all those that followed and helped me get to 126! Expect some cool stuff soon!

Happy New Year, everyone! It’s been a full year since I started posting my art!

Wow, it’s been a year since I started posting my art. And honestly I don’t know precisely how to feel about it.

A part of me is frustrated. I think what’s been eating at me the most lately is this feeling of embarrassment and shame when I look at some of my work. Even though I worked hard on what I’ve made and I should feel proud of making anything at all, I can’t help but cringe whenever I even think of some of them and I’m honestly tempted sometimes to just delete them. 

But you know what? A large part of me feels pretty good! I’ve made 25 pieces (including my two animations that I’ve made) over the course of the past year. I haven’t made that much art in over five years. That alone is something to be proud of, and that’s not even mentioning how I’ve become more proficient at Clip Studio Paint, learned a bunch from online tutorials and classes, and visibly improved my style over the course of a few months. It’s not perfect, but I feel that I’m going in the right direction. And hey, I got scouted! So I must be doing something right. 

I keep reminding myself that progress isn’t a straight line and it can be slow or fast. The point is that I keep moving and that I keep working on what makes me happy. However I’m feeling about my art, I have to trust the process. I want to become someone special, and I think things are going to look up for me in 2022 if I put in the effort.

So, here’s my art-related goals for the year:

• Create a schedule to work and create more consistently, at least 1-2 hours a day, and stick to it. 
• Complete at least 3-5 animations with audio of any length.
• Collab with someone on Newgrounds for at least 1-2 projects.
• Learn at least basic 3D modeling in Blender.
• Open at least 1-2 rounds of commissions.

I’m going to be the best that I can be even if it takes longer than I’d like. I feel that something good is coming my way and I can’t wait to see what it is! Nothing can stop me!

And before I go, I just want to give a big thank you to every one of the 90 fans that started following me here on Newgrounds. The fact that you all have faith in me and what I create keeps me motivated. I know I’ve been shy this past year, but I’ll do my very best to try and get to know you all this year, and I’m looking forward to contributing to this site and its community to make it even better! 

💖 Thank you all forever and ever 💖

I'm so excited to make cool art with this!

I still plan on keeping my old Wacom tablet, but I'll use that one for when I'm travelling since it's much smaller and less fragile.

The sweetie helping with the packaging.

I'm starting to feel a little more hopeful about my art even though I've been going through a slump. Here goes nothing!

I opened up a Ko-Fi account for $5 doodle commissions, or if you just feel like giving a tip!

These will be quick sketches to help you get a simple, fast commission, while also helping me out by training me to draw more concisely and quickly (and the money helps too ngl)

Please keep in mind:

• These are sketches, not fully-finished, large-scale pieces.
• I'll do my best to meet your expectations but some subjects, such as mecha and vehicles, are more complex and may have to be simplified when drawn.
• No NSFW content
• No hateful content

I can't wait to draw your requests! 💖

I think that one of the most helpful habits that I've been doing that's helped to improve my art and my workflow is listening to music that fits with the overall theme and tone of the piece that I'm working on. It's really helped me get into the headspace that I need to evoke the feelings that I want. A couple of examples off the top of my head:

• NG Summer Jams Bumper: I listened to the Jet Set Radio OST on repeat for this one, not just because both my bumper and the game both revolve around graffiti, but also because the soundtrack evokes feelings of rebellion and having fun that I tried to get across in the art and animation (which I think I did, at least a little bit, even though it was rushed as all hell).

• FNF GF Dr Pepper DTIYS/Slime Girl OC: Bubbly, sweet, girly pop--I'm not insulting it, though, I genuinely like it!

• FNF GF Swimsuit DTIYS: Vaporwave and city pop for those 90s anime, summer love vibes.

Of course, listening to music might not always be the best for focus--Richard Williams has a thing or two to say about it--and I remember times in college where listening to certain types of music made it hard for me to write papers.

I think it's a case-by-case basis. Some people do better with audio in the background while others need it completely silent. I think also that music with vocals could be an issue when animating dialogue. Maybe the best solution is to only listen to instrumental music or just turn it off altogether. I'll have to actually try and animate dialogue with either method and see what works.

I kind of like these diary kind of posts. It's better than having to get all of my thoughts into a Twitter thread and make them fit the character count. I think I'll keep going with these.

All of the pieces I've seen this past week for Pico Day have been absolutely incredible. I'm so in awe at the creativity and life that every here has put into their hard work and how much this community loves Newgrounds.

I don't have much to say. I'm just happy and proud to be even a small part of this great community.

I hope it grows even more!

<3