Los Amigos (Patreon)

(captions included when you click on images above)

Quickly wanna thank everyone who stopped by the server watch party for Zootopia+ last Wednesday; we had over 25 people show up...I was only expecting like 5 XD! I'm glad we could enjoy that time together!

ART / MUSINGS | Los Amigos + Art Style and The Desire for Perfection

While making the piece above my brain switched randomly to being really unhappy and judgmental with myself as an artist in like .5 seconds. For the record it didn't start w/ this piece -- it'd been slowly building right after Cilantro ended. I felt like I couldn't draw as well as people I looked up to and started nitpicking everything I do wrong or can't do and just wound up shutdown. So I switched gears and did film studies on that same page, something that always makes me feel happy and is somehow free from my assault by my inner bully. As you can see above, I did eventually get back to it and found satisfaction and focus in zooming in close and focusing on the details. Maybe that's the key? Zooming in more? Still learning how to art over here.

Below is another time when I desperately needed to switch gears. I'd just installed the Cintiq a month prior, took too many commissions at once and thus never really got to play with the new tablet - all I focused on was getting everyone's orders completed. But once I did take that detour, I found a version of me I really enjoyed for the first time. Even looking at it now still makes me happy in 2022.

I can't explain what I like about this looser version of myself, but when I'm not trying to play copy-cat against others with cleaner lineart and amazing colouring / layout than myself people and just be loose like this it makes me happy.

I always wind up going back to studying for fun. 

Structural and animation-specific studies (2021)

Below is from 2018, back when I drew on a 9-in. iPad

While I'm overwhelmed by all the skills I personally feel like I need to improve, it's always something I strive for (to my own detriment) esp. now that Cilantro is finished* and that itch to do something bigger than illustrations is now waving it's arms in front of me to address it. But waiting to be "perfect" - a bar I move higher every season - means I don't do what's really calling me. It's hard being an imperfect perfectionist XD 

If you are a creator or someone who strives to be the very best at w/e you're interested in, and feel at all similar sometimes, I hope you know you're not alone <:3

That's all for now, but thank you for listening to my ramblings. I'm not perfect, but everyday is a journey towards progress!

*projected arrival of printed copies here is Nov 22