Weekly Update - 65 (Patreon)

First of all, I'd like to thank our newest Patron, Robyn Finch, who joined us this month at the Trader Tier!  That came as a HUGE and very pleasant surprise, especially considering how much the move messed with my update schedule this past couple of months, so thank you!!

Second, Happy Memorial Day to everyone!  For a lot of people here in the states, Memorial Day means a day off.  I don't get a day off though, because I'm working as an independent creator for donations and if I'm not working, no work is getting done, so I can't give myself a free holiday just because the feds say so.  Granted, I enjoy the work I do, so I probably don't NEED mandated holidays.

I also am not keen to work myself to death, however -- I got enough of that in the video games industry -- so I am always sure to take plenty of time off on my own schedule when I feel like I can afford to.  Speaking of which...

Is there a comic this week?  ... no. Not this week.

But you just said... I know, but I often take a week off after posting the end of a chapter publicly, which I just did last week, and furthermore, my reason for delaying this week is because I wanted to take some extra time to refine the upcoming script and storyboards, as well as set aside a bit more time to work on some art for the first version of the Character Page, which I definitely was not expecting to have to put up this soon.  So I'll still be working a lot, but in the state that Page 104 is currently in, I don't want to rush to try and get it ready by this coming Wednesday.  I will post an extra sketch instead, as per usual.

Max Poster - It's coming, I swear.  Slowly getting over my fear of touching it.  He looks cute so I don't know why I'm so worried about it.  I think Max gives me this anxiety because his appearance is kind of defined by his cuteness in my head, and cuteness is really hard to draw, so if I screw it up too badly, it doesn't look like HIM, to me, and I want his poster to look REALLY GOOD.  I dunno... should I do a stream or something to force myself to work on it?  Would anyone watch that?

Drawing: Character Page and Portraits, then Page 104.

Playing: Cyberpunk 2077, but I also have a hankering for some Satisfactory or maybe a little Dwarf Fortress...

Rambling:

I've talked a bit about this before, but I used to look at my old art with contempt.  I would see it for all its flaws and nothing else.  It took me a long time, and a huge shift in perspective, but now I look at my old art and I feel a sense of pride.  I have to sort of allow myself to feel proud just for having drawn a thing.  Even if it was bad, it was still a lot of work to create it in the first place.  Nowadays, my old art still looks terrible to me, but I see it as an indicator for how far I've come, even since just a few months ago.  The stuff I'm drawing now is a lot better, and it feels better the more I draw and the more I improve, but I'm no master of the craft yet... An apprentice, perhaps.

My husband and I were looking through an old furry artbook from the 90s the other day.  It contained what was, at the time, examples of some of the best art the community had to offer.  And from a modern perspective, it was all pretty... mediocre.

But that got us thinking, like... why?  Why has the standard for quality art gone up over the past 20-30 years?  Moreso than that though, taking into consideration a longer period of history... medieval art, renaissance movements, periods of enlightenment and the prevalence of the "Masters" who emerge from each age, really... our standard for quality art has been constantly evolving, and IMPROVING, for thousands of years.

Thinking along those lines, it occurred to me only this morning that the reason art improves, collectively, is because we build off of one another.  I've drawn inspiration from other artists and other storytellers I like -- I've emulated their styles and tweaked them and blended them and added to them in ways unique to me, and I'm sure those artists and storytellers pulled their inspiration from and did the same to stories and art that came before them.  And maybe part of the reason it feels like that's accelerated in recent decades is because communication has improved and it has become easier for people to share their artistic contributions with each other online, it is now easier than ever for us all to inspire one another to newer and greater heights.

I think that each one of us is capable of contributing in some small way to the greater whole.  The internet has made that easier than ever before.  The art we looked at from the 90s wasn't bad, it was good enough to inspire people to do better.  Much in the same way that the old Disney cartoons from the 30s lead to Japanese anime, which has returned time and time again with even more detailed, even more inspiring art, which, in turn, has influenced us here again in the west and the entire world over.  Suddenly we're met with modern masters from every continent, nearly every country, too many to even list.  Everyone contributing their own style and unique influences to inspire others.

My comic may never be touted as a masterpiece, but maybe someone will see it and feel inspired to build off of it and create their own masterpiece.  I think more than anything, THAT is why I create.  That's what I hope to accomplish.  I don't want fame or fortune or any form of personal glory.  I just want to make some small contribution to the greater whole.