Saturday Update! (Patreon)

Hello again everyone! It's been... a very difficult week. It's a bit hard to decide what to say.

I am afraid. I have fears for the future and for other people, and the future of my business. I am also grieving for a future I had hoped for instead of this one. My grief is changing shape every day and my emotions are.... all over the place. So please forgive me if this update is poorly written.

But there is a job to be done and I will do it!

Let's start with the loading bar

Current Image Finalization: 628/745 - 84%

I did manage to get a fair amount of cgs done last week in spite of things. I did need to take a couple extra breaks, but generally I stayed on task.

I've been finding that the CGs aren't taking quite as long as I expected. Many of them are identical in difficulty to sprites since they have a lot of expression variants and because the 'backgrounds' needed are simply gradients. I originally thought I might be drawing more detailed backdrops, but since a lot of these occur in a very dark room, I didn't really see the value of drawing a barely visible ceiling corner or the like. I decided to concentrate on vibes instead [ which of course has the added benefit of shortening production time ].

This time I can actually show you a couple of them!

I also have the solutions to the crossword I gave you guys last week:

I'll probably make some other silly activities for you guys in the future since this seemed to be so popular [ I'm a bit short on time this morning but maybe next week! ]

Before I run off, I want to tell you a personal story and ask you a favour.

On Wednesday mornings I like to take a walk to a cafe in town to order a coffee. I've become friends with the woman who runs it, the wife of the town mayor. I approached the register for my usual order and we talked a little about what happened. She cried, and so did I. After I sat with my coffee, she offered me a shot of liquor for my coffee. We talked about our fears and feelings. She told me stories about discrimination her husband faced as an immigrant from China. I learned that my esteemed town Mayor wasn't allowed to sit in a restaurant in California, that he'd been yelled at and called slurs here in Canada. I learned that their daughter had faced similar traumas as well.

It was painful to learn those things.

But I'm glad I spoke with her. I'm glad I still walked outside that day and I'm glad she found the strength to come into work.

The favour I want to ask is this: Please care for each other. I know it's hard when you're scared and hurting. It is so easy to lash out at people close to you in times like these. Don't take it out on each other. Share your heart and allow yourself to grieve. You don't need to have the strength to pull someone else out of this. You just need the strength to be gentle.

I'll see you all next week