Saturday Update! (Patreon)

CG COMPLETION: 31/181

Hello friends and neighbours! It is once again that time of the week!

Last week went about as well as can be expected x'D I feel like I got some very good quality work done, but I came up a little short in terms of amount of work done because I was wrestling with some anxiety and insomnia about nuclear weapons and the nature of man. Very much looking forward to going back to my usual anxiety topics like 'is my game project stupid' or 'did I lock the doors on the car I haven't owned for 4 years now' .

I'm sure I'm not the only one. I hope you guys are doing okay. I wish I could invite you all over for lasagna and just watch movies until this whole thing is over.

Anyway, time marches on and so must I. Let's get into some CGs!

Last week I completed a Celia CG with variants, so the beginning of this week was spent fulfilling those variants.

^ this is cropped because the rest of the CG is the same as last week, but I just changed the original's eyes. I re-read the script and felt like it worked better this way.

^ a happier variant~

^ an angrier variant

^ and the final variant. 

Lucky for me, variants take a lot less work than a fresh new CG but they still count towards the 181 total :) so even though I came up short in terms of work, I came out ahead in terms of numbers x'D

Next I worked on a Mason CG! One of my personal favs ^o^ I'm pleased with how this one came out, and I think it's partially because I got my anatomy textbook in the mail. I had an easier time sorting out exactly how his chest and shoulders work.

Here's the sketch, you can kinda tell more. The textbook is helping with anatomy bits i was confused about, and it's actually helping me with shading the most. For instance, notice the muscles coming down from his ears to the center of his neck. These used to be more of a mystery to me, but now I had the confidence to outline them fully and shade them like the shapes I understood- and that made the whole pic look better. [ also yes, I know bald Mason looks like Thick Mr Clean, maybe he's the secret mascot for CLR ]

As for my last CG, here's where I came up short:

^ This CG should essentially be done, but this is as far as I got >_>;; Still, it's interesting to show since I'm really blending what I'm learning from self-ref photos and the textbook. I actually started this one with a ref photo too:

And with what I'm learning from the textbook, I'm finding it easier to build on that basic framework and apply whatever kind of anatomy I want.

And I'm finally FINALLY understanding arms a little better. Thinking of them like two shaped tubes was fine when all I drew was skinny people, but now that I'm trying to draw a wider variety of shapes, I need to know where these muscles are supposed to be and how they move and stretch. It's a lot to try and take in but I feel like I'm making progress!

Now I know all this progress has a price. The elephant in the room is 'wont the game be less uniform if you let your art style change while working on it?' and the answer is yes. The game will be less uniform.

But the alternative is waiting until I'm not working on a project to learn things- and if I had my way, I'd always be working on a project. I simply can't wait around to try and get better later. It's okay that the sprites look different than the CGS. It's okay that these early CGs will look different from the last CGs I complete. That's a sacrifice I'm willing to make for progress in general.

ANYWAY! I've rambled again, like I always do xD [ sorry, I don't get out much LMAO ]

Thank you so much everyone for your support. Thanks for being here. And may we all get to enjoy some very uninteresting times soon. 

As always, it's an absolute pleasure to work for you. <3 Credits update tomorrow!