March ProgBlog #1: after an excessive delay
I honestly did not mean to go this long without producing a progblog :|
I have the excuse of being on Christmas Island, hanging with family and absolutely not enjoying the experience of working on my Surface Pro (I hate Windows) in January.
In February I just totally and completely fell off the rails. @pixietrix deciding to do high school has basically removed 5 hours in the week that I was using to work. I got really, really stressed out to the point of it was going to get real bad real quick so I decided I really needed to do some art therapy, and went for something stupid and fluffy because it was the complete opposite of how I was feeling. It ended up being a songpic and as much hard work as Embers. I wasn't feeling up to a progblog (and at that stage didn't realise I had fallen back into the old habit of "well I haven't made any worthwhile progress so I don't want to bore anyone") so posted a sneekypeeky to Patreon to try to make up for it.
This month, we kicked off the process of trying to sell our house and buy another house. I am not enjoying it and would like it to be over quickly and successfully.
Anyway to once again smash that annoying "didn't make progress so not posting" habit and try to get back to weekly progblogs here's my favourite frame from the art therapy with light and shadow 1:
It's the third frame of eight and took the longest to draw and is taking the longest amount of time to shade due to the amount of light sources (glowy bioluminescent plants covering the building) and the wonky perspective (partly my style and partly this thing I was trying to do with the comic-like monstrosity) and I've been doing that instead of doing two more cameo concepts, two giftarts (one was meant to be a Christmas present but pfft now it's just going to be a standalone present), and of course all the 3d work I'm supposed to be doing for the actual animation x_x
I've almost got my reshuffled schedule sorted so hopefully I'll figure out what I'm doing just in time to be disrupted by moving.
For anyone that remembers me doing process videos a hundred million years ago, did you like them enough to want me to do them again? I stopped doing them because I was too lazy busy to edit and it's one of those things I'll only do if people actually enjoy them.
This post also appears on my blog and Patreon.
Want a crowd character? If you interact frequently with me here (either on my posts or your posts or better yet both!) or on one of the linked Discord channels, all you have to do is let me know and tell me what you'd like :) It can be one of your characters (including ones you make up on the spot for this XD) or a self insert. There's a bunch of different human types to choose from, and pets/other animals are also welcome.
Thanks for looking! ^_^
Come hang out on Discord with us!
#teamaustralia on PAL | ANZ | Be Awesome | steemartists
This post was shared in the Curation Collective Discord community for curators, and upvoted and resteemed by the @c-squared community account after manual review.
@c-squared runs a community witness. Please consider using one of your witness votes on us here
Heyyy you should never feel bad not posting since you have three little ones growing up with you. And I really admire you that despite the fact that it's your daughter's idea to go to school, you spend time and effort driving her around. I think you're really nice for doing that :).
The frame looks good and I like how dynamic it looks like. Is it going to be a short animation when you're done? And for me, I don't think you should worry about progress video. Do them when you feel like you want to :).
Well very much this @ryivhnn. You should never feel bad about not posting. But I take a less kinder attitude than scrawly. I really detest the belief the posting regularly is worshipped by some. That's how we end up with so much lack lustre spam. So often I can tell an author is just pushing a post out there for the sake of it. It's not good for this ecosystem. Post because you have the time and have something you want to report. If life gets busy, then so be it. Not all of us can live our life online, and it is exactly the kind of stresses you have the prevents many from posting. I admire that you homeschool and I can appreciate how changes to this system might seem disruptive. Buying and selling homes is one of the most stressful activities one can do too! Goodluck with it.
Oh, I love the descriptor too of comic-like monstrosity too. This frame you shared is actually my favorite to date. I am sorry if this offends Red. ;)
^_^
There are some out there advising posting every day so they have a higher chance of getting seen. I've been saying (especially to artists) that having a schedule and optionally a backlog of work/topics to post about is probably going to be more sustainable if you want to be regular/reliable (apparently some audience like reliably regular).
It's mostly the weekly progblogs I feel bad about not posting, and it's mostly on the Patreon front, because they're monthly subscribers and I don't want them to feel like they're paying for me to be slacky. Everything else (including hs misc which is probably the only other thing I consider moderately important) just gets posted whenever I can get to it XD
It is a comic-like monstrosity! You will understand when I post the whole thing XD Glad you like it, and Red doesn't mind, he much prefers people don't pay attention to him :)
Honestly, it's horrible for Steem's reputation to see regular posters who are scraping the bottom of the barrel. I just don't think it's worth putting your reputation at risk of coming across as an attention desperado or a greedy author living off their autovotes. I won't mention names, but there are authors who I can no longer stand because of this. When you see posts that clearly has little heart and thought put into it, that they just simply posting to be regular (in scraping as much steem they can from the reward pool), it's a sad state of affairs. This is when you see people reposting video links, memes and "On this day..." To me it's a form of plagiarism because an added couple of lines to this borrowed content is not adding value, and I don't care for the justification that it took a lot of time to find that content to share.
But as with all things, it's subjective. I live by the belief that quality over quantity. My admiration goes to the people who have real lives to upkeep, but still find the time to share their personal journeys with us. I am happy to see an author share their stories and experiences on a weekly or fortnightly basis. It's exhausting to have to comment and keep up with regular posters. I used to resent how they clogged up my feed, drowning out those I do care about. People here are just are not understanding it goes both ways if we are about genuine engagement. People might say to be regular (and I mean every few days) is to be a higher chance of being seen, and others might pat these regulars for continually pushing repetitive and soulless content on the platform, but it just encourages behaviors we don't need. There's so many things wrong with this platform and I believe this is a contributing factor.
Anyway, this is a trigger topic. I have been quietly angry at some of the blatant plagiarism due to this determination to be 'regular'.
There's going to be something (or a lot of things) wrong with any given platform depending on what you're hoping to get out of spending time on there. I agree with you on a lot of your dislikes, and I do like the fact we can mostly whatever here, and it's a case of promoting what we do like (in the form of attention and upvotes, even if your upvotes are teeny tiny) and ignoring (and downvoting in the cases of the freaking plagiarism aaargh) things we don't.
I don't think you should feel obliged to comment on every single thing someone posts especially if they're prolific and even more so if you think they're being a bit samey/barrel scrapey. Hell there have been way too many times over the past couple of months where I've just upvoted and run because I don't have the time and/or energy to comment :S
I guess it's hard when the sheer volume of people doing things you don't like is so ridiculously high XD But I like my little sector of steem enough to stick around for now. And maybe if we lead by example people will follow? Maybe? XD
^_^ well parents gotta parent I guess? XD
Thanks! I'd love to make this a short animation but...I don't have the models done yet and won't for a while because I'm doing this x_x and all the other stuff I was whining about in the post ^_^; lol. It's just a flowy comic. With headache inducing perspective in the middle XD
I rarely ever feel like making them XD I basically started doing them as apparently some people on G+ liked watching me draw for whatever reason (well watching a timelapse of me draw lol) and it was yet another way to try to get a bit more attention back when I was trying to figure out all the marketing and promotional stuff that I've now basically completely given up on XD but if someone wanted to watch them I'd do them again.
If this is what you produce when you're wondering if 'you're up to it' your artwork must be pretty awesome when you are feeling truly inspired @ryivhnn You have a unique talent. All the very best with selling your house and buying another one. It can be stressful but when you find what you want, then it becomes exciting.
I wish it was pretty awesome! XD Still have a way to go before I'm at that level though :D This piece isn't finished yet, I have a couple more shading layers to do and then some radiosity overlays. I'm glad you like it even in its current state, makes me feel that little bit more competent :D
Thanks for the well wishes! Part of it is done (offer on the house we're buying has been accepted), now hopefully one of the potentials that my REA friend has lined up decides they like the place and gets that out of the way nice and quick XD
Your art is so different and as I enjoy art in all its diversity, I appreciate work which is both unique and impressively produced. When people have a passion for what they do, it is evident in what they create. I look forward to seeing more of yours in the weeks ahead.
Time has a way of getting away from us. Christmas Island sound fun.
It does that!
I think Christmas Island is fun but I'm totally biased ;D Otherwise it depends a lot on what you're into :)
I say only do process videos if you want to. It's hard enough to be a working artist to add more to your plate. Just share what you can. When I have those days that I feel I should be showing this or that on Steemit I'm usually happy with at least just sharing a sketch I'm working on, even when it is not related to my latest projects, as I did with my sketch inspired by @yidneth I could have thought, "Well this is apropos of nothing, so I won't share it" but why not?
Also the surface pro? Is that the new tiny one? I was thinking of getting that as my new 'take everywhere sketch and work' piece. How do you like it? how is the pen/sensitivity and the screen? Nothing compares with my wonderful wacom but I can't carry that blasted heavy thing around with me and all the cords.
I don't want to do the process videos unless someone wants to watch them. If no one wants to watch them that's fine, one less thing for me to do ;D If someone does, then I want to do it. Does that make any sense? No? That's okay I'm not used to making sense XD
As I explained to Linny just then it's the weekly progblogs that I don't like missing as I mostly do them for Patreon subscribers, the wonderful handful of them that I have don't seem to mind that I'm so bloody slow but I do like them (and by extension everyone else) to know that I am actually doing what I say I'm doing.
I have the Surface Pro 4 (there is a new one either out or coming out, I haven't been keeping track). It's definitely light enough to be a "take everywhere and sketch and work" device (unless you do what I did and put a Gumdrop case on it which makes it almost indestructible and...well it's only slightly heavier to me but some would consider it pretty heavy after adding that case XD) and seeing as it's Windows it has the advantage of if you're working in a specific program that isn't Sketchbook you can use your same programs on your main rig and the Surface Pro. Then whack on a keyboard and tadaaaaa instant tiny Windows laptop.
How do I like it, um, short story, I hate it.
Longer story:
I actually regret buying it. My youngest uses it to do some of his Khan Academy and play games on and I was working on it on Christmas Island so it wasn't a complete waste of money. My options are severely limited anyway, as the iPad Pro can't run my stuff so it's pretty much useless to me (though if it did I would have bought it in a heartbeat) and the other option was the hideously expensive MobileStudio Pro which I coveted for ages til having to work with the SP4 for a long period of time made me realise I would probably put the MSP through a wall XD (also runs Windows).
So at some stage when I have spare money (lol) I will be back to my old mobile setup of MacBook Pro and my CCH (til I can replace it with the new Cintiq Pro 13...why is everything "pro" XD anyway the new Cintiqs have only one cable by the looks of things).
Congratulations @ryivhnn! You have completed the following achievement on the Steem blockchain and have been rewarded with new badge(s) :
Click here to view your Board
If you no longer want to receive notifications, reply to this comment with the word
STOPVote for @Steemitboard as a witness and get one more award and increased upvotes!