The New Year

Crazy start to the new year and both art and writing have cleverly eluded me. Spent the last few days pulling out some simple sketches with whatever measly time slot I could. Hopefully things will slow down so I can finally focus on my original work again. But for now: commissions.

WIPs & Words

So I'm fairly certain I've failed Sketchavember and that catching up is nowhere in sight. But that doesn't mean all stop! I've still got this nostalgic masterpiece (the WIP featured above) I'm slowly progressing on. Its a big one and the next stretch apart from the coloring is some serious linework that's extremely daunting. But hey! Keeping at it!

In the mean time I'm been organizing my writing. I'm pulling apart the first chapter and assembling a numbered event log to refer to as I re-write each section. It already seems like that will help make it much easier than going through a ridiculously long (22 page) chapter, editing and dissecting it as I go which has actually proven to be a nightmare. At the same time I get to brainstorm and the ideas are all coming together! I'm so eager to get this thing written because I'm extremely impatient, but the truth is that the longer time I take to work out details and become inspired by outside sources, the better my plots and such become! Super awesome.

Here's a rubbish, unedited piece I was prompted to writ this evening for some of my original characters:

The two boys were in the field up the hillside near their home. Luai was watching them spar-- with the occasional fooling around and wrestling as all young pups do. Lylli decided the only way to get a formal meeting was to introduce herself. She'd followed them out into the field that day. 

"So this is the infamous 'Luai'", she said, approaching him for the first time. 

He turned to the beauty, surprised at her introduction and let out a chuckle, "Uh-oh heh heh," he smiled as if he was in for it, not having met her sooner.  

Lylli returned the smile, "my boys speak of nothing else lately." 

"I'm sorry," he laughed apologetically. 

"No its wonderful," she corrected, "they're very taken with you. What you're doing for them-- its what they need; its more than their father ever did for them." 

Luai was curious about that. Boys should have a father, one to teach them to hunt and to grow up with respect. Perhaps they had a misfortune, either way he couldn't help but be curious, "If I may ask, where is their father?" 

Lyli's gaze shifted to her boys in the field, who were now distracted from their lesson and had engaged in wrestling and play. Her smile softened, "he walked out on us some time ago. He didn't treat them well. He began to feel held down and... he left." 

Luai's eyes shifted, "I'm sorry to hear that." 

Lylli's smile returned again and out came a spirited response, "don't be. Its his loss."
The two locked eyes and smiled at one another. "Look at me, telling you our sad stories," she said sweetly. And in the warmest tone he replied, "Its perfectly fine."

Greetings!

Okay so first post.

I was prompted to start this blog for the Sketchavember event for the month of November-- a creative challenge I've decided to take on to improve all of artistic areas where I'm weakest (or at least already trying to improve).

Originally I'd played with the idea of starting a blog to share my art apart from my stomping grounds on deviantart and my scattered art postings on tumblr. Truth is I was content with that so I never went about doing it. But this will be a good way for me to keep a portfolio of all my work without any distracting posts in between. A place to dump any of my sketches and see how I progress over time. So in between the challenge and thereafter, with the second challenge being that I keep up with this blog, I'll continue to post here afterwards as well.

Now. I'm already three days behind for Sketchavember. Lets see if I can catch up.

Thanks fer stoppin' by and if you stick around, well I hope I can provide some inspiration or enjoyment for ya.