Some Things I Am Working On and Future Plans

    Back in September of 2025, I started on a bunch of patterns and testing, but ultimately focused on one for Skyrim's game anniversary of 11/11. With it being a new year some of those patterns have been slowly starting to debut. I have more on the horizon that I'm trying to test and finish, both fanart and original works. All in various stages of development and testing.

    Some are in the final stages, only needing photography or written tutorials finished and finalized. Others are still sitting drafted but untested. Waiting for me to finish other projects, or awaiting materials. 

   While I gave myself a target date with the Sweetroll and stuck to a schedule for release, I'm not so much doing that with these other projects. In order to prevent burn out while balancing homeschool and other responsibilities. I've slowed down. I'm not into hustle culture and firmly believe rest is important. That said, stuff is ongoing and underway, some closer to being finished then others, but we're not rushing towards the destination. 

    This year I hope to be more productive overall but in a healthy way. 2021 was a great year for me productivity wise but I ultimately injured my wrist and drawing hand, giving it nerve damage. I ended up on a long hiatus with both traditional art and digital art, which suuuucked! I think it was because I was being too overzealous. So in order to learn my lesson, I'm going to be pacing myself, and resting.

    As for traditional and digital art, I'm currently slowly working on some digital art courses over at Paintable.cc. If you are interested in check out digital art courses check out my invite link: https://paintable.mn.co/share/UvXRzLw7QMuh02ZC?utm_source=manual That place gave me such a huge level up in my art back in 2020 and I want to continue working on it. (Once again, just a reminder, this is not a paid endorsement and I am not sponsored.) I'm not doing art commissions, I gave up on that a long time ago. I got a lot of them in high school when I was... honestly looking back at it, terrible at art. Hahaha. But these days, with all the scams I just don't even want to deal with it.

    This was on of the last pieces I worked on before I took a break. It took a good month and half to complete. I had to go back and fix things later too. I went blind painting this. I went in with the intention to replicate traditional art. A personal challenge. In a world where content has become commodified, and algorithms feed us short form content and slop because they found out how to push quantity over quality for profit while keeping people addicted to social media. Or even AI slop dominating every space, I made the rebellious decision to stop trying to do art for external validation. 

    Part of healing from the cult was tapping into that inner child and doing the things I wanted to do but was afraid to, like fanart or completely nerd out obsessively for instance. And in healing those wounds, no longer seeking approval from authority figures in my life whether peers or not, that and not seeking external validation from them either. So this was for me. To reclaim art. To rely only on internal validation, for myself. It's slow, it's meaningful, and I made it a meditative experience.

    I didn't use control z, if I made mistakes, I repainted over my mistakes. Until about the very end. I got really sick and forgot to lock my keyboard out one night. I think I used it like a couple times for the whole piece at the very end like the last half hour or so, it wasn't long... But everything is one brush challenge, no blur, no blend, no smudge, and mostly no control z, and everything you see there has been done meticulously, layering paint in order to give the illusion that blending, smudging, and blurring have taken place. During one brush challenge I chose one textured brush, and all I was able to do was vary opacity and size.

    I'd like to do this again soon. Another long haul piece. I enjoyed not rushing, vibing, and taking my time. It was a huge learning experience. 

    So hopefully this year I can squeeze in more of a rotation between art, sewing, quilting, and crafting in various pursuits as I work more on finding myself and healing.