One of these days… (Patreon)

One of my “Chrispy has been unable to comic for two years, and wants accomplish SOMETHING during this lost time” goals is to both Precocious-fy the previously-in-my-head-only Momentum group, and make references, so I could have OCs I could commission art for. Just cuz I want that option!

But if I’m too broken to make comics, which is what I’m programmed to do on even the slightest slivers of energy, all those wish list items - which require going out of my comfort zone - end up taking a long time, and fight me at every step. (And yet every person on the planet will look at my shutdown period and conclude, “Since you’re not doing anything, you can do [x] for me!”)

What ended up happening is me being at the mercy of chance. I have a varied list of tasks, and I built a pile of references and prompts, because I never know what I can do when I set pencil to paper.

Ending up with Aaron and Nate color sketches took months of flailing and failing - and you don’t want to see what the non-sketch attempts looked like. (So many wonky, dead-eyed Nates, that looked like a good attempt at fan art of another person’s character… if the artist is 11 years old.)

There are many reasons I struggle so much with Momentum and cementing their designs, so this challenge is particularly brutal for me, but that’s also the point! If I’m gonna be shoddy at art, I’m doing it with the default crew who are my sacrificial lamb placeholders in every awkward first draft! I don’t seem to be able to perfect any design. It’s more that I have to draw them all 1000 times and pray that I accidentally get it close enough in one of them. (Tho practice helps. I haven’t drawn Phoebe, who used to be the easiest design for me, in a while, and now I find I’ve forgotten how she works!)

Having suitable references for Aaron and Nate does mean I can finally commission a piece - I have the artist picked out - so that’s a win. It’s possible I have enough sketches out there that I can combine them with color refs and it’s good enough.

Seriously, tho, my to-do list from ages ago had one and a half items checked off, and it’s been two years. Yikes.

I didn’t really have a point in writing this. I just started writing. If you’ve learned anything about the hell I’ve been going through it’s that I can’t plan or follow through. I just blank out, go on impulse, and hope the result can be shared.

(I was debating on showing the attempt to make a Rhenna from tonight, but I’m chickening out. Sorry. It’s a sketch that lets you know I’m CAPABLE of drawing her, but tortures me because every single element is a little bit wrong.)