The Dread Potato Wolf (Final) (Patreon)

I'm trying to follow some advice I was once given. I was told that I don't have to do full colours of images that only have full backgrounds to them. In the past I used to do a lot of this 'quick art' style work without huge complex backgrounds in the back, and it does make doing a quick finished colour so much faster.

This is also serving the purpose of re-learning how to paint. In all the time that the health problems cropped up, I didn't do a lot of colour work. It was hard to do in such short bursts and I'd get exhausted so quickly. And I got rusty at doing colour work.

I still have some re-learning to do. I've been watching some YouTube videos on doing colour work and remember some of it, and am picking up some new tips as well. This was just kind of a quick throw together study, and I forced myself not to go super-hyper-obsessive detail (which is really hard.. I kept wanting to go back and pick away at it.)

I think I'm getting there, though. I'm doing a side project of making a couple TTRPG tokens for a friend of mine. Not paid work, just something I'd like to do for their character in my off time, and it would keep forcing me to be okay with quick colours. Tokens require a lot of contrast to be able to be seen clearly, and doing tiny detailed paints would be a complete waste on something that tiny.

I'll be letting the next patron on the very-far-behind illustration list know that they are up for an illustration. I'm starting to feel good enough again that I can do the extra work. I've made myself a work schedule that I can stick to, and so far for the week I'm able to do it and not completely revert back to a human-shaped question mark.

Fridays will be 'work on the world' days for me. A weird, twisted part of me wants to almost stream these days. I've never streamed anything in my life, but I do notice artists that take on commissions have a really good work ethic when they are streaming. It also seems to make the work less.. lonely? Even when there's only one or two viewers, they still talk, and maybe it's a way to not feel like a crazy person for just talking out loud for no reason.

Tomorrow I'll be doing commission work, and gearing up for Friday. I'm starting to enjoy these days of not running between specialists. Is this what 'humaning' is?

-T.J.