While I won't put it on until it's actually December because my profile is dressed up for NaNoWriMo, I drew myself a new holiday themed icon for discord! And this is also special because it makes the first time since joining Inkblot that I am uploading something entirely new, instead of cross-posting something that's been up on another site for weeks/months/years. So for those folks who've very graciously followed me after seeing art that's five or more years old, this is what it _actually_ usually looks like when I draw these days, lol.

Day 5 of NaNoWriMo is complete with 1,787 words written, bringing me up to 8,320.

Starting Day 3 of NaNoWriMo strong with 2,302 words already this morning.

I've been having a hard time getting any followers or likes or anything on any of my art. Not on this site. My account is too new. Everyone's is. A lot of us ran here after... events lol. So I'm not trying to lay blame or anything like that.

I know numbers aren't the point and that I should just love to make for the sake of making, but it can be really hard. Especially because I do make my stuff so I can share it. I want it to make people happy to see it the way it made me happy to make it.

But it's discouraging sometimes.

Sometimes the complete lack of interaction is crushing in a way you don't expect it to be. It makes me want to quit sometimes. Like, I'll look back at my art and think... maybe it's just not good enough for anyone to care yet.

This month I've been working on NaNoWriMo and that's been fun. A refreshing break tbh.

If my art isn't good enough... I guess, once I'm done writing this book, I'll just get back on that art grind and make it better than it already is. Make my stuff something people will actually want to look at.

Like, I know no one owes me likes... but I want to try and earn them anyway.

Character for my NaNoWriMo story, Rift in Reality

https://archiveofourown.org/works/42886809/chapters/107743131

https://www.webnovel.com/book/rift-in-reality-(nanowrimo-2022)_24730907405642805

https://www.wattpad.com/1282677777-rift-in-reality-nanowrimo-2022-prologue

emerald knight, loyal, and lacking in any brain to mouth filter - mina is one of the leads of my nanowrimo novel facets in bloom. after being sent to slay a dragon, she instead discovers what dragons really are and how they've been murdered for their magic. swearing herself to save dragonkind, she pledges herself to lilac...

Reika, my primary OC again. She's a vampire/succubus in a cyberpunk setting I've been developing for a while now. Most of my writing/NaNoWriMo projects have her in them in some capacity, either as the direct protagonist or as a friend to the protagonists.

Anyway, this piece was an experiment in perspective for me. I didn't quite nail it, but I learned a lot. Gonna try it again soon I think.

This is a weird pic of Celeste another charcater from a nanowrimo story. She's actually from a series of stories involving witches living in the modern world... she doesn't actually dance on the moon though, that's just me being weird. 

As I won’t have time to do NaNoWriMo this year, I wanted to at least shift my art focus to my writing muses and give them some actual references

And work on actually utilizing some studies and references and tools, not just doodling things out.

First up - Rassa

First up, the immortal ass himself - Rassa
We’ve started rematch in Hell on Wheels and the similarities between him and Bohannon slay me, so I used him as a reference.
Ngl I’m insanely proud of how this turned out. I put in far more care than I usually do I was so motivated

made this during nanowrimo in 2021 after realizing that 50k words is definitely a lot
i got to pretty much 20k words by the end of it which i find gives some form of reassurance that if i prepared myself a bit for the next one i plan to participate in, i could actually get to 50k

and i find that exciting!

I've finished my NaNoWriMo 2023 project today at a total of 52,686 words. About four days of break, and finished 1 day before the end of November.

I've reached my goal and completed the storyline, and honestly... that's quite a personal feat for me, because this is the first time I have a story I can consider to be coherrent, with actual characters that I can probably actually work with.

I plan to make this into a webcomic storyline perhaps, and I definitely need a LOT of rewrites of this draft, but I got a good sense of the characters and the world, just need to refine it further.

This chapter is about Robyn reconstructing herself after having her sense of self and memory scattered by being tossed to the Event Horizon, essentially, and reaffirm that she'll be herself, both the good and the bad, instead of tossing them away.

And when faced between seeing the whole of existence, she was content with what little she can gleam from the event horizon of existence and walked away back to the world, to the dying dream of the world, at the seventh count of eternity.

It is nearly done in an hour, but it's pretty neat for what I can get at least, pretty happy with it even if I could've done the black hole effect better (dunno what else I should do to represent an event horizon).

Next day... I have no idea what to draw. Maybe a scene from the epilogue? Eh, I'll know when I get there.