Karbik
General purpose update
Heya! It's been a smol bit and I figured I'd just drop a bit of a status update
Firstly, as I postulated in the "I think I would quite like Death Stranding" image....yeah, that sure was a thing, huh.
A game about traversing landscapes I can't otherwise visit and communal collaboration has been quite nice. Honestly, it's excessively long, relishes in being tedious and wince-inducingly hammy at times. But the more time passes from me having finished it, the more I've felt myself thinking back at it with fondness.
Yeah, unusual, hammy and at times baffling in its design decisions, but it has an odd heart to it and is quite loveable.....and had a lot of very thorougly photogrammetry'd Icelandic rocks in it, that sure helped.
I've always had a habit of screenshots of interesting things in games (or video snippets!) when I come across them - and when I discovered DS had a photo mode.......oh, well I had what could best be described as a "I am full of bad ideas" moment
Haha, I had a ton of fun just goofing about with the photo mode and taking images to then later do little paintovers to put my fursona in there (pretty sure I spent literal hours hurling packages at the heads of MULE's to get the shots just riiight, even if none of the resulting images made it here)
All good things come to and end though, and so did that. Ah, as noted in the image that I just posted too, this whole art thing hasn't been going too hot. Or, well, any thing that requires doing for that matter, productivity in general. I'm managing to feel constantly scattered in a thousand directions and simultaneously tired pretty persistently. bleeehhhh.
I'm just coming off a two-week vacation from work and boy howdy did was it certainly not refreshing. You ever have that feeling when you have spare time and you're THIS IT TIME TO REST. RESTTTT!!! REST NOW! and you can feel yourself absolutely not resting? And the knowledge that your time to obtain said REST™ becomes stressful instead? Yeah, that happened.
I recall mentioning to another artist that I enjoy the middle 60% of making art the most - "past the hump of getting an idea working and before I reach the disappointment of finalizing it."
And boy howdy do I have a lot of pieces waiting that are just sitting in that middle 60% and not getting much further from it. Some of you may have noticed that I haven't managed to do much art streaming either - as I noted in the journal when I first announced them, they were after all "mostly meant as a curious experiment in the era of physical solitude"
And while I do feel like an idiot looking at the bought-for-that-purpose-only microphone in a corner, I guess there's no point in not admitting defeat - the stress of trying to keep an art thing going for hours was not really great considering my typically rather scattered workflow - pretty much everythiing you see in my gallery has been noodled on for an hour here, an hour another day as opposed to finishing them in an evening.
That aside. If I have any Norwegian followers (or...I guess people that have been there too) that have good recommendations for places to visit (in the distant future when such things are possible), I'm trying to assemble some framework of an eventual travel plan and am all ears as to suggestions! It....should come as no surprise that sights with a lot of rock and land bound to delight me greatly.
I was actually pretty hellbent on going to Norway for the aforementioned vacation, since the other big thing I had designated that two-week block for, Eurofurence, wasn't happnening and I figured this was the one goshdarned chance to have a summer mountain trip. But my travel planning skills are actually.....abysmal?? and when under a time pressure they're especially so (not to mention this whole ~~pandemic~~ thing was making things dicier and dicier).
In other words, I'd like to avoid the scenario of rushing together some plans, having them fall apart and feeling bad about by having actual long-term plans many months in advance when I next have an opportunity.
That's ah. That's all! I just wanted to write down something longform.
Artist tip!
Make a "Compliments" folder and then stick screenshots of particularly resonant comments in there to read through whenever you feel down about your work!
I promise it's a good use of your time!
Aside from just being an ego-booster, it's also a worthwhile reminder to be appreciative to the people who chose to take some time out of their day to leave some good thoughts about your creations!
See also:
Art books!!!
Art friendos!
What are some nice art books that you have?
Something that you appreciate and find a great source of inspiration and ideas?
(remember to post store links!)
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The inspiration for this query is Hibbary’s unassuming-looking “Dragon Sketchbook: Volume 1”
I appreciate that it’s not just a “best-of”, but there are so many pages where I can feel like I see the gears whirring in the artist’s head. In other words, it's not a showcase of an end product, it's a showcase of a thinking process....and that's really valuable and why I've picked it up and flipped through it quite often when noodling on a creature design myself.
asdf!
Every once in a while I'm like "huh, it sure feels like an eternity since I last wrote a journal here" and then I look and last journal was a month ago and I'm like ?????
But! Three things of note:
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I have been experimenting with art streams! At https://picarto.tv/Karbik
I haven't achieved regularity yet, but those that I've done have been on Saturdays 7PM Estonian time (i.e Eastern European Timezone)
They were mostly meant as a curious experiment in the era of physical solitude - streams were something I've had in mind for more than a year, but the whole P A N D E M I C situation was a push to finally get a microphone and give it an actual whirl.
Will I keep it up? Dunno, still experimenting with the format and my comfort level - I was up till 3am after the first few, awake with head buzzing with anxious thoughts - so their sustainability is still uncertain. But, even as a short-term experiment it's worthwhile.
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Ow my shoulders. This whole work-from-home thing has wrecked havoc on my ergonomics. Raise arm? Shoulder cracks. Look left? Neck cracks. I've been implementing lots of regular upper-body stretching into my routine.....but then I manage to immediately nullify it by, well, as I put it elsewhere:
"Cons of having an iPad: it’s 1:30am and I’ve been sitting naked on the floor of my bathroom drawing dragons as Ori’s final boss theme plays on loop for an hour"
"Also known as: one-way ticket to “neck hurt and head groggy town”
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Hey, you ever have that feeling of "oh no, I've been putting off resolving the design issues I have with this character for too long and now I feel outright repulsed trying to draw them so I guess I better spend some time on their design"?
How about getting that feeling with *every* single character in your roster? Ugggggh, there are....so many sketching and silhouetting to do, nauseatingly so. blarrrrghh!!
horny
I know this might be a bit unusual. But I do have my desires and needs, and sometimes they can be hard to keep quiet about.
So today!
It's time
to be horny on main
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horny and leggy!
HORNY AND LEGGY!!!
And so, so very fabulous.
[art by Sketchbuck]
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You are welcome to join, of course. To admire my curvy members. Perhaps I'll even let you stroke them?
[art by Winterbalg]
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They might be barbed, but I'm sure you'll find my rack quite pleasing!
[Art by KanizoArt]
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Not all horns come equal. Some can be fairly nub-like even!
But you know what they say about size. I'll be eager to demonstrate...
[art by NicnakO44]
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Some people think that just because I'm horny means I also like that whole shibari thing.
Well, I'm here to say that...uh...well.
They are kinda right, it’s quite pleasing
[art by Kuroi-kisin]
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AAAAGH
PLEASE KNOCK NEXT TIME
BEING HORNY DOESN’T MEAN I DON’T APPRECIATE A BIT OF PRIVACY
[art by Nomax]
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Horny people can have trouble keeping their pants on. Help me sew this button back on, so that the same fate doesn’t befall me.
...or don’t
[art by Neotheta]
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A sizeable rack can make this whole “getting your clothes off” a bit tricky. Do give me a hand, would you?
[art by Terry_Grimm]
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People close to you might find your horniness annoying, even overwhelming sometimes. Have patience with them
[art by Jagal]
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Sometimes, being naturally horny can be a struggle for people. But fret not, there are assistive technologies to remedy the situation to an...enviable degree
[art by mad__machine]
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Sometimes, excess horniness can cause problems with intimacy. Getting behind horny people is sometimes not all that easy, leading to tensions and rifts in relationships.
[art by Skollyson]
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The day is drawing to a close, and it’s time to wrap up this horniness pandemonium. Let’s take one last look at the sunset before we shed our horns!
[art by KatieHofgard]