Man, February was an intense and upsetting month, so here’s to what will hopefully be better days as we move into March. I’ll do a proper February Wrap-Up Post soon, but first I wanted to catch up on a post I’d planned to do much earlier in the month. It may be a little late, but I wanted to share my art update for January, so let’s do this! 😀
Having the absolute best best friend a girl could ask for for over 2 decades has embedded a strong appreciation for friendship in me, so I just wanted to draw a fun little picture of two BFF’s taking a selfie together. ❤ They actually remind me a lot of 2 of the characters in the story I’m writing, so it’s another instance where one creative hobby starts to bleed into the other. 🙂
Werewolves are always fun to draw. I had an especially amusing time making that big toothy wolf grin. 😀
I wanted to do a quick experimentation in working out comic panels but since I didn’t have a plan of what to fill those panels with and was mostly looking at it as a bit of rough practice, I decided to go with something I was already familiar with. Hence, this Sailor Moon transformation I did in my own style. It’s meant to be messy and rough around the edges since I was mostly focused on panel layout and trying out a couple new techniques and tricks I was learning.
I managed to squeeze in some more art work in February over on my Instagram account, so I’ll try to make sure I share them over here in the near future too. 🙂 I’m slowly starting to pick up new handy little tricks here and there on Procreate, so hopefully I’ll be able to learn and draw some more in March too. I’ve been hard at work on the second draft of my book I’m writing (whenever I’m not too burnt out from work/life in general) so we’ll see what I can manage. 🙂
Did you find any time for any particular hobbies this month? ALSO, if you happen to have any handy tips for making more time for the hobbies you enjoy, please feel free to share!
Does anyone else look forward to when Goodreads posts your “Year in Books” at the end of the year? 🙂 I always think it’s fun looking back on things you’ve done throughout the year, so maybe that is something I’ll try to keep better track of in 2022 in general. For now, though, I’ll just let GR do most of the work.
This year I surpassed my goal of reading 30 books/graphic novels, and read a total of 45. (Though, let’s be honest, A LOT of those were graphic novels this year.) 😉
The SHORTEST book I read was:The Time Machine by H.G. Wells, at 118 pages.
The LONGEST book was:NOS4A2 by Joe Hill, at 692 pages.
Favorite Graphic Novel I Read This Year: I literally read all 34 volumes of the manga of Attack on Titan by Hajime Isayama, so I think it’s a safe bet to say this one took the cake for me in 2021. 😛
How was your own year in reading? What was your favorite book/graphic novel you read in 2021? How many books do you hope to read in 2022?
So, I just realized that I never posted the remainder of my drawings I did for October’s Corpsetober art challenge. 0.o Whoopsie. Well, better late than never, right? 😉
Prompt 9: Fairies
With a prompt like “fairies”, I just had to use it as an excuse to draw another moth fairy. ❤ Prompt 10: Valentine’s Day
Watch out, she’ll steal your heart! 😛 I did not intend for this woman to look like 90’s Alanis Morissette, but apparently sometimes these things just happen. Prompt 11: The 80’s
Cute 80’s girl with Frankenstein’s Monster/Bride of Frankenstein fashion vibes.
Prompt 12: Anime or Manga
Originally I was trying to think of an actual spooky anime to do fan art of, but then I just decided to take an iconic horror movie like Halloween, and thought to myself, but what if it was an anime? Haha so here we are. I took inspiration for Michael and Laurie’s faces from Charmy and Noelle from the anime Black Clover.
Prompt 13: Retro Video Games – the 90’s
When I had to think of a 90’s video game with Halloween or spooky vibes, my brain instantly went to Banjo’s pumpkin form from N64’s Banjo-Kazooie. Specifically, the Mad Monster Mansion level. Not my best piece, but it was a quick and easy one based off a video game that I have so many wonderful memories playing.
I actually haven’t had much time to draw since I worked on these pieces in October, so hopefully I’ll get to change that soon. Too many hobbies, never enough time. What hobbies are you looking forward to this December? 🙂
Can you believe the first week of October is already over? I managed to do most of the prompts for the first week of Corpsetober, an art challenge that this year presents you with very innocent-seeming prompts, but then dares you to make them horrific, spooky, or Halloweenie in whatever way you see fit. It’s been a lot of fun so far, especially since I’m not stressing myself out to complete each prompt for each day.
Prompt 1: Sunday Funnies (Comic Strips)
I had to go with an absolute childhood favorite of mine for this prompt, and choose Calvin & Hobbes.
Prompt 2: Childhood Toys
I actually never owned a Furby as a kid, but I remember them being very popular, and the recent Netflix animated film The Mitchell’s vs. The Machines has an amazing scene with Furbies that this pic I drew was directly inspired by.
Prompt 3: Retro Video Games (The 80’s)
It was so hard to pick which game to go with, but in the end I picked Pac-Man. Not only because it’s awesome, but also because I knew it would be pretty quick to draw. 😛
Prompt 4: Superheroes
I thought Zatanna would be a good choice for something fun and spooky, with her pulling some tentacled creature from her hat. I’ve always wanted to draw her, so this was a good excuse to do that.
Prompt 7: Mermaids
I love drawing mermaids. ❤ Especially creepy mermaids. This Deep Sea Mermaid was fun since I gave her a color scheme for when she was closer to the surface, and one for when she was down in the darker, deep waters. She was inspired by a few different sea creatures, some of which include: the angler fish, frilled shark, and leopard seal to name a few.
Bonus Drawings Just for Fun:
Even though I didn’t end up doing 2 of the prompts (Memes and Doggos), I did end up working on these 2 drawings instead.
I hope you guys enjoyed my weird little drawings this week. Haha I know I certainly had a lot of fun making them. 🙂 What have you been working on this October? Any goals or projects you’re working on this month?
My mom and I like to try to get together for coffee once a week, specifically Biggby frozen coffees with extra espresso in them because we are absolute fiends for caffeine. Well, as of late, our girls’ day coffee adventures have only gotten better with the addition of a third member of our “Treat Yo’ Self” squad, that being my parents’ new resident fluff monster that they got a few months back. (Like this dog needed any more reasons to love going for car rides.) 😛
Update #2: Pumpkin Babies
Our pumpkin patch is already fast at work producing flowers and pumpkin babies for the fall. I think this pumpkin patch will always hold a special place in my heart, not only because I love pumpkins, but also because the first harvest was for our wedding last October. ❤ Hopefully this year’s harvest will be just as good!
Update #3: Writing Progress
Writer Girl Summer is going really well. 🙂 I’ve mostly been cruising along right on track to have my first draft complete by the first day of fall, so here’s hoping I can keep this pace up. *fingers crossed*
Update #4: Reading, Or Rather, a Lack There Of
I didn’t get much reading done in July, mostly due to a misplaced charger for my Kindle that has thankfully since been found. Also, when I wasn’t writing, let’s be honest, I was mostly watching a ton of anime. While my kindle charger was misplaced, I had to take a break on finishing Pet Sematary for my buddy read with Cupcakes & Machetes, I started reading Leigh Bardugo’s Ninth House.
Update #5: Drawing
Other than completing the Drawing Shark Week art challenge I participated in, I didn’t get a whole lot of drawing time in since this summer my focus is mostly on writing. Buuuut I’m hoping to at least squeeze in a couple Fan Art Friday posts this month since my last one was *GASP* all the way back in mid-May??! I can’t even keep up with time these days it seems. 2021 is just barreling by at breakneck speed and it’s all I can even do to try to remember what day it is half the time. Back to the point though, it will be good to get some more practice in with Procreate and my iPad Pro. I’m still loving it, I just have soooo much to learn!
Update #6: Watching
July mostly had me been binge-watching the first 4 seasons of My Hero Academia with my husband, but I also started Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood on my own. We also enjoyed the 3 week Netflix event for the Fear Street trilogy of movies. I think we may have squeezed a couple other movies in as well, but the only one coming to mind at the moment is Gunpowder Milkshake.
Update #7: Baking
For my husband’s dad’s birthday I made a triple chocolate cake. My husband also really enjoys these honey cornbread muffins I make so I made some of those which we enjoyed with honey cinnamon butter. (SO good.) I also have an abundance of frozen blueberries I want to use up, so this weekend I made blueberry muffins. Aaaand if you follow the Sugar and Scream blog that C&M and I host together, you’ll have seen some pics of freshly baked bone-shaped snickerdoodle cookies we posted about in early July.
What shenanigans did you get up to in July? Any big plans for August? Hoping you all have an excellent month! 😀
Hard to believe it’s been a week already, but here we are! 🙂 I decided to whip up a speed-drawing of Pennywise the Dancing Clown from Andy Muschietti’s It. for my second installment of Fan Art Friday. I loved how absolutely creepy Pennywise’s face was in this scene so that’s the one I went with. The floaty Bill Skarsgård eyes, all the teefs. How could I possibly resist? 😛
It was fun to play with some new techniques and brushes for this one. I don’t think I’ve ever colored that many teeth in a single drawing. Haha
Definitely looking forward to what will (hopefully) be a relaxing weekend. Who knows if that will happen though. 😛
What are you weekend plans looking like? Watching any good horror movies or read any scary novels/graphic novels?
Cue the confetti cannons and put on your party hats, it’s big, exciting announcement time! Behind the scenes, my BFF and blogging partner in crime, Cupcakes & Machetes and I have secretly been plotting and working on something we’re very excited to finally be able to share with you guys!
. . . wait for it . . .
It’s a brand spanking new blog that the two of us will be co-hosting! We’ll still be keeping our own respective blogs too, but this new blog is a fun new way for us to revel in our love for all things horror, fantasy and science fiction and to toss some fun extra things in as well, like our experiments in baking and other hobbies/interests. So, without further ado, allow me to introduce you to our new blog Sugar and Scream!!
We welcome you to hop on over to join in on the fun with us!
Well, one of the things I was hoping to work on was practicing with other mediums (copic markers and digital art to be specific) so here are some of my more recent pieces done with that goal in mind. 🙂
I’ve been on a Rupaul’s Drag Race binge for several weeks and it had me wanting to draw some drag queens, and what better place to start than with Divine? It’s just a WIP at this point though because my red marker I was using died. D:
I love costumes and weird outfits so I could hardly resist drawing the spiky outfit from the Rodeo music video by Lil Nas X. Plus he’s got the whole vampire theme going on in the video so that just made it even more fun to draw because vampire teefs. 😛
I haven’t actually seen The Mandalorian yet (I know, I know) but I drew the little cutie pictured above on a Thank You card for someone I know to be a fan of the show. One day I’ll get around to the show and I’m sure I’ll love it, so no spoilers please! 😀
Well, I finally did it! I started playing around with my art tablet and came up with this pretty lady in purple pictured above. I have a lot of practicing to do with digital art but I’m looking forward to working at it and trying to learn new techniques. 🙂 Here’s hoping I’ll have plenty of new digital art to share in the months to come!
What have you guys been working on lately? Any fun projects or new hobbies you’re practicing at?
Happy December and Happy Holidays, everyone! ❤ It’s been a hot minute since I’ve done a real art update around here so I figured I’d share some of the pieces I’ve been posting over on my Instagram over the past couple months. 🙂 It seems like I have dry spells where I don’t do much more than sketches/scribbles and then I hit my stride and put out multiple pieces right in a row. I’d really like to be more steady and consistent with my art output in 2021 but we’ll discuss that further when I do my New Year’s Resolutions post soon! 😉
These pieces were from back in October when I started (but failed to finish) the Corpsetober Art Challenge. It was so much fun, but October was such a whirlwind of a month that the challenge really got away from me pretty quickly in. I’m not upset about it though. With the stress of 2020 always looming I’ve spent much of this year being less critical of myself and more focused on mental health. ❤
I think part of the reason I enjoyed this art challenge so much was because it called for me to lean heavy into my interest in all things spooky, and that’s always a treat. 😉 What was not as fun, however, was dealing with my dying, busted ass brush pens and other markers. *SOBS* The silver lining of that, though, would be that it gives me a gentle push to try other mediums in the near future. I’ve been having fun with brush pens for the past 2 years or so and they’ve had a good run. Now I’m ready to tinker around with more tools of the trade. I’ll go more into that when I do that New Year’s Resolutions post I previously mentioned.
Since this post features mostly horror/spooky themed art, my next art update I do will feature some of the fantasy art I’ve been doing more recently. Gorgons, flying purple rats, merfolk, and dryads, oh my! 😛
Do you have any creative projects you’re currently working on before the end of the year? If so, I’d love to hear about them! ❤
Okay, so I’m a little late to the party on this Tag, but in all fairness what even IS time in 2020?? I sure as hell don’t know! 😛 I saw this wonderful post from Lair of Books and decided that I, too, wished to join in on the fun. Better stylishly late than never, right? 😉
1.) Best book you’ve read so far this year?
Probably the same book I’m about to give as the answer for the following question, too. 😛
2.) Best sequel you’ve read so far this year?
Crooked Kingdom, by Leigh Bardugo. Loved this book. Great characters, great twists and turns, and great worldbuilding.
3.) New release you haven’t read yet, but want to?
Even though I’m still not finished reading Dread Nation (not the book’s fault, but mine) I went ahead and bought the book’s sequel Deathless Divide, by Justina Ireland that was released earlier this year. Definitely looking forward to reading more of Dread Nation and then diving into this one.
4.) Most anticipated release for the second half of the year?
I didn’t have anything that instantly sprang to mind (mostly due to my own lack of research of new releases) but upon a little digging I discovered that we can, in fact, have SOME nice things in 2020. As it turns out, the fifth (and apparently final) volume of Monstress is coming out in October! 😀
5.) Biggest disappointment?
Boneshaker, by Cherie Priest, and I will explain why in the next question because it really does apply to both.
6.) Biggest surprise?
Probably how much I was disappointed by Boneshaker (pictured above). Zombie Steampunk shenanigans should have been my jam, but I just could not get into the characters, especially the main 2 characters. I was so sick of reading how “smart” the son was when he pretty much gave me zero evidence of that himself. And the mom just felt so flat. Like, we knew who she was married to, we know she wants to find her son, but other than that, there isn’t much I can say about her, unfortunately. And as much as I adore worldbuilding, I think they went a bit too heavy with setting the atmosphere compared to the actual plot and character development. I really had high hopes for this one but it just was not my cup of tea, sadly. 😥
7.) Favorite new author (Debut or new to you)?
Ilona Andrews. New to me, and such a treat. 🙂 Looking forward to checking out more of her books, especially in the Innkeeper Chronicles series.
8.) Newest fictional crush?
Ya know, I hate to be boring on this answer, but I don’t have one from the books I read. Unless you want to count Henry Cavill’s portayal of Geralt in The Witcher. I mean, it started as a book series (that I have yet to read) but who can deny how pretty this dude is wielding a sword, kicking all sorts of monster ass and brooding all over the place??
Though, by that logic, I could make a similar argument for Charlize Theron in The Old Guard, based off a graphic novel series I *also* have yet to read. Fierce. Badass. Warrior. QUEEN. ❤
9.) Newest favorite character?
Zoya Nazyalensky. She may not be a new character to me since I read the original Grisha Trilogy back in the day, but it was new to me just how much I enjoyed her character in Leigh Bardugo’s King of Scars. Really good character development.
10.) Book that made you cry?
A Monster Calls, by Patrick Ness. SO. MANY. FEELINGS. This book is so dark and beautifully done. Grief is such an ugly and complicated emotion and this book captures it perfectly.
11.) Book that made you happy?
Giant Days is always such a feel-good and fun slice-of-life style comic. Sometimes there are sad parts, but overall it’s a comfort read for sure. ❤
12.) Most beautiful book you’ve bought so far this year (or received)?
I don’t know . . . I really couldn’t pick one right now, sorry! D:
13.) What books do you need to read by the end of the year?
Definitely sooner than before the end of the year, but I need to finish my buddy read with Cupcakes & Machetes for Gideon the Ninth! Enjoying it so far, just have a lot going on right now and an attention span in tatters.
How has your year in reading been so far? 🙂 Let’s talk books! ❤
IgnitedMoth 