I noticed that each journal post would divided into sections (like good orchestra); one section was just about life stuff, another section was about whatever the author was obsessed about, another section showed the stats of all the projects and art pieces the user was working on at the time, and the last section either had the clubs they were apart of or other user that inspired them or just were awesome. 

I think that format will really help me stay focus on making post like these, so I don't end up just rambling on and on about nothing (that's what my Food For Thought post are for ). At the same time in post like these I just want to mention stuff I'm working on in passing, and if whatever I'm working on is really really interesting I'll make it it's own separate post without it taking up post like these.  Again, it will help balance out the variety of post I have on this blog.

Honestly, I don't really mind (at least in theory) if my blog is just chop filled with  Artist Log post because that's what a blog is for, but at the same time I really like having post that have a main idea or main thesis statement. I feel like I was on track to having a blog like that  in the beginning of this blog but then COVID happened and  then well, dang. 

But I can get back in the saddle, I just need to start small and take it easy...

Anyways, without further ado, let's get to the actual blog stuff!

Life Happenings 

I don't wanna do too much of a self report (tellin' on my own-self,lol), but I do want to share SOME of my life happenings because I think that mention that stuff will make everything else make more sense. 

Again, as mentioned before I've been trying to get back in to playing more games and watching shows more consistently (at least consistently enough to where I feel confident enough to do a whole post about whatever piece of media that maybe). The same thing goes with like books and movies, basically I don't want to look at a piece media and have my mind instantly go to see what's the online public opinion rather than going out and experiencing that piece of media on its own merit, and forming my own opinion. I don't think ( or would like to HOPE like FR)  I've gone full sheep, but I feel like the same inklings of sheepism and I want to stomp those feeling out before it starts to fester into something really awful.

I've been slowly chipping away at my game backlog because I don't want to be one of those people who just collect games, and don't play them ( and not like in a collector kind of way.) I've been playing BG3 and that's been pretty fun, I was little scared to play the game at first not in a aesthetic way but more of a "Am I up to the challenge" type of beat. In my current playthrough, I was finally able to get Karlach in my party w/o losing Wyll in the process, the two where able to come to truce actually.  I'm very close to moving on act 2, but I still have some side quest I still need to tie up and some character quests to catch up on before I cont. the rest of the story. 

I think I've done pretty good so far in the game, I think I've only died like once , but have save scummed a bit tho... but my character's still standing. 

I've started playing Rain Code (or Enigma Archives: Rain Code), its a mystery game made by the same peeps who made Danganronpa ( and it SHOWS, but it a GUD way).  I wasn't really nervous to play this game, since mystery games usually go at a pretty slow pace. There are some quick time events and the mini bosses and boss fights can be kind of doozy, but I just need to get better at calming myself down before I start button mashing.

I like the main character Yuma, and his cute ghost side kick, Shinmegami. I'm currently at a part where Yuma has to do a case that takes place in a all girls school, and Shinmegami gets super jealous because Yuma is surrounded by a bunch of cute girls, although Yuma is only focused on the case at hand and not the girls, still Shimegami's jealousy remains.

The last game I've been focusing on playing is Tears Of The Kingdom, which like the other games has been pretty fun. Its not too different from BOTW but it is mixed up enough for me to feel fine buying the game. I like the idea of making objects like boats, carts, and etc but actually making the things gets pretty tedious quickly, at least when it comes to making bridges like MAN, I don't mind making weapons because its really fun to see how the weapons work in action. But with like, a bridge all I can think about is man, I how this doesn't fal-- and its already in the water. So, I guess its just a matter of perspective.

At the time of writing, I've recently got Pikman 4 in the mail, and I'm planning to get the bundle pack of Pikman 1&2 later. I DO have pikman 3, but I've never played it (sadly) and now  I don't know where it is,  so I guess I'll just have to skip that one until I find it again.

There are other games, I've been meaning to play and replay but if I were to list them here, this post would be a full scroll long. I think I'm just going to setup of a backloggery account instead, oof.

Speaking of Pikman, when I went to get my game from the garage area of my apartment, since that's where the mail boxes are. I was walking towards the garage and before I could even get near the threshold, the double doors closed on me! 

So I had to walk back outside around to the outer entrance and I had to take the side door out, since the main garage doors lead to the hallway that was closed off to me, and I heard what sounded like a big vacuum sound and I hate vacuums soo, I just opted for the side door that lead back to the outside instead. 

That's all for IRL happenings let's move on to...

Musings

This part of blog post is for me to talk about whatever peeps or concepts that have been living in my mind rent free. For some reason, I've been really focused on Riot and Overwatch, even though I dont/wont and can't play either of those games because I either find the gameplay boring or the community scares me. What Overwatch and Riot games do have common that catch my interest is VERY good character designs and interesting character stories.

I always thought it was a shame that Riot and Overwatch only stick to PVP games, and have never really branched out into RPGs or Adventure games because I think with the characters they have it would make for a pretty sick RPG/Adventure game. 

I just recently learned that alot of  (if not all of ) of the LOL skin alternates for the characters have little stories attach to them. My favorite AU from LOL so far, has to be Odyssey because I really LOVE the animated short for Odyssey Jinx and her crew. I love arcane Jinx (and Jin in general) to death, but it's always nice to know that in some universe Jinx is just other being a happy-go-lucky trigger happy hopelessly romantic lady in space. 

Looking through the LoL/Riot Wiki was able to find some more banger character skins and characters in general. Zoe is another neat LoL character who I actually learned about through a Youtube short. I like how Zoe represent  the spirit of youth and imagination, Pool Party Zoe's design looks so fun and colorful, kind of reminds me of a Polly Pocket doll. Another LoL character that caught my interest was Gwen, more specifically Cafe Cutie Gwen ( and the whole concept of Cafe Cuties). I don't know much about Gwen I just saw her Cafe Cutie Skin and I was like "I'm in love!".  I am going to look more into Gwen's story deeper to get a better understanding of her charcter  and Cafe Cutie Gwen as well, espically since I'm planning to write a story about her (and the other Riot characters I like).

Seraphine is another Riot character I like, although, I didn't like her when she first appeared on the scene on Twitter. I thought it was kind of cringe to try to pass Seraphine off as a regular average everyday girl trying to make it in the music business, even thought it was obvious this account was set up by a big business corpo, at the time I put Seraphine's account mentally next to the Wendy's and other business accounts trying pose as average everyday people that are obviously not trying to sell you something. 

Once I saw people both in the LoL community and out of the LoL community start to rag on her for being upbeat and cute, I started to soften on her a lot. I'm glad that Riot is seemingly starting to make Seraphine fit in the world of LoL better (especially since she can hear the souls of the dead screaming or something). I think Idol Seraphine can stay upbeat and quirky since that's what's an idol is suppose to be. 

As for musings from Overwatch, I'm still a big fan of D.va, Tracer, Mercy, Mai, and Lucio.  I'm thinking about writing or at least drawing something with those peeps involved, but I've also been interested in the newer members of Overwatch, Kiriko and Lifeweaver. I liked Kiriko's character short when it first drop, and I just really like Life Weaver's design overall. I like Lifeweaver's interaction with everyone, I like how he tries to stay respectful while also being witty and sometimes flirty  too.  Tbh, again I've only listen to Lifewaeaver's voice lines, and only really skimmed over his character bio on the wiki, and its been a min since I've watch Kiriko's short and I haven't really took the time to read her wiki yet. So, if it seems like my observations of these characters are shallow it's because...welll..they are.

But I plan to focus more on these two and other Overwatch homies because I really do want to do some stories and drawings featuring them, same with the Riot characters, too.

Oh, I've never mentioned this on here before, but since I'm talking about MMO/Multiplayer games, A few months ago I got a sudden kick to really try to understand the lore and characters of Talesrunners, an old runner MMO that was shut down YEARS ago stateside, but is still kicking on the eastern front. I manage to find a whole wiki that's roughly translated into English that goes over all the arch of the game's story up to this point. I managed to find a English Talesrunner's private server, so I'm on there too for both nostalgia and recon for stories and drawings.

The story and lore for Talesrunners is way DEEPER than I thought, and I think I'm going to make a whole sperate post on it when I finally caught to the current day narrative of the story, so that's all I'm going to say for now..

OH, OH, OH ONE LAST THING! I've started kind of getting into Listen X audios/ASMRS or at least like one Listener X Audio /ASMR, and that one is Finn The Florist by Yuurivoices. Now, I don't really like ASMRS as like a genre of audio stuff I guess, I mean closest I come to is Lo-fi music and color noise audios, and MAYBE people reading bedtime stories (but that's it). 

Alot of the boyfriend/girlfriend ASMR kind of make me want to crawl into my skin and NEVER come out, but I find Finn The Florist's audio to be actually enjoyable. I guess its because the character of Finn kind of gets flushed out each and every audio, so he becomes less of an archetype and more of an actually character the listener can start to care  about, instead of just flat one shot character.

I've even started to some ideas for fics and drawings of this boy, and have read some fics featuring him from time to time.  I made a whole new OC just for Finn to bounce off of. Listening to the ASMRs I've realized that I really really enjoy when two characters are able to bounce off one another, and a major problem I have with ASMRs X List enter audios is that there's no second party to bounce off of---I mean I know I'm suppose to be the character to bounce stuff off of but I guess I just find it a bit awkward. 

Anyways, I made a new OC for Finn to bounce off of and that's that.

Projects

In terms of projects, I've recently finished I've FINALLY finished the virtual toy set, Cutie Critter Picnic. It came out pretty good, I didn't think the visuals look good until it all came together in Wick editor. I was going to use Adobe animate, but that just go too complex so I went back to using Wick editor. The part of the project I'm really proud of this sound on and sound off button, it really bugged me in my last game projects there wasn't a way to turn the sound off. Its not like the music was bad or anything,  I just want a sound off function to be an option for those who seek it.

Link to game is here

I'm still cont. my art study thing with Trigun, I've decided I should stick to just drawing single art pieces for now instead of jumping into making comics. I recently reworked the way I draw Meryl and it came out pretty good, my previous version of  Meryl looked really baby faced, which isn't so bad, but I wanted her to look both cute AND mature. I think I was able to accomplish that in this sketch....

I've drawn Wolfwood recently too, but I think I'm going to try again ONE more time, same with Vash. I want to try again, so I can make myself my own personal character sheet like a lot of fanartist do for characters they draw alot in their own style.  It makes good proportion and character design pratice. I still have a bunch of T-gun related ideas, not just comics, but some animatics as well, but I wouldn't be able to make those in good conscience until I'm more able to draw the homies accurately (at least in my own style).

Oh, yeah, I'm still working on my own personal Vash The Stampede model in blender,  I've gotten the body down using the Lucky 8 base made by Kaikaya. I'm on the hair part, and I'm almost done with the blender anime hair tutorial I found on Youtube.   I got the mesh done, I just need to do some UV mapping and texturing.  I want to more like 3 or 2 more  anime hair models before I do Vash's hair, just to make sure I got it!

This is just the hair the tutorial helps you make, again its just practice.

I've gotten some ideas to do some goofy comics with BG3, I've not that confident to try and draw in the BG3 style, so I just settle  with a chibi Mysims style, which I think fits better with the vibe I'm going for. 

STILL  I think I need to work on practicing drawing the characters in this form before jumping into something like a comic, even though I've already have started a comic ( but it tbh it does look a little wonky, ngl).

The last project thing, I'm trying to start taking my writing more seriously. I've never really thought of myself as writer, like EVER mostly due to my poor handwriting  and my dyslexia, but this notion was only beaten into me by the school system, and like what the greats always say "Put faith in your self, not the system!". So, I'm going to try to take a more standard approach to my writing, like actually plan stuff out instead of just going ham on a page or a document.  That's why I mentioned earlier about being super interested in the Riot and Overwatch characters' stories because I want to practice some of my writing using characters I like/ are interested in (basically go back to making more fanfiction, but this time with more tact.)

I have a bunch of original characters who I could use for writing practice too, I'm not gonna leave those homies out, no way! Its just that with like the Overwatch and Riot characters I don't have to think about it THAT much because everything about the character is like right there in the wiki.

I've found some writing blogs with some pretty decent writing advice, and found some YouTube vids that actually help with writing (instead of just going off about the aesthetic and vibes of being a writer).

I really feel like I could make some big moves to my writing, so I'm actually pretty excited about this!

(This is gonna be SUPER ironic and comical  if this post is filled with spelling and grammar mistakes!) 

  As per usual, my fear of having a short bear post remain unfounded as it should, that's about all the stuff I could think of in terms of what's up with me.

Until next time later days