Desk Space Paintings (WIP)
If youāre not interested in hearing me ramble on, skip to the bottom for the important stuff.
Itās been quite a while since the last time I posted any art, so I decided to share a work-in-progress photo of my current major project. Since around the end of May of last year, Iāve been gradually chipping away at this: a collection of three canvas painting that are set up to decorate the space behind my computer desk. The two smaller ones on the left are 16āx12ā, and the one on the right is a sizeable 18āx24ā (ie 2ft tall).
Around the time that I started work on them, I had discovered TwoKinds and its creator Tom through some YouTube videos in my home feed. I really like the character designs and the comicās (modern) artstyle, and was inspired to make the paintings based off of Flora (top) and Kathrin (bottom). I crossed this idea over with wanting to create something based on Elden Ring, a game which at the time I was extremely eager to play and have recently finished up to the DLC. I decided, with the little information that I knew about the two then, to draw Flora as Melina and Kathrin as Ranni the Witch, since they were the ones that stood out to me most. (I ended up doing my first playthrough of ER as a mage, so I figured going for Age of the Stars was thematically appropriate.) The other large canvas is dedicated to the other game that has been at the top of my wishlist for over 6 years at this point, which is Hollow Knight: Silksong. Itās a full, environmental recreation of the Moss Grotto, the first area of the game, and if you look closely you should be able to see Hornet in the middle of the sketch. Iāve been extra eager to work on and complete this one now that we seem to have definitive confirmation of a release date in 2025, so if you would like to see that one painted first, let me know. I have been thinking about working on it first.
These have been a long time coming, and it took way, way longer than it realistically shouldāve. One of my current goals is to get more consistent with my art and shoot for doing art on a daily basis and/or setting and achieving a minimum amount of time each week to work on things. This is my passion and what I want to eventually turn into a career in the future, and showing up every day is the first and most crucial step that Iām still struggling with. On top of that, Iām also stuck with the problem of not knowing when itās time to wrap things up and move on. As someone that has been a chronic perfectionist in the past, and has been looking to break away from it, I still have the habit of identifying myself too much with a piece and feeling as though my sense of worth is riding entirely on a single drawing or painting.
I keep track of the time I spend working on stuff, both for personal reasons and as a means of gauging my progress, so when I tell you that these three canvases have already taken a combined 2 days of work - just over 48 total hours - just to reach this stage, it becomes evident to me just how much time I waste during that process. As I heard it said once before, a few years back when I began my journey of self-improvement, it is better to shoot for 70% and create art that is āgood enoughā, rather than trying to achieve a flawless 100%, as this will lead to you making a lot more art and improving faster over the long time. Or to simply quote a lyric by The Pretty Reckless: āDonāt try for perfect, itās never enoughā.
The Important Stuff
So to recap: Iām working on these three paintings for the wall space behind my PC desk, two based on Elden Ring using characters from the web comic TwoKinds, one for the game Silksong that Iāve been waiting since 2019 to play. I need to get better at doing art more consistently and not spending so much time on every single piece, as itās both a hindrance my growth as an artist and a drain on my motivation.
That brings me onto the final topic I want to mention. I recently started my first job, and Iāll receive my first paycheck this week. I plan on using some of it to get myself a new monitor and a keyboard and mouse in order to put together a setup for gaming as well as another hobby that I would like to get into, which is streaming. Iāve never streamed before, but I want to get into it as a means of sharing the games Iām currently playing and also to share my journey of creating art. I plan on streaming the entire process of painting all three of these canvases drawings, and I welcome you to come and watch if youāre interested in seeing how each of them turns out. If you are, tell me which one youād like to see finished first, as I already know exactly how I want each one to look and am willing to work on whichever one is the most popular.
I donāt know exactly how streaming will work just yet, but I plan on doing them on my days off from work, which are Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, and itāll probably be somewhere in the afternoon going into the later evening, where there wonāt be much to interrupt me. Once Iāve got my equipment shipped and set up, Iāll make a post on here to state when my first stream will be happening.