Q1+Q2 Report
Hey, happy July! We’ve made it halfway through the year, and my birthday’s this month. 🎂 I accidentally missed doing a Q1 report, so I’ll lump that in with this post too.
Honestly, I haven’t been doing too well. Mentally, that is. Depression and loneliness dance together and make it difficult to do much of anything. It means much of my time is spent clawing back whatever moments I can toward feeling a little more like a person and less like a failure. Lately, that’s come to mean following the World Cup and sketching as a match plays on TV. I’ve been limited to spanish-language coverage as well, which I think has really improved the entire experience. I may not understand what they’re saying, but I can get the vibes, and truly, all I need to know is GOOOOOL!
So, recovery’s been the theme for this year. I took something of a break for the first quarter, but finishing up my earlier queue at the start of the year was a happy accomplishment, and it let me focus on other things until I was ready to return to comms and personal art.
I’ll admit I was unhappy with the lack of personal sketches in earlier months, but I think I was still pressuring myself to prep for finished pieces. Only around mid-April did I remind myself of two things: 1) none of these have to be “finished”—one of your resolutions for the year is explicitly to focus on sketches; 2) let yourself draw what you’re in the mood for, and don’t wait to get an idea down if you have one on your mind.
Because of this, I’ve managed to get down a number of character concepts and refs, some that have been around in some form or other for years. And allowing myself some grace has meant I get more art of my characters, even if they’re not cleaned up. Sometimes it seems folks prefer the sketches over the finished art anyway.
God, I’m so excited to draw more of these two.
On the topic of sketches, I’ve been happy to finally start setting up YCH comms. This has long been something I’ve wanted to do for several reasons—sketching has always been one of the more intensive steps of art for me, so having a point ready to jump off from really mitigates that issue; there are ideas I want to draw, but don’t have characters to use for them; and I feel it offers a fair middle ground to folks that might want a comm but either don’t have a concrete idea in mind or don’t have the budget for a full custom piece.
I have been somewhat surprised by the apparent enthusiasm for sketchpage commissions. If I sit and think on why, it shouldn’t be hard to figure out, but, well, I suppose I’m still just surprised when there’s any interest in commissioning me at all. I am very used to flying under the radar, and I’ve always been a slower artist, but I appreciate everyone that’s taken a chance with me.
I suppose, too, I can set up a loose set of aims for the third quarter.
Q3 quest list:
◻︎ Commissions (5/6/11) - That’s queued/in-progress/total. Three of those are YCH pieces that need to be inked, then two that are in the final cleanup/render stages, and one last full colour piece. Every piece waiting to get started is a sketch or sketchpage. Surprised as I am for the interest in them, I’m grateful to fill my queue with sketches, as they’re much lower stress. A reminder that folks can always check my queue over on Trello.
◻︎ Character concepts and refs - There’s a whole cast of folks in Aster’s canon that could do with refs, the leading ones in progress being Dante and Cluaran. And of course, with those two, Thalia and Coinneach have been deserving of newer refs. Aside from them, I have a couple of dragons I’m eager to do things with. Hopefully I can introduce them sooner rather than later.
◻︎ Personal illustrations - These are always the first to get pushed out if I lack the time or energy to work at my computer, but I have five pieces I’d like to finish up this quarter, a few intended specifically as birthday treats. It would be great to finish something for myself at least. I’m afraid the last time I did that was September of last year.
Thank you, take care.
– Léo
These past quarters, I…
read: Crossroads of Ravens by Andrzej Sapkowski; The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer; A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms by George R. R. Martin
watched: Ladyhawke (1985); Stray Dog (1949); Goat (2026); Shakespeare in Love (1998); Project Hail Mary (2026)
listened to: The Last Time Over Stillwater by The Sun Burns Bright; Reliance by Soen; Quan tot s’apagui by Syberia; Five Birds by Veigar Margeirsson & The Reykjavik Big Band; Victory Garden by Young the Giant; I Built You A Tower by Death Cab for Cutie; An Eraser And A Maze by Modest Mouse