has it been 2 years?

felt like I needed to add some art to this post, so here is a sketch

I guess it shouldn't surprise me; I know I've not done an art post in a long time.  But I didn't think it'd been since 2017.
There is so much going on in my life right now; that should be obvious from the lack of updates.  I thought today I'd do a brief post updating this with that is going on.

1) I'm going to do the A to Z challenge again this year.  I'm not 100% sure what my theme will be yet; something art related (obs lol)  I'll do a post March 18th to declare exactly what my theme will be this year.

2) I'm going to graduate from UvU this Spring!! which is great... only took 4 years longer than I initially planned... of course I've had 3 kids while in school so that's the reason it has taken so long lol.

3) I'm going to have a BFA show..... soon... I'm hoping to know in a week or 2 exactly when and where that'll be.

4) did I mention that I have 3 kids?? The youngest is 2.5 so I suppose I've probably talked about her before.  I did not think that the jump from 2 to 3 would be so life changing, but it has been.  The crazy thing?  I actually would love to have 1 or 2 more.

5) we're finally starting to seriously look at buying our first house! By the end of the summer we're hoping to be 100% moved in and settled.  Well at least we should have all of our stuff in our home.

6) I'm seriously starting my freelance business this year.  I've actually already completed a rather large commission; that's all I'm going to say about that for now- I'll have a longer post on that in April or May.

7) I'm going to be in a college sponsored trade show this month.  more on that later.

I'm sure there are other things going on.  This month I'm going to be dusting this thing off and using it more.  I want to move the blog away from blogspot eventually; but for now it is going to live here.  I'm building 2 websites; one for my portfolio and one for my freelance stuff.  Those should be finished by the 25th of March. By the end of this month I should have a good update schedule for my social media stuff.  I'm planning on doing the youtube channel again, but not until May; and not regularly until after we move.  I'm also going to start a Patreon or a Subscribe Star thing.  I'm still working out the details for that.

I think this year is going to be amazing.  It's already started out pretty good.

That's it for now!
Alicia

T is for Toad

... and Toadette!
This is my least favorite drawing so far... Mostly because I only had about 30 minutes to draw it; and it looks like a 10 minute drawing... For such simple character designs these two are deceptively difficult to draw.
I like the idea of it; maybe I'll play with it again.
I'd feel bad; but all of these are pretty rough sketches.  You can also tell as you go through them which things I'm better at drawing...

I don't totally hate it, but I also don't like it.

I hope for the reflections post that I'll have time to go over ALL of these sketches and makke  them look a little more done.  'cause right now they are embarrassing.

~Alicia

S is for Spyro...

This is another kids game one, because I was thinking of doing Solid Snake from Metal Gear Solid, then realized I didn't have that kind of time lol.
Outside of Skylanders, which I bought to play with my son, I haven't played any Spyro games, I've alwayys thought they they looked like fun, but have never played one.
I did my best with reference from google, he's not quite right, but meh.

Also I realized today I'm apparently a day off, probably why I always feel behind...

~Alicia

R is for Rikku

Yet ANOTHER final fantasy character.  What can I say? They are fun to draw :)
I'm noticing as I keep going back to the Final Fantasy franchise for characters to draw that they re-use a lot of character design ideas.  Aeith, Rikku andd Quistis all have pretty similar designs, part of that of course is just the style that Final Fantasy games have, but I still find it interesting that they re-use so much.  I guess that could be said of any series that wants to maintain a certain appearnce.

SO here is Rikku.

I've been having a hard time drawing lately, not just finding time but liking anything that I've drawn.  To be totally honest I'm not happy with this one at all... BUT I've also not been posting so I need to just post even though things aren't up to the standard I wish they were.  Only way to make that happen is to keep drawing and keep posting... my problem is being out of practice more than anything else.

~Alicia

K is for Kirby

So this isn't my best sketch ever, I had a hard time with the letter K so settled on a character my kids love.  Surprisingly it is very difficult to draw a circle freehand... and since Kirby's design is just a big circle... oh well my daughter will enjoy it.

I was also experimenting with some new markers I have, 'Spectrum Aqua' they are a water based marker, which is different from the alcohol based I'm used to.  I want to play with them a bit more on something less pink.  :D

If you don't know the games he is from, just google him he'll come up.  The one my kids play is Kirby Super Star and of course Smash Brothers.

well here it is:

~Alicia

J is for Jaina Proudmoore

I'd like to finish this past the initial sketch period, but even as it stands I really like how it came out.

Jaina is a rather important character in the Warcraft series.  She's been fascinating to watch through the series from when she first appeared (Warcraft 3 I believe) to who she is now in the MMO World of Warcraft.  She's a character with surprising depth.  I find myself loving and hating her at different moments in the story, which I think makes her a pretty decent character.

I don't really have much more to say about it.

~Alicia

A to Z challenge update

MAN I'm AWESOME at this.

Ok; so I've actually been drawing *nearly* every day for this challenge, but I do the initial sketch in a non-photo blue pencil.  Like the name suggests... it doesn't show up very well by itself.  So I have a few unfinished sketches that need to be inked. 

I now have most of my computer desk set up in my office, and I have space on the desk to draw. So that'll help me get on task.

This:

will also help me stay on task.  One of my greatest difficulties in getting anything done is I don't have a great place for the baby while I work.  Today I came up with the idea of using her highchair on my desk, so she can play and be close by while I draw.  We'll see how it works but I'm optimistic! (it's a corner desk, so that gives me more space than a normal desk, I was going to use the spot she's in for something else, but honestly giving up the space is OK if it means I can draw) 

Oh and don't freak out about the screen, it's been moved since this picture... lol

I'm going to play catch up this week, so probably two posts a day for a little while, but I'll post date the old ones and link them to the proper letters on the main a to z blog/fb page

~Alicia