One of these was long overdue, but better late than never.

First off, I'm quite impressed that there's nearly a quarter thousand of fans here. Maybe it's because of Twitter falling apart that it mobilized people in here, but still. Thanks!

Like last year, Summer was planned as a time for me to open commissions. However, something happened in April that would shift my focus as of late: I've been accepted into a graduate school.

This meant a lot of moving, paperwork and working to pay off some of the upcoming costs. Does this mean that I'm going through another hiatus like last year for study reasons? God no. And I'll give my best shot on making sure it doesn't happen again. If you noticed me experimenting with simpler artstyles and sketches, it's because of that. I didn't want to go through another hiatus and I hope this hobby remains unscathed by my future lifestyle changes. Getting a PharmD is hard and it'll definitely require a lot of energy from me, but I believe I have not only the ability, but the necessity to keep creating.

That being said, I hope this contextualizes my work for the past months and in the future. I'll be unavailable for a bit until the end of August while I I settle down in my new apartment.

If everything goes by smoothly, there's a chance I'll open commissions for September.

Don't count that as a promise though.

Anyways, you might've noticed a lot of Skullgirls fanart this year. Part of the reason is due to this year being 10 years since I started drawing. And now I'm revisiting my first inspirations to gain some sort of...closure? I dunno. Sentimentalism I guess. Skullgirls is directly the reason I started drawing and revisiting it gives me a sense of how far I've gone. And I just like drawing Valensoul a lot, I guess.

But that's just part of the reason. I've been working hard yet posting less of it as of late (as unlikely as that may seem). I'm working on a commission turned passion project with a friend. How is this relevant is that it's a Valensoul comic. That's right. Most of my fanart up to this point has been practice for a bigger project.

I've been hinting at it on other socials, but now that both the script and storyboard are complete and I'm getting ready to draw the final pages, I feel much confident in announcing it here. That being said, I'm not gonna share much more information other than It's a Valensoul comic, it's niche but I think a specific subgroup of my followers will like it very much and don't expect it to be released for a good couple of months, more so now that I have to balance it with my student life.

TL;DR

I'm moving for academic reasons which might affect my output, but I'll make sure my best to keep doing what I like. Once all falls into place and I'm well accomodated, I might open commissions. I'm also making a one-off comic with a friend, and it's going nicely. I might disappear for a while until late-august, but not much more than that. My work means a lot to me and I don't want to take another hiatus.

Thanks for sticking around. I'll see you in a couple of weeks.

I should’ve done this news post a long time ago to displace the previous one about my hiatus, since it’s not relevant anymore. I finally got through my semester and published both of my scientific articles two weeks ago. I wanted to write here as soon as I finished, but I underestimated how much I needed a break. Good to see all people who follow me are still around.

First off, I really realized how much this hobby means to me. Turns out the best way to get yourself out of an art rut is to see how miserable your life would be without it. The break also gave me the opportunity to clear my head to make room for new ideas. Distancing myself from social media and keeping myself from being terminally online also did wonders for my attention span. I wouldn’t go as far as to recommend taking a hiatus from art since going back to drawing right from the cold is quite painful. But self-moderation can be beneficial for your health and routine. Make sure you do other things like breath air, touch grass, pet your cat, etc.

As for art, I have nothing to show. I have been extremely busy the whole semester and just wanted to take a whole breather to enjoy Christmas. The work last semester was quite intense, and I’m amazed I somehow aced the whole thing. I haven’t drawn anything substantial, and I’ve had a hard time getting back to work, as expected. I look forward towards reopening commissions, but I currently have zero workflow and motivation going on, so I will make works for myself for a couple of weeks before getting back to business. I hope to reopen commissions by next month. No promises, though.

Speaking of personal works, I had a mild revelation while on my hiatus. I have mixed feelings about my work this year. I got good at making scenes, backgrounds, adding character and likeability to my work. And opening commissions was a massive step forward that I could only dream of at the start of this year. But as a fan-artist, I didn’t cover much of my interests. I repeated the same characters, franchises and themes. I drew the same things because it was easier to rely on my muscle memory. I was lazy and the result was a lot more drawings that overlap each other.

On my time off, I looked back my old works. And I mean OLD works. Ones that I never posted in my active sites and lie collecting dust in a manila folder in shelf somewhere in my closet. I realized that there was something I lost along my artistic journey. A certain…carelessness? My old self had no expectations on my own art, and I would draw just about anything without worrying about quality. As long as I was doing something, it was good enough for me. The work was erratic and portrayed pretty much anything I was thinking about at the moment. Even if they were just a couple of crappy pencil drawings, I miss spontaneity of those older works. I even had a couple of OCs! I never draw OCs nowadays!

The issue became clear when I opened my projects and saw folder of WiPs: dozens of unfinished projects dating as far back as two years ago. It’s the first thing I see when I open the software. Every time I looked at it, I felt obliged to complete them, rarely starting something new even when I had something new in mind. Ideas from years ago clutter my workspace and hence my mind. I end up drawing over the strokes I made months ago, unable to move on to new things. So, I made a solution: All of my WiPs have been deleted. Nothing remains from previous years (except for one work that was near completion). I can finally start next year fresh, with no load whatsoever. If there was any idea worth visiting in those deleted works, it will come back to me. Believe me.

Next year will be special for me. It will be 10 years ever since I started practicing art. It’s the year for me to show what ten years of practice, observation and sharing have brought me to. I want a change of tone on my art. Once again, I’m setting off to try new things. I don’t like making promises like these as I rarely follow up on them, but I’m eager to see what’s next. These last couple of months have put into perspective that I’m capable of so much more.

Oh yeah. About Twitter. I have been following the whole mess while in my absence. As much as I hate that site, as well as most other mainstream social media, and hope to god that we can someday move to greener pastures, I like the people that I met there. Truth is I don’t get to be in charge. It doesn’t matter how many ToS changes they make, I have to be where the people are. So, I am staying ‘til the end. It is a lukewarm take, but what else can I say. Let’s just hope they backpedal on their crappy decisions. If they don't, well, you know where to find me. As for other social site alternatives, I'm not planning on opening new ones just yet; I want to see which of the new emerging sites stick with people before adding another site for me to deal with.

And that's about everything that I had to say. It was quite a difficult few months, but everything went as I wanted it to. And I'm so glad I get to do what I like once again. Thanks for sticking around and being fans of my work. The support I get from friendly strangers on the internet is something I never thought about two years ago, let alone when I started my artistic journey. In the meantime, I’ll keep going at my own pace with excitement for the future.

Happy Holidays, everyone.

I've finally completed my commissions and don't have anything else to upload here in the near future. So I'm all set to make the announcement: I'm taking a hiatus. Yup. I'm taking a break. This means I'm gonna take a break from occupying myself with my accounts and from posting art. As to why I've taken this decision, it's a combination of reasons that lead to ultimately not having as much time, energy nor motivation to post anything.

Firstly, it's because of my academic career. I'm currently completing a master's degree, and I'm currently doing two seperate scientific investigations. Simultaneously. This means I have to dedicate a lot of time to reading articles and performing actual lab research. Which is a cool experience, but that's not the point. These courses require my full attention and have already taken a toll on my posting schedule. My latest commissioners had to wait since mid-August to get their drawings! In addition to that, I'm also applying for a part-time job as a tutor, so taking commissions could be less of a necessity for me at the moment. Even if I do manage to get the hang of the semester (as I always do) and find time to draw, I'd rather do it for my own leisure instead of adding more to my workload.

Then there's a another whole face of the problem: I'm facing what could be the worst and most depressing burnout I've ever experienced. I can't even pinpoint it to a single cause. One of them is that I don't feel compelled by my style anymore. It has become repetitive and stagnant. My brushes and strokes lack any texture and it looks too clean to be interesting. So in a recent artwork I decided to revamp my methodology. The result was mind-opening as to the possibilities of how I could evolve that it put me in the realization of just how little I knew about drawing. And having that realization while you have some commissions pending is fucking terrifying.

But I think what really bothers me is that I've somehow lost touch with my interests. My art is mostly fanart, a way to share my interests as I present them in a transformative light. But I feel like I've been drawing so much that I haven't dedicated time to anything else and I've run out of things to take from but from my artwork itself. So I end up in a constant feedback loop of brainrot, revisiting the same themes, works, characters, etc. I don't feel like my art is representative of me yet, and even less now that I've somehow forgotten the things I liked(??????). It sounds crazy, but I cannot describe it any other way. It's some identity crisis type of shit.

So, how is a hiatus supposed to help with this? Well, firstly, more time for university and related responsibilities. It can give me more flexibility for managing my time, because now I have more of it, obviously. And secondly, I can take more to revisit my interests in my free time. Revisiting old media and inspirations is the first thing that comes to mind. And this can give me the motivation to try new techniques and aesthetics in my methodology. Remember, the hiatus means that I stop posting, not that I stop drawing. I want to stop thinking about my profiles and social media for a while so I can deliver to my original and true target audience: myself.

So yeah! That's it. As to when will this hiatus end, that depends on how I perform, both in drawing and real life responsibilities. I hope to comeback for the holidays, that this is all just a brief hiccup in my hobby and that I'll be good as new when the time comes. But for now, I'm gonna take things slowly, one day at a time. This is for my well-being.

Oh and the account is grayscale now. It's kinda like representative of the stasis this account is, which is pretty trippy.

Well...Bye!

Haven't posted in the news for a while outside of commission sheets. I've looked at a news post back in February stating everything that i wanted to get done this year. It kinda works as a reminder for how I perceived my progress back in the day. I've decided to revisit it since the current situation seems to be relevant for each one of them:

• Returning to using Clip Studio. I kinda did??? I uploaded an artwork done in CSP after years of not using it and it got a satisfying reaction. And there are one or two WiPs lying somewhere around on this desktop. That being said, CSP switching to a membership payment seems really unappealing to me. So I'm either going to keep using version 1.x (which isn't a problem for me; I often forget to update CSP at all) or consider switching to another program. I do think CSP's interface has forced me into a single style and streamlined my process of drawing. Switching programs might force me into think outside the box and develop my style into something new. That being said, I see myself still using Procreate for a long time from now. Working on tablet just feels nice. :)

• Spending more time on my art. This year has been wild for me in terms of evolution. I feel like there are solid differences between my works this year and the ones from last year. I think it's due to the fact that I've decided to sink more time into artworks. The more notable change is that I've started drawing more backgrounds, often inspired by and using references from videogames or just referencing landscapes in general. I actively sought out to draw characters in a setting and make it feel as if they were located somewhere as opposed to just standing in the void. I also pushed myself to doing interesting perspectives and lighting, even trying out new methods of drawing. I don't think I've peaked at all. In fact, it feels me with somewhat of an existential dread that, despite having been drawing for nearly 10 years, there's such an unfathomable amount of stuff that I don't know and even more stuff that I don't know that I don't know. But I can take comfort in the thought that becoming better is within my reach.

• Setting up commissions. If you asked me last year to set up commissions, I would've just panicked. I didn't have enough confidence in my work to sell it nor knowledge to sell anything online. Turns out I only needed some research, some price comparisons and bust some hours designing some a commission sheet. Even then, the main takeaway was that I would've never felt completely ready for it; I would learn how to work as I went along. And the outcome was way better than expected! Me and a lot of friends that have been supporting me on this have been surprised with how many commissions have been coming in, slowed down only by slot restrictions! I've also noticed that I have captured the attention of some giantess fanatics, taking a considerable amount of the commissions I worked on. I wouldn't particularly call myself a GTS artist, it's merely just one of my suits, not my whole focus. And I don't think my approach to it overlaps much with that of the community's interest as a whole. It hasn't been a problem though! So far, my clients have been very nice and shown a lot of shared interests! This is truly the best case scenario!

In the big picture, although I've had many personal frustrations and disappointments this year, I'm glad to realize that my art isn't one of them and it's actively developing, even if slowly.

Also you might notice that the previous News Posts about commissions have been deleted. That is because I just realized there's literally a section in the Newgrounds profile dedicated for a commission page. I should've looked harder.

That being said, I'm not setting it up just yet; my slots are full and all of them are very complex works. I prefer to not open more slots after I have all of them cleared, and I'll most likely only open two of them to keep it manageable. I previously said I would finish it by mid-September, but recent developments in my academic pursuits have significantly trimmed down the time I have to dedicate to drawing. I don't wanna bore you about it, just know that it requires a lot of scientific reading and research. Because of this, I've been pretty sluggish at my current commissions and I'm pretty sure my current clients have noticed. If my clients are reading this, sorry! I think about your commissions everyday and try to get some time to inch forward, but I can only prioritize it so much! Regardless, you're free to ask for updates on my DMs if you wish!

And that's it, I think. It's currently 11pm and my mind feels pretty numb. Again thank you all for choosing to engage with my work. Really keeps me motivated seeing people interested!

Having visualized this account as an archive for my work, a journal of sorts and a nexus for my other accounts, I wasn't expecting to make many fans over here. But it's really exciting to see 100 people, who which are actively interested in online creative works, decide that I'm worth keeping an eye on.

Thank you very much!

A few days late to write about it, but it has now been a full year since I made this account! Last time I posted a log I was still testing this thing, since I still wasn't sure where exactly to make my art public. Over time, this site has proved to be a source of inspiration and a motivator to keep doing what I do. The energy of many creators here is simply that contagious. Not to mention, it's also a nice place to take a break from the overload that my other social site have.

Last year was a pretty good for my art and I've been thinking what I could do differently this year:

• Returning to using Clip Studio. I have been using Procreate for the last two years. Although drawing in a portable device is definitely a plus, I think my desktop is a better workplace. Not to mention drawing from my desk instead of my bed is probably better for my back and sleep schedule.

• Spending more time on my art. I don't mean more time overall; my stamina and other responsibilities wouldn't allow it. I mean spending more time per artwork. I've been getting more comfortable in spending more time per artworks lately. That World ★-7 artwork took +20 hours and some of last year's drawings have more elements to their composition than what I was used to. I want to see how my composition improves if I just push myself a bit further each time.

• Setting up commissions is definitely part of my plans at this point. I have been suggested to do so by friends and strangers alike and I definitely feel ready for it. Unfortunately, I've been facing some technical issues with doing transactions 'cause apparently PayPal behaves weirdly if you live in Puerto Rico or somethin'. Merely making online transactions is a chore. So that's an issue that I have to settle.

Anyways, just wanted to drop some thoughts about what I've done and will do.

Getting back to work!

Starting today, I have run out of fingers in my body to count all of you.

Wow! 10 days already? That was...quite slow actually.

Although I haven't made anything new yet, I'm pretty satisfied at the rate I'm uploading. I'm considering editing the works again to include a Spanish translation (I like to keep my accounts bilingual) and the caption from when it was originally posted.

Also I don't think all my works are worth making them their own posts and much less putting them up at the art portal. So I'm thinking about uploading old works by bundling them up in their own gallery posts (the site allows 10 images in the description per post) and marking them as sketches, thus making it more efficient and less spammy.

Finally, just wanted to remember this gallery is still relatively empty compared to other social sites I currently run. So check out the links in my profile if you're interested!

Alright. I'll get back to work now.

Hey! Welcome to my new gallery! It's pretty empty at the moment as you can see. I have been drawing as a hobby for a couple of years now, but this is the first time I use an art-oriented website. Starting this year, I'll start recording my artwork and fanarts on this site. Uploading my old works seems unrealistic at the moment since there are hundreds of them and only a handful of them are worth sharing here, so I'll primarily focus on uploading new works and I'll just make it up as I go.

Whether you come from my previous social sites or you just found me while lurking this site, hope you enjoy my work! 'Cause really that's the whole point there is to it.