​March has certainly been a trial in productivity and I have been trying not to drown in the waves of anxiety. I've been trying to keep the depression at bay, but in the last few days I finally realized part of the reason I have been feeling so low... I haven't kept it at bay.

Not at all.

I'm focusing far too much on the news, and really need to take steps back. More so than I thought. Depression is finding a way to settle in but, thankfully, it rarely stops me from creating. I can work through it, I just need to be careful and take more breaks. Plus, I know why it's here this time.

This pandemic, and the state of the country, are making a mess of my mental space. I need find some higher ground and remember how to breathe. I'm not drowning. I'll get through it.
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We'll get through it.

Click Here to Enter!

​I'm running an art raffle on Twitter, with the draw on April 25th!

Three (3) people will win a free coloured sketch from me, of a character of their choice.
Anyone can enter! ❤

Art will be in a similar style to the image in the original post (see above). Character can be your original, an avatar from a game, or one from your favourite show or even book. Make sure to have a visual reference if you win! ✨

To Enter
⭐ Follow me on Twitter, and
⭐ Retweet this post

The Draw
⭐ April 25th 2020 at 1:00pm PDT
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Winners will be chosen randomly. 
Check it out on Twitter!

To those not on Twitter: Sorry! If there's enough interest I may hold another either on ko-fi or through my blog. Let me know if you're interested in that, or have any questions. :)

February!
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I'm sharing the February Art Update earlier this month, since I'm travelling back to Canada(!) on the 27th to celebrate my mom's birthday on the 28th. I haven't seen my parents in the year-and-a-half since I moved to California, so to say that I'm excited for this trip is an understatement.

Any art-stuff I complete during the next few days will just be bumped to March's Update, though anyone following me on social media (or Ko-fi) will get to see anything I share.

I'm not promising that I'll be posting much during the trip, though. There will be parents to bug, dogs to hang-out with, and newborn puppies to care for. (The tiniest of sub-woofers, just born on the 23rd.)

Over the end of January and beginning of February, I took on a couple commissions. At the same time, I had a few larger/long-term projects of my own. This was planned, but it left me wanting to do something else after a long week of working.

The result was a 20-30 minute sketch done entirely on the tablet, using ArtFlow. There was nothing in mind when I started other than "draw an elf". For a sketch, it turned out fairly well. I made a note to come back to it eventually because, while I like it the result, it doesn't capture quite what I wanted.

​Something wasn't perfect. But it would have to do, for now.

January has been a busy month. Between being a new year, starting new projects, spending a couple days recovering from a maybe-cold, and preparing my page on ko-fi (details on that, here), there has been a fair bit going on. Aside from the random-maybe-illness, it's been full of many good things!

While technically just before year-end, and therefore not completed in January, I noticed that I hadn't shared my final digital work of 2019! Major oversight.

Starting in September, I started to make some big changes.

I don't know the exact cause or the specific thing that made these changes a priority.

It is likely a culmination of things. A bunch of small pieces, perhaps insignificant on their own, that started the avalanche of creativity. Because that's what changed: the desire to create with the strength to finally do it. The want and need has always been there, lurking, but the catalyst was missing.

​And I know why it was missing. But I couldn't fix it. I didn't know how.