2023 - Recap
With the end of the year approaching, it's time for another Recap! I'm gonna be running down some of the things from last year's list too to see if I kept up with those promises, as well as updating what I HAVE done this past year.
First, Art and Collabs!:
- Around the beginning of the year, I started to try my hand a bit more with collabs to try to get comfortable making different projects and working with groups. The first one being The Friendly Frog Collab, I made a lil' pacman frog chompin' to get more animation practice in.
- Similar to last year, I did another redraw from old work I found (that shouldn't see the light of day) to see personal improvement. I drew a Sceptile back in 2015 for a DeviantArt pokemon collab, and did the redraw in April:
- There was the Eddsworld 20th Anniversary Charity Art Contest that I made a submission for. Eddsworld meant a lot to me growing up, it was the thing my friends and I bonded over at school, and it's one of the main reasons I started becoming more interested in art and animation.
(And if I remember right when I was making this, I believe I made it so if you basically took a line and went over the image from left to right, all the characters show up (loosely) in episode appearance order)
- This one's a pretty big milestone for me, I was commissioned for some streamer merch design work! If you've seen some of my art posts, I've made some GTA V roleplay fanart. A few twitch streamers I watched started playing and I got hooked and found a lot of different communities. And after posting a bit of them, over the summer one of the streamers I watch, Spaceboy, was interested and reached out to me to do a few designs for his merch!
(Also on a pretty personal but jokey note, both times I was approached; I had genuinely thought of dropping art completely moments before being messaged)
- Recently the Snowman Collab dropped and I made a GIF for it, take a look at everyone's work! I had a lot of fun working on it and also learned the pain of GIFs limitations.
- I made a trailer using @durinde's audio "Santa Clogs" for the NGTV Christmas Collab, and the collab should be out in the coming days! I also took part in this year's Sketch Collab which should also be out soon.
Whew! I think that should cover just about everything, now onto:
Second, 2023's Goals Completed
- Draw more Original Art (Technically Beat?): Looking at my art page, I technically have more original art than fan art, but only by a slim margin.
- Work on Improving my Artwork (50/50): I think I improved in some areas, I think my backgrounds have gotten slightly better (because they're not just a single solid color) and animation-wise I'm starting to shake off the 'doing it wrong mentality' and am much more willing to experiment trying to get something to look how I want. Overall it feels like only slight improvements, but progress is progress.
- Work on/Properly flesh out some stories (Mission Failed, we'll get em' again next time)
- Stream more on Twitch (Complete): I've been streaming on twitch to get comfortable sharing my work/WIPs, and also as a way to get used to being more open online/social media.
- Getting more involved with the Newgrounds Community (Complete): I managed to join and complete way more collabs than last year, and plan to keep up that trend. I've also posted a bit more in the forums than previously.
Overall? 3.5/5 isn't too bad, but I hope to up that for next year.
Speaking of:
Third, 2024 - Planning
- Art Improvement: Always try to be just a bit better than last year, more self-study and accepting being uncomfortable with a new approach. And after that struggle I'll have a better understanding of what I'm missing and can make better work.
- Other creative pursuits: I've been thinking of learning about making games as another type of project to work on. It was the kind of pipe-dream thing different friends of mine would think up throughout the years. Maybe it's time to finally act on that.
- Original Art & Stories (for the love of God): Man I seriously need to up original works. I didn't fully check out how much I haven't done in my art page until recently, and I do not nearly have as much I thought I did for this year. I've been working through some mental health stuff and believe I'm in a better head space to make things, and hopefully make them consistently.
- Keep Streaming: Streaming on twitch helps me stay focused on certain tasks and I plan to continue doing that for the following year. Stop by if you want to chat or just hang out.
- More Newgrounds Events: If those doors are open, I'm walking in. A lot of the collabs I recently joined have been a lot of fun and hopefully there'll be more for me to join in the future.
- Professional Work: I've been looking for full-time work and haven't been having the best time. Hopefully I'm able to keep making things in my spare time or better yet, find work related to art, I'm not too sure what will happen with this in the future, but here's hoping.
Also wanted to say I hit 62 fans as of this moment! Thanks for enjoying the stuff I make, and I hope that next year I'll have even better things to show!