Chaos, Exhaustion and a Win

UTTER CHAOS!!!!

Or at least that's what everything feels like right now. My health is still all wonky and causing issues. Being more careful about what I eat, avoiding cross-contamination and etc has been a thorn in the side but it's going strong. I can't really say it's improved anything but at least I can be sure what I eat is safe. I always have a snack bag with me now for when we go out so if I can't find something to eat I at least won't starve. It's not fun but it works.

I saw my doctor to hopefully get some help and I had to have all these tests done. Go figure. It wasn't fun, and of course none of the tests gave us any answers for my issues. So now I get to have more tests. Hello colonoscopy! Here I come! I'm not looking forward to this.

Event season is ramping up even more and oh boy have I been busy. Between preparing for events, travel to events and the events themselves I haven't had much time to work on art projects unfortunately. It's been frustrating but I'm trying not to be too hard on myself. I'm not going to work myself to death doing 12 hour days. Everyone progresses at their own pace and due to my health my pace is just a little slower. Once event season dies down I'll have all the time in the world to create more art. Or at least that's the theory. Fingers crossed it works out that way.

Friends and family are all vaccinated (most are at least) and wanting to hang out and get together. When most of my events are on weekends and then week days are used for prepping and creating it makes it a touch difficult to get together. Creating new art and preparing for events is tiring both physically and mentally but events tire me out even more. It's like I get this adrenaline high during events and as soon as it ends it disappears. I turn into a bear in desperate need of hibernation. It's not exactly easy to go to an event and then go to a friend's house later the same day. My tank is absolutely empty. Thankfully some friends and family seem to understand this but it's still hard having to turn down seeing people all the time and missing out on get togethers.

Progress on art projects was pretty minimal in June. I created some new cards which was nice. They take me a day or less to create which I love because it makes me feel at least a little accomplished. Especially when I'm working on projects that never seem to end....they know who they are.

I decided to create an official fox themed card set. I created three in May and two last month. I'm thinking seven cards in the set. I've got two more to draw but already I am absolutely in love with the set.

Let's not forget early in June I finally finished that crazy coloring page for Patreon! The deer fox was the easy part compared to all the background details.

Ali - 1

Waterfall illustration - 0

It's finally done! And it looks amazing! I am SO happy with how this turned out! I can't stop staring at it because I cannot believe that I made this. How? I didn't know I was capable of such awesomeness! I have to take the picture in to be scanned since my scanner cuts off a tiny bit oh my gods it's amazing.

Okay, okay, enough tooting my own horn. In all seriousness though, this piece was a huge test for me. It tested my patience, my sanity and my skills as an artist. Once or twice I thought I had ruined the piece and I just wanted to give up and cry. It usually happened on the days I felt really shitty or when I was up super late but I never gave up! After layer, upon layer of color, updating pen work and praying to the gods I finished it. Yay me!!

Other than that I didn't do too much last month and I have a feeling this month will be the same. I only have four or five events lined up for the month but one is a two day event and then immediately after I have a three day event so that'll be fun....and a bit rough. I just stocked up on cards and art prints so now I have to cut, fold and package everything to prepare; it'll probably take me all week. I'm sure I'll be able to create a few new cards this month it's just a matter of whether or not I'll get any larger pieces done. Fingers crossed I do. End of the month I get to take a little vacation so I'm hoping that'll inspire me a bit, give me some much needed rest and give me some time to create a new piece or two. We'll just have to wait and see what happens.