My third DD and other goodies

It seems like DeviantArt doesn't want to let me go without a fight, huh?

A lot of you must be familiar with the frustrations and inefficiencies of Eclipse, so let's not focus on that (no matter how tempting). The fact is, I haven't been around, not on any level similar to before. That has little to do with my passion for art, or with Eclipse, as much as we love to hate it. In fact, 2020 has been so far the most productive time of my life with over one painting a month, plus countless sketches that I've been too shy to share.

But here's one for you, that I only posted on Insta:

I've also taken my first commission by the amazing Martin Nenov, who has been a joy to work with. And I have enough ideas and works in progress to last me for the next two years!

The thing is, I've been sick. Not sick and tired, though maybe a bit tired, too, but mainly sick. I've been diagnosed with a sort of chronic condition that really screwed with my illusion of invincibility. Not life-threatening and hopefully reversible, so don't freak out too much (I've done enough of freaking out for all of us, believe me).

It started in April 2019 and it's been a full year before we even knew what it was, let alone what to do about it. As you can probably imagine, the race through doctors, all the medication with its side effects, the freaking Corona scare (some of you may know that I'm basically a front line worker, too), it really took a toll.

It forced me to set priorities.

A lot of days that's just been keeping myself awake yet distracted from the pain with some video game. Others I've managed to paint quite a bit. Much of it has been about managing stress and fear. Among all of this, I have neglected a lot of people. I have neglected dA. Socializing altogether.

And this is why I am all the more grateful for the people who have stuck by me and continue to follow my work and brighten my day with encouragement, despite that. It's one of the things that keep me fueled and has kept me from leaving dA altogether.

Because there goes @@lovelessdevotions again featuring another one of my works, and seeing what amazing artists she champions regularly (seriously, if you aren't following her showcase blog  https://thecollectibles.tumblr.com/ what are you doing with your life?), I can't help but feel that little bit more confident, that little bit more successful. And of course, the person who suggested it, @AlexanderPaupoff - huge thank you for investing that time to support my work!

Anyway, what I wanted to say was, despite how things stand at the moment, I am quite optimistic that everything will work out (sprinkled with moments of utter desolation for good measure of course!) and I hope that you will continue to stick by me and support my art journey.

In terms of communication, since dA is really inconveninent right now, you can definitely get me better on instagram or on discord where I hang out in this cozy discord server called ArtGuild https://discord.gg/pmWBra, or even on Artstation, which just got the coolest app update btw.

I've also been thinking of maybe doing livestreams of drawing sessions (if my computer allows it) but let me know if you'd like that.