Pushing Forward
Here we are. Once again. It’s that time of the week for another blog post, and this week’s topic will be a lot of things… which isn’t all that unusual at this point. I’ve got some updates for a couple of projects, some words about what’s coming over the next few weeks, and some thoughts about all the stuff I’ve been juggling over the last few months. These last two months have felt like an absolute whirlwind, and this fennec is ready for a vacation! Oh well. Onward to stuff!
Digital Art Stuff
Starting off, let’s talk more art! I know I’ve been leaning on this heavily in recent posts, but it’s because there’s always something to talk about with it… most of the time. This week, I took on a new project that was building a frame for my webcam on twitch. I knew I wanted to keep this themed around my Fennec aeronaut avatar, which is obviously steampunk in origin. That meant that I wanted my frame to have a metallic copper appearance, something I’ve come to associate with not just my avatar, but my book as well. Most of Sapphiria’s tech is copper in appearance (even though it isn’t in practice) so I had a pretty good mental image. I wanted to put a lot of detail into this and really make it look like metal, but I did something quite surprising and honestly a little foolhardy. I didn’t use a reference. Dramatic gasp! I winged the creation of this completely, using only what I had in my mind’s eyes, and it actually turned out really nicely in my opinion. So... BEHOLD!
This frame took me around an hour and a half to create, most of which was spent fumbling around like a… well, a fennec. I started with a base copper layer, added some highlights to make the top portion appear bulging and rounded, added bolts, highlights and dark streak to the bolts, some general scratches, a sharper highlight, the grey side panels, and then some dirt to offset the copper’s uniform color and make it look more real. In my opinion, it actually came out looking like metal, and it even captured the bulging shape I was going for, which shocked me honestly. Now, you may ask what the horns are. Well, those aren’t horns. In fact, I don’t know what they are. Nine times out of ten, when I come up with a design, I think about what looks cool, and, in my head, the curls on the side gave it a more ornate shape, like an art design of sorts. Regardless, the piece as a whole turned out really nice, and it’s given me quite a lot of confidence for pursuing future projects involving metal art. Which is obviously great since Atom is finally on the table. Literally. He’s on my table beside me right now. Does he look good? No, but he exists!
A New Short (SHORT) Story
As promised last week, I did start working on a new short story, which will truly be short this time. It’s going to be roughly eight pages in total, and it will be covering the beginnings of an expedition across the Krysheek homeworld as the Krysheek people work to rediscover their world in the wake of a Crisis that nearly destroyed it. On this voyage, the main character, Tearna, ventures into the Karasi desert with her expedition crewmembers with the goal of cataloguing wildlife and landmarks in the area. The Karasi is a vast desert, so one would imagine it being quite boring, but it’s quite the opposite! The Karasi is full of strange, indigenous life that has adapted to the vast rolling dunes. Creatures like jar bugs, sand shearers, and various desert plants are quite common to encounter even in such a foreboding landscape, and Krysheek society still manages to find a foothold in the few cities dotting the landscape. Exploring the Karasi in depth is a dream come true for our intrepid explorer, and while there won’t be any real conflict in this story, you can still expect a certain monstrosity to make its appearance given their biome preference.
For those looking for a high octane, thrilling, and unexpected adventure… this is NOT the short story for you! This short story is basically my equivalent of a dossier. It’s a chance to explore parts of Sapphiria’s homeworld and breathe life into some of these areas on the map that haven’t really been fully explored by me in writing yet, a sort of icing on the proverbial cake! I get to really explore and flesh out these areas, which only makes her world more rich and vibrant. I admit, I am looking forward to exploring some of these places myself. When I write, I feel more like a journalist just recording what I witness in my mind’s eyes, so getting to write things like these shorts are actually quite exciting! For now, the Karasi will be the first entry and should popup within the next two weeks. After that, we’ll see what I feel like. We might go to the marsh, the volcanoes, or the Frozen Scar if I’m really feeling spicy! Stay tuned for more adventures!
The Next Few Days
I probably don’t need to mention this, but I will because I can! Tomorrow is the release of the next WoW expansion, so I will be disappearing for a brief bit. Well, not quite this time. Instead, I will be streaming our leveling process and probably more over the next few days! I also expect my streaming time to dramatically increase of the next few weeks as a result of this, so don’t be surprised to see my face a little more frequently! This will of course impact my frequency with projects, but I am really getting the urge to stream my art. Stay tuned for whatever I end up doing!
The Next Project
With the twitch stuff largely out of the way, the next thing that I’ll make is a journal to serve as the link to Tearna’s journal entries. I do not anticipate this taking long, so that opens the doors to the next question. What’s the next BIG project. Well, I said it last week, I think, but… it’s ATOM! At long last, the feathered fowl will be getting an appearance on the website! This will be a character reference sheet to help spur more art to be created of him, and then it should turn into a piece of him and Sapphiria. So, two big pieces back to back, but it should be fun! This will be a great chance to put some of my new skills into practice, and it will fill in another face, and an important one at that! I don’t at all know when this will be done, especially with my time being so limited as of late, but, as always, stay tuned!
My Musings
So, this is something that can be skipped for most people. Feel free to go straight to the conclusion if you want, but I’m still putting this here for my own mental workflow than anything else. The last few weeks have been… rough. I’ve been dutifully targeting agents that I think would work for my book, and I had a REALLY good one found that seemed like a dream fit because everything they wanted, my book offered. Unfortunately, I got turned down, so I’m a little broken from that. What makes all of this worse is that I have gotten zero feedback of any kind, so I can’t even begin to imagine what it is that needs to be improved. At this point, my best guess is that it’s the word count. It almost has to be the word count, but… that little voice of doubt won’t shutup that it’s something more major, like the characters, or the story as a whole. All it’s done is make me doubt the work I’ve been so passionate about, and now a piece of me is actually worried that I might genuinely run out of agents before I ever get to take off. It’s a very trying and mentally taxing time, and I feel like I have three or four decisions sitting before me that might control whether my dream comes true or not. Do I try to cut it down even further even AFTER spending four years doing that? Do I press forward and risk running out of agents? At what point do I try self publishing? I have so many questions and literally no one to ask, so the best I can do is follow my gut and try my best to keep my path straight. My best guess right now is to simply do a review of the first chapter to see if anything stands out to me now after such a long break, and I also want to eye the two short stories I’ve posted in case they’re problematic in ways I didn’t notice. All in all, I still have a lot of work to do, and this Fennec is definitely getting exhausted. I really, really want a legit vacation…
Conclusion
That’s it for this week! There’s not much else to report on, and the path forward for the time being seems quite clear. There’s art, editing, and review that needs to be done, and with the War Within coming just around the corner, I am definitely going to be pressed for time. I am anything but a quitter, however, so let the pain train commence with whatever it has in store! Next week… I have no idea what I’ll talk about. Maybe some story stuff or musings. Regardless, it’s time to wrap this blog up, so… Cheers!
The Flying Fennec