In this little LeonieUpdate:

• Process for my Kelly character design & illustration!
• Some interesting finds & art making reflection!

---

Here’s Kelly, my wild personality character! 💪💚

She’s a hardworking, impulsive, adventurous bear who enjoys being a helping hand (: She’s learning to manage her impatience and temper better by making sure she gives herself space to be calm during confrontations and when talking things over. Usually she invests her restless energy into physical training, swimming and hiking.

Super proud of her physical form and abilities and keen to compete and show her skills off! :0

Character design & illustration progress!

First sketch: rough design, shapes and costume!

2nd sketch: trying to make the clothing a bit more practical. Definitely wearing shorts underneath for ease, comfort and freedom of movement! I had a broom as a prop but I scrapped that :0

3rd sketch: trying to get a good feel of this design by drawing and iterating her again and again (as one does).

4th sketch: felt better with this one, after looking at a bunch of references! Costume was inspired by clashing ladies sportwear and fancy parade dresses together haha

Final sketch: tadah!! She looks so unsure haha!!

Final lineart: once again this took so long – finalising and hand drawing each line :’) Yeah I forgot to finish some lines there, shhh!!

Final illustration! Woo full colour!! I hope she looks a bit more smug here hehe

Little Reflection

It was tricky to draw someone buff and stretch my basic anatomy skills! I have a long way to go with my art skills though! At least I’m still pushing my comfort zone bit by bit!

I’m just glad she turned out alright! Yay! :’D

---

Little LeonieUpdates!

• I have finished dealing with and paid my taxes.
  • Ouch it was a lot. I could have been able to pay less if I was smarter :'(
  • I need to keep being frugal, stingy and mindful this coming year, given how rocky and infrequent freelancing has been and Patreon is more of a kind, small, supplementary income. Hopefully one day freelancing & Patreon would grow and become more substantial and stable.
  • All the other revenue streams (such as on-demand services like RedBubble barely make me anything so I don’t bother with merch) :’)
  • My old university debt keeps increasing too due to scary inflation. I can’t afford to pay any of it off in recent years plus it doesn’t even count towards reducing taxes. Eep!!
  • financially I’m getting by as a hermit but I have nothing job-wise going on after my short contract work ends sometime this week(?)
  • feeling not too great given my unstable career, inevitable & unknown life changes and it all feels depressing and stressful :<
  • Ah the feast and (usually) famine of freelancing :’) Whelp I’m just going to keep going at it!
  • hey I’m sure lots of other people are struggling in life in many different ways too (some suffering worse with a lot of horrific things, unfortunate experiences, conditions, obstacles and unfair circumstances) so I’m grateful I’m getting by for now :’) Lots of people are doing the best they can.
• I give up making instagram stories!
  • I shouldn’t have to make them to remind people I did a post. And I’d rather make personal updates at my own platform and blog here ;P
• footer below to remind people how to keep tabs on this blog :0
• How do we talk about Outer Wilds? the spoiler free part 1 by Errant Signal (part 2 is spoilers but it’s best you go in completely blind)
• The Making of Outer Wilds – NoClip Documentary
• How to think about your narcissistic parent – personally helpful
• The Man Who Lived in an Airport for 18 Years (Atrocity Guide)
• Not For Broadcast – well that’s quite an interesting fmv game to watch!

Art making reflection

It seems like people responded to my latest SuperLeonieMode comics okay? Maybe they’re cheering some people up a bit and providing some warm, good, cute vibes?

I’ll have to do some more, then wait and see how people respond eventually. Hope to figure out how to best juggle these personal comics with Bowl of Mystery, fanart plus my desire to put studying and/or loose art pieces back on my agenda soon :0

I’m feeling a bit encouraged that I have a little art-making momentum now, even though it’s not the “fast, professional, freelance artist pace” I’m expected to have. I hope to make and study art at a more regular, faster pace – but at the same time, when does that ever happen? Making art for the sake of speed doesn’t feel satisfying, helpful or high quality at all to me.

Leonie, remember you’re trying to learn and create at your own pace without the stress!! Wahhh!! :’)

I feel like I’m slowly healing from my creative burn out! Perhaps 70% there? Perhaps it’ll be stuck there until I build some form of financial stability and confidence in my abilities and direction. The remaining percentage is the constant doubt, uncertainty, anxiety, confusion, jadedness, lack of freelance work and general tiredness of looking what other artists and industry professionals are doing.

I need to continue to do, develop, discover and enjoy my own thing first. Slowly learning to allow myself to do that :’) If I strive to work on things I mostly and very much enjoy doing (since there’s no such thing as a job without cons), then logically I will have the natural willpower to keep going and get hired to do those things! I’ll reflect more about this next time :0

Anyhoo, thank you so very much for reading my thoughts! Please stay safe and take care!! (:

---