Happy 36th Legend of Zelda anniversary with Princess Zelda, reflecting on the process + 22 minute timelapse!

21 minute timelapse and reflecting on the process

I was originally drawing someone else at the start ;D

This took long to do, especially the lineart and I’m not sure if I have the patience and time to do this for every piece :’)

Also doing such lineart too long hurts my hand so I don’t think this art style is sustainable. (I keep thinking I need to upgrade my display tablet so I can practice using my whole arm to draw and that I’m not as hunched over and in pain.)

This one took me on/off 3+ days during my holidays (approx/guessing 10-13 or more hours as I don’t want to time and stress myself out and I’m also taking the time experimenting too). I keep underestimating and forgetting that a fully done illustration takes much longer (could be 5, 14, 20, 50, 120 hours so thanks neurodivergent brain who loses sense of managing time)! But I can’t make and post as much art when each one is gets so time consuming!

I’m a hermit bear that wants to post art regularly enough (if I can manage it and to make it a habit)!

Then again, I’m not a social media art machine ;P

Struggling to juggle making art with quality (finishing things) and quantity (ongoing practice, failing fast and keeping schedules).

I was testing, pushing art style and rendering things. I don’t know if this is working :<

I think I need to do more study, tests and pieces as I’m not quite happy with things yet. It’s frustrating as I probably would never get close to what I hope in my head.

Hey at least I’m doing illustration again! It is progress and making art all the same! It’s part of the journey.

I keep doubting myself on whether this is what I want to do and I’m stumped at times because there’s pros and cons with everything. Am I pressuring myself to make something “valuable” for others rather than what I want to do?? It really feels like grand illustrations attract people but are very draining when I have to work on one piece for too long. I’ve started to rotate between pieces again but I don’t want to context/project switch too much so I strive to time block things according to process and themes. Testing what works for me depending my my energy and mood.

Is illustration really for me? Perhaps I find more joy in silly and short comics and super rough character concept art and illustration? But I’m not “funny/entertaining” nor am I full of deep, compelling stories. What can I do with the art style so that it appeals to me, that I’m not wasting time illustrating backgrounds and that the lineart will not kill my drawing arm?

As much as this clarifies my mixed feelings a bit, I’m still talking in circles with my questions :’)

On the bright side, I think having ambitious/stressful goals kills my motivation instead because I self sabotage myself and talk myself out of it. And I don’t have any ambitious goals I’m excited about anyway ;P

Whelp I shall keep stumbling and experimenting as usual. I’ll keep learning and creating what interests me in the moment.

Failures, mistakes, losses, dead ends, existential feelings, doubt, risk and frustration are to be expected in the art learning journey.

Princess Zelda from Super Smash Bros. Ultimate! Happy Zelda 36th anniversary!

Ever since her Super Smash Bros. Ultimate design was announced, I wanted to draw fanart of her. I finally got around to doing it!!

She is so cute! I’m not sure if I captured her well with my take so I’m just going to keep moving forward and not dwell on it.

Zelda is one of my favourite childhood game franchises!!

I’m not as intense as I used to be but I still play and enjoy the games!

I am most biased towards The Wind Waker the most. I played that at least twice I think.

After that I like (in no order): Minish Cap, Oracle of Ages and Seasons, A Link to the Past, A Link Between Worlds, Spirit Tracks, Four Swords, Triforce Heroes and Link’s Awakening (both original and remake). Skyward Sword also has a place in my heart as much as people bash some of the flawed game design. Majora’s Mask is pretty good and its themes stick with you. I enjoyed Hyrule Warriors for what they are too; the first one and Age of Calamity are good in their own ways.

Breath of the Wild I burnt out on exploring the whole map but I enjoyed what I played before that happened ;P

I enjoyed watching playthroughs of both of the weird Tingle RPG games.

Ocarina of Time is okay, dated and it felt like a slog since I didn’t play it when it first came out. Played Twilight Princess when it came out at least twice (turns out it’s the Zelda targeted for Americans) – it’s good as a game just I don’t care for it, nor for its dark aesthetic and it’s not my favourite. Please this is just me and I respect that everyone has their own favourite Zelda ;P

Other random thoughts:

Please don’t edit out my art’s blog signature if anyone features me (with or without permission) ;P Pettiness aside, I am very grateful for getting a sudden small artist feature, getting credited and tagged all the same!

Yes I am a small artist because I have plateaued for many years, haven’t been engaging/hustling much on twitter and I haven’t been trying to sell stuff consistently.

Not that social media reach necessarily helps me make a living with a lot of financial success. Patreon, Ko-fi, youtube, streaming, teaching, merch, day job, tutorials, sponsorships and commissions – based on what I’ve seen from other working, stressed out artists you need a combination of these else it’s incredibly hard to survive. I deeply respect artists/creatives/people who manage to juggle so many jobs and hats to keep doing their artistic dreams through phases of feast and famine. Art, games and other creative shenanigans are not really careers for huge financial success – there is a ceiling somewhere ;’)

It just feels very exhausting to juggle so much stuff. I have tried merch, commissions, voiced youtube videos, podcasts and streaming in the past. It’s not for me right now.

Stumped on display tablets??? Maybe I should tweet about this when I really can’t figure it out

• in recent years, wacom’s display tablets seem to be super bad, especially with issues, defects, warranties and customer support (and probably because bad reviews and experiences are louder)
• so I have to research into huion stuff later?? Seeking advice because I have never tried other brands before :<
• my old 13HD is still working quite well after the 7-8 years I’ve had it though so I’m not in a rush. What happened to you Wacom :’)
• I’m very torn between Wacom and Huion?? But then I hear how most people move to wacom more than the other way around??
  • I want something that fits my workspace and doesn’t let me hunch over long periods of time – something that can be VESA mounted with an arm monitor!
  • I’ll just take my time with this not sure if I should ask for help on twitter (and get even more confused) :’)
  • too bad I don’t know when the cintiq pro 16 (2021 version) is problem free as there’s some bad impressions/experiences about the latest batch and the pandemic’s production issues don’t help

Switching browsers

• recently I’ve just transferred my whole hoard of bookmarks and stuff over to firefox and quit using chrome on my computer
• trying to not depend on chrome anymore so that I depend on google a tiny bit less
• I’m still sorting out my many bookmarks; it’s overwhelming :’)
• I have to get used to firefox now, figure out how to sign into things, to not have too many tabs and how the browser apparently has cache corruption issues? I used to use firefox as my main browser many years ago but stopped because it lagged so much, I was so frustrated with crashes and freezes and chrome ran much better :’)

Anyhoo thank you for coming by! Especially the 2-3 of you who consistency read my blog posts! I am pooped, anxious, tired, trying to be not too jaded and existential so I should probably stop here. Ah Monday and the day to day mixed feelings.

Please take care of yourself. It’s okay :’)

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