Horse girl Lyn from Fire Emblem Shadows/Heroes

leaning on her arms on the flat surface and smiling and chilling

Mythic Hero Uma Lyn being chill <3

So I don’t even play Fire Emblem Heroes or Shadows

but I wanted to draw Uma Lyn for the Year of the Horse!! ;D

She’s wearing Mongolian clothing, does archery and is a horse girl I guess haha

Doing more finer lineart and softer colours in this one 😀

Timelapse eventually when there’s enough LNY art for a compilation!

Got a bunch of Feb/Mar fanart happening :0

It is interesting that Fire Emblem characters are changing into furries now and I don’t know if Shadows is successful as a game or not. It’s not really for me as a game. There’s some Three Houses favouritism again for the latest Heroes Choose your Legend event because it didn’t exclude characters that already got the chance to allow for characters that didn’t get the spotlight…

Digressing! It took me a long while to get back to drawing and I started this (among with others) at the end of last year. It’s always a juggle with the limited energy I have between temptations, distractions, responsibilities, demands, work, chores, life, etc 🙁 I know we’re all juggling and managing what we have. Sometimes I wish I can just do it all and yet also have the time to do nothing and chill…..which is not reality and a fantasy haha

Decisions must be made. Most things will not happen or be done because time in this world is finite and limited. I try to not overthink and doubt what I do but I usually just go with what interests me and not what is expected of me. I paralyse myself with indecision and lack of drive if I try to plan something big…

Yes even if I am still doing comfort zone fanart, I am still progressing, practicing, creating, testing, experimenting and learning in other ways – as I reassure myself ;P

After I get through some of my fanart backlog (I need a break after the time sensitive stuff is over), tackle doing my discord emotes and then studies!! And then I’ll strive to focus more on studies and character design than fanart pieces in April or later…we’ll see how I go.

Leonie rambles about…

• just testing how to best format my blog at times
  • for now if I ramble a lot about something it gets broken off it its own subheading
• general note to stay respectful and I don’t want any feedback
  • unless I ask, am seeking for it and you’ve checked if I am open to it first
• feeling bad for sumo wrestlers with injuries and yet who are still going ahead
• work has been creatively busy!!
  • the context switching limbo sometimes – is what it is
  • striving to minimise it though by checking with the team earlier – that helps!
  • also more HW peeps but I won’t really get to know most because as you know I don’t do group social things as I manage/protect my limited energy :’D
• watched the survival horror RPG game Look Outside
  • super compelling, incredible and haunting art, characters and story with multiple endings and many party members
  • choosing kindness during the most horrifying times and you don’t know who to trust
  • note there is lots of body horror
  • the game gets easy the more party members you have
  • to think it started as a game jam submission in RPG maker!!
  • the endings stuck with me and made me think about humanity
• watched the game Amanda the Adventurer 3
  • and I think the story ended in a satisfying way
• how people are leaving Tiktok
  • due to how it’s always been invasive with tracking your private information and now the US is in control of it 🙁
  • once again makes me glad I don’t have it nor use it
• Dynastic Warrior: Origins DLC – Yellow Turbans route
  • man it’s so gay and romantic between the protagonist and the leader of the Yellow Turbans
    • even in the dream alternate timelines it’s romantic depending on who you choose haha
    • I wish someone genuinely spoke to me like that ;P
  • you beat the 3 factions – wei, wu and shu that they end up working together as friends for the emperor/kingdom instead!
  • there’s 3 more routes but I haven’t seen them yet
• I also took some time to prune my portfolio since I last posted!
  • I’m sure there’s always more to prune but I think I need to take a long break so I can get fresh eyes later
• got anxious about my abnormal, random sharp pains and cramps before my period
  • and then remembered/realised again that it be like that sometimes…
• The War on Privacy
  • it’s pretty scary it becomes a race to prove yourself innocent via tracking/surveillance of your own
  • being filmed/recorded/facial recognition without your consent gets pushed upon you – out of your control
  • I didn’t know the levels of Ai surveillance at play here…
  • having all lost respect, trust and privacy through the places you go, things you ride in, the devices/computers/TV/smart appliances you use, people around you and their devices, cameras and so on…
  • anyhoo take care of your personal information, location, habits and whatnot!
  • don’t be creepy weird and stay kind with each other as they say
• a warning about Notepad++ with the reinstaller having malware
  • I shared details at my tiny discord server but feel free to look it up! Be careful!
• now I’m describing my discord as a place I spam cute creature media and random art resources haha

Leonie tries to practice resting: The Kind of Rest That Makes You Immune to Burnout

• I am terrible at resting and tend to stress and tense up
  • this is why I’m sore and have I have jaw pain….and wear a mouth splint 🙁
  • my body tends to follow my anxious, tense brain and it’s not great
• I have started to meditate daily for 10 minutes and I don’t know how to best time it
  • I think I have to do it right before sleep maybe?? Will that help with clenching??
  • also do it when I’m switching gears into a more calmer, chill task?
  • I don’t know what I’m doing – please don’t ask me for advice
  • I am not asking for advice nor giving advice here either, just documenting what I’m trying here
    • I am clearly not an expert at this!
• Essentially “rest is a daily maintenance thing for a few minutes at a time”
  • “do not optimise or track it” – the video says
  • but I like tracking things so that it becomes a habit….!!
• Mental rest =
  • “no problem solving, no plans, no consuming advice during this time”
• Nervous system rest =
  • “no demands, no urgency, no expectations, no improvement, no productivity pressure”
  • ….this is hard for me but I need to be better at this :’)
  • I always feel like I need to make the most of my limited time
  • and at the same time, I need to take care of my mind and body so I can keep living the best I can (as a hermit haha)
• “Allow yourself to be done for the day!” I am SUPER bad at this one!
  • to “zone out, shower, sit and walk without anything to listen to”
  • well I do this already sometimes when I’m out and about
  • I do need to zone out to decompress my anxious brain, heart and body
  • the thing is I need to do the “finish and be done for the day” part better
  • I need to not get carried away being a workaholic………….
• have “one weekly zero demand block with no plans/productivity/obligations”
  • this is the most hard one
  • it ends up happening anyway when I’m just too exhausted after an office work day
  • just too head fatigued and drained to focused work things
  • it got hard to focus on conversation because sometimes I zone out, fail to listen and can’t parse it…
• I am glad I don’t fully burnout for long periods anymore but there are times when I got close…
  • I probably did burnout but it didn’t last long because I stopped myself and took a break
  • take care and pace yourself!
  • I have burnt out in the past and it lasted for years…..never again!!
• so I started meditating (sitting there and zoning out) for some days so far
  • I do it after I finish something intense and before I start the next thing
    • especially when I need to decompress and need a break for my rattled, chaotic nervous system, limited energy and mental headspace
    • I am not good at catching myself that “hey I need a break!!”
  • or at the very least before I go to bed so I can actually have some form of bedtime winddown!
    • I’m terrible at this 🙁
    • this is why I have jaw strain…
    • and dull headaches at times when I need more sleep…
  • I’ll let you how I go next month once I make it a habit!
• and make sleeping better a habit too!!
  • am terrible at this when I get carried away………

I had my Hipster Whale employee work anniversary and oof it’s been so long!! Time went by both fast and slow…whoa.

(Disclaimer as usual, these are my words at my personal blog and do not represent Hipster Whale)

It’s my 5th employee anniversary but it’s longer than that. Thankfully I also had a few kind peeps to help support/explain for me that technically I was a contractor since July 2016 and I was an on/off Hipster Whale contractor since latter part of 2019 so it’s actually (as I lift my nerd glasses) close to 10 years since I started working on Crossy Road and Hipster Whale projects.

…I feel old haha

I mean you can see the sidebar of this blog for more projects, gaps and details but the gist:

• pre-2016 is freelance character design & illustration work
• 2016 to present (on/off) – Crossy Road
  • (earlier than Jul 2016 if I count the time learning/playing with Crossy assets)
• 2016 to 2018 – Shooty Skies, Charming Keep, Charming Runes, eSports game
• 2016 to 2018 – Disney Crossy Road
• 2017 – Framed 2 illustrations & stickers
• 2021 & 2025 – Crossy Road+
• 2019 to 2024 – Crossy Road Castle
• NDA and random freelance work along the way (see sidebar)

It has been a winding journey of messy ups and downs and also learning experiences :’) !! Like with all things in life, nothing and no one is perfect and there’s always room for improvement and practice for everyone. All the same I am thankful that I can keep on learning, growing, creating and helping alongside the inspiring HW team!

Anyhoo I hope this blog post is coherent and I proofread it a few times! I don’t want to stress on whether I rambled too much about things – it’s a juggle between wanting to express myself versus not sharing too much. It’s hard sometimes.

I have more work and stuff to juggle and make sure I decompress too wah!

Continuing to do our best juggling all the things day by day in this busy, stressful, chaotic, bittersweet world! :’)

Thanks for reading my rambling!!

---

★ Join my monthly blog newsletter! ☆