*Plods into frame sheepishly* ...Okay, listen.
Before we dive in, let's all take a brief moment to mourn the passing of the last update's closing paragraph:
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"By the time the next update rolls around I ought to have completed a sizeable commission, readied up that animatic, possibly scribbled another comic, aged a year, and maybe, just maybe, dug around behind the sofa to rediscover my lost ability to focus."
So here's the thing: Apart from the 'ageing' part (hap borf me, yip) most of this didn't happen. You could argue that I found my ability to focus at least. Intently. Beyond my control. On exactly one thing.
So here are the culprits, Mal's long-brewing clubbing buddies. From left to right we have Jay the hopelessly romantic gender-fluid flow-going emo boi, their boyfriend Kay the rugby-playing childhood friend of Mal who's tentatively exploring his feminine side, and Elle providing this gremlin troupe a certain level of confidence, elegance, high-gremlining and a bar to do it all in.
At some point after the last update my mind dredged up the vague ghosts of these characters and decided to do a little day-dreaming. This daydreaming transformed into 84 doodles, 4 sketched comics, 8 un-sketched comics, a bunch of written back-story, a non-trivial quantity of overdue self-exploration, and a partridge in a pear tree.
The professional illustrator in me will argue that I've taken the last two weeks to engage in a great amount of posing practise. Boyfriends, it transpires, are very cute to draw together.
The self-appointed psychologist in me will argue that this represents a long-delayed self-exploration, most of which will stay with me for the foreseeable future but whose engagement with I'm proud for taking steps towards.
The patreon manager in me is panicking that I've spent two weeks solidly doodling distractions and am very reluctant to share any of it. For now have a tiny curated smattering of my Clip Studio history.
As for the future these character don't seem to be going anywhere. They've already invaded the personal space of my friends' OCs (hurrahs to Evie, RIP to Beau) and I've been developing a whole host of comics for them, from my usual screwball silliness through to things that make my heart so full it's fit to rupture. This, it seems, is a trend that's carried on from writing the Calendars' back-stories through to the idiots-in-love shenanigans of Tori and August (neither of which have left my mind either, don't worry). Confident extrapolators among you might've predicted this shift to include more emotive exploration in my work. If so, you're smarter than I am.
One thing not (entirely) interrupted by this has been streaming! Morning streams did take a small hiatus to finish the group picture above, but are otherwise healthily chugging along with our Height Chart doodlage.
Weekday evenings find us twisting our stealthy path through a world of eggsassination and surreal bike rides in Hitman 3! Saturday diggy-diggying continues unabated in Return To Moria, except via the abatement of a large dragon we just ran away from. Finally Sundays see myself and friends doodling all sorts of bits and bobs, including anatomy practise (in which I drew boyfriends) and OC silliness (in which I drew boyfriends).
Right, this time I actually have to go and finish things. That commission is long overdue, that animatic needs to be wrapped up, those comics need to be doodled and that focus needs to be reforged. I've given up on the old one, that can stay behind the fridge or wherever it wound up.
I think the initial mania has passed and now I'm just in a perfectly reasonable, placid state of daydreaming about fictional boyfriends whilst being able to do other things. Sorry for the paltry output for the third update in a row, but everything except my business hat is telling me that this time it was worth it. I'm doing my best to ignore my business hat screaming at me.
Anyway, it was my birthday recently, so that means you're all obliged to go and do something nice for yourselves! Get chocolate! Read that good book! Go for that pleasant walk! Daydream about your blorbos! That's an order!
Look after yourselves,
Crispy 💜