Ahoy there! It's important when writing a long essay or report to leave the introduction until the very end. Through this, the content requiring introduction sits clearly before you to readily become summarised and allow the reader a clean ramp-on. Alas the following update is a mess of unconnected trivia, so you're on your own. Veel succes!
It seems only, ooh, let's say 14 days ago when last I mentioned that my work had been scuppered rather by a malfunctioning drawing tablet. Little issue though, I promised, since my warranty claim had been accepted and a brand walloping-new stylus was racing its way hither. Here, my dear supporters, is a screenshot from my little work journal 19 days after my claim was accepted.
So not ideal. On the plus side I wittered the evening away with friends whilst practising watercolours, something which did me a world a good. Still sucks though.
I've since served the first round of a second volley of of warranty tennis, but since this whole debacle has taken an entire month to get resolved, I simply have to grit my teeth and start up commissions with frustratingly slow equipment. Thus, alas, this update shan't end with promises of comics or such: We're on survival mode for the foreseeable future. So much for setting up for RandOCtober this year.
On the less-drizzly side, this has permitted me aforementioned license to spend more time honing my skills with physical media. I'm becoming more comfortable drawing on paper and experiments in watercolours are developing in rather less frustrating ways than my currently-endured digital jank.
Non-drawing work has progressed in a plethora of peculiar directions, as often seems the case. The forthcoming game demo has had dribs and drabs of work applied to it, including an almost full first draft of the game's (hopefully quite thorough) script.
My programming hat was, however, temporarily donned for more administrative applications: Whilst trying to get up-to-date on my woefully lax social media alt text writing, I simmered in frustration working in my cobbled-together spreadsheet. In the process the long-ignored, hazy, back-of-the-mind image of a social media post organiser began focusing into a simple-to-construct solidity.
A few days in Godot later and I am now the proud parent to an organiser for anything and everything I wish to post to social media. It allows me to keep track of drawings, comics, videos and such, organising and searching by character, IP, date made, published & scheduled, and most importantly stores alt text so I don't have to rewrite the bloody stuff every time I repost things. I've also written about 50 alt-texts in and around doing this, so it does in fact appear to be working. Only 116 to go! Callooh! Callay!
This is inherently quite a specific program designed for my quite specific needs, but it's entirely possible that other people may find their own use within it. If you feel like you're one of those hypothetifolk, do wave your internet hands in my internet face and I may set this up to be available to Patrons.
It wouldn't be a Crispy Update™ without a miscellanium of distracting knick-knacks that have captured my attention over the fortnight.
The previously alluded-to editing for part 2 of the Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened Highlights trickles through the hourglass. By way of minor confession I did a quick watch-through of the rough edit I'd assembled shortly after releasing part 1 and, uh... it needs a lot of work. 😅
Baking has stepped back into my life with the arrival of cooler temperatures (although no quieter a kitchen). My continued vendetta against chelsea buns / cinnamon rolls continues with probably the best attempt yet, but alas a product which dried faster than a 20th century cartoon's depiction of a homeless alcoholic witnessing something absurd. I will crack this.
Free hours and weekends held the pleasure of refamiliarising myself with our electric sewing machine, having at long last faced up to clearing the mountainous sewing stalagmite which sedimentarily accrued over the last decade. It transpires most items are nought but scrap fabric by now, but that which could be rescued from the sea of seams is back in working order and spinning around the washing machine as we speak.
Short of forging a patch for a pair of trousers, that shelf is now completely cleared! I'm fairly certain this is uninteresting to you but A) this has been a long time coming for me, so it feels like an achievement, and 2) this is all a dry-run for making my own clothes which I'm quite excited about. And let's face it, I've got a fair amount of practise cloth from all of the rejects 😅
One constant has been, and for the foreseeable shall continue to be, streaming. The abstract idea of streaming, that is: The specifics have been all over the place 🥴
Having concluded our Voyage: Journey to the Moon in what emerged a surprisingly interesting little lunar gem, we filled the void with a little light Dark Souls III Archipelago Randomiser. Thence from a dead world we brought life back to Snufkin: Melody of Moominvalley, a delightful little pocket of whimsy that put a big ol' smile on my face.
Weekend friend streams have seen our grand return to Elden Ring: Seamless Co-op scuppered not once, but twice! At first personal commitments encouraged us to return to Whisper Mountain Outbreak for some slightly more successful zomble plundering. At second Elden Ring received a Horse Armour DLC (because it's apparently 2006 again) thus breaking the co-op mod and forcing us to go out and touch seaweed in a new playthrough of Raft. But none of that can stop us from getting together and doodling away our Sunday evenings.
As mentioned, there will be no promises for this fortnight's update. Commissions are needed for me to desperately paddle back to being in the black, although I was always a poor swimmer. The janky setup will slow this down and grump me up considerably, but needs must.
I'll endeavour to keep taking time to slowly add to video production and game writing where possible, but until I pluck up the courage to do them physically comics will be found sat on the sidelines for the time being. Hmm. Sounds like a monster, doesn't it? The Time Being.
I shall, however, be making efforts to resuscitate my social media by posting regularly with the help of my new organiser. I say 'resuscitate', but given the performance of the last few posts I think the appropriate verb is 'resurrect'. Nevertheless keep a necromantic eye out for me finally sharing the base of my giant pile of now long-forgotten unposted nonsense.
Thank you as ever for your support. I admit I'm very frustrated right now with tech slowing me down, and part of that is that I really do think you deserve recompense for your support. I don't want this to turn into a charity, you're investing in me as a creator and I want you to be proud of that investment. Who knows, if this debacle keeps going I might make you proud with a full pivot to watercolours 😅
For now though we simply must part ways. The sun is being coddled by raincloud, my head by posture-borne headaches, and my attentions by all the boyfriends I can't draw.
Look after yourselves,
Crispy 💜