Finally got a new anatomy art book, and started sharpening my rusty knowledge. I used to study pages of this book - which I'd find on Pinterest - back in high school when I started seriously learning anatomy. Wasn't until recently I found the actual book and bought it. My plateau with anatomy stemmed from the fact that my only art anatomy reference books were either too dry or demanding to brush through. This is the glue I've been searching for to bring all contents of the books I own together and ease my learning process.

Plan on filling up this ancient sketchbook so I can move onto the next couple that've been piling up. This one stretches back years, so I'm eager to do away with it. It's been a while since I've had such splendid study material. I want to polish my draftsmanship and restore my confidence, so I can complete my animation projects.

When I most understood anatomy, I also found it easier to warp a scenes' perspective consistently with the objects within it. I'm hoping to refine that skill as well. I had the most fun playing with weird perspectives and complex scenes.

(Also, yes, these sketches are terrible, but I'm glad to be sketching terribly at all! Now I have more things to refine, and new growth to pursue!)

Damn, I just spent the last two days OS hopping from Artix to Void linux because my GRUB got all fucked after a system update. Happened directly after I posted the last audio. First time doing something like that so I spent most of the time backing up all my files. Luckily Void has an easy GUI installer and I didn't accidentally partition my home folder or anything.

This being my only computer that's worth putting linux on, it was quite scary. Still got some stuff to work on for this install, but I actually replicated my system pretty spot on. I'm back to business as usual as far as I can tell. Was kinda hoping for a reason to distro hop anyways. I feel Void will be much easier to manage than Artix, and the documentation has been pretty good so far. I did spend half a day on just Pipewire alone, but when it works, it works damn good.

It was a nice break from routine. Now I feel reinvigorated to pursue the animations I was planning beforehand (but also, it being midnight, I'm also pretty drained).

Find myself too scared to use the traditional setup, for fear of wasted resources. Need to build confidence first, so I'll probably shake off the rust digitally first. This is an untimed, unfinished animation I did just on a whim. This is the first time in an animation I've paid attention to the lead and curved motions. Feels nice though of course timing and breakdown drawings would help immensely, but this is just practice.

What worries me the most about shifting to traditional is the rough layout process. In digital it is very straightforward and you don't have to worry about wasting resources. It's fast and basically everyone enjoys it for the iteration ability. I'll find a way to get a good mix of digital and traditional work in my process, I just hope the positives of digital don't out-weigh the joy of traditional work overall.

Since there aren't too many traditional animators out there on the web, much less traditional layout artists, it's been hard narrowing down a process that works for me. I've been studying the scraps of traditional work I could find for at least half a year now, building my setup. Ideally I'd go all in traditionally to limit test and such, but paper has become a problem for me due to a lack of registration punches for acme holes. There is one I found for pretty cheap, but only in comparison to the $1,000 ones every other company sells. I'm trying to avoid jerry-rigged setups with single punches because money is fickle and my craftsmanship is shoddy.

I still think I can complete one of the animations I've had storyboarded for a while, though my paper can dwindle fast if I waste too much on roughs, guides, and the like.

Definitely been improving fast lately though. All I need to do is improve my visual library, so I'll make sure to pull up references more when making practice animations and such. Ideally to improve my library I'd travel more to see the world first hand, but that's not an option. Also been working in Blender a bit more. It's a pain, but something I desperately need to learn. Considering where I'm at now though, it's probably best to make my layout drawings usable, then polish up my draftsmanship, and then consider learning more Blender.

Had been waiting on a sketchbook I ordered so I can practice using some Sakura poster color I just got. Plan on using as many traditional animation techniques as I can for my first animation. It might be troublesome splitting up painted assets for the animation since I don't have clear cels to paint on, but I can always digitally split and paint over the images if need be.

I'll have to do a shorter animation than expected due to the amount of paper I have, and the density of the animation I want. I'm saving to buy a cheapish acme paper punch so I'll have easier access to a variety of papers. I've been limited in the amount of roughs I can do because of my short supply on paper, but I'll make the little animation a reality. It's about 30 seconds, and I've made digital layouts in the past, but couldn't finish it because working digitally felt frustrating at times.

I don't like planning out paintings, so what you see is basically a crude sculpture I built up on the forms I saw appearing while playing with the paint. (It's a bit half-baked too, had little time). Haven't painted traditionally in long long time, but these poster colors feel nice and creamy, with no trouble drying nor reactivating. Probably my favorite paints now. The sketchbook is nice too, it's from Leda Art Supply (you should check them out, wouldn't want them to die out on me now).

Thinking on it, I suppose this is worthy of documentation too. My first scanned animation frame. Had to battle my software into giving this to me, though I learned a lot about how to better use them along the way. Just made a simple drawing to practice the entire process from start to finish. Things are either going to get more complicated, or more monotonous from here, but I intend on sticking to my goals. I feel accomplished figuring it out.

Need somewhere to talk and document my progress, so I'm blogging here now. Recently got a crude traditional animation setup going, which is good, because drawing digitally hasn't felt right recently. Haven't drawn much throughout the months recently, but my body is pushing me back into the thick of things, as if by a will outside of my own mind. Everything I've cultivated has sprung to life and I have no choice but to move on instinct.

To preface, I hate making art for others, unless as tribute to a fictional world they enjoy. As such, when my family asks me to make them art, I can't help but force it. I burn, because my only art is that which realizes itself in front of me. It feels superficial, which is troublesome when dealing with blurred deadlines and high expectations. Add onto that time and financial problems, and you get trouble. So, for quite some time - years, I imagine - I stopped seriously going at art as I once had.

I want to change that, and though my previous promises to myself have always fallen flat, I want change dearly. I'm tired of consumption. I want to find that drive again and churn out artwork that I'm proud of. The idea of creation on a fundamental level always draws me right back. It's my soul. To do that and live comfortably is my goal. Success, I hope, will be a byproduct.

Venting aside, I hate not sharing all the concept and storyboarding work I do, but I want to maintain this barrier until a final product is realized. That's just one of my troublesome mental blocks. This is a compromise I'm forcing myself to make: a small little clip of a bigger concept mood board / design adventure. It's a redesign for a very short animation test I'm going to make soon in order to ensure my traditional workflow is all good between hardware, software, and sanity. The full image is the first of my own that actually creeps me out a little, so I really do want to complete the animation, though translating the concept faithfully will take some experimentation and bravado.