Lidsel Arts

Held off with the decision to see how the team announcement would make me feel, but now I'm certain my heart is not in it at the moment and I just want to skip this year's event entirely.

There are several reasons for it:

I didn't really enjoy it last year. Following criticism about the lack of diversity and poor selection for my characters I ended up feeling guilty and delisting them all. I didn't get to finish half the pieces I started because I was too busy coordinating with a renovation crew. I don't see those problems improving this year either because:

I have a job now and it sucks. It sucks so bad I have to spend extra time every day psyching myself up to do it or recovering from interactions with certain coworkers. It really kills my spirit. And because of that if I want to escape the cycle I now have to spend what little time and energy I have left afterwards on trying to find a different job that hopefully won't be like this.

I looked through my Art Fight bookmarks and thought I didn't really feel like drawing any of those characters right now. Nor did I feel like polishing off any of my own characters.

I have 11 unfinished artworks with all or most of the prepwork done, and atm. I think I'm more inclined to finish them than start something new. However even that has been going slow.

My physical health has been suffering from all this stress and unfortunately the only remedy is to spend less time at the computer and more outside/on physical activity, let my brain reboot a bit.

I'm hoping if I'm able to get some progress addressing the excessive stress and health issues the enjoyment in art will come back. I'm still getting a lot of cool new ideas. I was genuinely really excited about the Dragon Age sketches, hoped they would break the bad spell, but afterwards I still felt like I couldn't get them to a place where I would be happy with them if I tried to push hard toward the finish line (I've been chiseling at it very slowly, so it is coming, it's just gonna take longer). It really sucks, but I think it's best to accept that sometimes some things may have to take the backseat temporarily for best results overall.

Here's a fun thing I wanted to try doing here. I bring you four sketches. You vote for your favorite. The winner gets prioritized on my to-do list. I will try to finish all of them eventually though, so don't get disheartened if your pick doesn't win.

Today's theme is Dragon Age.

Please leave unhinged comments. I need to kick up a spark here, I've been in adulting hell for so long I forgot what excitement feels like and I need it back in my life so bad, I need you to re-infect me with yours, please! 😭

Sorry I basically dropped off the face of the Earth for like half a year, blame a mixture of general burnout and internet fatigue stacked against having to deal with renovations, moving and starting a new job.

The most compelling and encouraging aspect of being on this site is its community, so following a friend's suggestion I'm gonna try doing something a bit more interactive this year. My ask box is open for art subject suggestions and I'll try posting more sketches and polls to see which ideas actually resonate (it's something I tried a bit on Discord last year and it felt nice).

Happy belated 25th anniversary of The Sims!

Valas for @murthastick

He's a fancy necromancer (fancymancer!) Stick played in a D&D campaign with some of their artist friends. I loved the design, so I promised I would draw him. It only took me like two years to get around to it.

I very rarely get the desire to redraw an existing artwork, but I've always loved this particular Monster High box art and I kept thinking for months how it would be a fun draw-it-in-your-style exercise. Really enjoyed taking a crack at it!

Aarno for @kriskukko

Diving back into the well of my fave's backstory.

The point of no return - after over a year of sabotaging the red cowls from within, the time has come for the final act. Eneíthio has conspired with the rebels to grant them access to strategic points in the city to mount an armed revolt. Once he hands over the keys his fate is sealed - he will be caught and the punishment for treason is death.

(He ends up only being punished for rebellion - thus losing an arm.)

Ulysses Barker and Miss Sybil, attending a social gathering at their friends' estate.

Based on one of many story pitches spun by my friends in our voice chats - this one was about a group of Victorians who after experimenting with the occult are ripped from 1867 Scotland by a time-space vortex and thrust into the future. Ulysses wakes up in a hospital in a sleepy Canadian town as the clock strikes midnight on new year 2000. He's determined to hide the truth of his circumstances to avoid being declared insane and sent to an asylum. Oh, and there are some monsters released by the vortex that one can only see at the corner of the eye and never quite remember the encounter clearly...

In my quest to beat Skyrim after all these years I finally played through the Dawnguard DLC. Which... I kinda hated TBH. (Perhaps stacking the two worst areas in the game - Blackreach and Soul Cairn - back to back in the quest chain just wasn't the best choice, idk.)

Your honor, I love them. — me after seeing each of these for 15 seconds in their respective reveals.

The special appeal has a range, I cannot say no to a big buff (and fire-breathing?!) lady badass or a fabulous horny orlan. Very excited to see the fruit of the amazing work undoubtedly put in by the development teams behind these games!

Taash is a qunari dragon slayer in Dragon Age: The Veilguard by BioWare