Now that I've finished that image I can do my yearly comparison again. :D

...couple of months late but still.

Here and now
One year + 3 months ago.
Two years + three months ago
Three years + three months ago. Back when I started out and began using ArtRage.

God seeing that last one is painful.

Also to compare backgrounds, (Here's a different one from last year.)[https://www.weasyl.com/submission/231921/trade-enjoying-the-sounds] Funnily enough both of the really complex backgrounds I have done involved Mana. :V

Main things I notice myself are that I am better with backgrounds in general though I have no idea if I can do foliage. Then again both of those backgrounds murdered me so who knows. General style seems to have settled in since last year but there have been refinements. Better hair, better eyes, somewhat better lighting and shading, maybe slight refinements with hands.

I feel like I'm drawing Blaze slightly more effeminately as well but maybe that's just because of the outfit in the recent picture.

But yes, improvements all around.

Although my art isn't the only thing that has improved. For the last year and a half (though the last year was especially noticeable. It has likely been creeping up on me for even longer.) I had been dealing with depression. Started as far as I know somewhere in my last year of university and then hit me especially hard at the start of this year in the months I was waiting to be referred to the mental health team. Went for talk therapy since before summer, which fairly recently. That helped a lot with some of the nastier issues but it hadn't helped solve the underlying mood issues, and I knew that if I left it there I'd just slip back in to what I was like before so, before the last therapy session I spoke with my GP and decided antidepressants were probably quite necessary in the end. Been on them for a month now and I actually feel normal again. Which compared to what I had been, is fan-fucking-tastic.

Still need to take things slowly and not rush back in but I am more or less ready to start piecing things back together. Will likely try and do art more often, might open up commissions again in the future, and try and get my programming skills back up to scratch at some point. But things are looking up for the future, which is pretty great.

I will say though, to those that might be reading this; if everything seems empty, if almost everything you did that you used to enjoy stops giving you enjoyment (Anhedonia), if you just plain feel sad all the time... talk to a doctor. It isn't normal. And you don't have to just live with it. Especially if you are already an adult but even if you're still 'growing up', whatever period of life people arbitrarily deem is still growing up at the time.

I'm lucky; I had friends that pushed me to seek the help I needed because I just couldn't see it myself. I guess I'm something of a "heart on their sleeve" type. But regardless, if you feel that way, think about it. Depression is surprisingly common and it is deeply misunderstood by a lot of people. And keep your friends close. They may get frustrated with you sometimes, but they'll care about your well-being if they are indeed your friends.

Thanks a bunch of reading if you're still here. Stay tuned, I intend to be more active from here on. Procrastination notwithstanding. :V