Part One: Year Reflection

I'll be frank. This year has been a lot of things, but I'm too exhausted to write them all out or even remember  solid chunks of the year. It'll be short...er than last year. Promise :p

Some of you may know, some might not, but I dropped out of college at the end of the Spring Term this year. I wrote in last year's reflection that switching schools was the best decision I had made, and at the time it was! But due to a series of factors, and an stunt caused by one of my professors that jeopardized my program there, I had had enough and decided to leave. Since then I've been a freelance artist full time and I'm so thankful for every person who commissioned artwork from me this year. 

Not only that, but I had the courage to reopen my Patreon and I'm so grateful for all the wonderful folks who supports me over there throughout the year. I'll be getting your December rewards done soon. I hope for next year I'll be able to provide more things for you guys. I look forward to what this next year will bring. <3

The only other notable thing that I can think of that happened this year was the computer fiasco™. I had bought a new laptop back in October since my old one's keyboard was broken and I couldn't lower the screen brightness. However, I wasn't able to set it up until November and since doing so was having a MYRIAD of issues with it. The biggest being its disappearing D-Drive which is where I keep all of my work files. I put up with this for a few weeks until my tech-savvy sibling came to visit and tried to help me fix it, which at one point the computer just gave on all our workarounds and ceased to recover my D-Drive. I ended up needing to send the computer back to the company I bought it from so they could fix it and the whole process took until about half-way through December. I was unable to draw for almost three months because of this and the anxiety destroyed me. But now I have a functioning laptop and am able to draw again, and it feels so damn good.

Semi-relevant, but I tried out two different jobs this year. The first in the summer was at a restaurant and I was only there for a day. The experience was hell, I couldn't stay there. The second was more recent and was in response to the computer fiasco™. It was at a failing Starbucks in a grocery store and I was there for only a week before realizing I couldn't keep up with the demands they wanted out of me and they refused to let me switch departments (something I was told I could do when I got hired if Starbucks wasn't working out; I applied for a different job entirely btw.) I hope they found some replacements; there was supposedly more new hires than just me. 
I wrote last year that I was getting a volunteer job, and yeah! I still go there. I muck horse paddocks and do other barn chores once (sometimes twice) a week, and I started to ride there in the fall! The horse I ride's name is Willow, and he's a fatty fatso cute pony. Love him to bits. Bless all the people there. They're the best!

Last thing! Plans for next year: as is usual, I don't really have anything concrete. I play a lot of things by ear. I think I'm going to rework my commission openings to give myself some room and time for original work, including being able to finish up Of Rain and Snow (my short Warriors Fan Comic). 

Anyways I've gone on here long enough, let's get to the artwork!

Part Two: Artwork
Thing to note: A lot of the artwork this year has been "time smudged". I don't like how the summary looks with empty spaces so I filled them in with pieces I like that were done close enough to their respective months. Unlike previous years, I won't be directly linking to the pieces as some of them have not been posted by the time this goes up.

January: Gambit Boost
One of the first pieces I made for my "Fire Emblem Three Houses Blue Lions Catified" Project (wow what a mouth-full). It was made to replicate the in-game graphic for when a Gambit Boost occurs! F!Byleth Cat is on the other half not shown in the summary. I had fun playing with the lighting and the colors. Sylvain cat still is my favorite of my designs hehe.

February: Arson Cat
This was part of an art trade with Cyra-King! Shad had been doing their own Catified project of the ATLA cast and we ended up trading for each others cats. This one I very much enjoyed doing and probably one of my favorites from the year. I super like the textured look of the brushes, which was heavily inspired by their work. Also the lighting is fun!! Check out their incredible part of my Dimitri cat!

March: Shaymin Squad!
My Patreon discord has quite a few people with Shaymin sonas/ocs! So I decided it'd be fun to draw them all together! This piece feats. myself, snowyeeveearts, kawitekew and noblejanobii! I like the simplicity of this piece and shaymin is just a good mon! Go give these people a watch/follow. They absolutely deserve it.

April: Cavern
Part five of my Patreon banner project, though they could all easily land this spot. Around this time was when I was preparing to reopen my Patreon and decided I would go with a theme centered around my stories, The Valley (and) The Far Hollow. This is for the highest tier, "The Watcher" 25$. I chose this piece in particular because I think it has one of the strongest compositions out of the batch. My other favorite being the 5$ tier "Inbetween". This piece feats. my characters Navi and the god of the valley, Shadowmask watching over the Lifestone. I had fun mimicking a more "storybook" look and messing with the watercolor brushes again to create these!

May: The Gift of You
My part of an art trade with Earthtonequeen/Silverlunarwing! One of the MANY from this year, but I absolutely adore this one. The characters are from her webcomic, Shinka the Last Eevee which I highly recommend giving a read! 
This was actually my second attempt at the same trade, the first one I just wasn't liking but I'm super glad with the outcome of the final result. Nick is so pure and wholesome and he deserves the world.
Their part of this trade with my PMD ocs, Hark and Twig!

June: Kiiboy
In preparation for the coming Artfight, I created a more "unified" look for the icons on all my active characters. Kiibo's just happened to be one of my favorites and the most cute. Kiibo is my eevee-design for the danganronpa character of the same name and I love him very much. The blue background was fun as well! Just a cute piece that I like a lot.

July: What a Catch :3
Hehe, Artfight was the whole month so all the pieces from that were candidates. But I went with this one because even before Artfight started, Uluri and I were toying around with the idea of this crack ship between my OC Imura, and their OC Sin. Here was their piece that I countered.
I'm still obsessed with this, and I really liked this drawing, so it made the final cut. Though I have some honorable mentions! In the Woods || Mutations || Aisumi

August: Lament
This is an unfinished illustration featuring my OC, Hone. I originally made the sketch in the middle of July, but off and on worked on the piece throughout August, but I never came to finish it. Probably my favorite drawing from the year overall despite it being unfinished. I love this catman so much you do not understand how deep this obsession goes.

September: Cassandra Kento
Didn't have much for September, so I picked one of my commissions from that month!! One of my only "fully rendered" commissions from the year, it ended up being one of my favorites. Cassandra has such a beautiful design and it was an absolute blast to work on drawing her! 

October: Entangled
October was the start of the computer fiasco™, so I had nothing to show for it, and this piece was technically drawn at the end of September but whatever. BL34CH ended up being the guinea pig in yet another pretty experimental piece. I don't do it often, but I very much like drawing gore artwork, or more.. graphic?? pieces. It usually comes as a surprised to the people who follow me lol, but yeah. I enjoy this piece a ton. Sorry BL34CH, that's probably not gonna heal x'D

November: What are you...?
Another piece that wasn't technically done in November (because no computer), but whatever! This is part of a collaboration with Saharikya that hasn't been finished yet. It's taken us many months to work on it. The only part that will remain in the final product is Mugwort himself. The background is temporary as I made just for this summary. Hopefully I'll be able to post the finished product sometime next year!!

December: Tea & Hot Chocolate
Dang. I REALLY tried to get this out before new years, but with the computer issues taking up half of December I was unable to start this until last second and still haven't finished. My unfinished Christmas illustration! In retrospect, I should have gone with something simpler but oh well. I wanted to draw my BOYS, Hone and Mugwort drinking some hot beverages for Christmas (even though they do not celebrate Christmas in The Sun's Reach) and I'm preeeettty sure Mug can't even drink that hot chocolate, but it's fiiine!
I keep going back and forth over if I like the piece or not and at the time of typing this I'm rethinking the whole thing but I'm going to finish it up soon and post it late. Hopefully look forward to the finished result! <3

Part Three: Conclusion
Remember how I said this would be shorter than last years?? Well that may still be true. I'm too exhausted to check though. Sorry about that!
My hopes for January is to play catch up with my owed artwork queue then continue things on from there! Thank you everyone for the support, both old and new watchers/followers and especially patrons. I hope everyone has a great New Years! <3
See you soon!