So your goal is to work on your Webtoon. Maybe the idea of working on your comic is too daunting today.
You know what isn’t daunting?
Picking up the pencil.
Opening your art program.
Drawing the first line.
The hardest thing is getting started.
I’ve procrastinated on so many things because psychologically, it felt too daunting.
Actually, I’ve procrastinated getting my shop running for some time now, but one thing that really helped was creating a spreadsheet with all these microtasks to check off. As an added bonus, if it required going to a site, reading a tutorial, or whatever, I made sure the link was in there so I didn’t waste any time or energy trying to hunt for the webpage again.
Ditch The Phone
You might think you don’t have time to work on your Webtoon, but how much time a day are you on your phone?
I might sound like a cranky old person, but the reality is social media makes their money by being more addictive and keeping you glued to the phone. Have a special place in your home where your phone lives while you’re working on your Webtoon.
You can free up a lot of time by not being on your phone.
Schedule Your Time
I used to (stupidly) believe that having a ‘daily routine’ stifled your creativity. I had a bias against structure as a whole. A few years back, I realized you can actually hack your daily routine to get goals done.
Schedule A Time To Work On Your Webtoon
In general, humans are far more likely to get something done if it’s been scheduled. Most people will make a doctor’s appointment, but as for whatever you’re procrastinating on, if you plan to ‘get to it today’, you might look up and see it’s already 6pm and you feel like your day’s been shot.
If You’re Struggling, Set A Timer
I’ve had so many instances where I would log onto my computer, and just not feel like drawing. When that happens, I set a 15 minute timer for myself and start drawing. Sometimes, I’ll do the full 15 minutes, then I’m done, but really, the struggle was just getting started. Most of the time, I feel too deep in my drawing that I don’t want to stop.
Remember: The hardest thing is getting yourself to start. Once you can hack that part of your routine, you’re good to go.
It’s been a while since I’ve uploaded anything on the site. I’m sorry if you’ve been visiting and not seeing any updates to the comic or you’ve left comments that I haven’t seen. I don’t take the time to work on this site as much as I should and I’m working on that.
Updating The Comic
I have been consistently updating on Webtoon, so please go there if I’m not updating here. I’m currently on Leave right now from my day job, and I want to get the site completely up to date before I have to go back to work.
New Shop
So yes! We have a shop now. I actually started building one two years ago, but had to take a break from it for family reasons. I’m taking this as opportunity to pick up where I left of. I’ve actually spent the entire day fighting with both Bluehost and Printful customer service. I’ve been able to upload the products I originally had here two years ago, but for some reason, it wouldn’t let me upload any new stuff.
Here’s the new design below:
I found on Printful’s forums that basically the Printful plugin stopped working at some point, and no one’s bothered to fix it. Apparently, there is a workaround by downloading the imagemagick-engine plugin. So, hopefully, that should fix the issue. Still, I don’t feel like we should need a third-party plugin to make the Printful plugin actually do its job. I think I’m slowly going to move to Printify.
After downloading the imagemagick-engine plugin, I ordered the shirt above myself through the site. I currently have it listed as ‘Out of Stock’ until I know for sure everything’s working the way it should.
Alrighty. It’s late. I’m going to bed. Glad I finally got this stupid thing fixed. See you tomorrow. I’ll get to uploading the rest of the comic soon.
Yesterday, I did the hummingbird drawing (the one on the right), but was too lazy to post it.
One of the things about Todd Lockwood is he’s very detail heavy- which can be difficult to emulate in 1 hour or less. I found that squinting at the reference, seeing where the darkest areas, shade in those areas first, then draw a few details here and there.
Read Dragon Rider’s Dance For Free
Dragon Rider’s Dance is a fantasy comic where dragons are the princesses. Follow Ari and Matthias’ adventures as they navigate great adventures, monsters, and dragon slayer exes.
Or, there are other ways too. We have a Merch Store! Get cool coffee mugs and T-shirts featuring artwork from Dragon Rider’s Dance. If you know someone who’d like a coffee mug like this, get it now.
Drawing of Todd Lockwood’s Drizzt. Feeling pretty happy. The last time I tried to do a 30 Day Challenge, I petered out around Day 15. I’ve taken some precautions to make sure that doesn’t happen again including:
Making a template of my blog posts ahead of time and making several drafts so I can just draw, log in, and put everything up
Microgoal: If I’m not feeling motivated, don’t think the goal is “draw a picture,” Instead, change it to “pick up the pencil”
Never have sketchbook ‘put away.’ Put in a place where you can see it and is easy to get to.
Or, there are other ways too. We have a Merch Store! Get cool coffee mugs and T-shirts featuring artwork from Dragon Rider’s Dance. If you know someone who’d like a coffee mug like this, get it now.
Can you call yourself a Dungeons And Dragons artist if you’ve never drawn a beholder? … I mean sure… but it was still fun to draw!
Daily Fantasy Drawing Thoughts & Meditations
Welp. I wasted a whole hour about how it’s a good thing that nobody really cares about your feelings and how artists shouldn’t spout off stuff if they don’t have all the facts or haven’t thought about it only to find I was falling into that same trap.
So instead, I want to start focusing more on writing about fantasy topics: Magic, treasure (though I have very strong, angry opinions about treasure), fairies, and all that good stuff. It can be a bit of a danger though. If you’re reading Dragon Rider’s Dance, and also reading blog posts about my half-baked 4am thoughts and ideas, then your brain might not be as free to just enjoy the story for what it is and come up with your own conclusions. Because you might know too much about how my mind works and what I believe and therefore, what ‘message’ I may or may not get across.
Like I am ‘anti-slapping children across the face because they told you they want to grow up to be just like you.’ I am literally writing a scene where this happens. My bad guys are not very nice.
Or, there are other ways too. We have a Merch Store! Get cool coffee mugs and T-shirts featuring artwork from Dragon Rider’s Dance. If you know someone who’d like a coffee mug like this, get it now.
Read Dragon Rider’s Dance For Free
Dragon Rider’s Dance is a fantasy comic where dragons are the princesses. Follow Ari and Matthias’ adventures as they navigate great adventures, monsters, and dragon slayer exes.
Read Dragon Rider’s Dance For Free
Dragon Rider’s Dance is a fantasy comic where dragons are the princesses. Follow Ari and Matthias’ adventures as they navigate great adventures, monsters, and dragon slayer exes.
Another Todd Lockwood. Tried to take his concept and make the dragon look like Ari. I ended up wasting an hour because I drew the original head, but ended up erasing it to make the head look more like Ari’s.
Daily Fantasy Drawing Thoughts & Meditations
Why Do Kings Hate Dragons in Fantasy Stories?
Simple! Dragons are evil, fire-breathing monsters that steal gold, kidnap princesses, and burn down farms! But if you’ve been living in recent times where there’s an obsession with ‘subverting your expectations’, you probably know it’s more than that.
In Dragon Rider’s Dance, dragons have the ability to look at treasure and know its whole history. If a king is spreading a propaganda tale of how he was the mighty defender of the realm, she could simply look at his sword, see the truth and say “Actually, you hid behind a rock the entire battle.”
I’ve been playing with the idea for Book 2 where Ari and Matthias get hired by a king who’s been corrupted by the UnNamed to protect his daughter, but while they’re protecting the princess, several assassins and dragon slayers are trying to kill them. And of course, they find out later the king put out a proclamation that an evil dragon and her dark knight stole their princess, and whoever rescues her will have her hand in marriage or something.
I made an animatic using Conan audio a few months back which kinda got me thinking about that storyline. I’ve decided it’s going to be the first adventure you see Ari and Matthias go on.
Or, there are other ways too. We have a Merch Store! Get cool coffee mugs and T-shirts featuring artwork from Dragon Rider’s Dance. If you know someone who’d like a coffee mug like this, get it now.
Read Dragon Rider’s Dance For Free
Dragon Rider’s Dance is a fantasy comic where dragons are the princesses. Follow Ari and Matthias’ adventures as they navigate great adventures, monsters, and dragon slayer exes.
Read Dragon Rider’s Dance For Free
Dragon Rider’s Dance is a fantasy comic where dragons are the princesses. Follow Ari and Matthias’ adventures as they navigate great adventures, monsters, and dragon slayer exes.
This is another study of Todd Lockwood’s Dragonlance work. I might finish it tomorrow. We’ll see.
It’s crazy how much he had an impact on me growing up. My dad had a subscription to Dragon Magazine and I always fell in love with the covers and tried to copy them. Todd Lockwood was the one who did most of those beautiful artworks.
Daily Fantasy Drawing Thoughts & Meditations
“Stop panicking.”
“Don’t worry so much.”
“It’s just one bad day. Things’ll get better.”
“Just remember to breathe.”
I feel like it’s easy to tell yourself these things. You’ve probably heard these from other people. It’s just not that simple sometimes. You hear these things and your heart still feels like it’s pumping battery acid.
You’re not panicking or anxious because you want to. You know it’s a detriment. How many times have you worried about something only for your mind to seize up and you end up making more mistakes?
Something I’ve started doing is writing down what’s worrying me. Normally I’m scared I’m going to open my laptop and there’s going to be an angry email from my boss. So, I write it down. And immediately after I write at the bottom… did that actually happen?
The annoying thing about these worries is more often than not… they’re lies. Strangers don’t care enough about you to think anything negative. Your loved ones would truly mourn and miss you if something happened to you. When you’re off the clock or not in class, your teachers/bosses aren’t obssessing over you, thinking about how you always screw everything up (I mean, they might, but at least, it’s not helpful to think that. And if so, it’s not your problem at that time). They’re just living their own lives. Trying not to think about work. Same as you.
Your body is trying to protect you from a tiger that doesn’t exist.
I think it’s helpful to think that with everything that’s going on in the world, everybody feels like this to at least some level.
I found when I stopped caring so much if I was going to make a mistake and just listened to others. To not be afraid of the worst-case scenario if I make a mistake. It was much easier to keep my brain from siezing up. I could hear everything they were saying. When I focused on the other people, seeing their stress and thinking, “how can I make them feel better?” in a genuine way not in a – “Omigod they’re mad at me!” kind of thing, it was much easier.
Anxiety is a very mild form of narcissism (you’re always obsessing over how everything’s conspiring against you). I’m not writing this out to be mean, I promise. I just found that putting it more in that perspective was more helpful.
The worries are lies more often than not
The worst-case scenario is usually not that bad
Focus on things you can control. Tiny accomplishments around the house.
Or, there are other ways too. We have a Merch Store! Get cool coffee mugs and T-shirts featuring artwork from Dragon Rider’s Dance. If you know someone who’d like a coffee mug like this, get it now.
Read Dragon Rider’s Dance For Free
Dragon Rider’s Dance is a fantasy comic where dragons are the princesses. Follow Ari and Matthias’ adventures as they navigate great adventures, monsters, and dragon slayer exes.
Read Dragon Rider’s Dance For Free
Dragon Rider’s Dance is a fantasy comic where dragons are the princesses. Follow Ari and Matthias’ adventures as they navigate great adventures, monsters, and dragon slayer exes.
Today I cracked open a book on composition and did an exercise on composition. What started as a landscape turned into my two characters walking on a path. I normally don’t like doing landscapes, but I’m pretty happy with how this one turned out. I think the mistakes I made during this one helped me figure out what I needed to do differently.
…or it could be that I did that one later in the day was therefore harder on myself.
Daily Fantasy Drawing Thoughts & Meditations: Stop Thinking About Yourself
The funny thing is I started doing these drawings because I’ve been feeling very anxious about absolutely nothing lately. Today, I heard a really good piece of advice:
“Stop thinking about yourself. Focus on the other person. Make the other person as comfortable as possible.”
I can’t believe that a simple phrase like that really puts things in perspective. There’s a really stupid part of my brain that thinks if I make a mistake, that people will think less of me, or that I’ll never recover, or whatever. I get anxious every time I have to go in for a meeting because I always think it’s because I’m in trouble (it’s never the case).
The reality is, once you make a mistake, or if someone gets annoyed with you, they’ve long forgotten the slight not even a second after it happened. Unless they’re a horrible, narcissistic person that isn’t happy unless they’re holding a grudge (in which case, you don’t want to be around them anyway).
So, if you’re talking to someone, don’t be sitting there obsessing over whether or not you’re making a good impression, but literally, just shut up and listen. It’s a chance to learn something new.
Sorry, I know this has nothing to do with art, but this is really helping me, and I hope it helps someone else.
And Now, A Word From Our AI Scribe About Fantasy Art Drawings
Art therapy is a process of using art to heal from psychological and emotional trauma. This can be done through drawing, painting, and other creative activities.
Psychologists use art therapy as a way to help patients communicate their feelings, explore their thoughts and memories, develop self-awareness, and manage behavior.
The use of fantasy art in the healing process may be used to help people express difficult emotions or experiences that they are having difficulty putting into words. Fantasy art can also be used as a way for someone to explore their mental state or journey through different worlds in order to find peace with themselves.
Art therapy is a form of psychotherapy that uses the creative process of making art to improve one’s mental health.
Fantasy art is a form of art that depicts fantastic creatures, scenes and places. Fantasy artists can create anything they can imagine and they often make their works look realistic.
Dragon art is a type of fantasy art that usually involves drawing mythical dragons in different poses or scenarios. It’s popular among fantasy artists because it’s considered one of the most difficult types to draw well.
Or, there are other ways too. We have a Merch Store! Get cool coffee mugs and T-shirts featuring artwork from Dragon Rider’s Dance. If you know someone who’d like a coffee mug like this, get it now.
Read Dragon Rider’s Dance For Free
Dragon Rider’s Dance is a fantasy comic where dragons are the princesses. Follow Ari and Matthias’ adventures as they navigate great adventures, monsters, and dragon slayer exes.
Read Dragon Rider’s Dance For Free
Dragon Rider’s Dance is a fantasy comic where dragons are the princesses. Follow Ari and Matthias’ adventures as they navigate great adventures, monsters, and dragon slayer exes.
A study of one of Frank Frazetta’s Conan paintings. I am a huge fan of Frank Frazetta. He was such a skilled artist, one of the great masters of the 1980’s and chances are, when you think classic historical fantasy art, you think Frazetta.
It was thanks to him that Conan the Barbarian started to make waves after the book series had already been around for about fifty years or so with no one really giving it a look.
Another reason why I love Frazetta is… well… you know that term ‘separate the art from the artist’? Part of the reason is if you look back, many prolific artists seem to have deep personal flaws that almost acted as a balance against having such a talent. Picasso has been described by family members as narcissistic, Michelangelo had a rotten temper, Wilhelm Richard Wagner was an anti-Semite. The list goes on.
Frazetta I believe is an exception. To my knowledge, he wasn’t tied to any scandals, wasn’t a womanizer, and in fact, he was a man who was crazy in love with his wife and stayed married to her until the day he died. One of the things he’s most known for are his paintings of gorgeous, flirty, risque women, and a majority of them resemble his wife in one way or another- an account of she posed for his artwork, and always encouraged him to keep painting. One one hand, I want to say this is more of a ‘nice to learn’, but even if that wasn’t the case, I would still want to appreciate his art… at the same time, I don’t know if he would’ve been such a prolific artist if he wasn’t so inspired by having such a strong marriage. Either way, I’m happy his work is with us.
Being married myself to a man who’s always proud of my work and encouraging me to keep going when things are tough- I really cannot express enough how important it is to have someone like that when you’re an artist.
I never learned about Frazetta in college or anything like that, but I know for a fact that my professors would have had a moralistic hatred of his work- would view it as ‘objectifying’ or whatever. So, I’d be lying if I said I never had a sense of spiteful joy and a tiny, pathetic sense of rebellion every time I study his work.
Daily Fantasy Drawing Thoughts & Meditations
Unfortunately, today’s meditations weren’t very pleasant. I think that’s why this artwork appealed to me so much. You can have all the skills, strength, and determination in the world, but even so, life can feel overwhelming. It feels like a giant snake is about to eat you and there’s nothing you can do about it. Of course, I don’t think Frank Frazetta was thinking such thoughts as he was making this piece. Probably not. He was probably thinking how cool it was to get paid to make an awesome painting like this and probably which nice gift he was gonna buy for his wife with the money he made.
Conan is painted with an ideallic strength and body (as he was meant to be an ideal hero-which makes sense). You’re just sitting here wondering, ‘How is he possibly going to get out of there?’ Now, you could probably READ this book this illustration is based off of… oh.
But there’s a light side to it too. He has to get out of there. He has to slay the monster. He doesn’t have a choice. Maybe that’s a good lesson to take.
This is also one of the reasons why I think depending so much on allegories in your art is dumb. The idea that whatever your art is, it’s a 1-to-1 representation of what the world is today. The world today sucks. Why would you want to use a medium where literally anything can happen and remind people of it?
But I digress. One of my favorite things about art is how the meaning changes depending on what your state of mind is, where you are in life, that kind of thing. Today, I was looking at this as I was drawing and realizing that mighty, competent heroes of fiction undergo struggle. That’s WHY we enjoy their stories. We are allowed to escape to a fantasy world and be inspired by the fact that if these heroes can overcome nearly being eaten by giant, poisonous vipers, then we don’t need to dread going to work on Monday- or cleaning the house- or starting a business- or whatever our responsibilities are.
And Now, A Word From Our AI Scribe About Fantasy Art Drawings
Fantasy art is a genre of artwork that is typically created in the form of paintings, drawings, and illustrations. It often depicts fantastic or mythological creatures and scenes, and the term can be used to describe the style of artwork.
Fantasy art has been around for centuries, but it was popularized in the 20th century by artists like Frank Frazetta. Fantasy art is often used in video games as well as children’s books.
Or, there are other ways too. We have a Merch Store! Get cool coffee mugs and T-shirts featuring artwork from Dragon Rider’s Dance. If you know someone who’d like a coffee mug like this, get it now.
Read Dragon Rider’s Dance For Free
Dragon Rider’s Dance is a fantasy comic where dragons are the princesses. Follow Ari and Matthias’ adventures as they navigate great adventures, monsters, and dragon slayer exes.
Read Dragon Rider’s Dance For Free
Dragon Rider’s Dance is a fantasy comic where dragons are the princesses. Follow Ari and Matthias’ adventures as they navigate great adventures, monsters, and dragon slayer exes.
Today’s drawing is Todd Lockwood’s cover of Dragonlance. A classic fantasy art drawing! And a fun one. Look how mighty he is!
Daily Fantasy Drawing Thoughts & Meditations
Weirdly enough, my thoughts for this morning encompassed how fantasy tends to be ‘pro monarchy.’ Many of these stories are about putting the ‘rightful king (or queen, don’t @ me for pity’s sake)’ on the throne. Part of the story is about the hero is reluctant to take on this huge responsibility. Believing they’re not able to do it, what if they fail? And the reason for that is because that’s our everyday. We have responsibilities in our daily life, we know we could be reaching higher, but there’s many obstacles to overcome first. As a system of government though?
I think in general, especially Americans, are taught that monarchies are a very negative thing (I mean, our history did start off as a revolution for crying out loud when the Enlightenment was kicking into high gear- so people were questioning why we needed monarchs). But after a conversation with my husband late last night, I kind of want to explore this topic a little more. Weigh the pros and cons. Especially since I’m writing a fantasy story myself, it would be a good thing to investigate thoroughly rather than try to casually subvert or deconstruct it.
I’m not a social scientist, economist, or expert by any means (though to be fair, I’m not convinced the ‘experts’ are true experts either), but it has been something I’ve been thinking about lately.
Say you were meant to be the king. You were one of those foundling children who grew up among the peasantry, grew up to overthrow the usurper and get your throne back. You could reject the responsibility outright. Focus on living a simple life, maybe opt to start a republic or democracy instead. Or- face the responsibility that if you don’t take it, especially with the understanding that you have a more well-rounded perspective the previous king… what’s to stop someone even crueler from taking your place? How would you rule justly and fairly and not get assassinated by political rivals because you neglected to appease them in your mission to make the world a better place?
It’s a lot to think about.
And Now, A Word From Our AI Scribe About Fantasy Art Drawings
Fantasy art is a genre of art that has been around for centuries. In this section, we will explore the use of fantasy art in books and how it can be used to express the world of imagination.
Fantasy artists create their own worlds with their artwork. They are able to bring out the world of imagination with their drawings and paintings. They are also able to bring out emotions in people through their work.
Or, there are other ways too. We have a Merch Store! Get cool coffee mugs and T-shirts featuring artwork from Dragon Rider’s Dance. If you know someone who’d like a coffee mug like this, get it now.
Read Dragon Rider’s Dance For Free
Dragon Rider’s Dance is a fantasy comic where dragons are the princesses. Follow Ari and Matthias’ adventures as they navigate great adventures, monsters, and dragon slayer exes.
Read Dragon Rider’s Dance For Free
Dragon Rider’s Dance is a fantasy comic where dragons are the princesses. Follow Ari and Matthias’ adventures as they navigate great adventures, monsters, and dragon slayer exes.
