What can I say, the month went by before it even began!
The first week was already full with being on Set – As I volunteered to help out with sound recording on a bachelor’s film. I don’t wanna delve in to the nitty griddy because I won’t follow in those footsteps again (most likely) but working on set was a refreshing experience with the lovely locale we had at our disposal from time to time. And frankly, I would not have agreed to the project if I had much more time on my hands but I don’t. I’m planning to compensate a course for another to have more time for animation and filling up my portfolio a good bit. Because the upcoming semester will be a tricky one as I have to start applying for another internship and time is of the essence.
Other than that, I’m really looking forward to the summer! Last year was a very good semester and I already have so many plans, like going out with classmates to Annecy Festival.
All in all this summer will be challenging, given I have to reach for straws to make some income as well as keep productivity on my animation project going and applying with it for internship positions.
I also have some plans regarding my next furry cons but I better explain once I’ve talked about NFC.
So, right after the film shoot, I had one week to meet a personal deadline: I wanted every shot of my animation film keyed and it mostly worked. I yet have to do some timing and there are some inbetween keys missing… and I have to figure out how and if to animate one scene but it’s mostly done. Voicework too apart from one line is final and is now implemented in the newest work in progress. I can hardly believe it, but it’s shaping up to be very guud c: By time I hopefully have figured out how to make the composition look with colors and effects.
Alrighty then, NFC preparations and travel had me right in our carnivals, which almost caused me to miss my first train. The convention marks the first time that I am accounting for everything with a flight all by my self and I haven’t been anymore northern than north germany. Sweden was a nice journey and not too uncomfy luckily. I wanted this experience to make me more accustomed to travelling by plane since I am planning to travel to Canada in the next couple of years. So it was rather uncomplicated and I was greeted with the City of Malmö at night. Which is quite lovely. It wasn’t as cold as I anticipated (the film set has that beat). And it was clean and quiet! Only payments very a little tricky as every app requires you to pay with credit which I didn’t have at the time. It’s also the first time in a long while that I was confronted with a change in currency and the exchange rate not being too easy to figure out. I had a little booklet with me that I had some exchange numbers written on it so I had a reference point to how much e.g. 40 SEK is in € and therefore this milk was hella expensive.
NFC is also the place were all the people met up that I first met on my OG furry con back in 2022 ^v^ And it was sooooo nice! In a way it felt like no time had passed and in another way, we were all much more confident than back in the days. And it was a blast to see how Varis and Yac brought their selfmade suits along for the very first time! ^v^
It was lovely! It’s rare that I get to enjoy a con for just the people there these days. While I did sit in the artist alley for 3 hours, I had all comm slots filled and didn’t end up overworking myself for a change! 
It was a good alteration from the stress or having to be in the DD all the time and then spending the rest of the day with comms. And while I really like my booth, it presents a nice change of pace for the convention in the case of NFC meaning much more time to meet friends! And luckily there were so many people I know and if I wasn’t actively resting, I did good time to make some new friends as well! Just the con venue was pretty confusing. Didn’t figure out where the drawing place was until 2 days in and didn’t find the right room for events on multiple occasions. At least if I didn’t find things myself, I ended up being found to the right place instead ^v^
Hanging out with so many lovely peeps meant I had some good freedome to do what felt best at the time: doing games, heading out, in the DD, drawing, chilling, eating etc. and it was really a nice flexible lifestyle that I enjoyed. And I think I’d be happy doing it more than often as well.
When not doing comms, I was helping out with doodles for charity, basically doing comms… for charity :3 Which was a pleasant change! I could do speed comms so to say, be rougher, focus on the first draft and refine later instead of overthinking it and erasing 3 concepts before finding something nice. What I learned at the con though, despite my skills improving somewhat, is that my spacial structure of the body, pose and face tend to be the same. I’d really like to do some perspective practice, maybe I’ll hit up the good old’ boxes again for warm up.
The other big goal was to spend some time trading for merch at the dealer’s den and boy oh boy, did I spend hours in there again. I have met soo many nice new artists! I yet have to hang up the new prints on my wall and wrap up some gifts for my friends ^v^
Sadly, on the last day of con, I felt a creeping sickness building up, one that stole me a night of sleep and which made the way back home more nauseating than needed be. There I heard that so many got infected with a flu or virus during the con, it’s horrible. I managed fine on the way home and stayed at my dad’s who helped me nurse me through. I stood ill for 3 days before heading home on friday.
Sadly this means that I don’t have any artwork to showcase this month. While I have done a lot of sketches and drawings at NFC, I wouldn’t feel all too comfy to share them here. Rest assured, there will be more soon with two comms underway and my weekend marker drawings still being fun ^v^
Oh yes, I wanted to talk a little about future cons.
My main goal is to attend EF and TFI, these two will be right next to each other, meaning it’d be smart to stay one or two days more in Hamburg to then move over to Brandenburg for TFI. The thing is, with how packed my luggage was last time for DD, I won’t be able to do the same when also travelling to TFI. I’d have to lose a lot of pounds in those bags, meaning I could only go for artist alley if I wanted to do something. Which would mean lots less income that I really need. Perhaps I could really amp up my comm game until then and make more through them, or I could head to Awoostria beforehand and try my luck for the Dealer’s there. And still, NFC has taught me to whicked those germs can be. I’d have to be 10 times more careful not to catch anything, which would be extra challenging cuz otherwise TFI would fall in the water… hihi.
Anyhow, I’ll have a meeting with my den group sometime today where we’ll clear that up.
I’m gonna finish today’s marker drawing and then play some Monster Hunter!
And I wish you a wonderful next month! ^v^
~Souvillaine