It’s that one time of the year where I look back on my thoughts and feelings of a different time, read about my plans and doings from a distance and visualize that time again in my head, how it was, one year ago. Often times, when writing my reflections I thought I’d be the only one really interested in these… I mean obviously, it is written stuff about the intricacies of my life in a creative context but I was surprised to meet some people who like to read these. That makes me really happy. So here’s a fellow greeting to you! I hope you’re doing well and find whatever it is that is pleasing to you about my journals ^v^ I yet have to hear of someone who started doing these because of my journals but when that happens, I’ll make sure to write about it in one of my reflections…
In my last annual reflection, I wrote that the year of 2024 has been one of challenge and opportunity. And thinking about it, I’d categorize this – the year 2025 – as one of refocusing. It has been an incredible year for me just with how much I have done but also the very thought-provoking directions I’m facing. The next year will no doubt inspire the many more that will come after.
Instead of tackling the year one month after another, this time, I want to look at what things, projects and developments I can focus and summarize. I have my monthly reflections for the chronological and more detailed versions anyways.
The big biggie of the year is probably the finishing of my animation short film. A project that has started preproduction in early 2024, that was in a long production phase and underwent one hiatus here and there. I am now rummaging through the first sketches that I did for it and can happily look back to it now, knowing I went through with my vision and stretched this experiment to a finished little film that is being sent to festivals around the globe.
And how can I summarize the making of this film to not blow this journal out of proportion? Despite me working mainly for myself on this, tackling planning, animation, sound design and all the composition and postpro, I cannot understate how important it was for me to share the workload to my dear lea, who helped with the backgrounds. And to my Diamond Jack and Ryft Riot who helped me make the recording sessions a bliss, overcoming my nervousness and create fond memories. And to my long lasting companion DregonV8 who has been with me since my early Deviantart days, being inspired by my drawings then and hopefully enough now to be a fun experience <3 I am so happy I did not do this alone, I would have crumbled to a pity pile of dust. While this project never was meant to be shown at festivals and I still feel it being too edgy and not carrying too much meaning, I am pushing this out into the world to give my friends a feeling of pride with this, that’s the least I can do. I want more silly animal characters presented at festivals, dark tones in animation instead of child-friendly ones and eventually make something more that shares my deep empathy with watching creative works at festivals that are far from commercial intent. Furthermore, my time at the animation festival in Annecy has shown me how important it is to make a film accessible and stick to the fundamental use of storytelling through image and art. I think my next film, if it will ever come to that (and I hope) should be without spoken language. In addition, I ould absolutely love to make a music video next, I only have to find the right one. Also, even after finishing the film in July, I was still surprised how months later there’s so much more to be done: fine adjustments to mixing, creating festival material, creating a DCP file, managing file accessibility etc. I’m positive the distribution side of the film still has some tasks waiting for me, but it has celebrated premiere, I’ve seen it in a theatre and it can be watched hehe that’s a big relief for me at least!
Of when the film can be viewed officially, I do not know. When it’s submitted to the last festival that requires it being privatized, which should be in about one year by now. Which gives me time to maybe start a social media page about it? Promotion never was my strong suit as I’m too shy to be pestering people with my stuff.
A big focus this year was to get good at using markers. Throughout the first half of the year, I worked out weekly challenges to get into traditional art again. And I was very successful with finishing one marker drawing every weekend. At first, I was animated to draw my characters with big fruit, as both an exercise in figure drawing as well as to find different textures to render. My favourite being:
Although depicting my characters with giant fruit is always a pleasure, I think here, it worked very well, for one: Tobias is very fond of lemon, it’s not just a color choice, it represents his longing for a partner. Also the figure drawing aspect worked very well, the way he just clutches the big fruit <3
With my weekend-goals, I was able to finish 17 such drawings, 7 of which being fruit centered c: But it also helped to do some fanart for a change. These marker drawings took up a almost half of my projects this year which reflects very well how enthusiastic I was with this new medium. It easily would have been much more but after attendig Eurofurence, the tradition kinda dropped, mainly because my weeks have become busier and my inspiration to use markers faded. I cannot recall why exactly, I think it was due to markers being rather not handy and I started to move out more at weekends. However, I want to re-kindle this tradition and continue my big fruit endeavours! After all, they are fun and practical!
These marker drawings were enough fun that I decided this year’s fruit hat piece to be in this very medium. Coming from an image of Stephen Spielberg sitting in the mouth of the prop-shark of JAWS, recreating it with my sweet Norman, the Blåhaj. And I am very happy with this. At first I was worried if it can hold up with the other digital pieces given I want this tradition also to see how they compare and show my skills over the years, but I thought, why not also reflect my artistic journey? And in June, it was already a much established method of drawing for me. I also brought it further into Art Fight, where – despite my crunching time for uni was well under way – I still managed to finsish two pieces each weekend until I had to move, after continuing to do some more traditional pieces though in my usual commission format. I had a nead theme going on at first where I put ocs in their corresponding ice cream flavour that was an extention to the giant fruit pieces earlier in the year but hmmm I didn’t feel they were all what I want with the art.
All in all, the year was a constant working marathon. In my summer semester, I wasn’t able to chill at my favourite spot what I had claimed I wanted to do again. I accepted lots of small jobs; helped out at uni’s film screenings, helped out as a model twice, did Audio recording for a student film, which was draining but also got me to very cool places and of course, I helped out with graphics for the ITFS again. I didn’t do any con-book illustrations this year as time wasn’t enough, though I did volunteer as artist for Tropical Furry Islands again, which was again a very nice experience.
The con range was extended to NFC, which I visited for the first time in February and while the stay was tricky, pricy and inconvenient for me in particular, I am so very happy that I went there for meeting the peeps from previous cons! Since our first convention in 2022, which – let’s face it – helped me with my furry outing, a wonderful and lovely group has formed with which I gladly spent lots of time with continuing to Eurofurence and beyond. I once again had a very fun time trading with artists in the dealer’s den and it felt easier once more to just socialize. I feel like every convention I got to helps me greatly with warming up socially, even if my batteries are drained and I need to relax a bit. Just that it all had to end with a very nasty flu that knocked me out nearly a week long after was a sore spot to the whole ordeal.
Eurofurence was the next one and it is where I felt the limit of what a con can be to me. I had spent nearly all of my time either vending or working on commissions. It was all that I did, despite my resolutions to attend much more panels, which made me kinda miserable afterwards. I still liked working on these comms, of course but there’s no denying that it was too much. Which deepened my appreciation for all the lovely staff volunteers who sacrifice their time to keep things running as well as the artists that never see parts of the conventions they attend in order to make a living. It was a wake-up call when I had to admit to Nomax that I wasn’t able to see one of his panels, something that told me not to be dealing at EF next year… or at least to this extend. I still have to think about how to finance all those cons after all, since I’ll also be visiting Awoostria and the new Furvester next year.
Regarding my island setting, I made some new artworks showcasing the environment, and giving me joy and calmness to give them detail and little critters to find. And I finally made the move to design a new character to inhabit the island together with my bird! Marín was someone I imagined since the very start of the project with the song Mi Capitán by Kiltro. He had a very romantic and elegant side to him, but also a vulnerable and deceitful background. He makes for an interesting character I’d very much enjoy to continue featuring in future pieces. All in all, I believe the tropical island pieces have been gathering much love this year. I’m happy I can finally turn more into this direction with more focus. Though I cannot argue which of them is my favourite. There’s much more to this setting that I’d love to explore next year. Especially with a new set of watercolours that I’ve gotten for my birthday. One reason more to bring back a weekly goal of working on a traditional piece.
A big question for the latter part of the year was whether I was able to get my mandatory internship. So building up my portfolio was important. I wanted to show off more animation techniques so my goal was to look into the animation software Moho, create models and do some simple showcase animations. For this, I repurposed simple designs I previously did that fit my limitations. Eventually, I could finish my demo reel to start my application period, that eventually got me a position at Studio Film Bilder, one of my top priorities on my list. I’m there for 3 months now and it’s been a constant learning exprience for me, though I hadn’t expected it to be blender and dvinchi of all mediums that I would be learning. I am still very happy with the position, although it challenged my view of how I saw the industry and met with serious doubts if an animation job is what would fit me. After so many years studying media production, it was the more humble independent side to creating that had me invested in the medium altogether. I once more doubt that working in the production side of things is what would make me happy in the long run or rather keep it as a hobby and stay in the industry through working at the festival organisation, the production (in the finance sence) or an entirely different field altogether. That’s what I meant with the next year inspiring the future. As it’s after my bachelor’s that really sets things in motion. And in this crippling and crumbling industry, nothing is certain to exist how you know it the year after. I’ve spoken to many creative people here in Stuttgart where I reside at the moment. I’ve attended meetings with people from the industry, hobbyists, freelancing artists and all somehow go by with our creative side that connects us all. There is a way to make my hobby a living but there’s realistic chances that it would also kill the enjoyment found in it like I have experienced with vending and doing commissions at cons. What to do exactly, I don’t know. I’ve been wheat in the wind, letting myself guide from place to place, I’m not a planner, I’m an opportunist and that’s all I can know for the moment.
Ah I’ve rambled for a good chunk now. The sun has long set here and I haven’t eaten much for dinner. I didn’t find a proper opportunity to incorporate how I started to play the guitar either. It is something I tend to do to relax some. Learning the movemens, rythm and sounds with immediate feedback is meditating to me. Just for the moment I’ll leave it at learning simple tracks that I like to listen to anyways to then play to peeps with me. There was this very nice moment yesterday on the new year’s eve celebration where I could just sit in a corner and have people gather around me and get comfy to the tunes I was playing. I also just notice that I haven’t mentioned my repeat visits to the ‘Fox Den’ which has sweetened my year so very much! It has been a long year with lots of things happening and the next year will be just as much if not more, probably. My main resolution that I have is to work on and finish my fursuit-costume that I’ll be doing as my bachelor’s. Yeah, right? That’s possible! 😀 It will be the biggest project for me so far (at least with my animation film, I knew what I was doing) and it marks the end of a very important part of my life, I’ll no longer be a student, I won’t have any more excuse to why I haven’t got a profession and it’ll open up the scary door to self-employment. Oh wee, I for sure cannot wait!
Ahh well, there are many small details I didn’t get around to talk about here but I think that’s alright, it has been a big busy year and if 2026 promises to be that as well, I’ll be advised to take it on one by one. So here’s to it then!
I wish you all a very swell year and hope you will achieve the goals you have set yourselves. And hopefully, you’ll be reading my next reflection at the end of January!
With love,
~ Souvillaine