(\o v o/)
This month has been –exhausting– but well, it’s to expected when you move.
This was my 7th and hopefully last move during my studies and I am just tired of not having a fixed place where I can settle down. For the first time I had to arrange the furniture though and the thought of where to put them when I move out already puts stress on me. At least instead of a wardrobe, I set up a grid system like we use for our booths at conventions – it’s very versatile and I can adjust it to my needs. Then within a few days after moving in, I found a nice sleep couch that’s expendable to two people. I’ll forever remember me having my outing to my mom over what bed-size I needed hehe. Anyway, I think I managed quite well with fillinng out my own 4 walls in this sweet living commune, though I yet have to set up some decorations and hang up my prints to make it complete. I definitely felt pressured to do so, as I likely won’t have a full year in this place and feeling the weeks already passing like grain in an hourglass increased my desire to be fully settled in. This and my simultaneous errands for the animation film fest as well as a commission (which hopefully should be finished this weekend) made it all so very very exhausting. I barely had any free time and certainly none to dedicate to personal projects. But. It’s okay. I like that I have it out of the way now. Yesterday was the deadline for the animations I had to finish and with the anxiety of not doing a good enough job gone, I’m happy to have pushed through with the ordeal even though for long it seemed like I overestimated myself. Oh, a few words to my work there. I sadly cannot show any pictures as it’s still under NDA but perhaps I can put them in my portfolio one day.
As in the previous two years, I designed the backgrounds and layout for the infopanels on the festival, meaning I had to put the information given like when a program takes place, where and with what additional info in a visually pleasing format. It’s straight forward and usually an easy yet time-consuming task and I always put in some extra hours on volunteer basis to make some more adjustments, after all I want to be able to show it off.
The second mor eunique part was the animation of the festivals mascot in addition to the infographics. Which was a more daunting effort. I had to get back into moho for the model and reapply the basics that I had last used a year ago. In the first place, I’m glad that my suggestion to do that job was considered and then approved, which makes me hopeful to have done a good enough job that’s worth their investment. I’ll have the answer at the end of next week… the outlook to have the festival again so close is quite daunting as despite all my work that went into preparation to it, I do not feel prepared at all. But I’ll give the info in my next monthly reflection.
Part of the reason my schedule was so condensed this time around had to do with the week of easter being at the start of it. I spent it at my parents’ to have some ‘forced vacation’ for me to relax and treat myself a bit. And while I wanted to focus on my traditional artworks, I must admit I didn’t do so much during that time or at least nothing that ended up in any posts. Most was due to me staying at families’ where I had not the capacities to work on anything and to have my boyfriend with me that also left me occupied with other things >v>
Though I succeeded at the vacation times, visiting family members and having friends around despite me having to schedule so abruptly. Yeah, every undertaking this month had the downside that I had less time to get work done, which piled up towards the end of the month where during our local film festival – where my film was screened also – that had me very very exhausted most of the time and feeling it still to some extend.
But how is it now in my new home? I felt rather unphased by my new flat. Not too different despite the living situation got much better than it was in Stuttgart. I don’t loathe going out of my room now, I enjoy the iteractions with my flatmates but I can’t help but feel, yeah well neutral about it. It’s probably due to the aforementioned difficulties to get settled in mentally. That’s hopefully going to chnage soon.
At least I did what I had yearned for in my last room: I reserved a small table just for traditional work. So I can easily and effortlessly get in a work mode and keep drawing, painting and eventually also trying out sculpting. After the animation festival, I should have some time to pursue this goal.
Let me at least show you the one little piece I managed to finish this month; a small celebration of the international hyena day:
While being a very rushed litle thing, I’m happy how the rendering turned out, especially in the mouth area. Though I obviously should have done one more sketch or two hehe. It sparked the motivation to start a daily drawing thing: I found an old sketch book at my Granny’s that I’m now using for this purpose. It’s for quick little studies or sketches, not to be polished or posted or anything, just to keep me in the flow of sketching and doing a figure drawing repeatedly to not get stuck in: sketching phase, then lining phase, then coloring then polishing.
I’m so much looking forward to the following couple of months. While I have a festival or con every month, there’s still enough time around to get done the things I have planned for; several pieces, maybe a couple of commissions, at least one con book painting and some to sell at the auctions. I just have to keep in mind that I’m working out the concepts for my fursuit head in the meantime and something also very important:
When walking the Offenburg streets, I realized what I had missed about it; it’s a small city with a beautiful atmosphere. I really like it here and I can’t wait to enjoy the summer times more. The last two weeks were constant sun and feel good temperature. I need to make space in my schedule for days to just go out and enjoy the weather while I have the chance.
Here’s to a lovely new time,
~ Souvillaine