So I had the idea to do a kind of monthly summary. I think April went very well, for a couple reasons. In the past what I've often done is selected references based upon some impression of them as being a good thing to try to copy, then saved these for later. This usually results in me finding that I don't really want to draw those things when the time comes. This month I would sit down, look for something to draw, and just use whatever seemed appealing in that moment. There was also this feeling I had before of not being "ready" to try the things I'm more interested in, so I stuck to things which were simpler and more generic. I think a big "breakthrough" this month was just focusing on my favorite artists and working with stuff that speaks to me most, regardless of how esoteric or difficult it might be. These are most of the highlights.

So let's ramble. I've been inconsistently "tracking" certain things such as the date, the music I was listening to, how "fun" the drawing was, the artist whom I'm copying, whether or not I was on adderall at the time. This manifests as the information being scattered randomly in the open areas of the page. A lot of the time I actually go back and write these things based on memory because at the time of doing the drawing I decided I didn't give a shit.

The first thing I did this month was, if I'm not mistaken, the catgirl with huge tits from the previous post. Then that squid girl (the Ixy thing, not the inkling) was two days later. I was very happy with this one at the time. Low confusion, just seemed to go onto the page smoothly. After that was a slump of ten days or so. Starting taking adderall, mismanaging my time, motivation became a mystery again. I started the Kotoyama thing eventually, which took three days for some reason. Probably 60% of it was done on the third day. I was listening to City, got into a decent groove, but ultimately that one was unsatisfying.

Finally on the 20th I seemed to get my power back. I went through Akita Morgue's old geocities galleries, looking for some gnarly stuff to take a shot at. The girl with the mechanical arm was ambitious. The original is full color and complexly shaded. Torn flesh, shiny metal, warm "glowy" lighting. I quickly realized it was far beyond me to actually get it to look correct, so I just kinda breezed through it in an experimental way. Even though it looks a mess I had a blast doing it. I did the crying one and the one with the flails immediately after, and that was the most drawing I'd ever done in a single day. Not much by general standards of course, but for me it was a milestone. Then the very next day I equaled it with the next two pages. All of these were a lot of fun. The angel girl proved to be quite difficult. Her hips are wack, and technically she's supposed to be leaning forward even further. I also had a hard time getting her head and face in the right spot, and in the end I'm not sure I was particularly successful.

The two little girls were whatever. Not too much thought involved. Each one being an entire day's output is a little underwhelming, but at least it's something. Honestly this is a style I'd love to be able to do quickly and easily. Just blast out hundreds of simple, cute little girls. The catgirl cyborg was more meticulous. I realized it was the kind of thing that could come out bonkers if I was too careless with the proportions of things, and really I think I'm lucky it ended up as acceptable as it did.

The next thing is not a copy for once, but you can see I used bits and pieces from the other recent drawings. Originally I intended to just make a bunch of heads on this page, but after the first one an idea for a corresponding body came to me and so I tried to make it happen. I wanted her to have her hands over her heart, chest turned to the left, looking back over her shoulder. I couldn't get it to look right of course, and I kept sliding her shoulder more and more to the right, essentially rotating the torso more towards the viewer in the hopes of bringing the pose into more familiar territory. I didn't really widen her torso at all in the process though, so she ended up insanely thin and the chest area just a mystery, which I tried to cover up by putting a big ribbon over it. Her waist doesn't bother me too much in and of itself, but seems really mismatched with the rest of the body.

The girl with the axe was another challenge. Lots of little details. Aside from her fingers, which are supposed to be visible under the axe head, I think it came out okay.

The last one was a joy. Perhaps there are other worlds than this one. Parallel timelines and realities. How many of these have inklings in them? How many of them have Akita Morgue? I cannot say. I only know that in my blessed corner of the multiverse, we not only have both, but there is a magnificent love affair between them. In any case, I had fun experimenting with line thickness and putting slime all over her body.