Hey all. I'm back again. Kind of.
Where have I been this whole time? I've just been silently hanging back and drawing stuff over on my Patreon. It turns out while I was looking to take a step back from drawing stuff, I hadn't actually lost all interest in making art as I had thought.
Constantly working away on art and realizing in retrospect that I was being a perfectionist about my work had worn down on me really bad. It was only when I did give myself a proper opportunity to take a step away from making art altogether that I realized that art hadn't stopped being fun. But I had stopped having fun with making art. I feel somewhat silly making that realization after saying I was going to retire but hey, I do think that was something that had to happen in a way. It made me realize that I probably can't go back to making art like I once was where I was trying to take on as many requests as I could and still trying to put in as much effort as I could manage into each of them. That whole approach was what ultimately led to me being so completely worn down in the end.
For now, I'm taking things slow, not putting too much pressure on myself with each image that I work on and thinking it has to be better than the last and focusing more on making stuff that I'd like to make.
I've got a backlog of art to share but I think I'll just be uploading it here only on Newgrounds for now. Keeping up with all the engagement I was getting across all the different sites I was on was another thing I was struggling with and Newgrounds feels like the right kind of place where I can post my art for people to see but I also won't end up getting overwhelmed from the engagement that I might get. I do appreciate all the messages that everyone sends me, especially when some of you had taken the time to write something really nice to me but I was having a rough time keeping up with it all! I'll still try to respond to comments and messages on here as best I can but for the most part I'll be focused on simply making art and posting it.
So yeah, I wouldn't say this is me saying "I'm back" and things are going back to the way they once were but rather it's a "I'm still around" and I'll still be making stuff here and there.
I probably won't be taking on requests like I used to and try to draw as many of them as I can. Sorry about that. I don't think I really have it in me to do a whole bunch of requests like I used to. I just want to slow things down a bit and focus more on drawing stuff that I'd personally like to draw. And hopefully that means you'll like the stuff I end up making but if it turns out it's not really your thing then I'm Sorry! T_T
I'm gonna try to pace out the uploads from my backlog over the coming weeks. I don't want to necessarily bombard you with all the art at once. And just as a heads up, a lot of the stuff I'll have to post will be grayscale sketches that I've done but I've also been getting back into doing full colored pics too so there will be a few colored pics in the mix that I'll have to share with you as well. Stay tuned!
RexHollins
Welcome back, Soldier.
RavenRavenRaven
Thanks boss!