seems like the months are zipping right by me. that doesn't seem right.
i felt tempted to say that i haven't been up to much this month, but actually, that's not true this time. i haven't been making much big progress on my more developed projects, but i've had some new ideas.
for example, at the start of the month i blasted through In Stars and Time in the space of three days, and it was a wonderful experience. inspiring, too. a couple days after i beat the game, i had an idea for a story inspired by it. it uses a similar foundation in that it's about an RPG-style party of adventurers, but mine is different in that instead of a timeloop, one of the party members removes themself from reality, and the rest of the party decides to go into the Lands Unknown to rescue them from nonexistence. it's inspired by the scrapped concept for In Stars and Time that the restart screen could be a place you could walk around in.
it's not much at the moment, since i kinda just doodled up a few concepts and then left it alone for a while, but i do have something to show, and that's Wista! she's a character for the story.
right now, she's kinda just Mirabelle in a different font, and i think it's pretty obvious lol. she'll probably bud off into her own thing the more i develop her.
another thing i've been doing this past week is thinking about my old Wizardholme project. it started one day back in high school where i drew and wrote about a homebrew wizard mythos for four or more pages straight in a burst of creative fervor. i just wanted to draw wizards a lot back then. working on it again these days, i've been influenced a bit by Moominvalley. in high school i was imagining a sort of in-universe informational text about wizards, kind of like Larry MacDougall's Gwelf books, and now i'm imagining something more character-focused and cozy.
the gnomes and dragons are newer ideas that came after the Moominvalley inspiration, but Ixeor and Wartgrove are from that very first day. Wartgrove underwent a bit of change after not drawing him for a while, but Ixeor is basically the exact same. i'm very attached to both of them.
the gnomes are funny little guys. i've always liked the idea of wizards and gnomes co-existing, especially if they're kinda similar. i'm not fully sure what i want them to be like outside of funny little dudes that travel in packs and look at you with big eyes. i like the idea that Wartgrove has a lot of gnome neighbors (gneighbors, if you will) that he's never sure how to interact with since he's a bit of a recluse.
dragons are another thing that i'm always thinking about, just like wizards. neither Mofflehobb nor Rullinth are done being designed yet, though. i had a specific vision for Mofflehobb's design that i wanted to get down quickly, but i think it could use something more. a slightly different color palette, more defined fur, maybe ditch the scales. i haven't even come up with Rullinth's colors, but Rullinth was designed to be something of an opposite to Mofflehobb. bit more traditionally "dragon" while still maintaining the whimsy that i want to be a constant in Wizardholme. i'm pretty proud of the cape-like wings in particular.
been doing plenty of stuff offline, too. as of a couple days ago, it's officially been a year since i graduated high school. wurgh. i'm wanting to get back to job hunting in earnest soon, but there's a handful of things i want to take care of before i do that. it's been hard to sleep lately, so i'd like to fix that. i'd like to finish clearing out my closet of things that i don't wear anymore, maybe start properly exercising. my body doesn't seem to tolerate me not taking care of it anymore - it's unionized, it seems. there's a lot i'd like to sort out before i commit to employment.
i think a big reason i've not made any progress on this part of my life is because i was wary of asking for help, but not asking for help has never really helped anyone, has it? i've been talking with my parents about this in recent weeks, and i think just verbalizing my intentions helps tremendously. the way forward doesn't seem so impossible anymore, and that's maybe the most exciting thing ever.
