I Finally Updated My Icon Since What I Had Before Was More Personal, But Its A Very Rough Drawing.. I

i finally updated my icon since what i had before was more personal, but it’s a very rough drawing.. i just wanted to push SOMETHING out of myself.. let me know if you like it!

and this is me preparing myself to make an introduction post + commission info posts, so.. i’m very nervous.. if anyone has any tips please let me know i’m a mess when it comes to these things >m<

asked some peeps over on the discord server to sen me their skykids to doodle! 1st belongs to nyx_theskykid 2nd belongs to carlos_angxles

thank you so much!! <3

see i think what people get caught up in is going "oh this and that are fetish art......hey did you know x thing is a fetish...pretty crazy right.....this piece of art is actually a fetish for the artist........" and like. see the problem is thinking that devalues the art. i don't think something being a fetish or sexual in nature or whatever actually detracts from any meaning or emotional weight something could have. i don't think "horny" is a worthless or meaningless emotion and i don't see why exploring it in art is any different from "sadness" or "happiness" or "anger". does that make sense? im just sayin we should examine why we view sexuality as inherently detracting/meaning less in art than other things

below i decided to leave you with a tasty (for some) treat of my thoughts and process for these illustrations. if you like long text posts with wip test drawings and a very small piece of sky lore for the game (not its world) then please feel free to keep reading!

yay! thank you for choosing to read this! <3

a small preface, tumblr basically erased all of my work on this post so im writing this right after (still in shock and verry angry) and i might forget to include some of the details now :(( so i apologize if that happens

to start, i want to give a BIG big thank you to @yelltochek, without them i would have never found out about this project!!

im actually quite embarrassed about this, but.. i only found out about "zines".... half a year ago (winter/spring 2023).... dont ask me how, just know that if you follow me in the future - this is quite a common occurrence, because most of the time im in my own tiny bubble.. [if you dont know what zines are ill try and do my best to explain]. after that, i felt really lost because i had no idea how people find zines OR how artists find them early enough to sign up!! luckily @yelltochek was kind enough to give me a heads up for the then upcoming Memory Sky Zine!!!! so thats how it started!

i already had a pretty good idea of what i wanted. see, back in the ooool days (im a veteran, but i was a very silly moth for a veeery long time) the first area in praire after social hub looked a bit different from how it does today.... we actually had a big hill that you had to use to be able to reach the entrance of the bird nest area! [below is a screenshot i took from early august of 2019]

i wanted to bring it back for all those who also played back in the day to remember this hill..

at first, i basically wanted to just redraw the screenshot

but then i realized that i dont like the angle + plus this photo was taken on the mountain so noone would obviously look at this place from there on casual days, especially moths. and so, i took a screenshot in game now and moved the camera down to where everyone would walk at least once as a moth:

aaand I was pretty happy with the angle.. i wanted to make sure that the important landmarks of this area were visible (forgive my poor attempts at trying to name them):

the round hill

the little cave

the arch to the village

the praire temple

eden :o

the big hill

the entrance to bird nest + the arch + the winged light and

the paths, flowers and butterflies

i wanted them all to be in the drawing and it was quite a bit tricky with the size of the canvas we were given for the zine pieces actually. but i think i made it work at this stage. mostly..

and so after that i started thinking about what i wanted to do for the second drawing. i thought about maybe the first time i had a conversation with a stranger / one with an ultimate gift; first time falling in home when we play sky.. and then i thought about my first friends that ive made.

we met in wasteland, in the area with the first krill and (to spare the details, plus its a story for another time) they helped me face my fear of it. but then i realized that i dont have a screenshot (couldnt find one at least :c ) of how they looked back then and i would get sad if i did it wrong... aaaaand also realized that this might just be a bit too overwhelming for poor ol me.

so, i decided to simplify the idea to just a moth facing a krill for the first time, since its definitely happened to everyone at least once:

as you might guess, i realized that the two drawings at that point would have looked basically the same, with the moth facing away from the camera. and maybe it would have actually looked good, like how this game makes us feel so many emotions, from peace to terror.. but i just wasnt happy with that. so, i started thinking which one of them i should change.

i thought about making the moth in praire play with butterflies, or maybe even add multiple skykids there.... but then i was afraid that the main focus of that drawing would shift.. annd then it hit me: how can i make it obvious to people who havent played sky that early that this was a thing and not me making a weird mistake Aand keep it as the main focus? POLAROID PHOTO!!

as you can see in the test drawing i was trying to make the cave entrance visible in the polaroid, but it just kinda messed up the terrain, so i had to make the changes that you see in the final illustration. and im still in love with the result even if its not the best.

could i have done a better job with this? put it more in focus somehow? make the krill in the other one darker, scarier and spikier?? probably.

but this was the first time ive ever drawn anything with the background playing the main focus or just such a huge role for the ambiance and with so much detail put into it. this was HUGE for me, with both of these. its also worth mentioning that i couldnt use my tablet to draw the final illustrations so this was also me using my computer for the first time for smth as serious as this. its actually CRAZY. and these two are probably one of the only drawings ill stay proud of as i go forward..

and i hope ill be able to participate in more projects like this one.... so psplsplpslsplspls if you know about any zines/other projects or anything plsplspls let me know about them because im still terrible at finding things and staying on top of whats going on in the art world!!!!!!

so, thank you for reading this far!! if youre interested in more posts like this where i share my thoughts / art progress or at least make long text posts like this one - let me know! without your feedback im only stuck here with my own bad thoughts :')

i hope you had fun seeing into my brain and have a nice day!!

Also, if you want a commission from me similar to these two - feel free to contact me!

my pieces for the memory sky zine!

i worked really hard on these, so i would really appreciate to hear if you like them!

:’)

If you're a creator and you needed to hear this today:

You have no idea how many people lurk on your work. No idea how many times people go back to revisit your work. How big they smile when they simply think about your work. How fast their heart beats, how excited they get when they see that you posted something.

People are shy with their feedback. Sometimes it’s because they’re simply shy. Other times it’s because they assume you already know how great and talented you are. Could be both.

My point is, even if you barely have any likes or reblogs, don’t get discouraged. You have a lot of silent fans, but they are still your fans. Keep on creating. Because there is always someone out there who will love what you have made.

sleepy friend,,