(EDIT: Sorry for my silence as per replies, I haven't been wanting to talk much, I'll be back in a week or so)

Introduction

Good Morning/Evening Everyone. 2021 is in full swing all over the world! Let's make the best of it. This year has been interesting to say the least on my end. But before we dive in deep...

Plugs

*Cough*

Support my work on

Twitter | Instagram | Etsy

(P.S. I update my Twitter and Instagram differently and at different intervals.)

What Good Stuff Happened in 2020?

-Before the Pandemic

Before the Pandemic, I was set up for a lot. I was doing well in class and I started to branch more into leatherworking.

-During the Pandemic (Which is still going on)

I was able to finish off classes strong, and I got commissioned to do some plush stuff. I celebrated my 6th year of art, and was one of the top submissions for Pico Day! I went off to school, did well, and finished commissions and still got to meet some awesome people while I was there.

-Now

If you've been living under a rock, or just joined NG (which if it's the case, welcome!), I was able to help out with the Tankmas ADVENTure for the third year in a row! Thank you @GeoKureli, @BrandyBuizel, @NickConter, and all the artists in the collab for making this year's collab spectacular! @Snackers Duncan and Jones premiere was banging, and @Butzbo's music box is so much fun to play with (with music by @ConnorGrail)!

I've recently gotten a job to help build up a few things for this year and I'm trying to upgrade my home base so to speak. It's becoming a bit more cozy, instead of being a storm-hit room, since I was always running place to place beforehand.

Reflections & Other Stuff

-Art Stuff

Back in 2018, I mentioned that I wanted to add more expression to my characters and make my drawings more lively, and looking back over the past two years, I believe I've been moving closer towards that. I've been drawing more faces, human or not, and doing more grand backgrounds and scenes! I'm so happy to see all the color and shading developing over the years alongside with my anatomy ability growing.

I still need to unwind when I draw, I always try to be a tad of a perfectionist... and that doesn't work out well. I've still going to move towards multi-characters drawings with more scenes. My mind is sort of drawing blanks at the moment, but I still have some ideas in the holding.

And if you haven't checked it out yet:

-Whoops

2020 overall was ok, while I'm writing this, it just feels like everything hopefully stays in 2020, but I know it won't. The pandemic of course will still be here, it's just weird having this feeling of having a whole new year to work with. My birthday is in 14 days and it's kind of hard for me to think of where I was last year. I hate to be so blunt, but I think about all the things that I lost over the year, friends, family, and a sense that things were going well. It's been kind of empty over here, with lots of confusion as to what will happen next. Quite frankly put, I'm scared. There are loose ends that need to be tied up still, and a lot I can't wrap up nicely into a year. My home base isn't so much home for me and it more is just a base. It's a small room, and Pascal and Perl are good company, but it makes me worry about what's outside of my base. I'm working on it, but as I said earlier, this isn't something that can be wrapped up nicely in a year, and I'm looking for solutions.

Plans for the New Year

-Being Imperfect

As some of you may know, I released a song during this week called "Mountain". I really enjoyed just releasing it as music is a part of me that exists but hasn't been worked on for a while. So it was kind of thrilling to release this imperfect song just to start learning where to get better! Thank you @GoodL for the critique. This year I really need to relax and learn that I'm not going to be professional grade with music, or especially animation, anytime soon. Same with programming and everything else I'm working on. I want to have a chance to get better, and that's always what keeps me sharp. Hopefully, out of that more of everything will start to develop, and it might not be the best, but hey, at least it's something.

-Telebuddies

That brings me to the Telebuddies. I want to release two episodes this year, and building off from earlier, the episodes are not going to be perfect. During the summer last year, I decided to completely cut the pilot because it didn't fit the story anymore, I didn't like it, and I was still missing the voice actor for Lily... I don't want to voice act her... @GabbyXDAnimations and I were supposed in April but... Covid...

Anyway, Lily and Cory won't show up for a while so you'll hear the buttery voices of @dogl and @SwordGrayFire. Now who's going to be who has been a continuous argument.

I plan to finish the storyboard for the EP. 1 before my birthday and the entire animation before the middle of the Spring Semester. (Feel free to spam me about this)

-Store Etc

I didn't announce it because it didn't happen... but my first artist alley table was going to be in 2020. I've moved most of the poster I have to Etsy for now. I'm planning on doing plushies to put up there soon. I currently have some prints up there of a few drawings, and I may expand the prints that are available.

I did some plush commissions over the year, and and working on one for @ChutneyGlaze right now! Well, not really, it's for fun, but depending on what happens they may become a thing.

I'm still planning to do some events while I'm back at college though, and I'll announce them here is there happen.

-Music

I'm looking to collab this year with a few musicians. I'm not sure if I'm the best singer, but I think doing some lyrical based music alongside more personal instrumental would be cool. I used to play flute, and I have a half dozen of random instruments, including a kalimba I got for Christmas. Everything is being hashed out atm.

-Games

Since I'm taking Computer Science as one of my majors, I want to use what I know a bit more and apply it to HaxelFlixel video games! Nothing too complex, but I have a simple puzzle/exploration game idea in mind.

Ultimate Goals for the Year

I have sort of a list here, from everything I mentioned in the previous sections I want to:

• Program at least one game in HaxeFlixel and release it on NG
• Finish Episode 1 and 2 of the Telebuddies
• Make some music with the bros
• Make mistakes and learn
• Find my family

Moving Towards Pixel Day

As pertaining to last few years. Pixel Day is always when I release my first drawing of the year. I kind of want to change that because 23 days is a long time and I might be packing to head back to school by then. So soon you should see something to start 2021 a bit early.

For fun, feel free to compare this post to last year's.

I have a couple questions for ya'll as well. I've been thinking about Ko-fi and Patreon again, mainly to help with school and business stuff. What do ya'll think?

LONG LIVE NEWGROUNDS!

So I'm excited to have given this piece a bit of TLC.

I didn't quite like the final result due to some glaring errors, and I wanted to edit it so it would be something that I would be happy hanging on my wall.

Otherwise, here's the updated version!

Otherwise, this among a few other designs are up on Redbubble. So check that out!

Here's the original for comparison.

Otherwise, cheers!

-TheDyingSun

Good Morning / Evening!

I've been busy with school, so I'll keep this short.

Art

I'm still going to try to finish all of Huevember lite. I haven't gotten much time recently otherwise. (Oh yeah, and I'm revamping the Robot Day 2020 drawing because I had to rush at the end =.=. This will be shown in a future newspost)

Illustration

I have a Redbubble now! Feel free to message me if there's something that's not in there you want to see added.

Robotics

School is going well, and even with rising cases, things are still pretty standard.

Best,

-TheDyingSun

Feel free to DM hugs

Good Evening Ladies and Gentlebots!

Happy Robot day

I am super happy with the turn out this year so go check out, not only my drawing, but everyone's entries! I haven't been able to get them all.

So in the spirit of updates, and robots, I'm going to go backwards today.

Robotics

I am currently out of state, and will be for the next few months. Aka, I'm going to be at Robo-college, learning the ins and outs of programming and Computer Science and most importantly... SOCIAL DISTANCING. Seriously, keep that up. I don't want my school closing because people decided to party =.=

Illustration

The Robot Day illustration was released today and I am still open for commissions. So take a look at the sheet and feel free to contact me.

Art

I'm still going to see what I can do while I'm away at college and since I'm sort of on vacation, I don't have time to enter the pARTy contest, but I still want to run with the concept I had for that. So, fun stuff :>

I seriously don't know the future of my art and I do want to focus more on Robotics this fall, but, we shall see what happens to each of them.

Otherwise, things are going okay and I'll update you all along the way.

All the best

-TheDyingSun

Also: I don't know why this was stuck in my head, but here we GO

Robot Hell 🎵

Characters commissions are now open! I have 5 slots spanning my Twitter, Insta, and here on NG. Currently 5 out of 5 are open!

If you would like to contact me for a full illustration, please message me personally and I will give you further details.

Holy fluff, thank you for 300 fans!

I still am updating my Twitter and Instagram more, so feel free to follow either. I do more short updates along the way instead of longer updates like this, and there are some smaller drawings that won't show up on here for a while. But otherwise:

Art Stuff

I've worked hard and long on these guys, but I have two firefly plushies up for sale on my Etsy for $35 each. More details on there.

I actually did a plush commission back in July, which was fun, and I'll be reworking some of my templates soon for robot and plague doctor plushes!

Illustration Stuff

At the time of posting this, a new drawing should be up! It's more of a personal thing, but hey, I enjoyed doing it. It kind of reminded me of "Thinking of Paradise" from last year.

I want to do more line art and found some good exercises. Same with Anatomy.

I'm prepping stuff for Robot Day at the moment, and I'm pretty annoyed at myself for not working on the Tele-buddies for so long. I want to have the storyboard done before I go off to...

Robotics Stuff

...college. I'm going for Computer Science, and I'll be away from my normal base. I don't know how it's going to affect art as much, but I'm trying to do more studying in CS and Electronics before I go. I might show some coding work I'm doing leading up to it, but at this point, I have 3 weeks left, and I'm kind of eh, I just need to wrap up so many things before I go.

But that's how it rolls.

I still want to connect with you guys, so just always be aware I'm down to talk about my work and how I do things. I'd be cool teaching too. I might not be the best, but I want to help you guys anyway I can with art. Feel free to ask for reviews too!

Cheers!

-TheDyingSun

Good afternoon everyone!

I've been more free due to school being over for the year. However, I only have about 5 weeks of my summer left. So I will be trying my best to make these next few weeks count!

I've been rather busy and oddly productive. I've been finishing up a large commission (this is why I didn't start digital painting commissions back in May), and working on a smaller project with some local folks. I am excited to get back to more digital art however, and I'm glad I was able to get the drawing "Walking Through Space" done as fast and nicely as I did. I am using my Twitter and Instagram more. I will be uploading more and more drawings slowly, and I've been getting uncannily better and faster. Let's hope it stays that way. Thank you all for the support on the last drawing as well! I'm happy so many people liked it!

COMMISSIONS

Finished and polished illustrations will require a thorough look at the project, but icons/busts will be 30 USD (Full color and paint). Example

I will have a full commission sheet up soon, but if you are interested in commissioning me while waiting for that to be finalized, feel free to DM me!

(Edit: I lowered the price to 30 USD for a full color, again, I will be having a full commission sheet up soon :>)

So follow my Twitter/Insta for more frequent updates, Insta for more crafts and day to day, and Twitter for more digital art. No worries, that will get mixed up quite soon.

Cheers!

-TheDyingSun

Whew, well Pico Day was fun! I have a few updates to share though since I've been kind of missing here besides my artwork showing up.

My Etsy is finally online!

After some silence on my end, I finished setting it up and I have a few of my art pieces up for sale as 18 by 12 inch prints. I'll be adding more of my pieces as I go, but if there are any specific drawings I have done that you'd like to see up there feel free to ask!

The posters are all up there for $20 USD each with free shipping!

I was scheduled to be a vendor at South Jersey Geekfest on April 13th, but it got moved to the fall due to Coronavirus. So, I've been trying to move things to mostly online.

I will be going up for commission within the next two weeks

Keep an eye out for details, but it's mainly going to be slotted commission for icons.

On the case of Coronavirus, it really has uprooted a lot of stuff for me. My senior year of high school has been online, I don't know if I'm going to be on campus next year, and all my competitions have been thrown out the door. The plague doctor in me is oddly happy with everything being cancelled by a pandemic, however, this all still sucks 😅

Still, maintain social distancing, wash your hands, don't touch your face, and wear your mask over your nose and mouth. Stay healthy and stay home if you can. The curve is going down, but we're still in the middle of it all, it sucks a lot, but I hope you all take some peace in knowing that we're all in this together.

(Uhm, a side note here, any sort of medical help is currently hard to get, physical and mental, due to the health system being stressed during this time, but don't give up. Some of you out there do need help, so please don't give up. PM me if you need help with anything)

Thank you for your time, and stay healthy!

Your local robotic plague doctor,

-TheDyingSun

Happy 25 years to an amazing site!

Check out this year's drawing!

MY GOSH that drawing was INSANE.

I was also an idiot and decided to use experimental techniques to try to finish it, but hey.

I wanted to try to capture the feeling of being in Philadelphia because the Pico Day party got cancelled.

Places I referenced (or thought of) include: Pennsylvania convention center, Reading Terminal Market, South Street, The Fashion District, and Revolutions Bowling!

Have a lovely night my guys. Happy Pico Day.

Happy Pixel Day guys!

I haven't missed once since it's inception, and this is the fifth year anniversary of it! Oh dear, now I feel old...

Otherwise, special thanks to @RealFaction for suggesting this holiday! It's always fun to challenge myself (usually the evening before) to work with a limited color palette and resolution to still create something that conveys some amazing detail! My pixel day drawing is a kick off for things to come in the upcoming year. So, more drawings are to come!

I'm proud of this year's. I think it's cute, and I didn't rush to finish it! I mean, sort of. I was able to give it a lot of care this year, and I'm glad it came out fine.

Welp, cheers, and Happy Pixel Day!

-TheDyingSun