As some of you may recall, a while back I made a journal saying I would have to spend some time learning more about coding and focusing on a personal project. While I had the enthusiasm for the first few weeks it quickly fizzled out and I found myself unwilling or interested in doing this, favouring more working on my art, my other hobbies or just being a bit lazy. However at the end of this last week a discussion between myself and some of my colleagues lead to me realising I really shouldn't have done that as it's left me in a bit of a "weakened" state for my team and may hinder my career moving forward. As a result I've decided that, once again, I must make more of an effort to pull my thumb out and spend time on a personal project and studying the more indepth sides of OO programming, C# and MVC, all of which are elements I hope to move towards in the future. As a result I'm likely to spend at least one evening a week and a portion of the weekend studying and/or coding, which in turn will probably hinder my art for the next couple of months. Art block aside, I had hoped to make 2014 the year when I really start to improve and get better, as well as improving in some of my other hobbies, especially after taking some months out to get through a busy work period. Obviously this may well need to get pushed back a bit while I focus on my skills for work; it's annoying as I've never really cared for coding outside of work hours but with the possibility of me being in a very bad position later in the year if I don't do this I'm going to have to but on the plus side this could result in me loving coding like some of my friends and colleagues. My current plan is to spend at least one evening (probably Monday or Wednesday) and part of my weekend either working on my project, studying or both so the drawing opportunities I would have during those times will of course be lost or reduced. It has been advised I don't purely replace my hobbies with this but rather find a compromise so, like I said, this may not affect my progress as much as I feel it is now, plus I know I'd get burned out if I focused purely on work. As a result, I am wondering and hoping that "loosing drawing time" will encourage me to make the most out of the rest of my week instead of procrastinating like I have been, so this may mean that my progression continues at it's current pace, or perhaps improves, but I don't want to make an promises I may not be able to keep. Once again, I would like to appologise for any subsequent delays on my art trades as a result of this. The fact I've spent the last month blocked on one piece and unable to make any real progress hasn't helped, but the possibility of me not being able to get the rest done until June/the summer isn't ideal.

In other news, I am looking to submit my progress on Meritza for BigDead93 tomorrow as I've decided to cut my loss with the current incarnation and see what you all think with the hopes I can make it better. There are some aspects of her design that I will be looking to leave off in this incarnation but on the flip side of the coin as I may make some radical changes depending on feedback it may be better to leave them to the end. I am also likely to do some sketches/simple drawings of Snow and Noir soon as well. I know I mentioned this in my last journal (and then failed to follow up on it) but I am looking to start doing more sketches, much like my friend Galvathom. These are likely to be similar to the anatomy study sketches where I just draw, colour and shade a piece instead of doing multiple wips to get every last bit right.

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Athena for User-2018225d       - First wip done and uploaded for feedback
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Meritza for BigDead93       - Pose revised and detail being added in
Cusirimay for CMBaggs       - Nothing thought up so far
My interpretation/redesign of Red for Galvathom       - Nothing thought up so far
To Be Decided for toonartist       - Nothing thought up so far
Illia Westwind for StaciNadia       - Nothing thought up so far
The Elements - Water for ZAKKIDO       - Nothing thought up so far
Lulu for Koimii       - Nothing thought up so far
To Be Decided for Syo-11       - Nothing thought up so far

Received Trades
<da:thumb id="382894417"/> <da:thumb id="429366199"/><da:thumb id="432638061"/>

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Finally I would like to end this week's journal with a quick feature. I'm hoping to spend more time in the future featuring other artists as I believe strongly in mingling with and supporting other artists. This week I've decided to feature someone I recently discovered, jaguar-sauvage. I was partially drawn to her work due to the usage of "artistic nudity", which as some of you know, is something I want to do more of in the future. A very good example of this is Artemis Preview, which depicts the Greek Goddess Artemis out hunting. She is also drawn topless and it comes off in a strong, warrior sense as opposed to anything sexual. She is also a fan of mythology in general, something I too love and while I've yet to properly explore her gallery, her skills are amazing.

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