ArtFight Retrospective 3 - 8/4/25
I've struggled to have fun with ArtFight the last few years; my attempted solution this time was to have my characters hidden during the first 12 days (when the site is most active) and to spend that time drawing bookmarks I really wanted to draw. I've had offline stuff going on that basically guaranteed I wasn't gonna enjoy my July though, and then I kind of got dogpiled the first 12 hours I unhid my characters. I'm honestly not really sure how I can course-correct for that next year? I think I just need to be mentally braced for the fact that a few people like my art enough to camp my profile for it. x__X
Anyway barring that first day this strategy DID work. I think the last two years I had my profile hidden for the majority of the month ('cuz I got too many attacks in the first week) & it made it really unlikely of receiving revenges from people I attacked first, which got to be depressing. But this year my profile was open for the final 3 weeks straight so I DID get some return drawings from people. B')
Now for my fave drawings I received this year...
I'd been wanting to draw something for this person for yearssss and I was really hoping he'd draw En for me and then he DID. With a BONUS MIMI. Love this drawing so much.
It was a good year in general for Mimi
Always really enjoy when people actually try to draw in-character interactions :') Really sweet scene
Not a very good turnout for TMatM kids this year (also nobody drew Maestro; I drew a new ref for him for NOTHING!!!) Millie was a part of a big mass attack though:
I cropped it 'cuz uploading art of random strangers' characters here feels rude, but it's a fun drawing of monochrome characters playing around in an ink puddle. Well. Millie is not playing. But, y'know.
I don't think this journal would do the fullsize version of this image justice but I just really wanna call attention to Holly going to town on this drumstick LMAO...IT'S SO GOOD
Look at her big cute eyes, look at 'emmmmm
Aaaand now onto some of my fave drawings I did this year.
Obligatory "overly ambitious first drawing of the event"
I accidentally typo'd that book cover and thought it was funny so I left it.
I really liked his kissy fish shirt and then realized 10% into the drawing that it was going to be completely covered up by the pose...SO I MADE IT THE BG
A common problem I've found on ArtFight is that people will put entire essays of character lore without actually explaining how their characters interact with each other, so it's always really enjoyable when I do get enough of a gist to draw silly stuff like this
Got a little froggy with this one by drawing that golemy thing hahaha; I think it turned out nice given the limitations
A simpler one 'cuz I was getting a little worn out by this point, but I still like how it turned out! I've been a fan of Mugu for a while, so it was nice to have an excuse to draw her
I mentioned in my last journal that I was working on a VN in decker and I actually DID manage to make some more progress on that (even despite ArtFighting). It is ridiculously close to being done, but I tend to burn-out hardcore in August (little ArtFight things) and all the things left to do in the VN are like...exhausting stuff. So I don't know how that's going to go. Part of me is wondering if I should just aim for a fall for release since it's really seasonally suited for it. I wanna finish it so bad though!!!!!!