The watercooler: a place to chat

[allenT]

I'm in Asia so an early happy new year to all!!

[bluwasp]

hallo everynyan

I'm a "fellow artist" and I make good drawings

In all seriousness though, started drawing when I was 19 and I'm 23 now. I'd like to be equals but I'm afraid of always being far behind bc of how late in my life I started.

I've always loved cartoons, and there's this particular YouTube animation that sparked my inspiration to draw when I was 14 (though for a while there I didn't take the chance to start)
It's like.. this Vivziepop music video of a really hot and charming blue wolf character singing for a party. I thought to myself that I wanted to make people feel this attached to a character, and I wanted to use that to get people to think deeply and emotionally invest in a story, and I really wanted it to look like that. Does anyone else remember this animation that I'm talking about?

[Lensing]

I don´t know the animation.

Don´t worry about starting late. I started relearning the fundamentals at the age of
40. Then I trained, learned and drew 10 years. I teach drawing now and I´m happy
with my skills.

[bluwasp]

wow... thank you! Yeah you really seem to have it down with that pfp

[VibrantFox]

I definitely remember the Die Young fan animation from way back then but it's also like lensing said that it's never too late to start. The art community is big and always pretty welcoming so there's no worry in trying to find peers who'll grow with you ‍️

[Shanny8]

Happy New Year..! Just chillin, trying to get my art energy up so that I can continue to work on this piece...as of yesterday I got my hours for the week at my day job, but I still have to work on Friday, so all the hours on Friday is overtime- which doesn't bother me coz gonna need it to pay off some bills because I have to pay for some yard cleaning we had done last week.

Almost finished with inks on the second figure, then it's back to pencils on figure 3...

Here's to good art stuffs in 2026!

[VibrantFox]

Happy New Year! 🥳

Honestly been super reflective since last night thinking about everything I've gotten through and what the future might hold. Can't get to deep since I'm working today but it's got me a little enthusiastic I think.

Still kind of pondering over what I want to do besides just continuing to draw my OCs more and really actually talking about them online but I guess I'll see as the days go forward. Not feeling confident enough to jump back into a comic but that's more on time/energy but I am tempted to jump back on the ask blog idea I'd had for at least one of my stories ages ago and then just doing more illustrations for the rest. Heck really feeling just getting back into my writing stuff and fleshing out this world but its all one day at a time

But yeah here's to 2026 and all it holds!

[Shanny8]

Made it to the weekend and got my overtime...the plan is to do NOTHING but work art stuffs, watch TV, and do light cleaning & laundry; for some strange reason I feel like my energy level dropped a bit so I'm hanging on by whatever I can.

Gotta take down the tree it was nice seeing all the pretty colors...

Picked up a font from the Comicraft New Year's sale, so I'm good on that front.

[allenT]

My comic got into 'fresh picks' on webtoon, Oh yeah!!

[Shanny8]

Holidays are over and it's back to work at the day job...I survived yesterday & even though I got in bed at a decent time last night I still feel sleepy and like crap this morning.

At least I got some [day job] stuff out of the way that had been a somewhat obstacle during the week of New Year's...if I can get some energy back then I should be able to get some home stuffs done over the next couple of months.

Still working on my final art from 2025- I'm good; inks are almost complete and then it's colors for the finish.

[VibrantFox]

back to work this week and it's been nasty busy since we're closing a store and moving locations which has been bleugh exhausting but the worst of it is over i think. dreadfilled tonight since i've gotta be up much earlier than usual but it could be worse i guess. the big hassle i think has just been trying to manage stress and physical pain since i've been getting migranes or headaches more often along with some pretty annoying toothaches but cant do much of anything except nap it off when im able or just take a few pain meds and hope it sticks

havent really been drawing much either which i think is also lending itself to the sour mood but i did finish a few icons for something i've been playing with for a bit. hoping once i get some proper downtime i can just drown myself in oc doodles and drabble to get my brain a break from work stuff otherwise it'll just be gaming. i'd even forgot about the upcoming acnh update so i'm peeking back on my island to see how it's faring but very much just ready and praying for a break after a packed week of work

[Shanny8]

Somehow I've made it to Friday gonna try to finish up the inks on the piece, then dive into the colors...also gotta get some cleaning done this weekend and hang up that wall cabinet I KEEP PUTTING OFF

I also need to hang up my smaller shelves so that once spring/summer comes around I can figure out a plant to get & put it on one of the 2...still gotta put up my art palette neon light as well- the light rods on the shelf and the LED hexagon lights have been working to the point where I've kinda forgotten about the palette light/sign.

[Yusuf]

oh hell yeah I just reached 10 subs

[VibrantFox]

work week came to an end sooner than i'd expected so it seems like i was agonizing for nothing

so now that the week's opened up i'm planning on tackling chores and grocery shopping today and over the weekend and then diving head first into drawing and sharing oc stuff coz the brainrot's been eating at me with a lot of new headcannons and then a bunch of random outfit ideas from wandering the mall during my work lunch breaks but i'm feeling good i think

[Shanny8]

Trying to build up to endure this work week- the weekend came & went and I STILL didnt get anything else outside of laundry done(I just felt really tired); I didnt even work on my art piece much- that's how tired my brain was.

Kinda low key stressing a bit since I'm in "budget mode" this week...I'll see how things look after I pay on some of this week's wave of bills; only good news is that this week should be a little quiet coz all the execs will be at a big meeting/convention- hopefully this will allow me to get this summary worksheet completed and out of the way.

Got a doctor's appointment this weekend- physical. I know things are gonna look bad coz I havent been exercising; I'm trying to get back to that as well...

UPDATE: Fudge...now my Switch had an orange screen this morning which is getting me a bit concerned with it. I DEFINITELY don't want to purchase a Switch 2 [right now]; I restarted it, and it looks fine but it's something that I gotta monitor.

[tiff524]

Putting off grocery shopping, because it's my least favorite chore. Though, at least my laundry is done. If I'm hanging around on the Forums seeing what creators are doing, at least I feel like I'm doing something. But I guess I have to admit, eventually, that I'm procrastinating, and go get some food. Food is good. Food is needed to write some more. If I keep telling myself that, I might get away from the computer and go to the store.

[Shanny8]

Yeah coz if you dont get food, thoughts turn to mush...

I wanted to work on art tonight but I gotta slide in bed so that I can make a doctor's appointment tomorrow(yearly physical)...since I'm off for MLK Day(Monday) I'll be able to at least make an attempt to finish up the art this weekend.

Also started playing on the new update on Animal Crossing New Horizons...

[Shanny8]

Finished the final piece for 2025...I enjoyed getting that idea out of my head and onto the screen; now time to start planning the first piece of 2026- just back to a small, simple character coz this last one ate up a lot of time.

At home today coz said snow storm over the weekend turned to possible ice storm hazard in my area...doing the whole "work from home" thing- had to bring my work laptop home; as soon as my work phone is charged, then I can work on some [day job] stuffs that I put off finishing last week BECAUSE of the possible storm.

[Jalvin]

2025 may have been a fast year for me but gosh was I mediocre, unproductive, and anxious for my future! It didn't help that the job market is hard nowadays and I'm not even sure if companies are legit hiring or just setting up ghost jobs.

I hope to turn things around this 2026 and try my hand at publishing web novels. I ain't getting younger, might as well try a new writing avenue after I failed in the querying trenches back in 2023.

[Shanny8]

So snow/ice day is over and it's back to the day job for the rest of the week...I DID finish the stuff from last week, so gotta see what new fun(sarcasm) things are in store for this week.

I'm gonna pace myself in trying to figure out what my next art is- no football this coming weekend, so I get to sit back, watch movies & streaming; I still plug in physical movies when I can coz a lot of streaming services don't have everything I want to watch.