I have a new computer operating system—that works! I've gained developer privileges to my smartphone to remove corporate spyware that was draining the battery. Both devices seem to be working better now that before, requiring less electricity, which is good as we're expecting another active thunderstorm period in my area. I should be able to work on my animation through this week even if I need to avoid power outlets for a few hours each day.

(Safety Note: Don't use plugged-in electronics during thunderstorms. Lightning can travel through electricity wires, and however rare, has killed people that way. Same goes for interacting with water, even indoors, when that can be avoided without causing health problems.)

Speaking of rain...

"Tutorial - Easy Pixel Rain" by SqdPxl on DeviantArt (2018)

https://www.deviantart.com/sqdpxl/art/TUTORIAL-EASY-PIXEL-RAIN-724082950

I'm trying to figure out why something that's supposed to be quick and easy makes me so miserable. Because I've discovered that I despise animating rain in pixel art. It takes much longer than expected. I'm doing something wrong, maybe? My canvas size is much too large for the instructions available? Unfortunately, rain is an important element of the story scene I'm attempting to animate for Halloween Spooktacular 2023.

Also unfortunate is that the program I was using to draft the animation is not working on my new OS as a download. I can use Piskel as an web app, except that for me, the online version is glitchier. I suspect it was not designed with unstable internet in mind.

More misfortune: My favorite raster editor for working with larger canvases than what Piskel can handle well also no longer works for me. I've yet to find an alternative that does what I want.

Deep breaths.

=====

Image: Two indigo, rounded-top mushrooms on a transparent background.

Canvas: 64 by 64 pixels.

Program: Piskel.

Note: Another version was published on mastodon.art yesterday.

I'm currently dealing with a bunch of limitations interfering with all of my art projects this month. I'm trying to work on the projects, anyway.

This post is a workaround. References for some frames in an animation are going here for a bit.

Sitting poses:

• https://unsplash.com/photos/G9Rk9FJIwK4
• https://unsplash.com/photos/HUOm1xJ_9fc
• https://unsplash.com/photos/UYeuA6mscNM
• https://unsplash.com/photos/tO8BYBFp50w
• https://unsplash.com/photos/k4bneWUm9h0
• https://unsplash.com/photos/oRsSeYqJUgY

Naked masc upper body (varied):

• https://unsplash.com/photos/RTOyO1rBXBA
• https://unsplash.com/photos/OQCsYSs6q98
• https://unsplash.com/photos/Rv_lFtDSE1U
• https://unsplash.com/photos/ox56yF-OPAY
• https://unsplash.com/photos/P6u6zGa6SKA

License: https://unsplash.com/license

And reminders—

• Full high definition is 1920 x 1080 pixels. A quarter display is 480 x 270 pixels.
• Minimum layers: rain1, rain2, char1, char2, tree, and background.

The point of the day is for friends and allies to give cake (or money) to transgender people.

My husband made me pie. Close enough!

My Pixilart illustration made today: 128 by 128 pixels, enlarged four times to add the text in a photo editor. First published on Ko-fi.

This is for everyone to enjoy regardless of gender identity.

I've mentioned offsite that I'm interested again in publishing a webcomic. I'm considering making one from a (prose) short story I wrote and revised over a few years.

The perspective on the short story gave me continuous trouble, and the offline and online social environments made the strong homoerotic content too risky for release. In other words: I was too frustrated to publish the story as it is.

But the story has promise for illustration. One of the main characters is physically unique; he might be visually interesting. The settings are not too complicated. There are stretches of silence—excepting background sound effects—that would fit with a visual medium. The internal and external conflicts are all easily expressed through action. Most of the dialogue is brief, meaning dialogue bubbles might not compete with the art.

As a short story, I wouldn't have an impossible multi-year commitment to drawing that a full book-length story would require.

My illustration ability has improved significantly over the past several years, so I won't have as far to progress to make serviceable images. (See the footnote if you feel an urge to suggest AI in response to this sentence.)

While I can't do anything about the hateful politics spawning a new rise in queerphobic censorship, I have less hostility directed at me personally than I did when I allowed hateful people daily access to my home and headspace. That makes sharing the type of work that's frequently targeted by political conservatives (or regressives) less emotionally exhausting.

Victorious

To use it as a template, I dug up a script I wrote five years ago. (Five years ago?! Where is time going?!)

My interest in that script had dried when I realized that characters spending most of their time in an elevator having a flirtatious conversation about social expectations in a superhero world would maybe be boring to both draw and read.

But I feel the dialogue if funny if you can follow along. I'm thinking about posting the script as-is.

Question: Would you read it on Medium.com (made available without payment) or Wordpress.com?

Footnote:: To AI bros:

No, I won't use text-to-image generators for human-starving derivative shit that's based on corporate lies and theft from actual artists. Fuck off. Then go touch grass. Preferably the tall kind you'd want to learn the name of from a real person.

I needed to get better organized.

Concepts

sketching tool with layers and vector manipulation

• https://concepts.app/en/ios/manual/
• https://concepts.app/en/ios/support (videos)

Inkscape

for vectors

• https://inkscape.org/learn/tutorials/

Krita

for raster images with/without vector editing tools

• https://docs.krita.org/en/user_manual/getting_started.html

mtPaint

• https://mtpaint.sourceforge.net/handbook/en_GB/chap_00.html

Paint.NET

for rasters

• https://forums.getpaint.net/forum/18-tutorials-publishing-only/

Pencil2D

for hand-drawn animations

• https://www.pencil2d.org/doc/tutorials.html

Updated 2 Nov 2023.

I'm trying out this site after letting my new account sit for four years.

Please share any tips for roaming the Art section. That's where I'll mostly be.

I currently welcome feedback on my art, tags I should use, and posts like this one.