Sunday 15 May 2016

Update: Taking a break and what's been going on lately.

Hi guys!

So, as you've probably noticed, I haven't posted anything on the blog for a little over 2 months. My life has been both busy and complicated during the time I've been absent, but I thought I should at least give you a little update on a few of the things that have been going on.


There were many reasons why I decided to take a break, so I though I should explain a few things about each one of them. 

It's going to be a long post, but if you don't want to read it all, at least make sure to skip to the part where I talk about drawing. It's very important to me that I talk to you about that specific subject. There's also a pretty picture for you to see, drawn by yours truly! :)

During these past few months I have been:



Attending University:
After the end of the long and difficult exam period, began the second semester of my second year in University. In the previous semester, I was in a very bad emotional state and barely ever went to class, but when the new one came around I did my best to make up for that by attending class as much as I could. My schedule wasn't particularly cramped, but going to the University takes up a lot of my time and energy, so the time that I had for other activities during the week was decreased by a lot. At the beginning of April, things started to calm down a bit and I didn't attend as much, but despite having free time, I had already decided to extend my break as much as possible.

Having Difficulty Writing:
Even though, during the time I was absent, I came up with a lot of topic ideas that I'd like to write about, whenever I would sit in front of my laptop and open the "New Post" page, I found it very difficult to put my thoughts into words. I admit that blogging doesn't come naturally to me and I sometimes find it very hard. Also, if you know me, you are aware that I am quite a perfectionist with my work, therefore, if I feel that I can't do something in the best way possible, then I tend to avoid doing it altogether.

Furthermore, I became very stressed over having difficulty writing and being concerned over the fact that I had to write something. I got anxious every time I thought of writing and the fact that I had been postponing it for so long and after a while of dealing with intense negative feelings, I couldn't even bring myself to open Blogger. Eventually, I decided to just take a break and temporarily (or even permanently) get rid of any responsibilities concerning the blog. I wanted to become a happier person, so I had to free myself of the negativity that blogging had started to bring out in me.

Doing things that I actually enjoyed doing:
And so, I started spending my time doing things that I found enjoyable and relaxing in an attempt to get rid of all my stress. I watched a lot of movies, anime and tons of Youtube videos, I read a lot of manga, I started reading an amazing book that I got for my birthday, I started drawing a lot more... It was important for me to become a happier and more positive person, so I tried to relax as much as possible.

Focusing on Drawing:
This was the most important reason why I kept extending the break until now. And it also covers the biggest part of what has been going on lately. Around the time that I stopped blogging, I was stressing out a lot about making plans for my future and figuring out what I could possibly do for a living. 



Drawing is honestly something I've always loved doing as a hobby, but I had never really considered making a living off of it. I've always wanted a job where I could utilize my creativity and my talents. But was only very recently that I realised that maybe it was possible for me to become a digital artist/game artist-developer and that it wasn't a dream too good to be true. I decided that I had to take that dream seriously and focus on improving my drawing skills as quickly as possible. I had to set this goal as a priority and push aside any other things that at the time where consuming a lot of my time and energy. 

In the months that I've been gone, I have been putting most of my time and effort into drawing and fortunately I've already started to see some improvement in my style. I am very happy that I have a chance to do something that I really love as a job in the future and so, I'm working very hard for it.

Lastly, I have been starting to post my art on a website called DeviantArt, which you can check out here, if you are a fan of art in general. I hope that you can become a fan of my art too. :)

So, now you know what happened.
But what's going to happen from now on?

To be honest, after all this stress and anxiety that I went through, I don't know if I can seriously continue posting on my blog. Let alone the fact that I am now focusing on other things. However, I don't want quit blogging, because there was a time that I worked really hard for it and I will feel really bad if I just let all my past efforts go to waste. So, I'm definitely not giving up on writing and posting things for you all to read, but, I'm only going to do it once in a while, whenever I'm in a completely positive and relaxed mindset and I'm not being pressured by other factors. It may be only once or twice a month, but for me it's much better than nothing. 

I'm still very stressed at the time, especially with the exam period peeking at me from around the corner, so I don't know if I'll be posting any time soon. But as with everything else, I'll try my best to be back before you can miss me.

Lastly, if you want to support me and my art, it would mean the world to me. Every bit of encouragement from people who enjoy what I make motivates me to work even harder. You can follow me on DeviantArt if you have an account and follow along on this journey, as I improve myself one drawing at a time. You can also follow me on Twitter, where I post about the fun and creative stuff that I'm doing (almost) every day. Lastly you can follow me on Tumblr, to receive notifications about new drawings.

Thank you so much for reading!

Love,
Stephanie

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