WAOW..... i've completed almost 30 attacks and its only the 16th! its crazy how productive ive been this year! last year i only managed 8 by around this time and fell into a really bad depressive episode...

some mid event thoughts and reflections that are loosely related:

the past few years i've felt a lot of pressure to perform and make art that was "perfect"- which really stifled my ability to get attacks out. also i was overwhelmed with a fear that people would think my attacks weren't "good enough"! i have repeated this fact a lot but ever since i was a small child i have been in art communities that were EXTREMELY judgemental and it made me paranoid to ever go outside my comfort zones of what was "acceptable" art.
now, i'm more than happy to doodle something and slap some colors on it! the fun of artfight is seeing people happy!

as for my art style... i have a lot of mixed feelings on how it's developing. i like it, and its really rewarding to come out of a piece going "holy crap i basically blacked out and produced this" but on the other hand im like. "holy crap i basically blacked out and produced this" and i have like zero memory of how i even did any of that. so consistency is kind of out the window there. ive been trying to take mental notes of what im doing because of it, and one thing ive been REALLY attempting to do is focus on color value. i've been trying to use a grayscale filter for most of my attacks to judge if something is too dark or too light, or blending into the background, etc.

another reflection... tied to "what if my art isnt good enough" i think that everyone needs to play with stylistic interpretation and be cool with other people doing the same to their characters. i've had some really great attacks this year that made me go "wait- that WASN'T already part of the design???" when people add their own little thing to a character. and it's great!! i love seeing my designs through the lens of other people's thoughts about them! it makes me think about what's memorable about my designs and what people see in them, lol

and for my final thought... if you're struggling to make attacks- the tried and true method for me is to draw my friends' ocs in tons of wacky ways. its SUPER fun! do shitposts! silly stuff! people love it regardless of the quality or polish on the attack!

now...... i go on to art fighting again..............