I’ve been wanting to get into kandi for a while, but procrastinated until I decided that buying beads is a good enough excuse to get out of the house lol
I bought a sizeable box of various beads from a local arts n crafts store in town. I’m slightly limited as all of the colours they had leaned towards more bright pastel colours (not even a full rainbow, I have no oranges or reds :’3) but it was just the right thing for getting me started so nonetheless.
Starting out was a little bumpy… I remember making my first two bracelets and discovering that they were too loose because I have little bitch wrists, so I had to limit the amount of beads I could use. Took a bit of trial and error but I got the hang of it by my fourth or third bracelet. I remember whilst I was untying one of the loose bracelets I accidentally let all of the beads fall onto the floor and they bounced absolutely everywhere. D: It was disastrous T w T
But anyway, I got the hang of things and here are all of my kandis!!! :3
(Sorry for poor lighting, it was dull weather when I took this photo..)
My favourite one out of the bunch still has to be my puppy kandi. I’ve had these little doggie charms for a while now and have been looking at them and dreaming of the day I finally do something with the damn things lol
I made one kandi based after the colours of my gloomy bear plushie Goober! That was actually the first successful kandi I made on a first try, felt very good in the moment. ^^
My pinkie pie kandi was actually one of the first ones I drafted up but only got around to finishing sometime after I’d made my first three or so kandi.
The Usahana kandi idea came to me based on the colourful flower charms that came with the bead box. I really love this one but today the knot actually came undone! Scary, but thankfully I was just sitting on my bed when it fell apart, and I tied it up again soon after.
And lastly my Ureshii bracelet is based on the cover art for Goreshit’s album Ureshii! which is one of my favourites of his. ^^
I plan to make more edgier bracelets once I get more beads so I can have two kandi cuffs with opposing themed to represent the two wolves inside of me or something like that lmfao
Thank you for reading all my yap if you did! I’ve been having a lot of fun with this new hobby and I wanted to share some of the stuff I’ve made. ^^
I’m maybe a lil late to the party because I was pretty sick yesterday and didn’t have the energy to write this thing out yet but I’m feeling better now soo, here goes I suppose lol
I saw this journal by tyeosaurus and thought that it looked like fun so I wanted to fill it out too! Unsure yet if this should be declared as a journal meme yet bc I’ve only seen one other person copy it but it looked like fun to me. But tyeosaurus if you’re reading this and don’t want this to be a meme I’ll edit this part out for you.
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Team: Crystals!
Number of attacks: 14 (yippee more than my last year!! ^w^)
Number of defensives: 26 (got my ass beat this year 💀)
Points: 1347.25
Battle Ratio: 41.82%
Most attacked character: Bup!
(Quick) General Thoughts: I had a lot of fun playing this year despite getting pretty burnt out midway... I received tons of amazing attacks in so many different unique art styles, I think that’s such a wonderful thing about art fight is the diversity of it all. I’m a bit disappointed that I sacrificed a lot of my wanting to be more experimental/coming out of my comfort zone for wanting to do as many attacks as I could for all of the people and artists who’ve been nice to me and that I admire.
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Okay, I’m going to go a bit more in-depth on how I feel about my overall experience with the event this year.
Like I mentioned in the quick general thoughts, I wish I had pushed myself more with my art personally. I remember at the start of the month I drew a lot of simple chibi-ish character standing in an abstract background art, and while I did have fun with those I was worried that it seemed like I wasn’t putting in enough effort for my attacks. Truth of the matter is that I was very overwhelmed and wanted to pump out attacks as soon as I could for the event. So I did, at first, make more simpler pieces to sort of get comfortable with the pace and then eventually I started drawing more complex characters in more interesting poses.
But I started getting very tired of the way I was drawing, (lmao) so eventually I tried doing a lineless piece, a piece with aunique brush texture and even drew some humans(please be nice to me I’m only a furry artist ;w;). But even so, in the end I still feel like I sacrificed most of my energy and enthusiasm on the way I typically draw, that I didn’t have enough room left for experimentation in the end. Not to mention that I was busy during the month too with family visits and studying for an exam that by the end of it I just had to take a break and focus on other things.
I bring this up because I’ve noticed a fair amount of people express their own disappointments with not getting to do as much as they wanted too. I feel a lot of the disappointment too as I’ve expressed in this journal. I do want to say though that, especially if you’ve had other important life obligations, or just weren’t feeling all that motivated/inspired, or perhaps suffer from a chronic illness or mental struggles that it is never a moral failing that you weren’t able to reach your specific artistic goals or targets for this year.
Artfight is a great event to test the waters with your art whilst getting to create something for your fellow artists out of love for characters and stories. But that is just it. It’s a fun lil event to celebrate art and make art for others out of generosity. There shouldn’t be any expectations from anyone on how much you “should” participate within the events duration or even how you interact with the site itself. If you’ve made even one drawing that’s even as plain and simple as a little sketchbook doodle, you have still participated and created a valuable piece of art for your recipient to enjoy and get amusement out of. Even if you couldn’t participate this year (assuming that you wanted too) there’ll still be a chance in the future.
Dear god, I just went off on a way too long tangent, anyways- I think that if I wanna actually try and do something new with my art during the event next year I’m gonna have to be more mean on the amount of characters I want to draw if I want to spend more time on my pieces. Perhaps I should make a list next time of what specific techniques/styles I want to experiment with on certain characters too. idk. it might be fun to do a more semi realistic painterly style with an edgier oc or a fun 2000s cartoony art style for a cuter character.
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Before I sign off I also just quickly want to shout out some of the awesome artists whom I’ve received attacks from!
I just adorethis attack from SqueakyWebs of my oc Heartfelt. I love how ve captured her gentle and shy demeanour in the pose and composition of this piece, as well as the stylish swirled background that I’m absolutely obsessed with. >w< I literally love this piece so much that I have it as my phone wallpaper rn lmaoo
This attack of Sparkle Twig by CometCatz gets a special mention for the sheer amount of improvement her art has had over just the course of a year! For context she attacked me last year with this piece of the same character and omg, I was already so impressed seeing how much she had grown since last year from seeing her attacks of other characters in my subscriptions box on af, but seeing her attack my character again with her current art skill was just so surreal in the best way possible. I literally just feel so proud of her and so inspired to keep going forward with my own art too! ^w^
And lastly these two attacks by Trivly and their gf Khana Sukre!. This was a collab attack where they both submitted their own pieces of my characters Heartfelt and Fae (whom are also couple) and omfgggg, im still not over this attack and I’m still so, so so honoured that they liked my characters so much that they as a couple themselves drew them both in this adorable matching piece collab, I’m- RAAAUUGGHHHAAAAAAUUÜAÆ🔥🔥🔥 I LOVE IT SO MUCH MY GAY LITTLE HORISESSSSS😭😭😭💕💕💕
Dear god that was longer than I anticipated… But I hope you enjoyed reading and maybe you share some of my own thoughts on how your artfight went, but either way, I hope everybody still had fun creating and getting to share that joy with others. I am going to rest now. ;w;
Euugghh,, it’s been catching up to me folks… Don’t get me wrong though, I’ve been having so much fun drawing cool ass characters for others and seeing their reactions. And receiving some really amazing attacks too!
But something that was bothering me was that I felt like some of my attacks weren’t as good as they could be. I have a lot of characters that I want to draw, and so I made simpler pieces to make up for time.
I was hoping that as the event went on I would start branching out a bit more, but I think in order for me to do that I’ll have to limit how many characters I want to draw so that I can focus more on experimentation and making bigger pieces. But now the burnout is here so idk what I’ll do. ;w; Plus I’ve gotta study for a maths resit exam whilst all of this is going on and omg,, it’s getting SO freaking hot now too which worsens my fatigue, AAAaaAaaAaÆ… Maybe I’ll make just a few experimental pieces, or find a way to experiment with my style but still keeping the overall drawing simple enough to get it done within a few days. Perhaps it was a little naive of me to expect me to get all of my bookmarks done too lol
That aside though, I think some of my favourite attacks I’ve made so far this year are my attacks for potusjacksoni,RainbowDinosaurCat(awesome fucking username btw) and Beetlewine. I really had fun with the pose and gesture for Jacksoni’s attack, as well as the colours, I really freaking love the way it colours its characters. >w<
I loved getting to experiment with my lineless art style again after so long for RainbowDinosaur’s revenge. Even though it is a pretty simple drawing and nothing especially polished, I’m still really pleased with the results! ^^
I was really inspired by how pretty Beetlewine’s attack for me was, so I really wanted to try and make something just as polished for their revenge attack. I struggled a fair bit during the sketching phase of their revenge on Angie, and perhaps some of those flaws are still present in the final piece, but I’m still so happy with how it came out, as it was really what I wanted my art to look like when I was a young kid.
Anyway though, if you’re reading this feel free to share some of your own favourite attacks you’ve made so far this year! I wanna see what other people are creating too! And if you have any of your own gripes with your art fight streak I’d be interested to hear what parts of the event you’re struggling with or have anything to say about. <:
Finally announcing my artfight profile! Took some time to spruce it up n stuff, because I suffer from indecisiveness poisoning. But either way, I’m so excited to participate again this year. I can’t wait for the themes to finally be announced on the 22nd EEEEEÆ
Been wanting to do this journal meme for a while but haven’t had the energy too >_<
Just a quick edit, I did not create this meme, and I don’t know who did, sorry ;-;
RULES:
Pick one option per question if possible - even the smallest preference counts. If not possible, explain your answer!
Digital art OR traditional art?
Definitely digital. Although I’ve fallen in love with more traditional mediums thanks to my college course, digital is still my main medium by far. Plus I just don’t see any other use for my apple pencil if not for digital art, and at that point it’s probably a financial loss lmao-
Original concepts/characters OR fanart/canon characters?
Hmm, probably original tbh. I don’t really go looking for fanart, but I’ll like it if I see it pop up in my feed. Plus I think it’s just sweet to get all excited about other peoples original characters and concepts.
Original fiction OR fanfiction?
I don’t think I’ve ever actively engaged in fanfiction before.(aside from those old YouTube videos where people would rip into poorly written fanfiction made by children, I don’t fw that stuff anymore) So yeah definitely original fiction. <:
Sketch OR lineart?
Both can be painful in their own ways ngl lmaoo But, I guess if your sketch is clean enough it could count as lineart to a degree?? Plus it can be more freeing sometimes, and I kind of enjoy the messier look to it, so probably sketch.
Coloring OR shading?
I feel pretty indifferent to colouring my images, I mean, I enjoy putting together palettes and stuff but actually colour filling an image is kind of just, a whatever part of the process for me. I think shading is what really brings a piece together to make it feel more three-dimensional, and I kind of enjoy bringing those forms to life in my drawings, so probably shading.
Handwritten signature OR text signature?
Hand written all the way baby! I’ve always loved doodling and designing my own signature. I just wish I wouldn’t forget to add the damn thing 😭
Shrink canvas OR add a filter before posting?
Shrink, because I do that funny haha thing of defaulting to a screen sized canvas, doing a bunch of small sketches to see what sticks and having to shrink it later on to kill all of the negative space. This is how I do most of my work, I wonder if I need to change my process or not..?
Messy art OR clean art?
As much as I love the look of a well polished piece of art, I feel like you can really feel the artists self expression sometimes in looser and messier artworks. I really love to look at someone’s artwork and feel the joy or other such emotions they had creating it. Whether it be through their brush/pencil work, their rendering or their stylising of certain fundamentals.
Bright colors OR muted colors?
Make my eyes bleed pretty please :3
Warm colors OR cold colors?
Cold I guess because blue is a cold colour and I am extremely bias. (If you couldn’t already tell, hehe..)
Graphics tablet with screen OR no screen?
I’ve never had one of those drawing tablet things before. I only have my iPad Pro and Apple Pencil, so I’m not really sure how to answer this one…
Humans OR nonhumans?
I really want to get into drawing more humans (and I do but I still can’t do full bodies yet) but I’m definitely more inclined to animals and furries in general. I just always find them so endearing idk why.
Fur OR scales?
I forgor to answer this one. Probably fur because I draw animals and furries, but I do like a scaly friend as well ^v^
Edgy characters OR wholesome characters?
Tbh I feel like all characters have got to have a bit of edge to them, we can’t be happy go lucky all of time. We all have our own personal demons and outbursts in life, and I think it’s just more realistic to have multiple sides to a character. I think I just went way off topic, oh god. Uhh tldr, I’ll take the shadow the hedgehog route.
High-poly models OR low-poly models?
I like low poly ones more aesthetically, but I don’t have anything against games that try to go more realistic. (So long as no artists die in the process.)
Music OR podcasts while drawing?
Music or stupidly long YouTube videos.