#43 Don't worry, be cookie

Positive post right here. The "I'm not doing enough" thought is a self-fulfilling prophecy. If you will constantly worry about it, you will never be able to rest and regenerate your strength. And because of that, you will actually underperform. What will of course lead to more "I'm not doing enough". I will call it INDE-train!

If you constantly feel like this, you might want to break the cycle. Understand that to really do enough, you also need the time to properly rest. Not by, nervously scrolling on your phone, waiting for the next work session. Take a long, nice break, away from your work, do not think about it (as much as you can).

If you feel like you are wasting time, remind yourself that you are doing it, to work with 100% of your abilities later.

Crash the INDE-train (it sounds so stupid, I will use it again, sorry, not sorry)! Go outside and get some cookie from the bakery.

This one is the effect of 3 days of projecting, changing mind and pixeling. But the start is always the same, the outlines.

When I do hair, I like to draw the bald, round face and then treat the hair like the beast that's slowly devouring it. Step, by step, detail after detail.

As you can see, I quickly finished the face, which was simple from design. But, the hair was the hard part. I strongly suggest making the hardest part last, because changing this face will take me 30 second, but I will have to change anything on the hair, it will be a harsh ride (you will see why in a moment).

At the start, I wanted to make it my classic hair. Light line at the middle, some shades and lines.

Transferring complex hairstyles to pixels is incredibly difficult. I don't really know if there is any better method to it, but I just make the outlines of the more detailed parts, and make them brighter.

Here, a new idea came to my mind, similar to one of my previous pixels (of the same person, that's why I wanted to try it here, and yes, I am well aware that the hat is on the other side here, and I don't care).

Lesson: to make the head look more 3D, it's a good idea to leave some space at the top and make it dark.

The hat got refined, but I still don't really like the way it looks. I will have to add hats to the list I guess.

See? The darker part at the top. I think this is the best way to show, what is on the front of the head and what's on the back.

And here I got outplayed by my own stupidity. I paused the recording to eat something, but forgot to let go again...

Well, I will try to explain it. The hair got it's shading, the light parts on the front and darker at the back. Also, I covered it in this semi-random patter. It is worth noticing that the pattern is much thicker on the sides than in the front. It also adds to the 3D feeling.

I had to take a little break from the hair (also the "hard last" rule, but it didn't really matter here) so I started to repurpose the outfit, to suit the pixel-art.

The belly got WAY TOO big. I thought it will make her look like she is facing left, but made her pregnant instead.

I had no idea how to fill the back of the hair. Also, I think I made it way too wide, but it was too late to change it (I mean literally, it was like 11 pm).

The final piece. It does not look that bad. Of course, I'm sure someone better would make it cuter. But I put a lot of time and effort into it and for me, it's really nice.

As always, thank you for reading. Enjoy your well deserved break, and I'm sure you will do amazing afterwards!