#68.2 Citrus and the Bat

I know I'm late again, but I really had to gather my mind on what I want to write.

This pixel is so undercooked it's not even funny. I didn't have much time to work on it, so even just by peeking at it, I can find 7 different things that should have been done better and that I could do better right now. It's not limited by my abilities, as usual, but the time.

This leads to my second point. I feel like I'm running out of time. Not only for this project, but generally. I'm terrified that everything will end one day. That all of me will be forgotten, and I will never be able to change anything anymore.

And it really shows here. I could have done so much more given more time.

But somehow the Bat in question still loved it. And part of me loves it too. When I compare this to my first ever Ekko fanart, so long ago. The 14th post on this site. That was the peak of my abilities back then. Now, I can look at something a hundred times more complex and generally good-looking, and I can still see the flaws.

My abilities didn't jump. It was not a straight line from there to here. A little over a year and 54 pixels. Some better, many worse.

But every single one of them was a step. Some were most definitely a slip, some peaks.

That's the best we can do. Maybe there is no future for us. Maybe tomorrow won't come. But if we tried and made the step, it meant we can welcome the end. It's sad, but it can't change all the steps we made. It gives me some comfort. Knowing that I will be able to look back at my path and choose to take another set, even if in a different direction, even if the last one.

And right now... I'm proud of myself... (yes, I'm crying writing that). I never was. I never cared. Now even if this is stupid and silly and everybody else can do better. I'm proud of every step and that I didn't stop trying, even after so many breaks and stupid decisions and laziness. It was always me.

“This I choose to do. If there is a price, this I choose to pay. If it is my death, then I choose to die. Where this takes me, there I choose to go. I choose. This I choose to do.” ― Terry Pratchett, Wintersmith

Use. New. Layer. For. Everything!!! It might be confusing at first, and you will find yourself drawing in a wrong one all the time, but it's worth it! The pure flexibility and adaptability of this approach makes everything so much easier. All the layers here: Body, Hands, Hair, Branch, Tree, Background, and the Wings. It saved me so much trouble later, it's insane.

See? I want to add ears? No problem! Just hide the hair, put them in another layer and you can do with them whatever you want.

The body looks like a brick? Just rip or hide everything else and make it slimmer.

If you work on something upside down, you can rotate the canvas using the Sprite menu, it's helpful too.

The only thing that changed on the branch is a shape, shading a little branches. If you remove the line in the middle and make half dark, half light, it produces the illusion of being round.

Some details to the hoodie.

Heres how the tree was made. It's really similar to the stones from the previous pixel. First, lines.

Then, a darker tone for one side and a lighter one for the other.

Repeat. Here I was so short on time I even copied some parts and pasted them higher. It works surprisingly well after a few hand adjustments.

A little Tattle Tail, should have given him some shade on the bottom to make him look more round, but I totally forgot about it. The ears were made using the blur tool.

Oh no, where did she go?! Another brilliant example of why layers are so useful. Hair was also made with blur, but I don't really like the effect. If I had more time, I would most likely put some patter in them.

I skipped a giant part where I was struggling to think about the correct background. In the end I wanted to have, like, a sunflower field, but ended up with more like sunflower bed.

The grass was also just copied and pasted.

In the end, it's always just you.

Thank you for being here, for being part of this. It's all going to be alright in the end, we just have to keep doing what we can to not regret doing nothing when it happens. Whatever happens, you will face it as you.