13 days later
Sprint Retrospective #3 of 2024 - (29/1/24 - 11/2/24)
One month down... damn that's too quick! Oh well, let go thru this retrospective.
Past Sprint's Goal & Other Work
TD (Total Drama) Commission
Completed the boxing commission right on time!
Next up is 2 TD comic comms - so one of the goal of this sprint is to complete the draft and get approved by commissioner.
Artist Study
Started studying on this artist "Carazar" - https://www.instagram.com/carazarzone/?hl=en
Key notes taken
1. Strong and expressive gesture
2. Simplified Basic shape
3. Focus on simplicity and expressivity over complex detail
Gonna keep studying and trying to incorporate some of his style into mine.
I'm basing my approach on an SPRINT idea - to get the best idea, remix and improve.
- https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/remix-improve-sergio-oliveira-pmp/
Drapery
May did some random doodle there and here but not an actual study/practice session on drapery. Maybe, it's better to just doodle for the time being.
Others
Completed my Total Drama facial reference - using Courtney character.
Will most likely use it as reference for generated TD facial work in commission. Should be easier to practice facial gesture.
Goals for upcoming sprint
- Complete draft of comic comm
- Continue studying on Carazar
- Practice more on cartoon drapery
That's all from me. Have a great and productive day! 
Good work on that comision and studies!
Aye, it's impressive a whole month has already gone by. Heck even know I feel like it was just the start of Feb and it's already the 12th.
Nice work on the facial references and the studies. The comissions look good as well.
10 days later
Sprint Retrospective #4 of 2024 - (12/2/24 - 25/2/24)
Not gonna lie, this hasn't been a great month for me. Not art-wise but more personal-wise. Gonna keep it short, I have broken up with my girlfriend of around 6 months (ironically after Valentine day) so this whole 2 weeks is basically recovering and coming back to focus more on myself.
The feeling that I have spent a lot of my energy only to go down to nothings just irks me so I was mostly chatting to my friends and family about my future action.
Combined with additional works from my company (i blamed myself, not them, as I seldom dive to work on technical problem till it's finished, much to the detriment of my personal life), this week is basically 0% art this sprint at all.
However, I still want to make this blog to highlight that sometime, we need to focus more on our personal life than our art. If we are not happy personally, how can you ensure that you will do your best work?
But yeah, I feel I have recovered both physically and mentally to be productive both in my career and art hobby. I have fully moved on.
Yeah sorry to not make an art blog but like mentioned, I want to blog to acknowledge that sometime it's ok to not do art all the time. Focus on your primary needs and happiness and your art can flourish and be enjoying.
Goals for upcoming sprint
- Complete draft of comic comm
- Continue studying on Carazar
- Practice more on cartoon drapery
As always, thx for the positive comments and hope you guys have a great week!
Hey, sorry to hear that man, I know how hard that is (both love and work). It sounds like you are recovering and looking ahead, which is great to hear.
Bests of luck and best wishes. Looking forward to seeing the next sprint!
sorry to hear about your breakup 
but its good that you have the "if life gives me lemons, make lemonade out of it" attitude.
looking forward to see whatever your next post is about - art related or not
12 days later
Sorry to hear that. Hopefully, you'll get better.
Sprint Retrospective #6 of 2024 - (26/2/24 - 10/3/24)
First of all, thx for the kind comments regarding about my personal life update. I'll be lying if I said "I'm fully moved on, guys. Now back to work!" as my lifestyle have to adjust by the fact that a part of my life has been taken away; for good or bad purpose. So I feel sluggish as I'm slowly coming back to myself by the minute.
The good news is that I have a cruise ship this weekend. First time ever so I aim to make it just RELAXING - NO ART WORK!!! If i do art in the ship, it's because I saw something interesting - not bc i want to study. 
TD Commission
The bad new from the cruise ship is one of the commission has a deadline which is St Patrick Day. Luckily, I finished it.
Aside from the head, most of the drawing are by my interpretation, not from actual TD work. This is based on a mix of Total Drama reference and other artists who does TD in their own way - Hence the art study of Carazar.
All in all, I need to adopt a "Fck you. I'm doing my way" altitude when doing art to be not only more myself but also be expressive and efficient too as I'm not relying too much on reference.
Have also started the 2nd comms which is a comic comm. I have livestreamed to them on Discord all of my draft and it has been approved. However, don't think I can do livestream at 1am anymore as it's affecting my sleep schedule and consistency so it has to come to an end unforunately.
Carazar Study
None. Blame my inconsistent sleep schedule.
Cartoon Drapery
Again, nothing. Blame my inconsistent sleep schedule. Perhaps, it's best to stop studying till i need it again.
Others
Decide to do random fashion doodle.
Also had a chat with art friends; both on discord and IRL. As an artist who does cartoon, I always have question on finding my personal study - like I still want to do TD but MY WAY OF DOING TOTAL DRAMA. Some way where somebody see a TD work and can see "Yeah, that's Gordon003 work alright.
Via our discussion, I realised that I do have my own TD style but I sometime stop myself from going further as I don't see it as TD. All in all, I need to:
- Keep trying random stuff (no matter how stupid it is)
- Have a look at other established styles (Simpsons is my 2nd pref)
- JUST FCKING DO IT!!
Overall, it was fun chatting with my art friends to get their own perspective and see for myself how to apply it to my work.
Goals for upcoming sprint
Gonna keep it simple and focus on 2 stuffs
- Art Comm
- Art Study
As always, thx for the positive comments and hope you guys have a great week!
Thx for the kind comments @daceronine, @mitsuki-youko and @gregorya
I have that altitude because there's nothing you can change from something massive before. What happens happened. Only thing you can control is now and the near future. Never heard that phrase before but I get it now.
Hey, good to hear you are moving ahead. I agree that there's not much to it other than pick up and keep moving ahead as well as we can. Been going through some rough stuff myself, so I can symphatize on how it can be tough, but it's still the best to do.
Good work as usual too, I think I recognize that sequence for the com of the girl getting "slept" from a past post? looks familiar.
As for style, I get what you mean about people recognizing your stuff at a glance, though I don't think it's something to worry about too much. I believe "style" comes naturally as we slowly practice and combine things from different authors we admire. We start off emulating other artists closely, but as we move along in our journey we naturally diverge into what we like to do.
I noticed this with the stuff I do, as I started emulating Toriyama, but been slowly drifting unintentionally as I try other stuff. It Still looks a lot like Toriyama style, what with the banana hair and what not, but I also is starting to become a bit different as well.
Same with what I see with what you do here. I'm not all that familiar with the TD style to be honest (didn't even know it was it's own category), but I can say you have a knack for doing girls in a particular way even within what I've seen from it xD
Glad you're moving on. Good luck with your sleep schedule, and commissions. Nice sketches.
14 days later
Sprint Retrospective #7 of 2024 - (11/3/24 - 24/3/24)
Just when I thought I finished one holiday, I got another one coming up! This time, I'm going back to my parent home country, China, to meet up with other family members and commemorate my grandpa who sadly has passed away when I was young.
Alas, that's mean that I won't do much art study for next sprint- just travel and chat with others in my poor Chinese speaking skill lol (I don't speak Chinese despite my background because my English back in primary school sucks which requires more attention than Chinese).
So we may have an idea of my upcoming schedule.
Anyway, let go thru my past 2 weeks.
TD Commission
Haven't done much as I was pretty busy most of the nights and haven't got the energy to work on this.
I'm planning to chat with my commissioners about my holiday leave and upcoming schedule.
Carazar Study
Continued my artist study. Starting to feel the study effect on my doodle as I feel more flowy and more gestural - especially with my fashion doodle drawing which is coming next.
Still planning to continue studying this artist till I'm satisfied that I got everything possible from that artist.
Others
Continued with my random fashion/sport doodle. Starting to rely less on being accurate as I just go with the flow of the pose/expression - much like the art study I have done.
Yeah, feeling like I got my style as I started to rely less on reference and just go what I had in my mind/feeling instead. Of course, I still use reference to make sure I got it mostly right but I feel it's my interpretation - not what the defined style demand so.
Goals for upcoming sprint
Given that I'm going back and staying in China for the whole sprint, I'm going to do something special.
DO NOTHING!!!
That's right! Fck all of you guys! 
I'm going to China and just enjoy practicing my awful Chinese skill. Wish me luck!
But nah really, thx for the positive comments and I see you guys when I'm back!
The Total Drama studies look good. Have fun on your trip.
