I kid. Updates are liable to be even more calendrical heresy thanks to Book Deadlines of Damocles, but everyone needs a hobby. (My agent and editors are aware; I got hit by life + health stuff.)
I have to share with you the most hilarious pose reference ever re: #0 p. 7. My daughter agreed to help me out by posing first as Evil Kel then Miresh since I was having issues with arms (ugh, why do humans have bodies? we would be easier to draw if we were all squares) in exchange for my microwaving her a meal. (My daughter is a college student. Rest assured, she knows how to use a microwave.)
I mean. Is she not the MOST CHEERFUL CHILLAXED Evil Kel and/or Terrified Protester Victim?!
My latest timesink is making boxes because I find it relaxing to work with my hands when I’m able to. I keep attempting to slim down my travel art toolkit, and once you realize a basic box is just a bunch of rectangles, measurements, addition, and dealing with tolerances and hand-eye coordination, it’s hard to resist making THE PERFECT BOX for your specific tools. I am no Fields Medalist but I am extremely not afraid of a bunch of rectangles, and I enjoy this sort of very simple design work. The previous thing I made was a cockamamie watercolor box for a friend. (You can see where I screwed up the tolerances because I didn’t make enough allowance for the thickness of decorative paper + glue. Literally three more millimeters and I’d have been able to fit in another full watercolor pan as originally intended! My friend was amused, fortunately.)
Ditto leatherworking, where the barrier is the cost of tools and dear sweet Shinjo the cost of leather. (The recommendation seems to be to hang out with more experienced leatherworkers and ask for off-cuts to practice small pieces.) My current leatherworking WIP is a leather folio that will involve gussets. Rectangular gussets look straightforward, but are probably annoying to sew. We’ll find out!
Updates may continue to be calendrical heresy: I have been accepted into a part-time/distance-learning M.A. in film/TV/game scoring, which starts mid-September. I’m very excited for this! I picked part-time to accommodate pending writing obligations. I should have more or less wrapped up delivery drafts of the two pending books by then (Moonstorm trilogy #3: Crownworld, and Code & Codex, which is a standalone), but there will be edits.