The goal was to make them to sell, but my Cricut is being absolutely stupid.
First, I had to do some warranty violating things to my printer. If I go for more than a few days without using it (honestly it’s typically six months to a year), it wants me to clean the print beads or nozzles or whatever and that uses an ungodly amount of ink.
But I figured out why that has to be done. It’s because of the amount of in that just sits in the nozzles between prints that doesn’t even get used, dries out and clogs it. Then it ushers the most inefficient way of unclogging, which is I assume, blading an ungodly amount of ink through the nozzles to force any clogs out. This way the manufacturer gets more money because you run out of ink faster. Plus, when it says the ink is empty, it’s 100% not empty.
Anyway, I eventually got it printing well, reminding me that it is a really good printer, despite its faults, after all. I waited until almost bedtime to work on it, they printed fine.
I had to dig my Cricut out and plop it on the bed.
It was only after one cut attempt, a calibration and another cut attempt that I gave up and hand cut out these six stickers. One was sliced from the poor cut, leaving me with five.
I’m keeping the damaged one for myself. Saving one for the sister, that would have left four. However, I just realized I slapped a perfectly good one on my water bottle, leaving three. I miss counted that twice so that’s a sign I should probably give up and go it bed.
In other news, I finished the most recent drawing challenge. It’s awful but it’s done. I’m going to start working on the video as soon as my iPad stops being a spaz. And I’ve had some sleep.
It really is too bad I’m.l not wealthy enough to be unemployed
I recently started a drawing challenge for myself. The first one came from whatever the first thing to pop up on a random generator was. I asked my niece to choose the second and then the third.
The third is the absolute hardest one so far. A dragon.
Now, she choose the dragon for me on this video:
Like, December 26th?
It’s at the end. You don’t have to watch. Anyway…
Of the three options I knew she’d choose the dragon, somehow. Mostly because I knew it would be the hardest one. Fun fact, I once painted my husband, back when he was still my boyfriend, a dragon for our first Christmas.
He has since informed me that it’s actually a “wyvern” not a “real dragon”. Which, by the way, rude. I’d never drawn one before, let alone painted it. So it kinda made me feel bad. But he doesn’t read my posts so doesn’t matter what I say here.
So, with this most recent dragonian adventure, I did what any sanenormal me person would do. Put it off for two weeks. Every single time I messaged or FaceTimed my sister, the niece asked, “have you started on the dragon yet?”
My answer was always no, and she’d always ask why not. I’d give various reasons but honestly?
FEAR. OF. FAILURE.
My reasons for everything.
But tonight, I decided that it would be a better waste of my time than scrolling through TikTok endlessly, to start on this dragon. And so I did. Like, four times.
At one point I even got so fed up with erasing I closed one Procreate canvas and opened a whole new one. I’ve drawn and redrawn so many parts of this dragon that there are probably twelve different breeds of dragon floating unfinished in the digital eraser dust of the universe.
I used to imagine that the things you erased lived on in another form in the eraser dust you swept off your paper carelessly. There’s a universe somewhere where all those mistakes exist.
The dragon himself is currently living tailless on the canvas. You see, I got every bit (of the initial sketch) done but the tail, because I thought, “That’s gonna be the easiest part.”
But no. The part of his body, where his torso ends and tail begins looked wrong. I stared at it so long my brain only saw deformities. So, I created a new layer, hid the part I needed to edit, and drew a new tail to see if I liked it better.
The husband agreed that it did, and I erased the original and added the new. But then that bit still needed reworking.
So I erased that too.
Because even though the only person who needs to really see the dragon is a ten year old who probably only cares about choosing the next challenge subject, and that’s the only opinion that matters, I’m still being particular about it.
Therein lies the problem. It’ll never be perfect because I’m not an artist. I’m a doodler. I have been a doodler for decades. I’m not painter, nor do I sketch or any of that stuff. I doodle. I draw silly pictures of borderline depressed stick aliens named Steve in the borders of my college notebook papers.
And yet I tell myself I can do better because it’s not good enough.
But, despite that, despite the fact I’d love to keep working on it well into the midnight hours, only because the unfinished of it is eating away at my soul even as I type this, I am leaving it. I’m not leaving forever, it will not go unfinished, nay nay. Tomorrow probably, I will work some more. Hopefully I’ll finish it then.
But then there’s the silly video too.
The lesson of the day: do not seek perfection. Perfection is a silly thing, a nonexistent entity. A thing worshiped by many, claimed by a few, and attained by none. It’s nothing to praise or long for. The only things that are perfect are a child’s laughter, a well formed flower, and the way leaves tend to spread out in a canopy of trees. And rainbows. I think rainbows are pretty perfect.
Things I’ve learned and will hopefully remember next time.
How to add in an image or video Picture-in-picture style: I use VideoLeap to edit my videos, and there’s an option called overlay. I used it to add reference images I used, as well as a TikTok video I “borrowed without permission” because I like the sound of duck feet slapping around.
Edit your actual video completely to your preference FIRST, and add in extras later: editing piece by piece and adding in your features, like Overlay, graphics, sounds, voice over etc, and then having to go back in and rearrange and scale extras to fit and sit where you want will increase edit time.
When using screen record as your primary source of content, you probably don’t need everything. Just snippets: the unholy amount of footage I have of doing the same thing over and over again, that I had to cut, is astronomical.
DON’T MARATHON EDIT: trying to get all the work done in one session is going to exhaust you, and lead to poorer work. Take your time, over multiple sessions, and step by step.
Remember why you are doing it: if my niece hadn’t been so excited about the whole thing, I don’t think I would have done it. It’s hard to quit when a kid has expectations.
SPEEDING THINGS UP IS YOUR FRIEND: this is not an instructional video. You can go at ludicrous speed if you want too, or need too. And it cuts down in final runtime.
In the end
My niece, who seems to be the only one who cares about it, actually watched the whole video this time, at least once. And she chose the next drawing. A dragon. I’m gonna start by doing some research tomorrow.
If you recall, I recently began a self-created drawing challenge. The first challenge was a sunflower and I wanted to commemorate it by creating a sticker. Not that I have the means to do so, but I have Google and the Toky Tokys.
So, after multiple days and several hours of trying, hundreds of views for various YouTube and TT creators videos on the subject, I finally figured out how to MAKE THE WHITE BORDER AROUND AN IMAGE.
This is it. This is the sticker. Sans Greenish background of course.
Now, I haven’t got the materials yet to make this a physical reality, but I rode the high of figuring it out a long time. Until I went hunting for my checkbook to pay a bill and couldn’t find it.
But I still feel good about it.
Eventually I’m going to have the material and attempt to print and cut the stickers out. I plan on selling the about 3 inch by 3 inch stickers for $2. Not that anyone will buy them but I’m 100% gonna slap one on my truck with my “Hi, Robin!” sticker.
And I plan on continuing the Drawing Challenge. I’ve got a duck I just finished, and a video to come plate for that. Yes the duck is going to have its one phrase too.
*wink*
Anyway, The Kid conned her way into my bed, so I’m not getting much sleep, so I’d better get in that!
If your a little behind the times, first off same. Secondly, I’ve recently decided to punish myself challenge myself and try to get better at drawing. Specifically digital “art”.
Shameless plug to first challenge video on YouTube.
My niece was asked to pick from three options and she chose a duck so that’s my next punishment challenge.
She currently has the Flu and I sincerely hope she feels better soon.
A duck is an animal I have never been in super close proximity to. In fact, my general rule of thumb is that if I do not know them I should keep my distance, out of respect for both of us.
However it is important to note that it’s on my bucket list to touch an elephant. I will never do it but by golly if I’m not tempted.
An animal cannot give you direct and clear permission to touch it. It can touch you, but that does not give you permission to touch it back.
The same cannot be said for people. They can give you permission. They can also deny you permission. A good rule of thumb, unless you know the person well, is no touchy touchy.
So I am suddenly reminded of this dude’s Tikie Tokies. About how to pick up a duck. Go watch it. It’ll either make you laugh, or make you do that, “huh, I’m not sure how to feel about this” thing.
Back to the topic at hand, I have no preconceived notions that the duck I am going to draw, eventually, will be any good. It’s gonna 100% be cartoonish and silly. But, you know, I’m not here for perfection, I’m here to have fun.
I’m gonna try really hard not to try to hard, to not let it get the best of me. The sunflower I completed in one session, and I’m sure I could have done more for it in more time. But the duck I’m gonna practice with. I’m gonna erase and start over a lot.
Honestly the goal with this second drawing challenge is to, in the end, be able to look at it and go, “Hmm, I ain’t mad at that.”
And also like the sunflower, it’s gonna be a sticker. Couple of suckers maybe.
I’m gonna learn how to do that too. Because right now the only thing I can afford to do for entertainment and betterment is learn. Through the Google of course, and Wikipedia. Although, because the founder of Wikipedia pretty much dissed Ol Musky, I really should donate.
Anyway, the melatonin and heated throw are telling me to say goodnight.
Goodnight!
Ps: just so you know I tried really hard not to get stupid and personal with this one. I need an outlet but I don’t have to tell the Internet strangers everything.
This whole video would look better if I’d spent more time on it. And if my iPad would have stopped telling me it had no memory and stopping my screen recording!
The Drawing Challenge
I needed a creative outlet that I could feasibly do that had very little expectation, for myself and others. And because I love that random generators take some of the work out of whatever it is I’m trying to do, I pulled my favorite website up and found their “Random Things To Draw” link (go to “more”).
I wanted to use Procreate on my iPad because I knew I could screen record some of the process.
By doing the challenge I hope to improve my very poor drawing ability and my knowledge of the Procreate app. I also completed the whole thing in one sitting. So, I know it’s not gonna be great.
But here it is.
Video Edited and music added With VideoLeap
I tried to make it shorter by speeding it up.
My iPad kept ending my screen recording, so the videos are all over the place. Then I got a “memory is full” warning. I’ll have to go back and delete a lot of nonsense if I do this again.
I now know, though, to screen record in bits and pieces as opposed to the whole process. I’ve also learned to adjust and crop videos before adding text.
Should I do voiceover next time? Or just music and text? Also, last time I used app provided music, I got a warning from YouTube as someone reported my use of a song even though it was provided in the app.
We’ll see what happens!
Also, my niece will hopefully see my little message to her in the end. Lol
I am no artist. I’m not very good at drawing. In fact I am not very good at anything. But in order to post a blog every day you must have CONTENT. So I decided to UTTERLY SHAME MYSELF IN A PUBLIC WAY!!
yay.
AnyWho, we all know that I love random generators. So on my favorite random generator site there is a button for a random drawing and so I clicked on that button. This is what I got.
ScreenshotAnd a screen recording. In case… you didn’t believe me… I guess?
Anyway I started on it tonight using Procreate, while on the phone with my dad. I found a decent reference photo and got to work.
Now I know better than to claim it’s any good. But the whole point of the thing was to practice to get better. That’s how one improves at something, I’m told.
I tried to screen record the whole process but my iPad ran out of memory. I’m gonna throw it into a video at some point. Mostly cause I paid for a year subscription of videoleap and don’t want it to go to waste.
I’m also going to leave a small message for my niece. She likes to draw, and also stalks my YouTube when she’s bored. I hope she’ll see it and challenge me 😂.
The Result
On a transparent background A very busy background
How’d I do?
Seriously tho, I don’t need critiques I know it sucks. Lol
Anyway, posting before midnight so I get my daily post in. Goodnight
Crash Landing 