DoC: Viridian Ring (Hi-Res)

Suddenly, you feel the air thicken. It's like a storm is brewing... 

A piece for Sombreve for his game, Dawn of Corruption! Wonder what this ring might be for. Hmm. Who knows~ 

I may or may not be doing some work for Sombreve's game, doing  background/landscape or event artwork like this. c: This was kind of,  sort of a test. We'll see if he would like me to do anything more. But  for a test, this one was a lot of fun, getting to do something that sort  of hits the vein of something you might find in a player's handbook, a  collectable card, or most accurately, a game.  

Cheers, Sombreve! Thank you for letting me try my hand at this. Enjoy, ya'll.

---

It's been... An interesting few weeks. Watching the TTRPG and video game scene blow up further was not on my "first events of the new year" bingo card, but here we are.

It's strange, to look back literally a decade to what I wanted, versus where I am now. I was just getting through a bout of depression around the new year, that almost went tragically south, and had started sketching and drawing every day in hopes of working somewhere in the entertainment industry... Now, ten years later, every movie studio or streaming platform is nixxing everything I love about the medium or consolidating into monopolies, TTRPG payments aren't keeping up with living wages, a bunch of video game studios are all in on gambling/FOMO or are revealed to be festered with abuse, and animation is seen more for tax breaks than artistic expression.

I quit working for an indie studio around the turn of the pandemic. I was so depressed about the situation of everything, and in a way, I still am. But when a good friend, Sombreve, asked if I'd like to work on his gay NSFW indie game, Dawn of Corruption... well... The allure of game art came back. But, hey, if literally everything is going to hell and back anyways, well... Why not help out with some kinky, good stuff? If I'm already going to be seen as an adult content creator, despite being vanilla and puritan compared to a lot of what's out there, then screw it. I'm helping a friend.

I'm still sad about a lot of the state of things, it's true. It eats at me almost every day, that 2013 me's hopes and dreams are kind of dead in the water, that the end-goal I thought I had with art was more of a mirage. And sure, a lot of my portfolio is something I can't show to family or strangers who ask when I say I'm a freelance artist, at least not without them turning a shade of red, but... I dunno. I wrestle a lot with if I'm truly "okay" with it, and that feeling changes daily, if not hourly. But I'm trying to keep my head up. To keep moving.

... oh and the new ADHD medicine helps. We're trying that again. Did I mention that already in a previous post? My focus had been in the shitter for a while, so psychologist agreed that it was time to try again now that anxiety and such had been dealt with. I've been tracking my daily work hours since I started taking it, and there's an improvement. It's small right now, but it's there. I'm hoping this trend keeps up. We'll see.

okay that's maybe enough rambling on this one. I have another piece to upload, anyways! Thanks for reading, ya'll. All the love. I hope the new year has been kind to you so far. I hope it will continue to be, whether it has or not, too. <3 Thank you so much for the support. It truly means the world to me. I wouldn't be able to still do this, if it weren't for the support you offer. <3