Quarantine Sketchbook [ + small personal update ]

[ CW for the 8th image: body horror, gore and graphic content ]

Hello dear patrons!

I'm sorry I haven't been vocal after blasting you all with horrible news of my personal life last month. For all of the kind souls that have been concerned about me and my family:

- my brother had indeed caught the 'rona and has been sick for 2 weeks (hiding the most worrying symptoms from us, which... needless to say, is extremely Not Cool.) He is fine now.

- my father's symptoms turned out to be the flu, thankfully, but he has managed to injure his back, his hand and his ribs over the next weeks. He also got some worrying medical results back and will have to be tested for colon cancer. (My 93yo grandpa also needs to get  eye surgery so... I'm not too worry-free lately)

- my mother has been extremely toxic throughout the past month (she's been extremely chaotic and manipulative and has threatened self harm and even offered my already-at-risk sibling to jump off a bridge together, so... there's that) and had to look for urgent psychiatric help. I have not been dealing well with all that.

- I haven't been talking to anyone in months. Isolation is doing bad things to my brain. Insomnia has come back stronger than ever and I stopped trying to fight it. I sleep from 5am to 9am now and I'm tired the rest of the day.

- I have started going to my part-time job again, which gets me some semblance of routine during the week, but it's still extremely stress-inducing and, with how the pandemic is getting in my area, is not something I can keep counting on having in the near future.

In conclusion: I am worn-out, both physically and emotionally, but I am safe and well (from 'rona, at least.) 

BUT ALSO (AND MOST IMPORTNTLY)

I want to reassure you and say that I have started drawing again. I can only bring myself to do it every now and then, when my attention span allows me to focus for more than 3 minutes, and my rhythm is slow. So I apologise for taking so long to get to your requests. I feel horribly drained and I'm doing my best.

Don't worry, more patreon rewards/requests are on their way! November isn't over. And, if I can keep a decent drawing streak up, December will start with a bang (ahah).

In the meantime, enjoy these traditional doodles I did during quarantine (everytime I get artblock I go back to traditional sketchbooks and changing medium for a while usually helps.)

 [ A few notes on what you're seeing here:

- pic 4 & 5 I did during a whole week spent listening to "What's Love Got To Do With It" by Tina Turner and obsessing over this delicious fic by the brilliant and lovely acernor, who has actually inspired me to write my own comfort poly bs (which u should totally check out if you're into SVSSS... and validate me)
(also, if you want to give me a hand with getting some visibility on twitter, I actually already posted these pages on there. Feel free to retweet!)

- (btw, if, by any chance, you were looking for some Castlevania fics, I actually have not just one, but two fic collections on my AO3 page. Come say hi!)

- Uni graduates in the UK get to wear that square black cape and flowy cloak. I didn't get to bc of 'rona, but I still got my degree when I was back in Italy and people there get to wear bay crowns, which I think is cooler. (Anyway, I very narcissistically did a redraw of my graduation selfie because fuck it. It was supposed to be my year.)  

- everyone skinny and white in pic 7 bc sketchdaily has no variety :C ]