Hi everyone! I see great work here. My guess is that for many people staying at home does not bother inspiration.
In my country, many people were laid off as soon as a state of emergency was declared. Employees do not pay to keep employees when everything is closed. But many people got up quickly and after a short rest gained strength and inspiration to act. 
Personally, I found some time for my passion. I am new here, so I have nothing to brag about yet xD
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It took a couple months for me to really adjust to the new state of being in terms of how I felt about everything, “the new normal” and whatnot. Right before all the closures in Canada, I was at a Convention in March. I had already paid a bunch of money for my vendors table and I couldn’t afford not to go… It was a hard and scary decision to still go. I was so nervous but the covid stuff gave me a better foot to stand on about no shaking peoples hands or giving hugs at conventions. Going to continue that into life when it’s safe to convention again because I get sick after almost every event. I sanitized the crap out of everything at my table and my hands/phone/etc multiple times during vendor hours (and after) while there and I managed to avoid getting sick at all, not even the sniffles. Thank goodness. I’m not planning in person events until there is a vaccine and that’s definitely going to put a big dent in my usual income.
I spent some time for myself playing the ever so wonderfully timed Animal Crossing New Horizons while picking away at work and trying to figure out what I needed to do during this time to make things work for me. It was a lot of down time but my patrons are also very wonderful people and understood that things were a bit slow adjusting to my partner now working from home with me, dealing with the ever present exhaustion when keeping up with the world stuff and trying to educate myself, etc. I also realized that while being an introvert and I love being at home most of the time, the occasional half an hour sit down at a local cafe was very therapeutic for me and not having that was weird. BUT, best to be home, wear masks, only leave when you gotta and physical distance. It is what it is.
- In that time I organized and participated in an online “convention” - CozyCon Online to help those without in person events right now. (Next one scheduled for September!) I’ve got a couple staffers and I’m so grateful to them for their help. (I drew and created the ad below)
- I’ve put Canvas Swap Zine into a Hiatus until 2021 after releasing Issue 7 which was Cyberpunk themed on June 1st! Organizing it is always a blast and the artists involved have been amazing! They definitely inspire me.
- I’ve gotten back into bullet journaling which is helping with my flow and creativity.
- I’ve updated my profile and am starting Art Fight (a gamified gift art/trade game) which i’m excited to do!
- Did some art! Commissions are a helpful source of inspiration for me because the base ideas i don’t have to think up myself but can add flare to. So here’s a few things I have done in that time that I’m quite proud of.
Designed a feline character for my friend’s partner and a complex ref for a patron.
Wanted to continue with my rainbow unicorn pride sticker for pride and junicorn month. Stickers have been ordered and are on the way and I’m excited to say that the manes are holographic!
Completed a couple cute Animal Crossing themed “your character here” commissions.
And I finished something my patrons voted on, of my two lovely ladies~ (Nothing is showing/not really NSFW but I’ve put it under a spoiler just in case.) It’s just two anthro ladies spending time together on a beach. It’s suggestive more than anything but it may not be every work place or families cup of tea if you aren’t in a private space. Hover over for a slightly less blurred view. Click to view clearly.
SO. I’m working through my queue, educating myself on some world stuff I was sorely under educated on, trying to keep tabs on my friends and family and just generally trying to remain positive. It’s been tough to keep focused but i’m doing my best to push through.
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This is stunningly gorgeous!!! Holy moly! 
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Welcome to the forum @Rich_Nairn! I’m so glad you’ve found yourself here. I love the positivity and glass half full mentality! I’d love to see a sneak peak of your pandemic cartoon journal! If you keep up with the journal post-COVID, what will your cartoon be about?
Love, love, love the colors in this piece! Thank you so much for sharing 
I’m happy to hear you’re using the extra time on your hands to invest in the things you’re passionate about. Keep us posted on projects you’re working on! If you need help or inspiration, this community is an amazing place to gather for inspo and help 
I always love how vibrant and colorful your work is @Temrin. It’s tough to accept a “new normal” but I admire your dedication to your loved ones and your work! <3
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To be honest, I struggled in the beginning of this pandemic era. I didn’t really know what to do about my “art” because I had my first expo and COVID happened, so it wasn’t an amazing experience. I dropped a lot of what I was doing and after therapy got back on this little by little. I decided to launch my Patreon page but I’m just figuring it out as I go. I’ve been playing around on photoshop with some photos for my friends and it’s gone good. I’m king of playing and enjoying this new phase I’m working on about my art. I’m even trying to dare myself to head a little into illustrations, but still scared of the journey.
I’m working on some other manipulations that friends have asked me to do for them, so it’s been interesting how this is happening for me. I haven’t been able to have photoshoots in over 3 months now, but I’m glad this came into my life. 
I hope you like my work!
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Thank you so much Reyna! 
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Your works are lovely ;; omg
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You are more than welcome!
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Thank you so much for sharing! It’s hard to adjust for the unexpected but this composite is gorgeous 
every element cut out is so smooth and I love the colors. I’m so happy you’re finding exciting opportunities in this time. If you create more art like this I’d love to see it!
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I seem to have decided I am gonna spend this month getting all my ducks in a row to launch a Kickstarter for the second edition of my Tarot deck. I have a list of some local printers I want to talk to, and a second draft of an e-mail laying out the specs of the project. I was hoping to send it out today but laundry happened instead. Maybe tonight before bed?
There’s a few revised images and a little re-working to do on the book, but artistically it’s largely gonna be a matter of “pull out a bunch of source files from 2007-2010, maybe slightly reformat them, hand to printer, work through the hell that is shipping”. Also of course “whip that KS draft that’s been sitting around since 2018 into shape”. Probably even record a video pitching the thing. Maybe doing that will finally get me to dye my hair again for the first time since late 2018.
I never really consciously said it was time to do this. I just found myself impulsively making a post on the New Orleans subreddit looking for art printer recommendations, and then I got someone e-mailing me to ask about a reprint every day for the next few days. Including a store in the UK that wishes they could get like forty from me at wholesale prices. It’s been out of print since like 2018 and I just had no energy to do another KS back then, I guess now I’m ready as long as I don’t have to manage another international supply chain.
And maybe once that’s dealt with I’ll be interested in thinking about attending cons again after the ‘rona is over. I could always rely on selling 3-6 decks at almost any decent-sized con I went to with very little work, and that helped me break even a lot faster than trying to sell people on my crazy comics!
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<3 Thank you so much!!
Wow! That sounds super interesting!!! I totally understand your point on how this time helped a lot to pick up things that were lost through the years. Best of luck on your tarot!! I’m still gonna take time to create mine but that’s been on my mind for over half a year, I’m gonna leave here a sample of what I’ve been kind of working on my own. 
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Thanks Reyna!! In fact, I just released something for my patreons (I’ll have some soon 
). I’m still figuring out how this works, reading posts, forums, tutorials, checking out some videos on how artists begin with this platform, etc. Well, here it is:
I’m also doing something special for patreons, so hopefully I’ll start seeing some results!! 
Here’s the post if you’re interested. https://www.patreon.com/posts/july-hd-2-39053958
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OMG you’ve been working a lot!! This looks like totally worked out perfectly for you. Congratulations on all that you’re achieving!! 
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Oh dude, I think Dee is our mutual friend! Small world.
LOVE your 80’s throwback, gives me warm fuzzies. 
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Temrin that unicorn is gorgeouuuusss
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Aaah thank you so much, Kate! The stickers should be arriving any day now and I’m so excited!
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She is! She’s actually a really close friend, and we are friends to this day. 
Aww, thank you so much, I’m so glad the work made you feel that way! That is exactly what I was going for. 
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so i germany we had the covid 19 pandemi well in control. But for me as a people photographer the month between march and the mid of june were very hard. I had no photoshootings because of covid 19. But things getting better and better here in germany so i am happy to had my first few shootings again. Stay healthy!
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