Been sitting on these thoughts for a few days now and i think it's time to share them. I've been doing relatively fine I guess, but my own personal responsibilities/routines keep getting in the way.

Based on some thoughts i've had the past couple of months I think it's time to just take another break again, as in "I need time to get myself together again" and not "I've forgotten about drawing for a while" type of deal.

I'd like to refrain from posting/being active on social media. The way i structure my uploads/categorize my work feels stiff and drawing just to post feels like bad motivation for me. It's really been like that for a long time- social media showed me a bunch of cool people making cool drawings doing cool things, and I thought, maybe if I followed that, I would get the same attention.

long story short, I was not prepared to set aside time for drawing, being diligent enough to put time into my work, to learn from my work, to know about the business side of drawing for money, the risk of self-doubt and self-burnout...! From my own experience and that of the people i've followed. Even when i started making these announcements/journals shortly after rebranding to half-an-ox, it did little to shed my inabilities.

going to a wider point of view, my internet use/computer/smart device has been throughout my waking life. A constant "escape" in just about all parts of my life. I've never felt what else life had to offer me, whether i was rightfully reluctant to engage with or not.

Even with the few connections I made online I have been relatively really bad at maintaining/being aware of them and it only served to exacerbate my solitary character and leave it for dead. I don't want to have to do any of that.

This isn't a departure-rebrand from "half-an-ox", but working to be a more proactive/organized person behind the name. However long it takes it'll involve putting myself first in creative work before any other audience, and I'll give myself more focus on other priorities. speaking of which...

All "announcements" I make from then on will be situated on a blog i'd like to start up. It's mostly general/multi-subject but I think that would help in reflecting on drawing rather than sparsely detailed updates on what I put out, the former which i have more interest in anyway.

much thank you to those that've took note of my work after all my time spent.

here's to coming back better.

-half an ox

it's safe to say that my dailies have ground to a halt for now; i couldn't even handle the increasing pressure to stake out an hour's worth of drawing as of late. i took a break and now i'm in the middle of reordering things. Why not finish them up in the meantime as well?

me doing something with stellarossa still pending, as well as other drawing-related stuff i planned to do.

going to be focused these coming weeks because i'm more tired of before of not setting goals for myself. don't want to say exactly what other plans i have but i'll put a pin that and come back a month from now.

-lemon/half-an-ox

been keeping my head down still looking for a local job. in the meantime i've dedicated myself to some "dailies" on csp- drawing on there for an hour minimum. How i showcase them is up to me, though i might show off consecutive days' worth of drawings together.

it's honestly the most refreshing experience i've had with drawing in a while, just mashing new prompts/ideas together for a day regardless if they even look remotely finished or not.

will try to put aside work for character sheets, as well as other projects.

been meaning to make a new iteration for stellarossa's sheet recently, then it's onto new characters. for sure.

-lemon/half an ox

I can't pretend to know what I'm doing writing these out. I'm not really talkative and a bunch of things grab my attention. I currently don't have any monetization plans either. even the drawing projects i write out tend to be forgotten or delayed by my own confidence/skill/life things.

making drawings/art generally though, i have a good time making them even if whatever i share is limited. 

gonna make a commitment to change that around this coming year so i can improve on my shortcomings and the types of things i draw.

at least this year's start was a kick in the right direction. rebranding felt good, too.

will touch up several individual projects before working on some overdue sets/OC work.

hopefully i won't be uncomfortable writing another one of these next time.

thanks for watching whoever you are/were. 

see you next year. 

PS: got to working on 2023's archive gallery and will be presenting around first of half of january.

-lemon/half an ox

hi. i'm currently looking at jobs still/spending time with video games. i've been drawing here and there, mostly just personal items.

lately i've put this to thought, and i have now decided to ditch any borderline/mature spicy content on this profile for my personal safety. i hope the few of you that followed for that understand.

otherwise, i think i've been away long enough to engineer some new posts for this account. i hope you enjoy what i come up with, beginning with a couple of small sets i've been sitting on for a while.
thanks for being around.

-lemon/half-an-ox

hi. this is lemon/half-an-ox, hope you all are doing fine. just thought i'd just give a small text update. i'm not too confident about communicating with my audience but i want to push myself more to update anyone following/looking at my drawings. 

    i hope you all have enjoyed my weekly bun/year of the rabbit drawings. i had been coming back from a hiatus with a previous account and thought i could do some quick simple character drawings to get me back in the swing of drawing/posting. 

    for now i'm winding things down a little while i work on other life priorities and fix my computer files. the next 'big' drawing-related assignments will most likely be OC work (another touch-up on stellarossa, one other oc) and a bit of composition-scene practice. maybe i'll pick up on planning out, working on another small series like weekly bun when the middle of summer hits. 

    also, i haven't had time to do lump links together but i have several other spaces where i'm active. i'll make a seperate post so you an see them.

    i'll leave it there for now, thanks for watching this space.

-lemon/half-an-ox