Learning to handle the stress

I´ve not been a lot active in my social networks during the last weeks.  Even when i tried hard, strong headaches, weakness, lack of sleep (my body was slept but my mind kept running like a hamster in the cage during nights) and a blue mood didn´t let me to continue my normal routine and put me in some kind of art block mixed with a need of being retired and alone.

In a point, i could recognize some of this issues that i felt before, once when i suffered of burnout syndrome.

We are living a hard moment in my country and even when the art and music help me a lot to keep my mind busy, I'm not exempt of the same troubles that the majority of us have to handle in the day to day: lack of cash, troubles with transportation, worries about the food and a large list that is not necessary to mention.

So, i had to call myself to keep centered.  To feel anguished, worried and stressed is not going to resolve it and by the opposite, it could lead me to be sick and the troubles would be the double.

First thing i did was stopping to see news for a day.  No news, no Twitter.  Just funny memes in Facebook! I laughed hard every time i saw one very funny.

Second thing i did was meditate.  My head was so confused.  The internal dialogue was so intense and that i could not stay focused in anything.  I searched some guided meditations and did my best effort to follow it the first day.  At the end of that day i was feeling in better mood and the headaches stopped.

Next day, i did my vision board.  I put in a board photos of Japan, my favorite J-Rock bands i want to watch in a live, motivational phrases and things i want to accomplished and put it in my desk, so every time i  sit in my desk to begin to draw, i see them and i feel the happiness to have goals that i want to work for it.

I kept adding other things to my activities as listen positive and motivational podcasts and my favorite music to shift my energy when i begin to feel down.

This week i´ve felt in better mood!  My creativity returned, my passion and love for paint is burning inside of me again and i have a lot ideas i want to work on them!

I learned that if we do not take control of our emotions and the way we respond to external stimulus quickly, those are going to control and destroy us slowly.

I wish all of you that are feeling the same emotions i felt for the same reasons, could find the inner strength and guidance to control them.

Keep positive, keep strong! Have a good day, night, morning!

P.S.1 A sketch i did of one of my favorite characters of Dragon Ball, Trunks, in semi realism will be available in my Secret Blog.  Supporters in Ko-fi will get the link to access it! I wish you like it! :D


P.S.2  I am running late with all the projects so please, be patience!  I will be updating the stories soon! ;)

FanArt - Mode Activated! XD

I`m feeling nostalgic about old school anime series, so i decided to do a fanart of one of those series i loved a lot:  Captain Future.

I expect i can complete it tonight if my back let me stay sit a couple of more hours XD

Practicing semi realism

I´ve drawn him like chibi, but i never had the courage to try to do it...until now.  His jacket was a never ending task, but i had a lot of fun!!   Sometimes i think i should try to do that kind of laces with a Photoshop brush, but i had a lot of fun trying to interpretate them.

For those that not know him, he is ZIN, vocalist of the j-rock band Jupiter.



Sketch done with gridline technique.
Color:  Easy Paint Tool Sai
Signature:  Photoshop CS3

Talking about characters....

Today, i was returning home listening music, when suddenly one song inspired me one scene.  It was very clear like if i was watching it in a big screen in front of me, so i began to type every single detail.  I tried not to lose any word that they were talking about it. Then, i realized i was almost crying with the scene, so i had to take a deep breath to avoid to cry  in front of my job partners XD

This is something that happens to me frequently, not only during the process to make dialogues but when i`m drawing the pages.  I need to feel the emotions of every character to put them on paper or the computer screen :P

I´ve asked to other artists if something similar happens to them during their creative process and some of then answer affirmative while others say they never had experienced something like that.

It`s nice to empathize with your characters.  It makes you feel you can really understand them, even if they are the good or bad boys, reflect their own feelings, not yours, but it can be a very exhausting experience.

It`s like if you are an instrument through they want to express themselves.  In my case, some of them like Kyrsiel is like is he who is taking decisions even in the mapping of the scenes! No matter how much i try to do an scene how i want, he will always find a way to do the scene fit to his desire XD

And if i am sincere, i love to see how they manage at the end to tell their own stories and not the one i want to tell  ^^