There are definitely phases where this blog is kept much more active than at others, huh? They correspond to a few things - how much I'm writing, how excited I am about writing, how busy I am in other parts of my life, my mood and energy - and that means that the fluctuations aren't easy to predict. I could be low on inspiration to write but high on time and energy and able to put out a lot of content; I could be free on time but low on energy or interest in things adjacent to writing; I could be super busy but inspired enough to write up posts on commutes and while making dinner. But the combination for the past two months or so has been a scarcity of time, energy, and inspiration - I've not been writing much, I've not been drawing at all, and I haven't even really been able to keep up with the promo for the publication of Sylv Vol II, which is a huge shame, because I am genuinely still super invested in him.
Like I predicted, it's been weird... losing Sylv. I knew the saying goodbye would be gradual and yet take me by surprise, that I would look up one day and realise I had lost contact with him some time ago, and I can already feel it happening. It's happened before, but that's always been with the promise that I would find him again - I would have to, because I was going to finish that damn novel whether he or I liked it or not. But Sylv is finished, never and no more, and while I'll keep drawing on him a little over the next few years to promote the books and produce art, and while he'll always have made an impact on my life... there's no immediate goodbye. But I know he's fading. It's hard.
I moved up to full-time at my job administering behavioural therapy to children with learning disabilities at the end of March, which has definitely been a kick to the energy and time fronts. I'm also in a relationship again, which is great but means that I have another priority to balance against the all-day drawing/writing/editing sprees you can do as a single person who lives alone. Oh, and I passed my RBT qualification but still have to do a two-year, 1000-hour apprenticeship on top of my work, and now that the pools are open I go swimming 2-3 times a week, so it's like, aaaAAaaAaaaaa y'know?
No, seriously, I get up at 6am for work and one day a week I go for a swim before that. Like, what the f*ck? I'm functioning? Phenomenal. No time or energy to spend 40 hours on a painting or write a 150,000 word novel tho.
Because of these things, I took a writing break for a while, though for the past two weeks or so I've felt it slowly coming back, and I've been scraping out the time to dedicate to what I think can soon be announced as the next official novel.
In the meantime, I've been channeling my creative energy into the D&D campaign I run, and some practical projects that I figured I'd also share!
[Image ID: a photograph of a narrow corner wall with a notice board and a whiteboard just visible on the surrounding walls. All of the walls are painted white, but the narrow wall has one red stripe painted down the far left, and a thick orange stripe surrounded by masking tape next to it. End ID]
[Image ID: a close photo of the same wall. The orange stripe has a yellow stripe next to it, and a hand holding a brush and a small pot of paint is in the process of painting a green stripe over masking tape next to that. End ID]
[Image ID: another photo of the same wall, now showing a stepladder with a large pot of paint on the ground next to it, as well as a leather satchel and a box of toiletries on a side table. The wall now has red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple stripes in a rainbow painted on it, however the green, blue, and purple are messy and chipped and overlapping. End ID]
[Image ID: another close photo of the hand holding the paintbrush, this time tidying the border between the yellow and green stripes. End ID]
[Image ID: a photo of the completed rainbow wall. The lines are all tidied and bright. The stepladder and whiteboard are just visible, and fully in view is also the noticeboard and three small framed pictures. End ID]
This whole thing took about a month, doing one coat of a new colour every 3-5 days. It only cost like £9 using tester pots from Wilko and some brushes I already had, and it was a pain in the ass to actually pull off. But! It makes me very happy every day and I am extremely proud of it. I learned from this that regular tape does not work like masking tape and masking tape will still rip off the paint underneath and you'll have to re-paint the edges every f*cking layer. Also straight lines are for straights.
I've also been doing these:
[Image ID: a photograph of a window box planter laid on its side on some sheets of kitchen roll on a wooden floor. In the background is visible a pair of black and white trainers. The planter has a red tulip, a cat coloured like a rainbow with its paw in the air, and a sunflower painted on it. End ID]
[Image ID: a photograph of another planter like the first on the same floor on kitchen roll. In the background are some loose cables. This one is painted with Blathers from Animal Crossing, a brown cartoon owl with a plaid chest and a green bow tie, and Wisp from Animal Crossing, a large round blue-white ghost with a silver crown and a wide brown smile. End ID]
[Image ID: a photo of the second planter being painted by Tatiana AS Webb, a white person with dark brown hair and glasses, wearing a black t-shirt, kneeling over the planter holding a paintbrush. In addition to Blathers and Wisp, the planter now has a silver watering can painted on it. Visible in the foreground is a table with some lip balm and a glass of water, on the floor is a cat toy, and in the background is a bag of compost, a box with some folders and a blanket in it, and a snake tank resting on a cabinet. End ID]
These were a lot of fun! I love working in acrylic but I haven't been able to afford traditional art supplies since I bought my graphics tablet a few years ago, and slowly I've shifted exclusively into digital as my years-old boxes of pro-markers, Indian ink, and watercolour pencils have run out.
We live in a nice but fairly plain block of flats surrounded by other identical blocks of flats, and a lot of them have fairy lights and window boxes - I wanted to be able to contribute to brightening the community in the same way! The first planter has bee-friendly wildflower seeds in it that we sowed about a month ago and that have just begun sprouting, and the second has pansy and dwarf sunflower seeds that we sowed a few days ago. It's one of those good good feelings to see them every time I leave and come home.
So I think that's about all I've got for now! Nothing huge planned for the near future, but remember to follow Sylvestus on Facebook if you haven't already, and buy your paperback copy of Sylvestus Vol II: The Rise exclusively at bit.ly/SylvVol2, or as an ebook by searching for "Sylvestus" in any ebook store!
Have a good half-term, folks. Summer is on its way.
