2024: a retrospective
Last year was a funny one for me; I started the year the sickest I had ever been, following on from a rough 2023 and feeling the worst I had ever felt, and my mood was incredibly low. Then, poof, sometime around March, I said ‘fuck it’ and worked through the pain. I don’t recommend this for everyone, I don’t, even for past me, but for everyone who has dealt with long-term ill health, you get sick of it (pun semi-intended). No matter what, you have to do something, anything. It’s like cabin fever for the body and mind. So I began tackling aspects of my life that I had put on the back burner for years: I partially worked on fixing up my house, getting a better sleep schedule, writing poetry, and being generally creative again.
After years, I regularly began to draw again in my sketchbook, rediscovering my love of character design I had missed. It was a stumbling start that felt longer than expected. I had to remind myself of the skills I had learned years ago and peruse about a billion tutorials and progress posts to see new techniques and apply them myself. I started projects and experimented with new mediums like gouache, clay and crochet. It was fun to explore and just be, not focusing on the result but on how creating made me feel (wow, that sounds pompous, though it is, honestly, how I feel). I also told myself that I don’t have to share everything I do unless I want to, when I felt ready. An algorithm wasn’t going to dictate my output. It would also allow me to get used to my posting anxiety (with mixed results; it’s a learning curve).
Now, it wasn’t easy. I had several months where it was just impossible to do anything. Ill health can be like that, so you have to grab the small reprieves when you can, and while things are better now into 2025, with a shiny walking stick to accompany me now, last year felt like a good start. Going into this year, I want to finish what I started last year and delve headfirst into the more long-term projects I have planned. I also joined a local artist workshop and have a lot of new equipment I can experiment with, which will be fun.
So this year will be busy, but last year helped me in reminding me to get stuck in and that even if things take longer, just enjoy whatever you can. There is so much stuff to get you down in this world that it’s vital to carve out your own space however it suits you, as that will get you through even the worst of pains.
This work is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
