Well, it's been a long time.

What began as a small break in November 2021 (after Inktober) turned into an art drought about four months long, through Christmas and into this year. Unanticipated, and completely unwanted -- but, there it was. A whole lot of insecurities and old, unhelpful thought patterns reared their heads again. Add to the mix various IRL transitions and changes that were unrelated to art, but still influenced my life and state of mind.

So there I was, staring at an artist's block, unable to draw let alone sit down at the drawing table. And feeling a lot of angst about "did I make a mistake to take a break from art?", "why is it so hard to pick it up again?" and "is this block going to last for years, just like the last time?"

But a change came in mid-March. I'm not sure what unblocked me; I'm sure there were many contributing factors. One factor might've been making peace with not making art for now, and just enjoying that as a break. Another might've been calling this phase as what it is: a pause (albeit longer than expected), not a permanent end.

Well - the art hiatus that I mentioned in the last Art Dispatch has turned into something much longer. For various reasons (some RL circumstances, some consequences of my own actions), I haven’t been producing art of any significance since Inktober ended.

I will have to resume my art at some point – hopefully before the end of 2021 – and when that happens, the Dispatch will also resume. But for now, this blog is still on hiatus.

Thank you for following my Art Dispatch and my art progress all this time. See you on the other side!

Welcome to Vega’s weekly Art Dispatch, issue thirty-five.

I made it to the end of Inktober! What a challenging and fun ride it's been. It's also a good time to take a short hiatus.

Welcome to Vega’s weekly Art Dispatch, issue thirty-four.

Still October: still Inktober and Drawabox. I’ve now hit my stride for Inktober, while striving to maintain an open, exploratory mindset for those drawings.

Welcome to Vega’s weekly Art Dispatch, issue thirty-three.

How are we already halfway through October!? This will be a quick Dispatch, because it’s Inktober all month, all the time – with a bit of Drawabox on the side.

Welcome to Vega’s Art Dispatch, a look back at quarter 3, 2021.

It's time again to pause and look back at July to September. Here are Quarter 1 and Quarter 2's reviews.

Welcome to Vega’s weekly Art Dispatch, issue thirty-two.

I got quite busy with RL matters and didn’t publish a Dispatch last week. So here is another double issue.

Welcome to Vega’s weekly Art Dispatch, issue thirty-one.

I finished my digital painting of a bazaar stall, the most complicated and involved digital painting I've created to date. Through this I discovered the limits of my current digital painting process, and, for the first time in about a year, faced a loss of nerve and had to figure out how to overcome it. In all, this was a good learning experience!

Welcome to Vega’s weekly Art Dispatch, issue thirty.

This week I started delving further into the kind of environmental painting that I’ve wanted to do for a while. And boy, this is a dive into the deep end of composition and painting, and I’m still floundering around trying to reach the other side. But first, some fun studies to decompress.

Welcome to Vega’s weekly Art Dispatch, issue twenty-nine.

Last week () was an eventful one: I completed up my first ever paid commission work as a freelance illustrator. This week it was back to business as usual (the things I put on hold for commission work), and I wrapped up a number of projects in Drawabox and personal art. Commission work is stimulating and exciting, but once it's done, it sure feels good to go back to working on my own stuff!

Welcome to Vega’s weekly Art Dispatch, issue twenty-eight (and half).

This week’s Art Dispatch will be a short one. I have spent this whole week working on what is possibly my first paid gig as a freelance illustrator. It’s not completed yet, but it has been a wild and exciting ride so far, and I’ve learned a ton from this experience. I hope to post more about it later!

Welcome to Vega’s weekly Art Dispatch, issue twenty-eight.

Life got quite busy over the last fortnight, and by the time I got around to writing this Dispatch, it was halfway through this week. So you get a bumper two-week progress report this time!

Welcome to Vega’s weekly Art Dispatch, issue twenty-seven.

It’s been business as usual this week: I’ve resumed the Drawabox course for the month, while continuing to develop my digital workflow and get more comfortable in it. As for all that hinting in Dispatch #26.5… sorry to let you down, but it’s not yet time to post that art piece yet. When it happens, it happens!

Welcome to Vega’s weekly Art Dispatch, issue twenty-six point five.

Last week was entirely devoted on a fairly major piece of digital art that I won’t be showing yet. But creating that piece was a fantastic experience, and when it finally drops (hopefully in a few days), I’ll have lots to say about it in Dispatch No. 27.

Welcome to Vega’s weekly Art Dispatch, issue twenty-six.

Last week was a big week of art: I reconnected with an old friend who's now an art industry professional, finished a major digital art piece, and generally got more comfortable with the digital medium.

Welcome to Vega’s weekly Art Dispatch, issue 25.

Last weeks digital bird paintings were a watershed moment for my digital art. I spent this whole week doing more painting, building on what I discovered with those birds -- and I think I have a breakthrough.

Fun Art & Study Art, melding together

Welcome to Vega’s weekly Art Dispatch, issue twenty-four.

After experiencing significant project drop last week, I’m getting back into the groove of fun art again… sort of.

Welcome to Vega’s Art Dispatch, a look back at Q2, 2021.

July is here, so it's time to look back on Q2, 2021, and reflect on how I fared with art. Keeping a quarterly reflection is one of my Big Art Goals for this year. Check out my review of Q1 (Jan - March).

But first - a website update!

Welcome to Vega’s weekly Art Dispatch, issue twenty-three.

It’s the end of June and the Weekly Art Dispatch is back in publication! I’ve had a good rest from the newsletter, and now I’m ready to resume it for Q3, 2021.

Welcome to Vega’s weekly Art Dispatch, issue twenty-two.

Ah, this is going to be a short newsletter. This week has been somewhat unproductive regarding art – I’ve been preoccupied with non-art things, including playing , which was the recently released remaster of that iconic video game series. I continued with study art, and started some fun art pieces, but haven’t finished any of those unfortunately!

Welcome to Vega’s weekly Art Dispatch, issue twenty-one.

It's one of those weeks without any new discoveries or breakthroughs, just steady progress and consolidating what I learned last week.

Study Art

Welcome to Vega’s weekly Art Dispatch, issue twenty.

This Dispatch is a bit late as I've been AFK for a lot of this weekend. (Amongst other things, I spent all Sunday bouldering with a friend - it was a great deal of fun, but I am a great deal unfit. I'm still feeling the post-workout ache!)

Not as much art this week as I've been trying to juggle Drawabox homework with traditional drawing with digital art... but I made an important breakthrough!

Welcome to Vega’s weekly Art Dispatch, issue nineteen.

It’s the end of April, my first month of learning digital art (recorded from onward). How did I do?

Welcome to Vega’s weekly Art Dispatch, issue eighteen.

This week's art output was a bit haphazard as I tried to figure out a balance between learning digital art, while still creating "fun art" with my usual traditional sketches.

Welcome to Vega’s weekly Art Dispatch, issue seventeen.

This second week of digital art was more challenging than last week. I finished a great pencil drawing and made some mediocre digital drawings; started thinking of turning professional and was encouraged not to think too much about it yet; and tried to come to terms with all of it.

Welcome to Vega’s weekly Art Dispatch, issue sixteen.

At last. After waffling and putting it off for months, I finally dived into digital art: put aside all my traditional drawing and went in cold turkey for the entire week. What a grand adventure it's been, and still is!

I've never done any digital art because the learning curve seemed daunting, and it was just easier to stay in my comfort zone of traditional drawing. But now I'm taking my art life seriously, and in order to achieve my personal art goals and endgame, I can no longer avoid upskilling into digital.

Welcome to Vega’s Art Dispatch, a look back at Q1, 2021.

In Dispatch #5 I laid out my Big Art Goals for 2021; amongst other things, I said I'd write a reflection on my progress and accomplishments every quarter this year. Well, April is here, so it's time for the first Quarterly Art Dispatch.

Welcome to Vega’s weekly Art Dispatch, issue fifteen.

The continues, and my art series has already debuted there. Unfortunately I’ve been quite swamped this week so I’m still writing my reflection of the experience. I hope to post it within the next few days, before the exhibit closes on 2nd April.

Welcome to Vega’s weekly Art Dispatch, issue fourteen.

IN/BREAK, the Transept 2021 art exhibit, opened this weekend!

Welcome to Vega’s weekly Art Dispatch, issue thirteen.

First things first--

My work is appearing in an art exhibit!

Welcome to Vega’s weekly Art Dispatch, issue twelve.

The month of February is over, and I’ve finished both the Big Art Project and Figuary 2021. Much to celebrate!

Welcome to Vega’s weekly Art Dispatch, issue eleven.

Big Art Project and Figuary continues apace. And I bought a bunch of art instruction books!

Welcome to Vega’s weekly Art Dispatch, issue ten.

RL was quite busy this week, but somehow I managed to make progress on that Big Art Project, more-or-less keep up with Figuary 2021, and even draw a bunch of other stuff!

Welcome to Vega’s weekly Art Dispatch, issue nine.

Progress on my Big Art Project continues. I was quite worried last week that I wouldn’t be able to recover easily from the impostor syndrome – and while recovery wasn’t , it only took a few days before I could get back onto the art train. The last time impostor syndrome knocked me down, I took 2 months to get back up. So a few days down is definitely a win!

Welcome to Vega’s weekly Art Dispatch, issue eight.

Well - this was a most interesting and not too comfortable week, where I had to contend with more mind games threatening to derail my quest for an art life. Or is this just part and parcel of the quest itself?

Welcome to Vega’s weekly Art Dispatch, issue seven.

An announcement! My Weekly Art Dispatch can now be read in newsletter form. You can subscribe here with your email address, and receive issues in your inbox once a week.

For now, the newsletter version is identical to the blog posts, and you'll only receive the Dispatch, once a week. If you want to follow my blog in general, here is the RSS feed. Both are linked in the sidebar of my blog.

Welcome to Vega’s weekly Art Dispatch, issue six.

This week posed a few challenges where I learned to establish some new steps in my drawing process – and had to deal with more mind games.

Welcome to Vega’s weekly Art Dispatch, issue five.

Fun Art

I managed just one significant art piece this week: an original character (OC) that’s been with me for most of my life. Every few years I make an attempt to render him as I’ve imagined him, and every year he gets closer to that vision – until I look at the picture again after a few months and find mistakes everywhere. I’m quite pleased with this rendition, but how long will that last?

Welcome to Vega’s weekly Art Dispatch, issue four.

The first Weekly Art Dispatch of the new year. Blogging about my weekly art productivity has helped me stay accountable, and I’m enjoying it. Will I have 57 issues by the end of 2021? That is the plan, and my goal to shoot for!

Welcome to Vega’s weekly Art Dispatch, issue three.

Happy Christmas weekend.

My drawing life suffered a bit on account of Christmas, but I still finished some big pieces. And in the midst of creating art, I encountered an obstacle, which is the subject of a new section in the Dispatch...

Welcome to Vega’s weekly Art Dispatch, issue two.

Here goes my second Art Dispatch. Hooray!

Welcome to Vega’s weekly Art Dispatch, issue one - the inaugural volume!

I'm going to document my journey of improving my drawing and lifting my skill level out of self-taught, amateur doodler to something more purposeful and professional. I plan to send out this dispatch every weekend, as a showcase of what I'm learning and what I've produced.