Today I was reminded of God's grace and sovereignty. I've been hoping to join a church for some time now, but had put it off due to, well, being afraid. I didn't know if it would work out, but every Sunday I put it off weighed on me until I finally committed, and things turned out better than I anticipated. All that fretting and things just... work out? Through strange "coincidences" no less? Even in my weak faith the LORD carries us through.
I'm excited for what the future and fellowship with other Christians will bring. Though at the same time I'm still uncertain. I guess it's a slight fear of the unknown. New experiences and all that. But I think this is a good thing for my family and I that we may grow and strengthen in our faith and be more active members of the body of Christ.
Praise the LORD for pushing me towards doing the right thing, for the good advice and encouragement both direct and indirect from fellow Christians on the web, and for the mysterious ways He has worked behind the scenes to bring this about. I pray that He helps me let go of my doubts and fears so that I may better put my trust in Him.
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In other news, I've been trying to get back into studying animation. It's a litle slow going due to my poor time management habits, so I'll definitely need to really commit. I know that I can do really cool stuff, but I need to get past the mental barriers that prevent me from really committing. I overthink how much time and effort things take and end up doing nothing at all. It's part of why my only recent animations have been part of the Cake Station Animation Contests/Challenges. The deadline forces me to stop thinking so much, but I really need to be able to slow down a bit so I can sharpen certain animation principles without the pressure of a deadline. I need to work on overcoming that silly mental block.
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I've recently posted a new Youtube Video that's a compilation of my old works that I posted under the handle "DrakeTheYoshi". Due to personal reasons I had nuked the old accounts under that name, but on a whim I figured I might as well restore some of my past on the web. Reason being? It's important to remember where we come from. Not only does it help us realize how far we've come, but it also shows others that they can go far too. Everyone starts from somewhere, y'know? Also nostalgia I guess. I kinda miss the old recolor OC days.
Which reminds me that I should keep up on my Odysee posts. I'm not super keen on using Odysee since it's a bit unfamiliar and unconventional in its functioning, but it seems worth supporting given that it can actually be an alternative to Youtube, y'know?
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As for personal projects, I'm narrowing down the plot of Yokai City and Starfaring Strangers. Both are the culmination of ideas I've had for a while, but Starfaring Strangers in particular suffered from having way too large of a scope. I think starting with a less broad premise, at least for the beginning, will help me not explode from worldbuilding overload. I'm still coming up with new ideas for both of them, but a plot is beginning to take shape.
Question is... how am I going to execute these ideas? I had animation in mind, but realistically speaking that'd be a lot of work for even just one of them. I could do a web-comic, but I still want to animate these characters and stories, soooooo I guess I'll just do a webcomic/animation hybrid? It's been done before I'm pretty sure. Can use animation to accentuate some ideas and scenes while using the webcomic format to tell the bulk of the story.
It'll still be a lot of work, but maybe something that one person could feasibly manage... maybe. Idk, might have to consider the possibility of working with other people at some point, but I should be able to at least get things off the ground first. I gotta have at least that much self-discipline lol.
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Lastly, as a bit of musing to myself, I should definitely try to get more overall practice in with art. I've been really focused lately on character design and illustration that I'm kinda neglecting everything else. If I'm going to pull off any of my projects I'm going to need a diverse skillset. Plus it's just more fun that way lol. I like being able to do a lot of things. I've also been thinking of getting a bit more into pixel art, maybe even spriting some Mario and Sonic fancharacters I have in mind. Of course I have ideas for fan-stories n' what not, but I'm not entirely certain how much I ought to commit to them lol.
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Anywho, that was my thought-dump/update, thank you for reading and I'll see you on the flipside.