We're a couple days out from Art Fight having ended, and a lot happening in the Caby household (for one thing, preparing to fly back hopefully successfully this time) has kept me from sitting down and recapping it. I'm currently on a Great Western Railway train to Swansea to finish raiding the HMV there, as Caby and I got kicked out when it closed for the night the day we visited together, so let's take some time to chat about how it went.
Now, I didn't partake last year, and truth be told, the Art Fight I did last partake in in 2024 was the reason I lost my mojo for so long. Even discarding the Goldie thing, I was just exhausted afterwards, doubly so given it was a time of shaky employment for me, working at a different grocery store where everyone was just absolutely miserable. I didn't last much longer than Art Fight 2024 there, really, but after the event ended, I still found myself not much wanting to draw. It was a really good learning experience with some pieces I am proud of, but on the whole, I'm not surprised I didn't do 2025.
I was hesitant to partake this year also, for social reasons again, but different ones. Art Fight attracts strife. What do you expect? It's all terminally online (and frighteningly younger than you realize, like half-my-age-at-27-in-some-cases younger) art people who seem to treat each other and the mods of the site with extreme distrust. It just didn't seem like there was much magic in it anymore, not like back when Caby was putting my OCs up on her account, and I was still nervous about drawing for strangers and even more recent mutuals. Plus, I've been having to leech off Caby's tablet when she's not using it—a spare Intuos 1 kindly mailed to me wound up not being my jam, least not used hanging off a bed.
But then it started! Granted, a menty b and a bit of liquid courage was needed to actually get me started, but then I drew a little something for a new friend and posted it and the rest was all uphill, massively massively uphill. After that first attack, I had this new wave of confidence, day after day, and it didn't feel like anything but drawing things I was proud of mattered. I also had a rather fortunate accident of experimentation—I swapped my lining brush for one with much better thickness variation, and all of a sudden, I was drawing bigger and my art looked ten times better! I could use the magic wand for the color mask instead of outlining it by hand. It felt like cheating.
I knew I had to get out of my head and come up with a working method that would keep me going through the event, so I started timing my sketches, limiting them to a half hour if possible (and it often was) to keep me loose and keep things moving. (My record was two hours from scratch to finished piece! A couple attacks took less than a day in all!) I also took a step back to note what all was working and how I was thinking at each stage so I could (hopefully) avoid the post-Art Fight slump and start drawing things as nice as the attacks I sent out for my own OCs. The whole thing, rather than leave me tired afterwards, left me empowered. The way I work and what I can do makes sense to me. None of it feels like an accident.
I did find through this Art Fight also that I don't care for how my drawings look colored but unshaded, so I threw some shading on this one quick after the fact. Much better.
In total, I did nine attacks—I'd aimed for ten, but you know how that last 48 hours goes. (I'll get them next year!) This includes a six attack chain between me and Caby that fulfilled an art trade we meant to do in June (I mean it, we'll do 'em monthly from now on!) and a redraw of an almost-three year old Bunny she was using as a lock screen background, one I was very very happy to see redone and replaced (and another that was done in less than a day, aside from the sketch being done two days prior).
Obviously not the Bunny, but another for Caby!
I also got my usual mutuals, Nasiloo, Olaxis (good lads!), now Wolfie, and in a little art trade that made me literally giddy, I drew a pine marten OC for someone whose art I've liked for a long time and who actually followed me back before the event (!), and he drew me a Cammy in return! Actually delightful to see your lads in the styles you're fond of...
A whimsical Cammy as drawn by uyukat! Thanks again!
That's my only letdown about this year, that I couldn't attack more people whose stuff I'm fond of! I'm not as in it for defenses as I felt I was back in 2024 (though believe me, they were basically all great this year, thank all of you, friends and strangers)—my goal was just to challenge myself with props and poses and species and to optimize my art workflow, and I did! I'm honestly quite proud I managed what I did, again, being away from my normal art setup in another country with everything, leisure and travel, flight fuckery, Cookie Clicker, all up in the air, but it really makes me look forward to next year where I can really get into a groove and maybe pull out double digit attacks. I'll only be faster and more confident, and it's always nice to make more mutuals and art friends.
My pink kitty Prince as drawn by Wolfie! Still love the texture on this one too, just all around wonderful.
I expect to put together an Art Fight gallery (for 2024 and 2026) on /art/ on mari.somnol when I get home, seeing as all attacks and profiles are annoyingly account gated on the site. If you do have an account though, here's my page! Follow me! Let's be mutuals! Hopefully see you next year and maybe we too can get some revenge chains going. For now, I'm just proud I got my confidence about art and about the event back. That was the real reward (well, and all my defenses—including the absolutely adorable Cammy Caby drew me! Which is now my lock screen background...)
aaaaa still one of my favorites, thanku Caby <3
