First of all I want to apologize for having been gone so long, and I want to say thank you to everyone for the comments, favs, birthday wishes, and especially for the Daily Deviation!!! I never thought I would get one, so I was beyond thrilled!!!

As for where I've been... a couple months ago I hit a rough patch emotionally. I work full time, and for a while I was spending every evening and weekend staying up late and working feverishly on art- which made me feel pretty drained. I started to doubt myself, and negative thoughts started creeping in about my art- I wasn't good enough, I was never going to improve, I was wasting my time, I'd never be able to work professionally as an artist. I stopped drawing, because I was having so much anxiety about my art and I hated everything I did, but then that made me miserable because I missed drawing. It was like quicksand sucking me down.  I couldn't bear to even look at dA or Tumblr. I'm ashamed to admit it now, because it seems so silly looking back, but its hard to pull yourself out of that funk when you're going through it.

In November I participated in National Novel Writing Month, and it was awesome. I enjoy writing, but it usually takes second place to art. Doing something different really got my creative juices flowing again. Finally, I was starting to pull myself up out of the hole I'd been in, and I felt ready to try and draw again. I started by just doing studies, and it was such a relief to be drawing, I couldn't believe I'd stopped. I realized the pressure I put on myself was killing the love I have for creating art.  I can't have this attitude that the world is going to end if I'm not perfect. It's hard to totally let go of the anxiety and doubt, but I'm trying.

Now I'm starting to feel really motivated again, with lots of projects and ideas filling up my head. I want to try and start selling prints, I want to write and illustrate a book and maybe even start a Kickstarter. I want to stay positive about my work. I'm really embarrased that I let negativity bring me down the way it did, but I know I'm not the only one it happens to. That's why I made this post- because when I'm feeling low I know it helps to see other people admit to going through the same things I do.

Now that I've gotten all that out, back to some art! I've got some stuff I'll be posting as soon as I get time! I'm so behind on comments and messages and things I won't be able to respond to everyone, so again- a million thank you's!!!!!