A New Art Journey (aka: Why you have to pace yourself!)

Hello everyone! It's been a while since actually posted here for real.

I'm not going to go into the details too much on why I haven't been active, rather I'll just jump into how my art has been growing and developing in the time I was gone!
As you can see above, recently I got into animation!
I also stopped posting to Deviantart for the most part. I wasn't and still am not very comfortable with their new layout. It feels clunky and unintuitive.
Instead I've been posting my more refined works over on Artstation!
https://www.artstation.com/kittehfaye
I try to curate what I post on that site specifically since it is a more professional environment.
Since I stopped posting to Deviantart and only refined pieces end up on my Artstation, the bulk of my work is now displayed on my Instagram.
https://www.instagram.com/kittehfaye/
If you peruse my galleries, it will be apparent that I've been doing a lot in the time I was gone. But back to the topic I brought up before; Animation!

You see, animation is actually a more recent development in my art focus. I am once again in the thick of the 100 Day of Art event, and the piece above was the first piece I did for the event this year.
I've been too nervous in the past to try animation, not knowing what program to use, or how to get started. But then I discovered a free animation software called OpenToonz and decided to dive right in!
After I made that lovely Peony you see above, I was hooked!

I thought about animation day in and day out. I planned animations around whatever themes I could for the event. I even started animating on my phone! (the owl above was animated in Flipaclip on my phone!) I loved this new world I was discovering, and I started doing as much self study as I could. I studied how animals moved, how hair flowed, how balls bounced. I also started posting my own animations up on YouTube!

My skills were improving as I kept going. I was gaining confidence I didn't have before!
And then......I burnt out.
You see, I had never done all this before. And while I was loving every second of it, I didn't realize I was doing something that was using more creative resources. It's not just a picture, its moving! You have to draw multiple frames, adjust the timing, plan how one object flows into another. Review what you made, adjust things, play it back again, adjust some more. At the time I didn't feel the exhaustion since I was so excited. I was making things that moved! And they looked GOOD! People could recognize what the object were, were praising me on my newfound ability. But when you're riding a high like that, eventually you will come down. And I came down hard.
I was drawing a normal picture. Just an ink bust, nothing too complicated. I finished it, went to start my next piece, and realize I was tapped out. All my creative juices had gone towards animation so much so, that I had run myself dry. I stared at a blank sheet of paper and my mind refused to let me draw anymore. "I NEED A BREAK!" it cried!
So I stopped drawing for a couple days. I had to, honestly. My creative mind had nothing left at that point. I was sad and angry. I hadn't realized how hard I had been working myself. So reluctantly, I put animation to the side.
I have started drawing again though. I found something new that lets me be creative in a different way, but I'll save that for my next post! For now, I'm letting myself rest, I'm giving myself a small break using my new method of art. I still love animation deeply, and I want to dive back in when I feel like I can. But now I know to take it slow, to pace myself, to make sure I'm caring for the most important thing in my life; the ability to make art!

I hope you all enjoyed this post. I know it was a little scattered, but sometimes that's just how my mind works. I am an artist, after all!
I hope you'll all follow me on Instagram, Youtube, as well as my Twitter! https://twitter.com/KittehFaye
I'll see you all next time!