I had a long day at work today, even though it’s already Friday. Sometimes, I feel like this day of the week is one of the most hectic, aside from Monday, because everyone is trying to catch up and achieve their weekly goals. People are rushing to include all their accomplishments in their reports, hoping to receive positive feedback from their superiors or boss. This may not be true for everyone, but it certainly feels that way for me and many others in full-time jobs.
That’s why I try to use my lunch break efficiently, to make progress not only on work but also on my #zingtober entries and my goals for my Hive journey. Depending on how you look at it, many of us on this platform set personal goals to measure our growth and improvements. It has become a regular part of our journey to track our progress and see how close we are to reaching those goals. Recently, I achieved 10k HP, which I had originally planned to reach by the end of this year, but I’m happy to have achieved it ahead of my target.
However, I don’t want to celebrate too soon, so I’ve set another goal to reach 15k HP by the end of the year. I believe it’s something I can achieve, or at least come close to, if I continue to make the most of my free time and dedicate it to creating content.
A big factor in my growth on the platform has been the rewards from communities like Holozing. In addition to growing my stake, I’ve set personal goals to improve my art skills, and this community has been a great source of motivation. Creating fan art for the community has helped me develop as an artist.
#Zingtober has allowed me to set a daily goal of creating artwork. I realized that using my free time for something valuable, like honing my skills, would be a wise choice. While the rewards I receive are great, the improvement in my skills is even more valuable because I see it as an investment in myself.
For my entry, I created a piece based on the prompt "nomadic." It's a prompt that can be interpreted in many ways, and this is my take on it.
I would describe him as a modern nomadic healer, and with him is Miu! He's always on the move, traveling by foot or skateboard, which comes in handy.
The straw hat is something I added, inspired by one of my favorite anime, Rurouni Kenshin. There was a time in Kenshin's life when he was a wandering, or nomadic, swordsman. His hat, called a Roningasa, was a notable part of his attire. This traditional conical hat was worn by ronin during the old days, offering protection from both the sun and rain.
The process of creating this artwork was quite simple this time. Instead of using cross-hatching for shading, I applied two shades of grey to achieve the depth and shadow effect I wanted for this piece.
| WIP 1 | WIP 2 | WIP 3 |
|---|---|---|
 |  |  |
I feel like it works just as well as the cross-hatching technique, but it takes less time. This method is perfect for when I don’t have much free time to spare.
Once again, here's the final result!
Overall, I’m happy with how this piece turned out, especially given the time constraints. Exploring different techniques has helped me grow as an artist while staying on track with my creative goals. I look forward to continuing this journey and sharing more of my progress with all of you.
