Well, last year I drew Gale again at the end of the year, and this year, I'm going to do some art comparisons from the Amalgams before I started my art book and a fifteen minute sketch I just did of them, because.

Have some doodles from the beginning of ninth grade: 

feat. yaoi hands, terrible paper, and "the amalgams still look like one or two of their components" disease. I call it a disease because it is one.

In comparison: 

And there are my girls. I think human design was the one area where I made substantial improvements this year, so naturally, it's the best to show off. I absolutely adore these two, and I want to write the Amalgam book so badly... of course, as you all know, I'm pretty darn busy with my current projects. 

More past amalgams for kicks (compare to literally any other time I draw them in this book): 

Kali was originally called Chrona and was an even more blatant Sans rip off. Also, the heart thing is a soul because.

Amalgams.

Undertale. 

For another comparison, though, I'd also like to present Avery from SEVENTH GRADE versus the picture I did for the beginning of 2017, which I've posted here for reference. I was incredibly proud of this at the time, so knowing how far I've come since is a big accomplishment.

Especially with the limbs. Noodle Avery needs surgery. 

If you try, you are not guaranteed to succeed.

If you do not try, you are guaranteed to fail.

This has been a year of extraordinary triumph and extraordinary failure for me. I wouldn't call it a good year. It would be hard to, when I spent good portions of it absolutely miserable. I wouldn't call it a good year for my art, either, because this is the year I gave up chasing IB Art and with junior year coming up I'll likely continue to fall behind my peers.

But it was a necessary year. With the worldview I had coming into it, it was a year that was basically destined to happen. Of course things weren't going to hold the way I had set them into place then. They didn't.

Regardless, this was the year I made Deja Vu, the year I made Roses and Thorns, and the year I really figured out human character design. It was their year, and with all of you and my characters, it was a year worth experiencing.

Here's to more half-fulfilled dreams and expectations, long stories, and hopefully better anatomy, because seriously, someone save their legs up there. Rest in peace the ninth grade amalgams. You kind of tried.