"A Hopeless Dream Chaser"
The new prices are now updated. New sizes are also now available, and prices have changed. I will be updating other parts of the website soon, so please look forward to that. The next page updated is the artworks section, some artwork will be taken down and new added.
another minor update: My power went down, so I will have to fix it. This might impede in me making updates momentarily. Will be back very soon.
Sorry about that.
This drawing I was planning on working on quite a while ago, but I never did get around to it. So here it is.
Since this is only a sneak peek I won’t talk too much about it till I post the finished piece. Aside from this I have some other projects I will be doing in tandem, hopefully I will be ok.
Till next time,
-XERO
Materials (used only for the restoration) – Copics: C1, C3, C5, C7, W1, W3, W5, W7, BV00, BV08, V09, V15, V17, E00, E29, E31, E33, E37, E49, R27, YR65, Y26, Y28, R00, R27, R29, R39, RV11, Y11, Y15, Y17, Y21, Y26, Y28, YR04, YG03, G24, 100, 0
Sakura Gellyroll – White
I got a bit busy so I wasn’t able to add any updates of this drawing up before today, sorry about that. It is finally going live! But before that I would like to give some back story to this drawing. This drawing was first done about a year ago, I think… sadly for some reason I didn’t put the date in the back. In any case, this is the first drawing to go through a new project that I am working on. Thinking about it, it doesn’t have a name yet does it (the project I mean)? After thinking about it, I will name it “The Restoration Project”. I will be restoring a lot of my old drawings since I just didn’t have the abilities to draw out the full potential of my art at the time. This will only be done on the drawings that actually have a potential of course, this is so I can limit the amount so that I can keep doing some new material.
Now, as for the drawing it self. I have been giving hints of me writing my own story. What I have not said yet is the name of the story. So this will be the first time I will be making this public. The name of the story will be named “Between Light and Darkness”. As of now, I plan on writing this story in three parts. But I do have ideas of what can come after. What does this have to do with this drawing? Well this is a scene inspired by my story using two of the characters that will be in it. The girl is named Ame Makenshi and the boy is named Obscurus Nube. I want to make the story a bit original, but like most stories this has to do with a guy who has feelings for a girl. This scene is of them in a Halloween party. Ame is getting a picture taken and Obscurus is caught in the background staring at her. I’m sure this has happened to most people at some point right? So what do you guys think? Does the drawing look better?
I will be updating the website pretty soon, sorry I had to take care of some things on my end before I could come back to finish the construction of the website. I will be adding some more artwork to the “gallery” and updating the “prices“. So I hope you guys look forward to that.
Anyway I want to do something a bit different. I have a lot of old artwork that is actually pretty good, but I need to color it in better and polish it over all. So I will be doing that with a couple of drawings. We will start with the one below. Since it is October I felt it fitting for the season (more on the drawing later).
Hope you guys look forward to it.
-XERO
I’m currently working on the first video of the new series of videos, but because of some life made delays it is taking a while. But it is going well. I want to add quite a bit of new elements that will make it more enjoyable to viewers so I want to make sure the long wait is actually worth it. But once things have been taken cared of, I plan on making videos on a weekly basis. So please look forward to that.
-XERO
Man, no matter how much I tried I was just not able to continue posting (finals and other things have been piling up quite badly, but I will be done this week). But that does not mean that I wasn’t thinking about what I should be doing. It’s obvious that many of my drawing videos have not being doing too great. Mainly of course because I have not maintained consistency which is of utmost importance, but also because I have not been doing what people actually want to see. It seems that for most videos, specially those with minor movements and whatnot need to have commentary to have people drawn in. Also this helps viewers have a connection to the creator. I knew this before of course, but I wanted to test out if I could break free from those restrictions. The end result was mixed, some got quite a few views while others were abysmal (which sucks because the drawing it self was rather good). Another reason was because of the background noise that would appear. So my original plan was to buy a good microphone, but that would take too long, and it wouldn’t be good to invest in something that would not guaranteed results. So I will be using my phone instead which surprisingly has a good microphone built in. And luckily there are plenty of freeware audio editing software to edit the recordings if needed. So when I finally come back, that will be what I will be doing with my videos from now on. Whatever the reasons I would like to apologize for disappearing yet again, I can’t control the outcome of events to come, but I will do my utmost to overcome them whatever they may be. Specially since summer vacation is finally here.
Now for my other plans… my main channel will now be taking requests again. I’d say I had enough time to draw what I liked, so it’s time to give back to others. One difference is that I’m thinking of giving the artwork away, but I have not thought out the specifics yet so more on that later. My other channel darkcloudxero.extended will be used to answer questions (that I do not do in my main channel) and talking about any other things regarding art or anything in general.
One third thing, I would like to create one third channel, this one will be used for myself mainly. If you have been following me lately, than you know that I really like Morning Musume … well sort of. What I really like is the time between 2007-2010, what I and many other fans of that time like to refer to as the Platinum Era. There I will be doing different types of videos regarding that specific formation. It’s kind of funny how 4 years have passed now, and I am still thinking about them nonstop. It’s crazy in a way. But that’s how influential they have been in my life so I will be supporting them for as long as I can. Specially now that that last remaining member of that Era Michishige Sayumi is leaving (and in a grand way might I add). The sad thing is that the Platinum Era is being blamed for their popularity drop even more so now that the current Morning Musume has gained a lot of popularity lately. So I will be giving my own opinions on that and everything else in the channel mentioned before.
On a side note, it has been raining nonstop where I live. Some people don’t seem to like the rain, but I love it. And now it has me in a nostalgic mood.
Till next time,
-XERO
For the past, maybe three years or so. I have been making Youtube videos of my drawings and the process that goes to make them. I felt that it was probably the best way to make my work be known and to make my self commit to drawing something weekly. At the time I was not really sure about my future and my self making art as a sustainable solution. I just wanted to test the waters and see if my art was good enough to attract the attention of people. What I found out was that it was really hard to compete against other youtubers who made all sorts of entertainment videos. Even more so going against other artists that had a large following and fan base like Mark Crilley. My over all results were hit or miss really.
At the beginning I took requests, and that seemed to make people get more exited to watch my videos and contribute ideas as well as comment and interact with the channel. That though meant that I would have to draw things that I didn’t really enjoy. But I went with it for about a year till my account was struck with penalties. That’s when I decided to open my secondary account that I still use to this day, Darkcloudxero. For a while I kept the same format and continued to ask for requests, but I noticed that my enthusiasm kept lowering as time went by. I eventually decided to stop taking request and focused on drawing things I liked, while also lessening the amount of video I uploaded. This in turn started to stunt the growth of my channel. Views started to dwindle, and so did comments. In the end the popularity of the video and drawing was hit or miss (many times the most unexpected one got more views).
The reason for why my videos did so poorly can be attributed on a number of things. I did not seem to put my utmost effort into my drawings when making videos (specially when taking some requests). I felt constrained to unpleasant static and stiff positions because of the camera (couldn’t move the sketch book too much or get close to the drawing otherwise I would block the view). Quality of the drawings was very inconsistent, some came out great while others just looked childish. Inconsistent uploading of videos, sometimes it took me a whole month in between videos. Drew things that were no longer in style (things or characters people no longer cared about). etc. etc.
Point is that I had to fix quite a bit of things. But I decided to give this part up, my work suffered a great deal because of it. And not only that, but it took a long time to draw something since I had to go by the time I was given by the battery. The time it took to charge was excruciating. Plus it also didn’t help that when I am drawing, I get in a zone where I just have to keep going without interruptions otherwise it just doesn’t feel right later on. So for the sake of producing better work, I decided to give up making videos and just focus on drawing and producing some awesome stuff.
Hope you look forward to it,
-XERO
I have been absent for a couple of weeks now (no, more like months). But that was all because I was working on some new projects that I hoped I would be able to implement to this website. Back in high school I didn’t really have much of a plan of what I really wanted to do. That of course created a lot of worry within me. I knew what I liked to do, I knew what I was really good at. But in the end I felt it might have been best to try and follow the steps of the many people around me. I seriously believed I had to be like everyone else to be successful. Thinking back, I wonder what had come over me. I was never one to be a follower, I always followed what I liked or believed was right. In the end though, it seems I lost sight of all of that with all the stress that accumulated at that time. I remember being asked if I would pursue a career using my artistic abilities, at that time I just thought it would be nothing but a dream. Something I could only wish for, but nothing more than that. I seriously did not believe I could survive in this world by doing what I loved. I was wrong.
After struggling in a job I did not enjoy for a couple of years and trying out others, I realized that what I wanted most was not impossible. I would have to struggle even more, I would go through many downfalls, I would feel lost a lot of the time, but it would all be worth it once I began creating things with my hand. It would be worth the struggle as long as there was a chance to accomplish my dreams of using my skills to go through life instead of crawling through it miserably. Though this path has a lot of hardships, this is something well worth doing. If I fail at least I gave it a shot and would not be tormented with what if’s. And if I persevere and accomplish my goals, I will be the happiest me possible. And for that reason I will forge ahead as long as possible.
I hope you guys can help make that possible.
-XERO
Sorry to everyone that stops by. This is actually taking a lot longer than I thought it would. Alot of new procedures were implemented as I started to skim through the layout and the files on my computer. I am almost done sorting everything out so it will take only a bit more time.
-XERO
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