Not-Sketchblog 18: Good Things To Come

Prepare yourselves, my friends!

Starting tomorrow, April 1st,
I will be doing a Character-A-Day Challenge!

I have been working on a Universes Catalogue,
which, for my own reference, contains information on plots and characters from every story I've ever written.
It is an exercise to ensure I don't repeat the same themes and designs too much
(it's very difficult for me!),
and the Character-A-Day Challenge will be a good workout of improving speed and technique.

My goal is to complete 30 colored character illustrations,
compiling them all into one large desktop background image,
which will be available for download on my website in May,
my free present to you for sticking with the Sketchblog since its birth 2 whole years ago!

Get ready!
There are good things to come!
:)


In other news,
my personal goal to be more positive and happy is meeting with huge success!
There are a couple occasions where I came across some bumps in the road,
but I kept the mindset that "this is temporary, life is wonderful, and I am loved,"
and I got right through those hard times, no problem!

I'm starting to reach another goal I set for myself a while back as well.
It's a challenge I've been struggling with for as long as, if not longer than, this blog has been active.
And I'm ready to reveal it:

I want to be happy alone.

I don't want to depend on anyone, or be afraid of being lonely or abandoned anymore.
It was a huge challenge for me, since I love everyone around me so much and want to share my joys with every person I meet.
And I had a few hiccups where I got too attached or dependent on certain people for happiness.
However, as I've worked to be a more positive person with an optimistic attitude,
I've noticed that change that I wanted in my life so badly.
I'm becoming the person I've always wanted to be:
an independent, strong, powerful woman who is happy with and without others.

I know now that I can survive without someone constantly by my side,
and if there is someone there, sticking by me through thick and thin,
well then that's just an added bonus.
I have the comfort and satisfaction of knowing I can do whatever I put my mind to,
and I can achieve it by my own hands,
and that's a feeling I have never felt so strongly about before as I do now.

I only hope this message reaches certain others who misunderstood all my actions in life up until now,
and that now they will perhaps start to understand why I took certain steps and made certain decisions,
and will forgive me for them, since they were somewhat selfish decisions to better myself as a human being.
But by doing so it means I can be a better friend, significant other, wife, mother, mentor, artist, or whatever life leads me to be in the future.

So you'll have to forgive me while I learn to be happy on my own for a while.

Thank you for reading!

Love you all and goodnight!
<3,

Emily J Sampson