This past year was an insane one for me. There were big life changes and I feel like I’ve grown as a person and an artist so much.

It was my second year exhibiting at comic book conventions, and it has only been getting better. As funny as it sounds I’ve been building up a bit of a Texas following. When I feel insanely invisible on the internet these days, it’s so refreshing to go to a convention and feel like I’m an artist that means something to people and excites them. They mean so much to me and I hope I can have an amazing career ahead of me that they can follow.

Robert and I moved closer to Houston in a much nicer apartment. While I’d probably much rather be in many other cities, it was a dramatic improvement to move closer to Houston. Already we go downtown and do random fun things more often. It’s inspiring for me to be able to go out and do nice things, and I’m glad it’s far more convenient now. I’m closer to some of my friends and have made new ones. Also we’re in a much bigger and more lovely apartment! I’ll be posting some good pictures of that sometime soon.

I had two gallery shows at my school. And Holy shit I graduated. I’m done! I can friggin’ start my career full time finally. I’ve been long ready for it.

I’ve been noticing some further evolving of my own personality. I’ve turned into a lover. I just want to be kind and love on everyone as much as I possibly can. I enjoy randomly doing little things or leaving kind words to make someone feel good. I’ve also come to learn, thanks to Tumblr and its batshitness, that no matter what the situation there is never any need to deliberately disrespect someone for any reason. No matter how people feel, think, or what they like, there is never any need to disrespect someone. Another thing that has made me happier as a person is not associating with people that have more of a negative impact on me than positive. People that wrong, frustrate, or disrespect me just take up the space that I could have someone else to love on and support with all my heart.

Spring was a bad time for me art wise. My continuously building insecurities that blossomed from the community shift to Tumblr was eating me alive. I hit rock bottom just about constantly. I couldn’t handle this change to a website where nearly nobody communicated and any time I had art to share it was mostly overlooked (or outshined). I was very bad about basing my artistic self worth on how much people “cared.” The weird thing about all of this is I was a very confident artist that never had any of these sort of problems prior other than occasional normal ones. Funnily enough, after having watched Avatar the Last Airbender in the Summer for the first time, I became very inspired to focus on self improvement because of the character Iroh. I finally decided it was time to get out of this stupid rut that was nagging the back of my head and get control of it. I knew it was solely because of Tumblr, and as a result I’ve kind of disconnected myself emotionally with the website. It worked too!

Despite it being an eventful year I still managed to make a lot of work. In 2011 I picked up watercolors for the first time and that has really clicked with me ever since. I’m still working on my technique with it, but it has been a miracle worker. Through it I’ve enjoyed coloring a lot more, so I’ve been able to focus more on color schemes. I’ve also been working harder on my compositions in general, and making sure to keep a background in mind. I know I still have a long way to go still, but I know my artwork improved dramatically this year and I’m so thankful for that.

I have noticed that I’ve grown very fond of animals. They’ve been a big source of inspiration for me suddenly. I think it has been somewhat gradual since we brought home our first pet, Brucey. We love our little bird and I think he has given me a new perspective on animals. I would always make the excuse that I couldn’t draw animals to never draw them, but now I really do want to draw them fairly regularly and get good at it!

When I indulge in some sort of media (books, TV series, etc) that I adore now I become very inspired to create something also spectacular. It makes me more invigorated work work on my stories. This was an amazing new shift in what I got out of stuff in the end.

Some things I enjoyed this year were:
- Y the Last Man
- Movies: Hotel Transylvania, Wreck-It Ralph, Dredd, and The Hobbit
- One Piece (I finished the second half of the series this year)
- Parks & Recreation
- Saga
- Indie Game: The Movie
- Sword and Sworcery

2013 I know is going to be a promising year. I already have a few jobs to work on. RAMMY IS VISITING IN FEBRUARY!!! I’m planning on exhibiting at my first convention out of state, Denver Comic Con. Already lined up for some awesome guests at Texas conventions such as Bruce Boxleitner (actor of Tron) and J.M. DeMatteis (Co-writer for JLI). 2012 was a bit of a dead year for me guests wise so I’m super excited.

Here are some of my goals for the coming year:

- Further strengthen backgrounds, compositions, colors, concepts and watercolor skills
- Buy & try quill pens and brushes for inking
- Get better at drawing animals!
- Start my webcomic
- Make a zine (with Rammy & Karniz, on my own, with friends, OR ALL OF THE ABOVE)
- Put together an elf costume
- Read more BOOKS
- Go nuts with conventions since they inspire me so much
- Take an Art League Houston course
- Visit my Grandmother
- Start and finish Face the Music (8-issue mini series written by Meredith Nudo)
- Keep a regular schedule of updating my website’s blog

2012 was a fantastic year, and I’m revved up to make 2013 an awesome one too. Bring it on Year of the Snake. It’s my year!