Newsletter

Art and FIGHTS

July 2026

Monochrome halftone photo of a park. The picture is surrounded by foliage and a fence and a walking path can be seen.

July, the month of Art Fight!

This is my very first year participating in this event, actually. For context, Art Fight is a time-limited, art community event where thousands of artists get divided in teams and gift each art. Whichever team draws the most art, wins! Of course, this means the "losing" team has gotten more free art in return! Very nice event!

I started very strong! As it seems every does before losing steam, LOL. My rate of attacks was 1 per day for the first half of the month, before it dipped. I also streamed every attack, which marked my return to Twitch. I was nervous initially but streaming art turned out to be actually very fun! However, I think burnout was a bit inevitable, not only because I was drawing a lot for Art Fight, but I also had to draw a LOT for work itself, because July was a month with huge expenses, owch! Luckily, I ended up pushing through and covering both my bills and treats.

I didn't do much else this month, since I was so focused in drawing (it really goes to show, that focusing too much in drawing vision tunnels everything in a way I don't like), but I still made sure to keep up with my workout and swimming, as well as reading and watching a minimum of stuff (I gave myself a goal of engaging at least 3 pieces of each type of media: reading, watching, playing, etc. each month, plus finally tackling the unread stuff in my library). Piano and coding were the things I neglected the most by far, and I didn't go out as much, outside of my exercise stuff.

The end of the month was genuinely terrible, with a stream of bad news one after another that really beat me down. I'm trying to not let it ruin my mental health and find strength, but it is genuinely hard, because it is something that will stick in my mind for a while. Even so, I'm trying my best to keep up with the stuff I want to do, or put my mind to get done, only resting if I'm really down. To my surprise, getting up from the fall is being easier. I'm glad to be developing my resilience, though it feels a bit hollow in the face of the current circumstances.

July, while full of stuff, wasn't as prolific as I would have liked. I do not expect better for August, since I clearly am in a low period of sorts, which makes sense since June was very busy and this month I worked a lot despite everything else, but nonetheless, I'll keep trying to at least do my bare minimums. My only wishes for August is to pay more attention to piano, watch some more stuff, and keep up the reading.

Read...

Novels/Comics/Magazines (long form)

  • Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo vol.1 , by Yoshio Sawai
    One of the mangas I had lying around unread... The humor sure is something, but not for me.

  • Chainsaw Man vol. 1, by Tatsuki Fujimoto
    I had already read the first volume of this manga some years ago. I think I remember it finding it a bit crude and not for me back then? After all I didn't keep reading. I reread it since my interest spiked recently, and I do want to at least see what the story is about.

  • Tegami Badhi, by Hiroyuki Asada
    Another of the mangas lying around unread. I was impressed by its concept being more interesting than I expected, but I'm not sure I'll keep reading.

  • Hanako-kun artbook 1
    I bought this artbook back in the day because the illustration work was amazing, despite never reading the manga. Going through it, it confirmed to me that it is not a manga that I want to read, but I really like the artbooks nonetheless. Hopefully I'll get the volumen 2 of the artbook at some point.

  • Witch Hat Atelier manga vol.1
    I knew of this manga but the artstyle and concept never appealed to me. I decided to finally give it a chance and I was so impressed by the skill of the art. Although, I am finding issues with the pace and the story being somewhat contrived in its beginning. I'll keep reading because I do want to see where it leads, and there's a certain... coziness? to it, that keeps me wanting to read more.

Essays/Articles/Zines (short form)

Watched...

Shows

  • Heidi (1974) Episodes 1 to 36
    I be randomly deciding to watch the most random stuff on a whim. Heidi was one of those old cartoons I never quite could get myself to watch. Not only because its slow pace was not appealing to my child self, but it also portrayed some hard-to-watch moments I couldn't bear. I've been enjoying it a LOT!

  • Witch Hat Atelier, episode 1
    Out of curiosity, I wanted to check if the anime was as amazing and beautiful as I saw everyone claim. It technically is. But I found the pacing issues to be worse and, unlike the manga, it did not encourage me to keep watching. I might check episodes at my own leisure but I won't be following diligently. Unfortunately, to me it really feels like its beauty is being overly praised and nobody seems to ever point out the shortcomings.

Podcasts*

  • The MPGiS Podcast, episodes 9 to 11


Played...

  • Professor Layton and the Unwound Future
    I wanted to finish my replay of this game this month and then I didn't, siiiigh.

  • Horizon Zero Dawn
    I wanted to finish the DLC this month too, but after playing so much and finishing the main story in June, my interest took a dip, SIIIGHH. I eventually will.

  • Animal Crossing New Horizons
    Played more to look for the critter of the month. Man, did I struggle with that goddamn golden stag. I don't feel it should be allowed to require you to spend dozens of hours playing so you can hopefully catch one single bug.

  • Pokopia
    I wanted to give this game a fair shot but it's really not that fun and I don't know why I saw so many people glaze it. Maybe I'd have enjoyed it some years ago. The controls are bad.

  • Splatoon Raiders
    Game I've been waiting forrr. I always enjoyed Salmon Run but it annoyed me a bit how stale it could get, and specially, how I forcibly had to play online to enjoy this mode. I was hoping Splatoon Raiders would fill that single-player need, and in a way, it does, however I also miss some other stuff from Salmon Run, like the matching system actually matching you with people your level for online play, the ability to lower your level at will, the rotation of weapons, and a touch of chaos that I still don't get as consistently in Raiders.

  • Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment
    I enjoyed Age of Cataclism and of course the whole BOTW saga, so I wanted to play this one too! Surprisingly, I'm struggling with the controls this time around, so that's spoiling a bit my enjoyment. They added so much new stuff and mechanics compared to Age of Cataclism, but that made it more overwhelming for me. However, I still enjoy it more than I struggle and I hope to get used to it as I play.


Miscellaneous


Return to home