CUPdate 83: Writing Eventures in The Nays

It's been awhile since I last got really deeply into working on The Nays, but it finally happened! So I have a lot of progress to share on The Nays this time for the CUPdate.

I started by writing the SN World Eventure with my brother. We finally found a day that we were both free, so we wrote that Eventure together in one day. 

So after that, we were inspired to continue a project from ~5 years ago where we drew The Nays in the style of Shonen Jump manga panels. So I did a few of those.

During this time, I was also playing Deltarune and replaying Undertale. So all of these combined is what really brought my inspiration back and got me in the mood for working on The Nays again. So the next thing I did was wrote a new Eventure on my own! It's been awhile since I did that. January 2024 to be exact. So this is part of why I've been feeling burnt out, since I really haven't been taking time to write and work on my project. So it felt great to just sit down and write an Eventure. I wrote the Forbidden Beddy Bye World Eventure, which was pretty short, but had some cool new moments that I made up on the spot.

It led me into a whole string of Eventures that I wanted to revisit. There were a few plot points I was considering connecting to Aiml World, so I decided to revisit the Aiml World Eventure. I wrote that Eventure last in 2018, so I figured I could refresh it a bit and flesh it out more. So I decided to completely rewrite all of the parts with just the M Nays so it could include more depth.

After that, I was inspired to draw a NAD for one of the new characters, Mesay. She's Skine's sister. I started with a sketch of her, but then decided to turn it into a full-body drawing as her NAD drawing. I also experimented with keeping the lineart a bit loose and trying to do a faster coloring/shading style. It didn't speed things up a lot, but maybe a little bit.

Then I decided to draw more sketches relating to the Eventures I was writing. I also planned to rewrite the Muko Inc. Delivery Eventure because it's related to all of this. So I did some sketches of some story moments.

So to say the least, I finally found my inspiration and I'm having so much fun working on The Nays again! Starting is always the hardest part, and my exhaustion and lack of motivation is what really held me back. Now that I've started though, it's hard to stop. When I start writing Eventures and planning story moments in The Nays, it's really addicting. It feels great and I've really missed this since it's been almost 2 years since I experienced inspiration this deep. I'm happy that I'm finally recovering from my burnout (for now) it seems!

CUPdate 52: Digital Sketchbooks, Nay Events, Game Dev Vlogs, GitHub Pages, & Eventures

Life has been busy so it's been a while since I've posted my CUPdates here! To catch up on some of the things I previously presented and just didn't formally put into a blog post, I'm going to compile those here.

For June, I did a few sketches for my digital sketchbook. Some of these were for Nay Events.

And then for July and August, I didn't really draw very much, so I combined those doodles into one small digital sketchbook page.

I did a Nay Event where I watched a clip from the endings of games and drew one of The Nays in that scene. They were mostly sketchy and just to get back into drawing more. First was Scott in Wild Arms 3 and the second was Gair in Final Fantasy 3.

I was also playing around with some GitHub pages, since that has free hosting. GitHub has always been kind of a foreign concept to me, so I'm trying to slowly immerse myself in it and figure out how it works. So I made a new page on my side account and uploaded an old website I made for a Nay Event a few years back called "Spriter's Homeland". I had a few issues at first, but after reading some of the guides and watching some videos, I was able to figure out how to get it fully hosted! Check out the site here if you want to see it.

Something else I've been working on is creating game dev vlogs for my Global Game Jam projects! It's been fun to reflect on my game projects and the processes I went through. So far I've finished the videos for the GGJ 2017 and 2018 projects. I recorded the audio files for 2019 and 2020 but haven't edited those together yet. That's been a fun side project that I've been doing when I get in the mood for it.

Also during that time, I did Inktober! I posted them on my other social media like Instagram, but would need to scan and compile those all first before posting all of them here.

I've also been doing some writing to get back into The Nays. My brother and I wrote The Night Kids Eventure, and I wrote some parts on my own that were just with the M Nays. Then I wrote my part of The Gek's Favorite Eventure (which is honestly the majority of that Eventure). And then I also wrote a new introduction to the Pubby & Lonny Reunited Eventure, to tie in more with Pearl's backstory.

This also got me in the mood for doing some Eventure-related sketches. I came up with a new color scheme for El Pubbo so he's not quite the same colors as Pubby. I also came up with a design for his Molee character, Herb. And then I drew an idea for how Clarisse might look. I think Clarisse is gonna actually have white hair instead, but that'll be her design still otherwise.

I've been mostly working on parts at the beginning of The Nays, in terms of writing and drawing lately, so I took a break from that and started to read some of the later Eventures. It really inspired me again. I always forget how much reading these helps me get back into it. So I did a few Eventure sketches throughout November as I was reading various parts.

I've also been wanting to get back into my Nay-A-Day project. I started this project back in July 2014 where I was drawing a full-body character drawing every day, and I draw the character whose birthday it is. Obviously, I don't have the time to do that anymore (especially when they take 3 hours now), but I do want to try and do more of these whenever I get the chance to. It's apparently been 2 years since I last did one of these too. I started with Centrino since it was his birthday on the day that I thought about it. Then I drew Woodsaid.

So that's all of the catching up for this time! We honestly only have one more CUPdate left of this year, so that one will likely end up being a recap of the year, or it'll just be other various projects. But the one after that will definitely be the new year's one where I talk about what's coming up for next year! So it's getting to the end of the year already, which is exciting! I always love this time of year when I have more time off and I get really inspired to start fresh and work on my projects again.

Blogger: A New Purpose

Hey, it's been a while since I last made a blog post here. 

Card Art of Sarah for an OC TCG I've been on and off working on with friends.

This has been a weird year. I've been keeping up on posting art on a few other sites, but I realize I kind of abandoned Blogger, unintentionally. I don't plan to abandon it forever though. I'm merely planning to repurpose what I use this blog for. Any time I want to showcase progress on an illustration from start to finish, or just post a lot of drawings from a bigger project, I plan to post those all at once here. I also will still make my yearly end of the year recap and beginning of the year posts. I just don't plan to use Blogger as a way to show frequent art updates like I used to. 

If you're interested in those, check out my Discord server, Instagram, or deviantART. Those are the places I'm most active and will be posting most frequently. 

I'll talk more about why I'm making this change in more depth in a few months when I make my recap of the year post, but as I mentioned earlier, it's been a weird year, and rather than abandoning Blogger entirely, this is what I decided was best going forward. Though I'll probably only be making a few posts a year on here, I'm not leaving for good. 

Because it's been so long, here's some art I have created this year:

Val's NAD

Mooth in TWEWY style

I'll be sure to post more in my later posts, like the yearly recap, and anything else that comes before that as well. So anyway, thanks for sticking with me during this time. Until next time!

More NADs: Poproy and Handew

Some more NAD drawings that I've had time to do on weekends in the summer!

Poproy is a very well-known hero in Somi who always fends off against attackers. He is very powerful, but is defeated by Ducklin, in order to save his beloved son Piko. He is very close with his wife Siubo and his son Piko, so the family would often train together and grow stronger as a family. Poproy trained under Wes, a well-known legend in PS World, which explains where his immense strength came from. Though, because of Poproy's strength, his village is often in danger of challengers wanting to face him. He's very humble and doesn't like to show off his strength, but when his family and fellow villagers are in danger, he doesn't hesitate to show his true power.

Handew is a polite and studious young boy who always asks questions for clarification. He's not very good with technology and usually runs into technical difficulties whenever using computers. Handew is often a bystander and follows along with the group. He's one of Waga's wings, so he's constantly asking him questions, though he wouldn't dare talk back or talk out of turn when around him. Handew is a very obedient kid and it often weighs down on his self-confidence level due to never standing up for himself.

The CrY Family

I did an Eventure related to RoaR, so I drew some parts of his past.

This is probably what RoaR looked like when he was a kid.

ShrieK is RoaR's adventurous older sister who isn't a very good influence on him and is usually doing sketchy activities. She sneaks RoaR alcohol when he's under-aged and always brings him to parties with her. ShrieK is very close friends with RoaR, as well as her husband Quigly. Quigly and ShrieK were very close, until he tragically murders her and the rest of her close family.

Nays Characters Being Born

It's crazy to think we've finally gotten to years where characters in The Nays are being born. Only another 58 years until the actual story begins!

I drew this on Ginko's birthday!

I doodled the Ragger twins' kid selves during my lunch break on their birthday.

First Nay-A-Day Drawings of 2019!

Wow, I guess it's been a while since I drew any NADs. So here are the first few of the year.

Valentina is Amelia's embarrassing mother who always treats her much younger than she is. She often babies Amelia and calls her "her baby" in public, and will hug Amelia in front of her friends. Valentina is very self-centered and often doesn't care what others think. She is demanding and always wants things done her way. Valentina doesn't like to reason with people. She is very strict and thinks she can decide what Amelia can and can't do, and will order her to follow her demands.

Del is a dedicated young woman who was trained by Daymo when she was younger. Since then, she's broken away from Outlaw Bar and pursued work at Mantra. Del specializes in stealth and often accepts jobs where she can exercise this specialty. She likes to talk a lot and makes friends very easily, which is why she's very well-liked throughout Mantra.

Snowblaze & Katsura

Some characters that appeared in Eventures written recently!

Snowblaze is Shimahari and Kaenah's loving mother who has elemental abilities revolving around fire and ice. She and her husband Chavez are very close and are excited about raising their daughter Shimahari in the beginning. Though they're serious about raising a family, they're also very attached to their long-time friends. Snowblaze is very naive and trusting, which ends up getting the best of her. She's dedicated to helping others and is extremely kindhearted and gentle natured.

Katsura is a deceptive royal guard who is very active and talkative. When in a fight, she often tones down her talking and focuses all of her attention on the battle. Katsura is great with disguises and doesn't really stand out in the royal guard, which makes it easier for her to deceive others. She is able to easily make up small talk and force her way into groups of people naturally.

Characters from The Nays Exam

I've been writing a new Eventure about Amelia and some others taking The Nays Exam, and with it, I created some new characters. So I had to draw the new ones!

Uma is an angry young demon who keeps to herself for the most part. She grew up alone for the most part and took on her mother's maiden name in revolt against her father. Uma has a hatred for her older sister Kali and rarely even keeps in contact with her. She has an on-going one-sided rivalry with her sister. Uma was raised solely by her mother until her death, which is the reason Uma has been mostly on her own ever since. Upon hearing that Kali became a Nay, she wanted to take the same challenge, in hopes of passing up her sister, once again.

Carly is an enthusiastic travel agent who loves creating maps in her free time. She loves to travel explore new places. Carly takes The Nays Exam because she wants to document unexplored areas throughout The Worlds, and she thinks she can help improve travel for The Nays. Her brother Zesty is the one who recommended the idea to her, so she feels very confident in her ability to become a Nay.

Themed NADs

I don't do the Nay-A-Day project nearly as much as I used to, but these two were done specifically for events of May! Aquina was for Mermay and Roxy was for Mother's Day.

Roxy is Matoko's enthusiastic mother who is wanted for high-profile crimes in Sil. Once her husband died of a hereditary illness, she snapped and left her son in the care of her sister-in-law and ran off on her own. She's been on the run for awhile and is a wanted criminal throughout the entire World. Roxy cares deeply for Matoko, but because of her mental state, she wasn't able to raise him on her own. In fact, she's barely even kept in touch with him. Roxy feels that she doesn't deserve to be Matoko's mother after all that she's done, so she intentionally distances herself, thinking it's for the best. She's not emotionally stable, and even though she is very lonely, she doesn't want to hurt him.

Aquina is a very talkative mermaid who can leave the water if she holds onto her Aqua Pearl. If she lets go of it, she shrivels up within minutes, so she tries not to wander off too far away from water. Aquina hates violence and is always trying to make peace. She is sometimes too needy, so Zandra slowly distances herself from her, thought they were once close friends. Aquina loves to swim in the ocean, and is very open to teaching her friends how to swim alongside her.

Recent Nay-A-Day Drawings

I haven't worked on my Nay-A-Day project in awhile, but here are some recent ones I've done in the past month!

Olivia is a talkative young woman who works well with kids and always volunteers to babysit her cousin Cassie's kids. She's constantly talking to her boyfriend Isaac, and even when they're apart, they're always in contact on the phone. She knows how to take control of most situations and is calm and collected whenever disciplining kids. She wants to have kids someday and is pursuing a degree in teaching. Olivia always brings over treats and games for the kids to play, so they generally enjoy her company. Living with her boyfriend Isaac, she's already much more successful than her father and ex-boyfriend who are both homeless and irresponsible with money.

Alistair is Amelia's strict father who often looks down on her. He has very high expectations for her, and when she doesn't meet them, he becomes extremely disappointed and critical. He treats her like a young child, even while she's in her 20s, and is extremely over-protective of her. Because of her financial situation, Amelia still lives with her father, so he takes this opportunity to express dominance and control over her life. He believes that she still must obey his every command and if she doesn't, he arranges for punishment. Alistair is very controlling and demeaning towards his daughter, because it makes him feel like he is in charge and has great power.

Winged Baby's Wings

These are both from Winged Baby's Wings (which are the kids he takes care of).

Streaming is the fastest member of his hometown track team. He is very well-known for his speed and can outrun almost anyone. He has never been beaten in a race and often boasts about this. He goes out running at least four times every single day so that he can continue to practice. He undergoes intensive weight training by Winged Baby since it encourages him to push his limits and improve even farther.

Ilsa is a talented tennis player who longs to deal her revenge against those in Compass World for kidnapping her uncle. She's very confident and will do anything she can to achieve her goals, including killing Nays. She's one of Winged Baby's newest Wings who has to prove herself in order to join his group. He tricks her into thinking that he can help her find Compass World, so she joins his Wings.

Tag World Nay-A-Day Characters

I decided to design and re-design some minor characters!

Fleeya is a powerful wrestler who is one of Winged Baby's nays. She loves to fight and hates to admit defeat. She trains hard every day, and is very pleased to work with Winged Baby in Tag World because of his gruesome training methods. Her goal is to become the strongest, and she doesn't care what she has to do to achieve that goal.

Winged Baby is a bird-in-training who rivals Pidgebeetle and focuses on training his nays rather than enjoying time with them while they're in Tag World. He is very competitive and will do anything he can to win. He will often throw a temper tantrum when he loses a game or competition. Winged Baby is very stern and puts his nays through vigorous training, so they listen to his every command. He does not care about the feelings of anyone and always wants to become stronger.

New Character: Zephys

Yesterday I wrote the Sil Eventure that I planned out awhile back. And so I decided to design the new character that I created for this eventure. This time I spent a bit more time on the NAD, and actually had some hairstyle variation ideas.

Zephys is a World Official of Sil, who is interested in time travel, even though it is banned in Sil. She hopes to travel in time before anyone else in Sil, in order to learn new information that can help benefit the World as a whole. She is very powerful and has access to all of the SCU data, making it easier to spy on citizens of Sil. Zephys is very secretive with her work, and she has a very intimidating front, so other Officials do not question what she does in secret, especially in relation to time travel.

These were some hairstyle variations I had. Very tough choice, but I think I chose the one that fits her personality the best.

Daisetsu & Chavez

Two characters who were originally from Outlaw Bar.

Daisetsu is an unpredictable member of Red Moon who loves playing with fire. He carries a lighter with him everywhere, and often has the urge to set flames to whatever is in his sight. He enjoys burning his enemies to death, and has a lot of confidence in his abilities.

Chavez is a laid back man who co-owns a small cafe in Black Fortress. He is very protective of the cafe and becomes paranoid if anyone tries to take control of it, even the co-founder. He has to abandon his cafe once his wife, Fire2Ice is kidnapped by Kajur. He changes his entire lifestyle to journeying and adventuring to find her. He leaves his daughter Shimahari under the care of his friend Gradd while on his search.