This came up as an experiment with "flowing cloth", such as Mienshao's fur whips, but I ended up not knowing what the hell I was doing. That's to be expected, but even after reading plenty of tutorials and staring at stuff for a while, I was still confused. I am aware that Mienshao's whips aren't even that long, but I much prefer this length. As for the rest of the picture, I'm very satisfied with the rest of the shading, but I feel like the head is a little flat. It gave me a lot of trouble as I was sketching it, so that's something else I need to work on.
I have been slacking off recently, mostly out of laziness. My New Year's resolution this year is to remedy this and I really want to focus on getting better. In the past, I have simply never practiced. I was always too lazy to do so, and part of it also stems from fear. I was, and still am, afraid of failure, and even if no one else sees, I will still see my failure. As a stark perfectionist, this really becomes crippling sometimes, as I find it way easier to convince myself to stop and go play a game or some other distraction than to continue on a bleak looking path. As a result, I rarely practiced, and progress was frustratingly slow. I've reached a plateau, and I simply haven't had the will to overcome it.
This year, I want that to change. By the time 2014 rolls around, I want to be way closer to that artist that I had envisioned and envied at the beginning of my career than I am now. I've scoured my college library and the internet for good books and tutorials, and I've made a dedication to practicing everyday that I have every intention to keep. I have big plans for the rest of the year, with the eventual goal of starting a Nuzlocke comic, but first I need a lot more practice than I've been doing. While it's a few weeks late, here is the official start of my new year, and I feel like I've got the potential to make myself into something much better.