Month: January 2026

January 2026 Review

I was about to say that January was calmer compared to the last few months, but then remembered that leaky pipe, multiple plumber visits, flood mitigation, etc! Ah, the joys of home ownership! But at least we got it all fixed. It’s funny how you can forget the disruptions so quickly.

Art Update

I did get disrupted for a week with the plumbing issue. I started taking a mandala class just to have some fun easy doodles to do and it helped. But other than that, I did have a very good month with art. I did 3 master studies and I’m really enjoying them. They are such a confidence booster since I just need to follow along with a painting that I already love, so they turn out great! And I added a little exercise with it – when I finish the sketch of the master study, I then create a sketch of my own obviously influenced by the master study, but of my own design.

watercolor and ink sketch of a bird on a mushroom on a rock
My own little sketch influenced by a master study

This is a HUGE game-changer for me! I can borrow some of the choices from the master study, but I create my own art! And because it’s so heavily influenced by a work that I love, I am able to make works of my own that I love! It’s been really amazing and I’m going to keep doing it. I originally started this just to have something to show on the blog since I won’t post the master study, but realized it’s a great exercise on it’s own! So I’ll keep doing that for sure. I want to do a master study each week, and now it’s something I really look forward to.

I’m also trying to do an observational sketch each week. I’m just doing something small, I have a little 5×5 inch sketchbook where I’m doing the sketches for now. I’ll use that up and maybe move on to something a little bigger. Theses are a little harder for me since I get stuck trying to find a good thing to sketch. I just need to get over that and do the sketch looking at anything. I feel like these are going ok. Maybe I need to look at some other observational sketches from other artists and see if I can pull in some of that ‘master’s knowledge’ into my art too.

ink sketch of a bookcase with books and a plant
observational sketch of a bookcase

I’m also doing a lot of daily sketching and doing boxes and spheres, but then turning them into weird little scenes. I love surreal landscapes, they are very dream like and I would love to incorporate some of that into my art. See this example from Lee Madgwick

I have always had a love for weird buildings and structures in weird locations that just seem otherworldly and I love how Lee has an eye for that too. I love his work, and I feel like since he does weird things, I have permission to do weird things too. Of course, I’ll never get to his skill level, but I can be weird in my own way and at my own level!

Minecraft Update

Yep, nothing! LOL! And that’s fine! I don’t know what I’ll do with my channel. I really want to get back to my original idea of having an art-driven Minecraft channel. Where the art is the focus, not the Minecraft. I have some ideas of what that may look like, but I want to get my art to a better level before I try to do another video. So we’ll see. I’m building in my worlds, but just playing for fun, not for filming. I’m not going to worry about getting viewers caught up to my progress, I’m just playing for my own enjoyment. Eventually I’ll have something to show, but I have zero plans for that right now. The best thing is that all the time I was spending on filming and editing is now spent on making art!

Life Update

I have been trying to reduce screen time to give myself more art time. I installed LeechBlock on my computer and Opal on my iPad and phone to help me with that goal. What’s working for me is giving myself times when I am allowed to browse social media and YouTube, but otherwise restricting it during the day. I have things setup where I can’t do distracting things until 4pm. I’m a morning person, so my art time is usually early morning. Restricting distractions early is really helping me too.

Hour 102

This lesson is for Master Studies.

As part of my 2026 goals, I want to try to finish a Master Study each week. These are making copies of art that I love from contemporary artists that I follow and want to learn from. Master Studies are amazing because you are already working with a piece that has composition, subjects, color and linework that you already love. Instead of trying to create a new piece and do all that from scratch, you are doing a deep analysis of the choices that another artist has made. It means you can follow those good choices and just focus on the techniques involved to recreate the piece.

I am still learning about composition, color, style, etc. So when I make pieces of my own, I’m often disappointed in the results. There’s just too many issues with my work. Doing Master Studies really helps give me confidence that these are things I will learn eventually. It’s an excellent way to learn.

However, I can’t post my copies publicly! I feel it would be wrong to post work that isn’t my own. So, as a workaround, I’m going to make a small piece of my own composition influenced by the master work. That gives me practice with applying the lessons from the Master Study, and also gives me a test piece to try out the linework and colors that I’m using.

So, this piece is a little test piece of my own of a potion bottle. I really love the idea of potion bottles. I think I’ll work on other pieces like this for practice

Next time, I need to give myself more time to complete these. Even small pieces take more than an hour. I can also make my test piece a little bigger, just to have more to work with.

Tombow Fudenosuke brush pen and watercolors in a Moleskin Art sketchbook.

The master study and companion piece took about 2.5 hours.

ink and watercolor sketch of a potion bottle

2025 Annual Review

In addition to my Monthly Reviews, I also like looking back at the whole year and reviewing my goals. One thing I discovered while reviewing is that last year I didn’t do a 2024 review and didn’t really set any goals for 2025. I have been doing some kind of annual review/goals for several years so it was interesting to see that I missed it last year. But, on with this year!

2025 Art Update

One thing I did start last year is a refresh of this blog and tracking my art practice time. That’s what the ‘Hours’ posts are all about. And I started the year strong and went through all the SVS first level classes. But then around May I got stuck on drawing characters, in particular, drawing faces, and I really got stuck and demotivated. I couldn’t find a good way out. People kept pointing me toward Loomis, but that is NOT beginner material and it was not what I needed at all, that lead to further demotivation. What I needed was a more relaxed intro to more cartoony faces. I’m starting to understand that now and the 21 Draw classes are helping. I’m easing back into daily sketching with a much more relaxed approach. It’s making it more fun again.

So, last year was a hard year for art. I didn’t get a lot done, I had very few finished pieces and didn’t do any Master Copies. Missing out on Master Copies was really bad. Master Copies are a real confidence booster for me. I can copy an art piece that I really like and usually have really good results! When you use another artist’s skills on composition, style, and color, it means you can focus on the technical side of things just doing the drawing and painting. My technical skills aren’t too bad, so it gives me confidence that I can learn eventually and will be able to make good satisfying illustrations of my own someday. I need to bring back Master Copies in 2026.

For finished pieces, Duke’s Castle is the only finished watercolor I did last year. I love how it turned out, but I need to do a lot more pieces if I want to improve.

watercolor painting of a broken down castle tower

2025 Minecraft Update

2025 was also a hard year for my Minecraft channel. I started the year with getting 200+ views on each Skyblock video, and ended the year with getting an average of 20 views per video. I was not alone in this. I heard in both Minecraft and Art channel forums that everyone’s views are WAY down. If you have a big, established channel, you are mostly ok. If you are just starting, YouTube will try throwing your stuff out there to see if you make a hit. But if you don’t make a hit, YouTube seems to give up on you and barely gives your videos a try. And this is all over YouTube.

So, in a way, I don’t feel too bad, the algorithm has changed and I if I really wanted to make a channel that grew, I could try working on it. But my videos were always intended to be just a hobby. In fact, if I ever do get monitized, I would not post any ads in my videos, so that’s not a goal for me. And, I’m really down on YouTube anyway. I just feel like it’s ‘just another social media’ platform. It might as well be TikTok or Instagram. It’s just trying to keep people on the platform so they can force more ads down your throat. I feel like saying in every video that my viewers should do themselves a favor and get off YouTube right now. Just stop the video and go do something fun.

I almost deleted my whole channel back in August 2025 just because I think YouTube is clearly making the platform worse just to sell more ads. Instead I started my Longplay series meant to be something you could put on while doing something else, studying, crafting, or sleeping. But again, I got down to 20 views per video and it’s just not worth the time to do it. Besides, at that point I wanted to make art more of my focus anyway, so I stopped.

I did make some videos that I was really proud of, such as the Max’s Town Timelapse, the Skyblock where I made little animations for each step of getting ready to go to the end, and I really do LOVE my Longplay series, I had so much fun with these.

thumbnail from video, showing minecraft castle town and the art that inspired it

I will continue making videos in 2026, but they will be much more tied to art. I don’t know what they will look like yet. But I’ll make them when I have something fun to share. I’m still playing on each of my worlds, but with very limited time available, as it should be! I see this as a very positive turn for the channel, and a return to why I started the channel in the first place.

2025 Life Update

One recurring theme I kept seeing in my annual reviews is that, literally for years, I have been saying I wanted to get back into sewing. I was really into sewing during the pandemic and got out of it when I started my Minecraft channel. There just wasn’t time for it all. But, it was a little sad to see my notes over and over for several years saying I want to get back to it. So, although I didn’t do any sewing in 2025, that is going to change and I’m going to make it a goal for 2026. I am noting it here just so it shows up in my 2026 review and I can say that here is where I made that change.

One crafty thing I get finished was a knitted blanket. I started a blanket when I started my Longplay series and would knit while watching the videos and was able to finish a blanket in about 3 months, which is great! It did renew my interest in knitting and is something I can do while watching videos or movies.

So, 2025 all in all was not the best year. Down in art, down in Minecraft, one of my kitties was ill and died, and I didn’t get a lot of goals done, even though I missed any kind of goal setting. However, I had a lot of fun this year, I did learn a lot about art and I feel like I progressed. But, I’m hoping that I get more done in 2026 and can say that it was a better year. I’ll post my 2026 goals soon!

Hour 100

This lesson is from 21Draw Learn to draw in 21 days, Flowing flags.

What’s funny is that I have drawn flags before but didn’t make the connection that this eventually leads to drawing scrolls and fabric folds. It’s all the same concept, but I never saw that before. The lesson is basic, but I can see how it builds, it’s a good program.

I wanted to do something more special or grand for the 100th hour, but in reality, it’s all about just putting the hours in. It’s more important to get the hour done than to try to plan something special, then get stuck when the art I did for hour 100 wasn’t ‘special’ enough. So, a simple lesson and that’s fine

Next time I will look at more examples of shading to make sure I’m doing things right. I want to be able to draw fabric folds, so this is a great place to understand the concept better before moving on.

pencil on letter size copy paper.

I did about 60 minutes doing the lesson and then completing this image.

pencil sketches of flowing flags

Hour 099

This lesson is from 21Draw Learn to Draw in 21 Days (season 1), lessons on Stacking Tables and Marshmallow Doorways.

I have been short on time, so I just did the classes. This is a lesson that I actually do want to repeat since it can build up to a fun illustration. I think this will become a frequent lesson to come back to for daily sketching. Oh, I can mark it as a favorite!

Next time I will try doing more of an advanced illustration with a horizon and boxes stacking above and below. I also need to try out different hatching and stippling methods to find one that I like for a light tone, mid tone and dark tone. Alternately, I could do inking only and add a mid tone or color digitally (and use black as dark tone). It’s something I need to explore.

pencil on letter size copy paper.

I did 30 minutes on each lesson for a total of 60 minutes.

pencil sketch of stacked objects