Category: Monthly Review

General reviews of my month, from art to Minecraft and everything in between.

May 2026 Review

Art Update

April and May have been very productive months for me, but with not a lot to show. I continue to do Master Copies with Companion pieces each time, but most of them are so related to the master copy that I don’t feel good about posting them. Even this piece is highly influenced by a Max Wilkins (https://www.instagram.com/max_wilkins_illustration/) piece. He does a lot of tower stacked houses and I did a master study of one. Then for the companion piece I was thinking about how they looked like bird houses, then thought about birds that people could ride as sentries and made this piece of bird stables and rider barracks. (see the little, tiny people?)

I was really scared to add the bird. But I felt like the piece didn’t make sense unless I had an example of the big bird who could fly into the stack and the rider to show the scale of the bird and barracks. So, I had to be brave and add the bird! 🙂 I love how it turned out and it’s a concept I want to explore some more!

I am really enjoying my art practice. It’s work, and it’s so humbling at times. I have much higher desires than what I am able to accomplish with my art at this point, but it’s so much fun!

I have really dropped the concept of the 10k hour project. I’ll need to write up a post and update about it. At this point, I have classes and lessons that I take online, but then I have ongoing projects that I work on. Some days I only do a little bit of art, but other days, I will work on a piece for hours. And I find projects are more motivating to me than daily lessons. So, I’ll update that eventually.

For now, I am enjoying having a list of ongoing projects to work on during the week. I do what I can and if some days are light, that’s ok, because other days I will just sit and work on a painting all day.

a watercolor painting of a tower of little houses, some are bird houses, and some are buildings for tiny people

I tried a different technique with this piece where I did the sketch and linework, then did shadows in a purple-grey watercolor. Then I added colors on top and was able to just paint color over the white and shadow. For example, the green of the middle house is one green color, just over the white paper and the purple shadow. So I didn’t have to mix a green and a shadow green color. I really liked this technique, it’s something that Yahya Rushdan (https://www.instagram.com/yahyarushdan/) says he uses. I loved how it worked and love how it turned out. But I should have taken photos of the process to really show it. I’ll do that next time.

Minecraft Update

I saved off my old worlds at the beginning of April. I also finished up all work on the Arcadia server. I didn’t play for several weeks while I decided what to do. I need to give myself more time to work on my art so I already committed to not doing any new videos at least until September. I am going to extend that even more and not do videos in 2026. I really want to work on my art skills so I can reintroduce my art and minecraft channel in the new year.

So, after several weeks away from Minecraft, I started a new single player world just to play and have fun. I’m not keeping track of anything, no goals, no ‘rules’, just playing however I want for fun. I’m mostly playing in Peaceful Mode just so I don’t have to battle mobs. I can play though the nights and explore caves with no worries, and I’m really enjoying it. It’s so much fun to play just for the fun of it.

I am making this my go-forward world. If I get back to making videos, they will not be the typical ‘lets play’ videos, they will be more art focused. I have ideas, we’ll see how they turn out. It’s only the end of May, and I am committing to not making videos for 2026! So we’ll see what happens between now and then.

Life Update

I have figured out that I can either have social media and blogs, OR I can read books. I can’t do both. Your mileage may vary. But my little brain will turn to the easiest thing, which is doom-scrolling news and social media. So I have setup ScreenZen on my computer, iPad and phone and blocked news and social media sites. I do allow Instagram since I love looking at other people’s art. But Bluesky, Reddit, and news sites are blocked. And then I read! I have been reading a lot more and really enjoying it. But it’s a hard habit for me if there is something easy like browsing and scrolling.

What’s sad is that I remember the rich and weird internet before the social media days. I remember all these weird wonderful blog rabbit holes you could fall into and spend a delightful hour stumbling into someone’s blog and reading about parrot care or paper making or remodeling old garages. You could dive into all kinds of cool hobbies that people had. It was delightful and wonderful, and I really miss it.

I want to go back to that cozy internet of sharing cool hobbies. No worrying about ads and monetizing, just sharing the fun in our lives. I’m going to try bringing back weekly updates so I can try to bring back some of that feel.

If you know of any cool hobby blogs, let me know! I’ll try to link to them too! 😀

March 2026 Review

March was a good month, but I lost steam a little bit toward the end. I know motivation ebbs and flows, but it’s so strange to me how it changes over time for no reason. I think part of it might just be that I need to change things up sometimes or that I did a lot and just need a rest.

Art Update

Overall, it was a very good month. I did about 27 hours of art practice, which is great! I also have ongoing projects that I’m keeping up with like the weekly master studies.

Most of my work continues to be copying from others just to get practice. This is a huge help, but means I have less to share.

watercolor sketch of a frog statue with greenery around it

I got over a mental block of drawing faces. I just had this weird block where I didn’t feel like I could draw a face. I got over it by drawing boxes based on a book from Pypah Santos, Draw Amazing Faces (https://pypahsart.com/draw-amazing-faces). In it, she shows a grid of cubes to help think about how heads change in perspective to the viewer, so you can be looking down or looking up at the person and viewing them from side to side. She had just simple eyes and noses to demonstrate.

ink sketch of boxes rotating in space, each box has simple eyes, there are mountains in the background

But, drawing the grid allowed me to practice drawing faces without getting into how to draw an accurate figure. So it really unlocked something in me and allowed me to practice faces without pressure.

Soon, I was putting faces on any practice boxes I drew! And it became my favorite part of daily sketch practice.

ink sketch of ribbons and arrows floating above a plain of rolling hills, there are two large cubes in the distance with calm faces on them

Which, oddly, brings me to:

Minecraft Update

When I started my YouTube channel, I always intended it to be a channel that combined Art and Minecraft. But the Minecraft side kinda took over. I don’t know where things will end up, but I really want to get my art to a place where I can do more world building and story telling with my art and Minecraft.

I intend to make more character based art and I’m developing my character ideas. Getting over my hang-up about faces is a big step forward!

Life Update

I’m still not sewing! One problem is that it’s hard to find time on the weekends with other stuff going on. Another issue is that I don’t have a good easy project to start with. I have a lot of fabric and ideas, but I need to sit down, figure out the next thing and get everything together so I can work on it.

I also re-read Project Hail Mary which is such a fun read. I wanted to re-read it before seeing the movie. I highly recommend the book.

February Review

It’s amazing how much more time I have for art now that I’m not making Minecraft videos! LOL! I did about 20 hours of art practice this month.

Art Update

I am making a lot of art, but most of it is things that I can’t share. I am doing a Master Study every week, but those are direct copies of other artists work, so I can’t share them. I do make little pieces influenced by the master work, and I can share those here. I am having a TON of fun, and I feel like my art is growing by leaps and bounds.

watercolor sketch of a robot foot in grass with a little bluebird on a rock
watercolor sketch of a red fabric balloon tied down by a rock, a little bluebird sits on top of the balloon

Even my warmup pieces are heavily influenced by other’s work, so I don’t feel comfortable sharing them. Eventually my own style will emerge and I’ll feel better about sharing. I’ll need to add a monthly piece of my own design just to have something to apply all this learning to. Maybe I’ll add that in March.

watercolor sketch of a cartoony bluebird with a cute red scarf and a purple witch's hat

This month also brought a shift in my practice. Instead of crossing off a to-do list of sketching or lessons, I suddenly found myself thinking of my practice as ‘work’ to be done. And I use the word ‘work’ in a good, happy sense. I felt like it was work to be done as a artist, just as if it was a job. It really shifted my perspective. I just always have pieces in progress with more work to be done. It’s my job now to get these things into the world! I feel like an Artist, for really the first time!

Minecraft Update

This month I also gave up on doing an videos for a while. I finished my base completely in Arcadia, and didn’t film any of it. I had a lot of fun finishing things up and building bridges and tunnels, all with the easy joy of doing projects without worrying about filming. I started playing in my Skyblock world again, but I’m not worrying about filming. If I ever get back to filming, I think my channel is going to be different. Perhaps as an art-first channel with painting creations from Minecraft, but not really bothering with timelapses. I’ll just show off builds and then paint them, or do some concept art and the resulting build, without doing the typical timelapse-and-update style of video. That’s a big ‘IF’, I don’t know.

I still love the idea of a Minecraft/Art channel, I just don’t know what it will look like. I am not going to think about filming anything until later this year. Right now, I want to put off any filming decisions until at least September. I love the momentum I have on my art practice and I want to focus on that for a good long time.

Life Update

Stepping back from Minecraft also gives me more time for reading, which I love. I finished Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson. I really loved it! The characters are so good and it’s really emersive. I tend to like sci-fi more than fantasy, but I was all in on this universe.

I didn’t get any sewing done this month! But I have a project on my mind, I’ll work on it in March.

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.

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!