As promised - my submission to the Character Design Challenge for February! Hope it was worth the wait. The theme was Carnival of Brazil and I just really didn't want to draw mostly naked ladies, so I drew a mostly naked animal instead :P This is perhaps my favorite thing I've drawn all year, all bubbly and happy, which is all the more strange cause...
This is such a weird time. And if you're reading this near the time of me writing it then I'm sure you know why. Coronavirus is sweeping through the world and although I've held off writing about it here on the Roost, I think it's time. And I kinda hate to talk about it, because the virus has been in LITERALLY EVERY conversation I've had or overheard for the past week. We had the first few cases here in Nashville about a week ago, back when we were talking in hushed GroupMe messages about a possible outbreak at Vanderbilt. And now Tennessee's in a state of emergency, the whole country's in a state of emergency, and I'm just waiting for the wave that's been building for the past few weeks and months to come crashing down in full force. But it hasn't yet. And so for this and many other reasons I've been living in a state of dread. Not fun.
But I think I need to talk about Coronavirus, or at least log it here in a historical fashion, because it's now affecting my art journey (a topic that I may talk about from time to time here at the Roost).
Lipscomb just extended Spring Break, and could likely move to online classes for the rest of the semester. Which would be a nice break if I weren't working on a short film. But, for the first time ever, I AM. And our premiere date, the Five Minute Film Festival, just got postponed, and likely cancelled. And most of our team of artists are forced to head back home, away from the lab and software. So less than two weeks from our film's completion, the floor has just been cut out from under us. And now we're just falling into uncertainty. I've tried to keep my head down, to keep working, but it's hard. For so long, I've been looking toward that finish line, that festival, the finished film, but now the finish line is gone. Not moved, just straight up vanished. It's hard to relax anymore. I don't know what to work on. I don't know if I should be working. And with all this, I don't even know if the summer internships I applied for will even happen. This was supposed to be 2020, my big chance to get ready for a career next year. But the cracks are starting to show.
All this kinda pales in comparison to what our seniors here at Lipscomb must be feeling - they're being robbed of their last semester at college, and (for animators) the hope of getting an LA job must be getting immensely complicated. It's a time of laments, mourning the death sentence of a semester that we'll watch bleed away (remotely, with WiFi!) over the next few weeks.
These are dark days.
And even darker for those that could be harshly affected by the disease, whether financially or physically. Maybe that's you, bloggerfolk. Stay strong. And know that there are so many people out there who care about you. One of whom is me. So let me know if there's anything I can do.
This is the first pandemic I can remember living through, and I wish it wasn't happening now, or ever. And in this way I feel like Frodo.
“I wish it need not have happened in my time,” said Frodo.
“So do I,” said Gandalf, “and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”
I'm almost near the end of reading The Fellowship of the Ring and I'm glad it's brought lines like this to the forefront of my mind. For these are dark days. Disappointing, frustrating, scary days. But they are still our days, and we get the gift of deciding how to use them. We can act from a place of hope. The good news of Christ means that what is broken can be mended. That joy will come from sadness. That resurrection is real, and is coming for us. From broken earth springs new life. From these broken plans will come God's promise. I'll admit that that's even hard for me to see. Those who know me know that I am a planner, but perhaps I need moments like these to break me out of my own ambition and put me in a spot where I need to ... trust. Not comfortable. Not easy. Yet the perfect soil to cultivate a humble heart.
So know the facts, and be grateful, bloggerfolk. Mourn, and be joyful. The storm will pass. And I will keep blogging right through it (Lord willing.)
blessings to u
-dh
spring
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