Just Another Day

June 18, 2024, Tuesday

Shanku's 20th Birthday

Shanku was drawn for the very first time on June 18th, 2004, and this is the redraw today. Twenty years ago... Don't ask me about that original outfit. I have absolutely no idea. She only appeared in it twice before donning her tunic. She served as my username on a forum for a little while before then. It's hard to believe she's been part of my life for so long, even if in the past few years things have slacked off due to chaos in my personal life.

Please forgive the proportions and shaky lines. I haven't drawn Shanku since the Halloween 2022 pic. Commissions of home portraits is all I've really drawn for three years.

I thought about trying to get myself into the "old Shanku" mood. "What would I have listened to in 2004 while making this?" Um, nothing. I propped up in my bed, made a desk of my knees with a folder/binder, and drew to absolute silence. Sometimes I'd put a CD into my stereo player, but for the most part I was trying not to get caught staying up until 4am. During the day I'd tune in to FM 107.7 to listen to alternative rock, so I reckon the "old Shanku mood" consists of Maroon 5, Creed, Green Day, 3 Door Down, Three Days Grace, Evanescence, Foo Fighters, The Goo Goo Dolls, and other bands played on that radio station at the time. It sure was nice to chill to Linkin Park and Saosin while I worked on this drawing.

JAD has been tugging at the back of my mind with more frequency. My brain shoved me down an eight hour binge re-reading JAD recently, and then some more time spent digging through the other bits like Wynfall High, Silver Rocke Bar & Grill, and what was written for Artober 2020. There are canon short stories in the Artober folder, by the way.

JAD still does not have a set date to start back. The office, commissions, martial arts, teaching martial arts, mowing two yards, and weedeating three take up quite a bit of my time, leaving little for family, and less for art. My boyfriend is my biggest supporter and regularly pushes me to work on JAD. He and his grandmother the only people I know in person to actually read any of it. Granted, I don't talk about it to people I know because I just don't have the patience and civilty anymore to deal with the "OMG, you're so weird" comments.