Birvan

Sorry, I need to vent a bit
I'm really frustrated because after years of saving money I finally managed to buy a Cintiq. But what happens after a couple of weeks using it? And right when I'm committed to work on the Brewing Trouble!? The damn tendinitis decides to act up again  

I've tried to endure the pain, but I'm at a point where I can't raise a glass of water for more than 5 seconds. Hopefully the Ergotron arm I've ordered will allow me to find a non painful working position, once my wrist heals enough

Until then... *goes drown the wrist in ice*

Slots:

How to Grab a Slot:

Send me a note with the details of what you want drawn and the type of commission 

And here's to hope it will bring us a lot of good things

For me 2014 was a year filled with change, self-discovery, growth and (finally) the whispers of new beginnings
I released myself from a job that was slowly corroding my health and driving me back to the depths of depression. I finally put together my webpage and put the worry of having a proper portfolio behind my back. I fulfilled the old dream of attending the GDC, with the added bonus of meeting 2 of my online friends face to face and having an awesome time with them
But most importantly I FINALLY managed to meet other portuguese game developers and become involved in the local events (and if you're someone like me who comes from a backwater town and not very good at finding other people with similar interests, this is a pretty big deal!)

This is what I want to do with my life, create games, stories and interesting experiments 
But in order to do that I have put myself together, kick the remnants of the depression in the face and stop acting like an hermit crab whenever I feel apathetic D<

So here's to fight for a good 2015 and to stop acting like a lazy bum. Happy New Year everyone X3

I FINALLY FINISHED BUILDING MY WEBPAGE!!! Or at least the 1st (worst) part, but still... *dances*

Yeah, I'm happy about it because I've been struggling with it for months *it's a lot easier to come up with designs for others than for yourself*
But now that that is finally out of my way I can focus on creating new art again, work on Brewing Trouble and finish learning Unity + Blender... as soon as I return from GDC Europe  

So yes, my absence wasn't me going on another hiatus/art block/depression spell. I will be back around the 17th, hopefully with tons of energy from meeting Germany face-to-face

Until then, hope you enjoy your August

Yesterday was my last day at my job. Starting today I am fully unemployed. And this is a good thing, so please, PLEASE don't shower me with messages of worry or distress!

Long story short, I've been wanting to leave this place for a long, long time. While this was nowhere near as a bad experience as the previous job was, I was pretty unhappy with my situation
Long, boring hours of nothing but repetitive tasks that involved little to no brain power and feeling like my potential being so undervalued and wasted, I literally had to muster all my courage just to drag myself out of bed every morning and go to work. And I would get home so tired and drained, but the time I recovered my energies enough it was time to go to bed. Not to mention it was seriously affecting my health
The only reason I didn't walk away sooner was because there was no one else to take over my work and I wasn't given any time to leave documentation behind. With the way the market is right now and how hard it is to get the money to flow in, if I left it could seriously cripple the company and my coworkers would get caught in the collateral damage. Call me crazy or exaggerated, but that's not something my consciousness can easily handle > >

Either way things were on a steady decline and in April (2nd, just to make sure it wasn't a joke) the "supreme upper management" finally got its head out of the sand and declared we weren't making a profit. The course of action was still unclear at that point, so everyone got ready for the worse. Which for me meant I was finally given the chance to iron out the bugs and create the documentation
In the end they settled on reducing the team, rather than terminate the company and transfer our work to another branch, but the deed was done. I had transferred enough knowledge to allow others to take my place and finally free myself from the moral obligations my brain had so stubbornly imposed

I could have stayed if I wanted, trade my health and my sanity for a safe, steady income. But lets face it, I wasn't happy there and would never be. E-learning, while always an interesting challenge, doesn't ignite my fire and keep me satisfied days on end
So I decided to take the fool's road and dive into the darkness, head first. It's a risk, I know, but from where I'm standing it's a welcome change. Heck, I already feel like my old, artistic self again (though rusty as hell)!

So right now I'm going to take a break and allow my arm to fully recover from the tendinitis, before I go on the job hunt again
In the mean time I'm going to take the chance to get some of the rust off and get back to working on my old projects (Port's comics and the Brewing Trouble idea, mostly). And explore some programming languages, particularly Unity
Before I forget, I've tried to become more active in my Tumblr account. I still post my stuff on DA as well though

And by the way, if anyone is going to attend the GDC (Game Developer's Conference) here in Europe let me know. Or if you know a good place to stay in Cologne during those days (it's the only thing I still haven't managed to schedule).

Ok, now I'm going to take a break and finally doodle something for the hell of it. If you managed to read this far then you deserve a cookie for you patience with me. I really thank you for that ^^