pewpewdragons @ljoonika@mastodon.art

I should update my description since I do a lot more non-drawn stuff these days and I while I still love my pair of 2D kids I don't draw them much anymore. But words hard.

Anyways, I'm just about to finish my first year in arts and crafts school. I'm gonna become a crafts teacher, hoping to get jobs anywhere from kindergartens to community colleges. And ofc selling what I make. Many small streams of income etc.

#introductions Maybe an introduction toot would be in order, now that I've hopefully figured out what I'm doing?

So hello, I'm Leo, 33, they/them preferably, Finnish person. I used to draw all the time and even went to art school over 10 years ago. Then depression happened, with some added generalized anxiety disorder and my art just mostly went away. I gave up on art career and studied to become a librarian but that ofc didn't make my problems go away.

Then about 2 years ago I was diagnosed with avoidant personality disorder, which kinda made many things click and started me on a slow but steady path to understanding just what the hell was my problem and put my whole life in completely new perspective.

Well, I'm still very much depressed, in fact experiencing one of the worst periods of it I've had in years. But my art is now with me and I'm trying to re-learn how to draw again. And not just art. Somewhere during the spring of this year I also started to write stories, and that has been a daily thing ever since. I now have a few dear OC's that I use to handle my mental health issues in more constructive ways.

I'm kinda timid (yet posting nsfw art haha!) and scared of failure and human interaction can be hard. I'll probably mostly fav and boost here, at least at the beginning. But I'm working on it. So, nice to meet you all!

I think I crashed a little bit when the summer vacation started. I really struggled with the spring semester but I didn't realize quite how tired I was until it was over. Now I've mostly been keeping my brain off and playing My Time at Portia.

Looking for advice. I'm making simple vector shapes and Affinity Designer worked well for some that could be made with shape tools. But I also need shapes that don't have tools, like this one that I tried making with 3 tear shapes and one crescent. When imported to Deepnest to make a cutting template, it separates all the shapes. Does someone know of a free or one time payment program that would allow me to make these shapes? I am also absolute vector noob fyi #vector

I do have two larger course portfolios to write during the summer, with examinations of those right away at August, when school starts. Then I have 2 bookbindning classes to teach and 3 sales event days, all related to school work. But other than that I'm finally free to work on some of my own personal projects!

Slowly working myself through all the unfinished work that has snowballed into a work monster since December. I sent out two mini-portfolios of class work today. Only one larger written thing to do before Wednesday and the rest is just making with my hands.

I was listening to a podcast, trying to figure out what is this chili fish they're talking about. Took me embarrasingly long to realize they were talking about jelly fish :D But hey, both sting!

Image CV: doll head

And today she is getting her hair! Eudoxia’s hair should actually be grey rather than white but we're working with what we got. And it doesn't look that wrong anyways. I'm happy so far! #needlefelting #dollmaking

Image cw: doll head

She does not quite understand what this things is, but it seems to smell interesting.

I'm needle felting my Flight Rising dragon OC, Eudoxia. I'm not sure if I will end up making any more than her head since wool makes me sneeze but it's been fun so far. #needlefelting #doll #CatsOfMastodon

My eyes were doing so badly today while trying to focus on lino carving that I scheduled an optometrist appointment. It's finally time to get those bifocals... Tho, I'm actually still not sure if separate reading glasses wouldn't work better for me, but bifocals are just cheaper than 2 pairs of glasses :P

Like first of all, it's a personal project ror my own use, not a product design so let me figure out what it needs to be able to handle. But second of all, I've been hand sewing for years. People have been hand sewing for thousands. We don't use sewing machines bc they do more durable than hand but bc it's faster and more efficient.

I'm getting a lot of unsolicited sewing advice from a teacher who is not a sewing teacher but art. She's constantly doubting that the things I make will break down. I ended up overworking a cloth shopping bag I made bc apparently it should function as a brick carrier. Now it won't fold nicely anymore bc of all the stiff seams. And the latest was that she told me I need to sew with machine to get durable seam when I said I'm going to sew a bag lining by hand bc of some complex shapes.

I don't know how long I need to keep delete&re-drafting my posts just bc I still keep living in that world outside masto, where hashtags mean absolutely nothing and so I just keep forgetting to use them :P

I kinda lost track of time today and got myself a glass of coke, only to notice it was already almost 8pm. I hope that won't mess up my sleep too badly. I've been able to get up around 7am pretty reliably for a few weeks already, which has been a nice change for a chronic insomniac. #personal #sleep