The Silent Column (Closed)

[SelLi]

[SelLi]

Hi you guys. I haven't posted in a while. I wanted to let you know that I reached 100 cards in the card game side project I was working on. That project was taking a lot of my art time, if you know what I mean. But now the set of cards is done, and I'd like to focus on The Silent Column again.
Here's a sprite I made of Josephine.

Edit: At some point in the past, while I was writing and copy-pasting writing between word-processor documents and game scripts, I accidentally lost the scene where Tashen meets Thidria for the first time. I'm kind of glad that this is the case, however: it's somewhat in the middle of the chapter and I'll be writing it now. The scene will be surrounded by writing that I've written quite a while ago and there's something pleasant about that, to me... I might make his meeting her more light and happy in tone. I'd like to add more happiness to The Silent Column in general. ^^

Edit 2: Ahah! I found the scene where Tashen meets Thidria! I'll just add it to the script.

Edit 3: The part 1 word count is now 35,637 words.

[SelLi]

Thidria.

[SelLi]

Lockette.

[SelLi]

Hi there everyone~~~~~~~! It struck me that The Silent Column doesn't have to be some sort of weird, janky, personal project: this is a great opportunity to make something good! <3 I often struggle with feelings of inadequacy~ and feel like I "have to rush" if I'm working on something personal, because I feel like really treating myself and my projects with respect is something I'm not worthy of - that I'm "wasting people's time" if I take time to really dedicate myself to making something good. I don't want to rush. I want to take time and respect myself and make something good or great.
I made a sprite of Serra. I want the whole project to be of good quality - like this sprite. Not like some janky project that I don't treat with respect. <3

[SelLi]

I finished this lovely CG of Serra sitting in the small gazebo in the flower field.

While wanting higher quality is fine, I shouldn't work myself too hard. I think this level of quality is nice and doesn't work me until I break~

[SelLi]

Hi everyone~ As you may be aware, I've been having issues when it comes to completing artwork for The Silent Column. Part of this is because this is my "baby" project, but I've found out two other reasons...

~ First, I have issues with scope: I give myself a large list of things to do. This is also something you may be aware of.
~ And second, I find it difficult to draw character sprites and backgrounds. Despite liking visual novels and trying to create one myself, drawing backgrounds and character sprites can be boring and difficult for me.

I mention this because, years ago, when I made a very early demo of The Silent Column, I had used character portraits rather than character sprites. Each character portrait depicted a character, filled the entire screen, and had their own background that the character would never leave. This may sound rather insignificant but it was actually a big change, at least for me. Because the portraits filled the whole screen, it reduced the number of backgrounds I had to draw. And for some reason, after making a new character portrait recently, I find them easier to make than character sprites. I don't entirely know why... but I feel like I can treat them more like their own compositions, and the fact that the character will never be on another background also seems to help...
Another thing that using character portraits allowed me to do when making the early demo was, because the stand-alone backgrounds would never have character sprites against them, I would be able to draw backgrounds that were strangely shot or that were simply a picture of... say... an object on a table in a room, rather than the room itself. The backgrounds would be interesting compositions in their own right, rather than something that characters would need to be able to naturally stand in front of without looking out of place.

Edit: Not to say that those backgrounds can't also be interesting in their own right: some of those backgrounds look beautiful, but this has helped me.

Anyway, I wanted to share this. I'm making character portraits again and I feel that it will help. Take care, everyone.

[SelLi]

Hi everyone, this thread is now closed. I need to step back from this project and do something else. I get confused and overwhelmed when it comes to this project because it's been in my head getting built up for about 11 years, since I was about 16 years old. And because it was something that I initially thought up when I was that age, it's very personal to me as well. I don't know what will come of this project: it's clearly inside me but it's very big and it's a very personal and an emotion-centered project. Maybe I should write this as a novel or series of stories, posting chapters on Wattpad as I write them. My reasoning there being that the project is very large so it would take a lot of time and effort to make art and music for everything. And also, because the work is very personal, a free-form writing format might be just what the doctor ordered. Especially one that doesn't require a lot of artwork and music to be completed before I can call anything done. I still like visual novels, though. Maybe I'll give visual novel making a more fresh shake with an idea that isn't so large or personal. We'll see. Thank you all for your patience with me over the years regarding this project. Take care.