It's no secret that I haven't had the best time currently. It's actually been quite stressful and at times, morbidly depressing. I recall when my grandmother passed away, my mother said something about her really disliking the month of August. Sorry to all Leos and Virgos born in this month... But I kinda have to agree with grandma.

With all the changes in my life and the process of adapting to a new house, a new supervisor at work that is really riding my ass (no pun intended) and my current mental and emotional state, not to mention the months I've spent sleeping barely five hours a day because of the time zone difference between my location and where my job is... My fuel for creativity is running a little low. So, instead of dedicating what little time I have working on comics and stressing myself out even more than necessary with writing, drafting and planning... I'm going to take a bit of a different approach to things. I'm still going to put out comics, but right now I just want to take a breather from obsessive focus on them. So, I'll be posting some galleries instead. Something that doesn't take as much time and effort as the comics do and that is ultimately fun to make. I guess that's the keyword here: FUN.

If you're a weeb/enthusiast of Anime like I am, you'll recognize this pose. If not, I don't blame you.
Also, next in the Gravure Love cue is Sayaka with a very interesting story to tell!

I have been working on some stuff for comics and all of that, but being so scatterbrained and absorbed by work, I would rather go into this slow and steady. I do have a few previews I want to show you without spoiling too much. First up: CNC Baby #2 is still nowhere near completion. While I do have most of the comic's structure ready (including a long-awaited appearance!), I am taking my time with the process of picture taking. And with my way of narration and how anal (whoop! There it goes again!) I am with poses and angles and making things look "alive" if that makes sense, the capturing process is taking me forever now. Between checking for light sources, figuring out if the models are set properly within the rooms and the usual things that occur with TK17, it can take me between 3-4 hours just to set up a scene. As an example, let's look below:

CNC Baby will serve as a vehicle to bring out quite a few ladies I had abandoned. See if you can guess
who this babe is!

To me, ambience and visuals are just as important as words when telling a story. There are people that excel at visual narration, and there are several examples here within the community. But I'm a person that is constantly talking to himself, either out loud or in my own head. I have a nearly pathological need to hear a conversation in my head, even though I'll probably be the quietest person in a room most of the time. This scene is about revealing key information about Max Huerta, the male protagonist of CNC Baby. And the dichotomy between how I want to portray him and how I have done it so far (outside of the story) makes him a very difficult character to write, because when I see him, I don't know anything about his motivations. What does his dark side look like? Is there a hint of that in the way he acts in public? The idea of him having friends guiding him as a moral compass is interesting. Maybe because that's something I feel I've been lacking for a long time myself. In any case, it's always good to have an outside perspective on things.

As for the rest... Well, Gravure Love is definitely happening. Maverick, I'm not so sure anymore. I've got material and the will to work on it. But I cannot focus on doing more serious stuff without taking the time to do it. And I think that's what it all comes down to in the end: I need time to be Trapp. I do know that at times, distance from anything you're giving a lot to is required. But whenever I sit here and try to work on stuff, sometimes... The inspiration doesn't come. So I think for now, all I can do is focus on doing small things at once. Not necessarily written narration, but something more visual. Hone my skills and see what I can come up with. I do have plans to bring back The Stone Sisters for a new adventure, but like I said, I want to take my time. However, time really hasn't been on my side lately, so all I can do is let things flow as they naturally should. Hopefully it doesn't take longer than I expect it to!

In any case, I think it's time for a well-deserved break from comics. I'll keep on creating galleries and see what comes out, and hopefully developing ideas that could be useful for future publications. Until then, I can only hope to ride this wave and get my groove back on. I leave you for now with some more stuff I've been working on:

I want to thank @PsychoCatGirl for this dress. I love how it looks, and it helped me develop something a bit more lighthearted for Dani. With my plans for the story, I definitely need more of this.

And here are The Stone Sisters again. It's been a long time since I did anything with them after the World Cup gallery, so this is bound to be a lot of fun!