Sleep (+2019 roundup)

"Where's the captain?"
"After haul like that, I bet he's sleeping it off with some tavern girl."
"That... is one way to put it, sure."

I generally don't post my practice or vent art, but this being the last sketch of the year (at least last before the big thing) has kind of a nice touch to it, since it pretty much embodies 2019 for me as a whole (Freud would have a field day figuring this one out).

2019 feels like my own personal raid on the Tempest. Burnout and insomnia have become my constant companions, I ended up punished for every time I treated myself to something nice, I got backstabbed twice and withdrew from pretty much all of social contact for various reasons. So I'm back to keeping to my own "people" for company.

I didn't get to write almost anything this year and when I did (and it wasn't one of the few shoddy fanfics), it was usually the Kelpie and its crew. I'm not sure what appeal was there that I kept coming back to them of all my creations, but I did - over and over.

Tom's name & character kept popping up in various instances and always ended up being eerily fitting to many of the situations I put him up with. Even the hilarious mini coming out I had with my co-author (I honestly thought she knew!?) ended up being a mirror of my own relationships and problems.

Oh, and I'm no longer afraid to draw humans. That's also a thing.

But yeah, I tend to compensate my characters for things I'm lacking, which happens to be sleep and trust this year. And quite frankly, Tom, if all it takes to get decent sleep around here is to go and get bent by a shaggy pirate/sailor twice my age, I'm starting to think it's not a bad option, so don't you dare complain.

So that's it for 2019. I just hope 2020's at least not worse. I wouldn't like to run out of pirates.