Tbh, it’s not a massive update or anything, but I tweaked a few things that were bugging me. I also finally implemented the day-by-time heatmap I’ve been wanting to do for a while, just to analyze when exactly I’m actually drawing during the week.
Plus, getting my hands on LoreBinder from a friend lowkey sparked my urge to develop apps again.
More of a Tracker than a Monitor 📊
In the last update, I kinda rebranded this from a strict “Quota Monitor” to a more chill “Tracker”, and honestly? It was a great call.
Knowing myself, if I make strict quotas (numbers) the goal, I end up completely failing at them. So having this reborn as a simple “look back at my progress” tool fits me perfectly. It’s actually fun to use now!
It was a bit of a nightmare trying to accurately grab the active file name across both Clip Studio Paint (CSP)’s Light and Dark modes. CSP lets users tweak how dark or light those modes actually are, but I managed to get it parsing correctly in both modes as long as that’s set somewhere in the middle.
Testing every single color-intensity setting was way too much of a hassle, so we’re just gonna say “it works!” and call it a day.
I’m the only one using it anyway, so it’s all good lol.
The Analytics Graphs 📈
I actually had these graphs implemented for a while, but I never explicitly wrote an article about them.
I did drop some screenshots of them in my March and May wrap-up posts, though.
There are three main types I’ve built. Let’s break them down.
Time-Series Graph ⏳
This aggregates the data by day, week, month, and year.
It’s color-coded by artwork, so you can tell at a glance when and how much time I dumped into a specific piece.
That Kasane Teto piece with all the expression variants for the video the other day took a ridiculous amount of time. I guess I was having fun? It was a struggle though, ngl.
Right now, I’m working on the second illustration for my Uchinoko-Karte project.
The struggle is real on this one.
Time per Artwork Graph 🎨
Here’s the breakdown by artwork. That illustration of Kagamiya Chiruha took an insane amount of time.
Followed closely by Kasane Teto in overalls.
Looking at this, the time I spend grinding on a single illustration just keeps going up lately.
I recently had a chance to chat about art with someone who used to critique my work. They told me that as an artist grows, they start noticing more details and exploring new ways to express things, which naturally adds to the working time. Unless you actively restrict yourself with a strong will—like a 1-hour drawing challenge—the time per piece will just keep creeping up.
I kinda lowkey suspected that. If you try to draw until you’re completely satisfied, you’ll constantly spot things that bother you → fix them → it gets late so you sleep → wake up, look at it again, and find new things to fix → fix them → it gets late → infinite loop of doom.
Yep.
I just have to believe this means I’m growing and accept my fate lol.
That being said, I’d love to practice drawing faster at some point.
Day × Time Heatmap 🔥
This is the new heatmap I’ve been dying to implement!
Weekday afternoons are completely pitch black, but I’m a working adult, so that’s a given.
Looking at this, it seems I usually draw late at night during the first half of the week.
Maybe because I tend to go out drinking towards the end of the week?
I mean, it’s not like I only drink on weekends, but the logs definitely show a trend.
The heatmap pulls from all-time data, so it’ll get more accurate as the logs pile up.
Can’t wait to see how it shapes up.
Turns Out, I Barely Have Time to Draw 🫠
I honestly thought I was drawing way more, but looking at the logs, it turns out I barely have any time for it.
Here’s the monthly breakdown, and I’ve only surpassed 20 hours a month twice.
May and August. Yep, the months where my company has a lot of holidays.
The harsh reality is that I’m drawing way less on weekdays than I thought. No wonder it’s hard to improve.
I’m talking as if I’m definitely getting better, but since I’m noticing weird parts of my own art more often now, I choose to believe I am growing.
I’m still terrible at managing my Twitter and Bluesky, so my art isn’t reaching a ton of people, but I’ve started studying how to actually use them properly.
I don’t know if studying will magically fix it, but hey, it’s better to know than to remain clueless, right?
Is Practice Overrated? 🤔
Back when I was binge-watching drawing tutorials, I used to hear this a lot: “You don’t need practice. You’ll grow faster by just rendering finished pieces!”
At first, I was like, “Yeah, that makes sense.” But lately, I’ve started to lowkey reconsider that.
I mean, sure, the sheer amount of EXP you get from finishing a piece all the way to the end is massive.
But when you run into a new subject, situation, or texture you don’t know how to render while working on a final piece, you end up having to look up references and experiment directly on the canvas. That just eats up an insane amount of time.
And since it’s your first time drawing it, the quality might be jank, or it could just be fundamentally wrong.
The reason I’m bringing this up is that while I was drawing the dress shirt for the second Uchinoko-Karte illustration today, I realized it looked super cheap and flat.
I stopped for a second and double-checked my references, and it hit me: this is exactly the moment I should do some studies and practice.
Here’s the latest version of the piece with just flat colors over the rough sketch.
Look at it. It’s so flat, right? The shirt around the arms looks especially half-assed.
There’s zero softness to the fabric; it just looks like lazy lines.
Come to think of it, I didn’t even prepare reference photos for a shirt in this specific pose.
I lack the skills, and I lacked references. RIP.
So I decided, “You know what? I should actually practice this.”
I took a pause and intentionally did a quick observational study of a dress shirt.
Just to see if I can even draw fabric.
Hey, I did it. It actually looks a bit like fabric, right?
I’m sure pro artists would look at this and cringe, but I’m confident I couldn’t have drawn this three months ago. (Don’t ask me where I got “three months” from though :p)
A pro artist once said that the reason they can draw clothing folds and shadows from imagination is purely because of their mental auto-correct built from past EXP (i.e., having drawn it before).
Rendering fabric on the fly during a final piece might be efficient in its own way, but honestly, I feel like I need to prioritize building up that “I’ve drawn this before” memory bank.
Having actually done something before is a massive buff.
So, as a strategy to speedrun my art improvement, I’m thinking of adopting a cycle of: “Draw a final piece → Do some practice studies → Next final piece,” and sticking to that schedule for the rest of the year.
Practicing on the spot when you realize you lack a skill is fine, but I kinda just enjoy doing dedicated practice sessions anyway.
I’m gonna hunt down some better shirt references and redraw the piece I’m working on right now.
Let’s get this grind!
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