• Alright, this isn't the best way for me to open up 2018. I don't know how many of you have been wondering this but allow me to point it out. So, I haven't been posting much artwork at all this month. Is it because I'm busy? Well, yes I am, and I'll mention that reason later, though the main reason why I haven't been able to do anything is because my old laptop finally kicked the bucket. My old laptop hasn't been too healthy and just recently died from a fried motherboard. Yeah, that was just about the wort thing it could have happened to it. So, since the day I came back from vacation until about a week ago I had no way to draw anything. The worst part is that I was not able to recover all of my files from the old computer, which included just about everything I did from December-January. So everything from my To Do List, to the work files for the YCH I did, to the final 2017 weekly sketches, to the two drawings that I posted at the very beginning of the year? Gone forever. This may not sound like much to you all, but I'm not very happy about losing work that I spent a lot of hours of my life putting a lot of work into. I guess I shouldn't be too surprised, as that laptop was pushing to being six years old. Still, I wish I didn't lose those files forever. Now this isn't all bad news, as I have been able to get a new laptop, and managed to install all of my programs, as well as an upgraded and improved Sketchbook Pro. This means that I'll be able to do some much more dynamic and experimental things to my pieces- different widths to the linework, being able to make my own custom brushes- this did open up a new world of possibilities for me, so I'm happy that something good did come out of this. What will this mean for my productivity? I'm not quite sure as I do have one major obstacle standing in the way of the artwork that I can produce for you guys.

• College. Yeah, I'm still in college, though that will hopefully not be the case for much longer. Why is that? Because this is my last quarter and, should everything go according to plan, I'll be graduating on March! That's right, my long and arduous journey on my quest to become a professional animator will be coming to an end in just a mere month and a half. That does mean that I'll be needing to work my ass off to make that dream a reality for the next eight weeks, so my output may still be pretty minimal. I'm saying this mainly for those of you that I still owe commissions to, I'm only asking for a bit more of your patience. I haven't forgotten and, if I did, that's what the Notes and Comments are for. Just remember to be civil about it- I've got a lot of heavy-duty work to do for these next couple of weeks, but once I'm free from all that, that will mean more time I can spend on working on projects for the rest of you all! So very soon I will no longer be just a "student" I'll be a real pro!

• I've been trying to play a lot more video games lately, if that hasn't been apparent. I streamed Yooka-Laylee last month, and I've been trying to play more of that game on my own time. That's not all, I've also been playing through my old library of PS1 games including, of course, Crash Bandicoot. I don't have the N. Sane Trilogy, as I'm too broke to own a PS4, so I stuck with the original trilogy. My most proud achievement? I beat them all in the span of nine days. Yes, that includes the super-ultra-duper-tough Crash 1! I won't elaborate on them... at least not here. If you guys would like me to talk about my favorite game series, then maybe I will at a future date. But let me just say, those games do not get old... yes, even as dated as Crash 1 is, I honestly find the challenge to be pretty fair. Alright, mostly fair (Grrr, The High Road, Fumbling in the Dark, Slippery Climb). Now I'm sure you're all pretty familiar with how much I love the series, so that probably won't surprise you all too much. That's not the only trilogy I played during my holiday break, though.

• I've gotten into Ace Attorney a LOT recently. I played the Phoenix Wright Trilogy on my 3DS and- yeah, I know I'm pretty late on that boat- they're awesome games. I absolutely love them- the cases are a lot of fun, they can vary from tense, to hilarious, to really, really sad, but they're pretty amazing. I'll just say, I'm definitely a fan now, and I'll be playing through the rest of the series when I can get the chance. So yes, I'll be playing through Apollo Justice pretty soon. Also, just to throw this out there, Maya is incredibly adorable, and they made her even cuter in the anime (yeah, I've been watching that as well- I think that's moved me from being "a fan" to "complete and total trash").

• I am going to be writing a new fanfic pretty soon. Some of you may have already picked up on it, but that will be my "buffer project". One of them anyway, as a way to at least have some work done in the periods in which I can't draw anything. Fanfic for what? Oh, you'll see, hehehe...

• Timeless. Because of those damn computer issues I haven't been able to capitalize on my own series as much as I would have liked. However, that doesn't mean that I can't do that now- new year, new opportunities, or something like that. Not only that but my NEW challenge for the year will actually involve Timeless! What will it be? You'll find out when the first part of that project gets exposed to you all. I'm pretty sure you all will like it, and I'm looking forward to getting that started as well!

• My last bit of news for now is that I'm now on Discord! Not just that, but I've made a large server of my own that will involve a lot of different kinds of news about my own artwork, talks about games, movies, and music, and any other sorts of shenanigans that are par for the course on the BluMoonToons line of work! It's called The BluMoonToons' Official Server, and if you'd like to join I'll leave a link to it right here: discord.gg/5uvhVSC

What can you submit for this art jam?

ENTRIES

by


















by




by

Three's NOT a Crowd

Kyle Hazelnut

Bridget

The Hazard Family

Noah O. Possum

This one wasn't a birthday gift, but I felt like sharing it here because... well, it's still a gift, and a very nice one at that. Done by another really cool real-life friend of mine, . Noah looks absolutely great in your style, and the shading and coloring looks absolutely gorgeous. Thanks for the great take on Dot City's #1 cowgirl!

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I really can't say enough good things about all of this awesome work! Thank you, thank you, thank you, everybody! If you made a gift pic for me and I didn't share it here, please do kindly let me know, and I'll update the journal to show it off here. And I know there's some people that sent me gifts over on FurAffinity that I didn't mention here, but that's because... they're for FurAffinity! I'll mention them there! ;D

Now that I covered the gallery, I can announce my big projects for the year. There's three of them, and this is the order on which they'll start up (though I'll still work on all three at once).


1. Go! Go! Hypergrind: Take Two!

This project has already been kicked off by delivering updated designs to the main competitors, but that won't be all of it. I will also draw concept designs for all of the skate tracks featured in the game, and finally end it off with a good, ol'-fashioned instruction manual. Yeah, remember those? Back before you downloaded them digitally you got this big pamphlet of info inside the disk telling you all about the game? Well, that'll be the final step for this made up sequel to a non-existing video game, which is a pretty cool way to wrap things up if you ask me. ;D


2. By Your Side

Now, I know what you're thinking: "But I thought that project was over!" It is! The written part for it, that is, but that's not all I had in mind for this fanfic. There will be illustrations to go along with it, including a character line-up featuring the main, secondary, AND spoiler characters featured in the fanfic, an update to the cover of the fanfic, covers for ALL of the chapters, and maybe some illustrations for some of the highlights of the fanfic. I also thought about adding one final chapter, one that doesn't really have anything to do with the story but more of a long detailing of my writing process when it came to actually writing the project, how everything went in the writing stages, some of the blunders that I suffered along the way, all the way to the completed fanfic that is there right now. All to just make it a bit more "official" as it may. ;D


3. Timeless:

This is the big one. For those of you that have followed me from my very first account will know that this has been my dream project for an entire DECADE, and now it's the time for this project to finally come to fruition. Part of it has already started with updated designs of the characters in a brand new line-up, but that's only the beginning. There is SOOOOO much I have planned for this project that you all have no idea just how much more Timeless will be clogging up your notifications. After the line-up, the next thing will be another line-up for the secondary characters, followed by concepts of some of the most important objects in the series, followed by a teaser poster, which will then be followed by a proper pilot comic to set the series in motion, before officially taking off in mid-November. It seems like a long time from now, but we're almost halfway done through the year, and I have a LOT of work to do. Trust me, it will be BIG.

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It sure does sound like I have a lot on my plate, and that's just three big projects, that's not even including things like my commissions, other fanart, my Weekly Sketch challenge, other gift art, and more. AAAAAND I will also be finishing with college this year, so 2017 will be a very, very, VERY big year for ya boi Danny, but it should be also a lot of fun, very productive, and full of so much new stuff that I think will take BluMoonToons even bigger heights than before. Though I have to thank you all for your support and loyalty. I do feel very grateful to proudly say that I have a good following, especially with all of you being very kind, respectful, and (most of all, especially for me) patient. I probably don't say this enough, but I feel lucky to have all of you watch my progress as a novice startup trying to hit big, but also enjoying everything I do.

One last thing, I do have a Patreon: www.patreon.com/Blu3Danny While it's not very big, and it's just really more of a glorified tip jar than anything else, I didn't ever plan for it to be like a paywall to keep all of you from seeing work. No, my work will still be free, and you'll pretty much have access to 95% of it. My patrons all get mainly alternate versions to pics I've done before, and now they'll be getting a few new exclusive pics peppered here and there as monthly rewards, but I assure you I will not hold anything hostage for anyone if for no other reason than I can't really afford to do that. so you're welcome to be a patron, and if not that's cool too. It's not a solid way for me to make any profit to support my lifestyle or anything let alone pay for all of my college fees, but any little bit helps.

That's all, for real now. Thank you all for reading, and I'll see you all next time!