So, it seems Corel Painter wasn’t the only thing trying to stop my creative flow (see entry “It’s Trying To Stop You”). My Wacom tablet decided to jump on the same bandwagon… What the hell is it with The Forces That Be…?! They seem to be trying to stop me from doing what I’ve finally been compelled to do after several years!

I’ve been having issues with my Wacom tablet for a few years. Periodically it would just go off while I was working and I’d have to unplug it and plug it back in. The issue was just getting worse until my solution stopped working (and it wouldn’t come back on until the following morning). I figured it was the cable, so I ordered a new one. It seemed to help until it stopped working again and refused to come back on. Again… So I put in a call to Wacom tech support. None of the solutions worked, which meant my tablet had finally bit the big one. Had it not been so old (it was made in September, 2014), I would have been able to take the cheaper route and get it repaired. But it wasn’t an option… I had to drop a little over $400 to get a new tablet. I wasn’t thrilled, but, as you can see, I was able to finish my drawing! I worked like a mad woman to get it finished…

In the meantime, I made these weird little scenes in Animal Crossing to get out my creativity… It seems silly, but I had to be creative until I was able to draw again. So The Forces That Be didn’t stop me! Much as they didn’t want me to be creative, “Life always finds a way.” It may not have been a great solution, but it helped.

I also had another outlet…

I’ve been seeing these markers on Facebook for a while and have wanted to buy them… It’s a bit difficult to tell in the picture, but these are the type that write in silver and have a colored outline.

I actually had one of these when I was a kid back in the 80s… Forget I said that… Not only do I not want to date myself and give you a clue how old I am, I’m also making myself feel old and I don’t like it…

Anyway, I always loved those markers, so I decided to get some and try them out. I couldn’t think if what to write, so I just wrote some song lyrics to see if they worked like the ones I remembered. No shit, they’re just like they were back in the day! I was so excited! Morticia said I was weird for that, but she doesn’t seem to understand how strong a pen fetish I have…

I’ve also had some other help during this stress I’ve been experiencing…

Sadly, my betta, Betelgeuse (named after the star, not the movie) passed away. I had really wanted to get a black orchid betta, but every pet store near me was out of them. I had to cross over into a neighboring state (thank goodness I live not far from the state line) to get the very last black orchid betta they had. Isn’t he beautiful? I named him Narcissus after the book/movie/miniseries Black Narcissus. I highly recommend the mini series. It was amazing!

Anyway, he’s been providing me with some comfort… Watching fish swim has been proven to lower blood pressure and stress levels. And man, did I need that last week. If it could go wrong, it fucking did…

I’m hoping for a much better week this time. At least I’ll be able to draw…