Black Panther 2

I made the sketch for this drawing more than a month ago, but now's finally time to finish it, which isn't such a bad timing as Wakanda Forever is coming to Disney+ this week. I'm not sure if there are any spoilers left, but I guess there are people who'll watch it on Disney+ for the first time so I'll try to avoid anything that could spoil the movie.

Marvel films have been declining in quality, especially after Endgame. At least for me there's that feeling of a closure, like it was a perfect movie and nothing that comes next in the MCU will be so goosebumps inducing. Yes, there are some unfinished story arcs plus new characters and interesting new stories, but I'm not sure how it will end. On the other hand, there are some superheroes who haven't been introduced so far and who I'd be excited to see, but it's still a vast universe (or multiverse) that could easily fall apart if it kept growing and people could eventually get fed up with it.

Wakanda Forever is some kind of exception because of Chadwick Boseman's death and the studio's decision to make major changes to the titular character and the tone of the movie. The plot was changed, it became a touching tribute to the late actor and also resulted in one of Angela Bassett's best performances. She's been one of my favourite actresses since her 80s and 90s roles, so after winning a Golden Globe for her portrayal of Queen Ramonda I'd like to see her winning an Oscar too.

As for the drawing, I was struggling with painting this kind of a superhero suit again, where I couldn't play with shadows and highlights as I usually do in my style. And not to mention all the details... 🙄 It's no wonder that it took me so long to finish it. It's different than my first Black Panther drawing from 2018, but I believe this works too. I don't usually use soft shading but it helps in cases like this.

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Creatuanary 2023

It's art challenge time! I'm sticking to my Armadillosaur for this year's Creatuanary challenge, but I also added a new version of Dinocorn from my Neighbourhood Rascals post. Of course, there are official Creatuanary prompts for every day of January, but I usually draw only one creature every year. OK, now two and that's because I love Dinocorn's design and the silly idea behind it.

Dinocorn was created for my rant about neighbours' noisy children, an issue that keeps bothering me every summer, so I mixed some trends I thought were popular among kids, such as superheroes, Hello Kitty, Minecraft, dinosaurs, Transformers and unicorns and created loud and destructive monsters (Dinocorn, Hello Kittybot and Batcreeper) that play unattended on our parking lot and cause havoc during summer months.

I'm very proud of Dinocorn's design, but it was a challenge to fit it in Armadillosaur's universe, although my style is too cartoony to be taken seriously anyway. I basically shrank it and changed the colour palette a bit. I'm not sure if this is the final version, but I'm slowly but surely building my OC universe.

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Bye, bye, kuna!

Three weeks ago Croatia adopted euro as its currency and joined Europe's Schengen area. Last week we stopped paying with kuna (HRK), but as expected the transition hasn't been going very well. That "switch" in our heads will eventually happen, but right now it's very confusing and it'll obviously take some time.

Kuna got its name after an animal, a marten that lives in this part of Europe (usually a pine marten or other similar species). It was also my inspiration for this post, so I drew a crying marten leaving forever with a bundle of now unusable kuna banknotes and coins.

Having euro as a currency will hopefully have more positive consequences as time goes by, but right now many people are angry, sad or afraid of letting kuna go. One of the reasons is the fixed exchange rate of 7,53450, which isn't easy to convert and causes too much confusion. There are converter apps but in our minds we're still not sure how much we actually have - visually there's less money in our wallets and bank accounts. Math has never been one of my strengths, so I've been struggling with these new prices too.

Another reason for dissatisfaction is that this change comes during one of the worst periods, when prices of many essential products are influenced by worldwide crisis, especially the war in Ukraine. Many companies raised their prices but then additionally applied a higher exchange rate after we started using euro so that everything became even more expensive overnight, while our incomes stayed the same.

As I mentioned before, that switch in understanding our new currency's value will inevitably happen and it'll eventually stop being the top news story... After all, this is the third currency exchange in my lifetime - from Yugoslav dinar to Croatian dinar, then to Croatian kuna and now euro. I've got a feeling we'll survive this one too. It's the issue with the raging prices that will be more challenging than our math problem with the conversion rate.

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New Year's Resolutions 2023

This is my New Year's resolutions post combined with my current obsession with JoJo's Bizarre Adventure anime. My resolutions are mainly about my job, so my Stand has many features typical for a teaching profession. But let's leave the JoJo Stand story for some other post.

Usual criticism aside, as any other job it has many challenges, coming not only from students but also superiors. Due to some kind of a burnout syndrome, last year I decided to step down from some of my work duties and take better care of my physical and mental health, so my resolutions are just a logical continuation of that path.

Sometimes you have to be brave and a bit crazy to point to exploitation and injustice because it could be dangerous for your future there - mobbing or retaliation aren't such rare occurrences in schools. I keep noticing more and more irregularities in this rotten system (especially after a painful eye-opening experience with one of my superiors a few months ago), but I'll try to keep away from their shenanigans and take care of my health because in all honesty - I can't change anything. If I was a JoJo character, my Stand would be my victorious alter ego, but in real life I'm just an ordinary insignificant employee in impossible situations, unable to deal with some of the issues such as following: 

- many systems, if not totally corrupted, are at least permeated by local political parties' ambitions and an "outsider" can't change much.

- educational systems may be designed to nurture creativity, but some schools don't do it, unless it brings profit or promotion.

- due to the ongoing decrease in the number of students, some schools are forced to enroll anyone who applies, becoming more like a daycare and resulting in giving exaggerated grades to keep students so our jobs could be secured.

- school is a battlefield where you're not always sure who you can trust, so you can get burned by putting your faith in the wrong people, including your superiors.

This list should be longer, but you get the picture. I just hope to have less work-related stress this year, but wish me luck. I've got a feeling I'll need it.

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My Art 2022

It's the end of 2022 and many artists present their best works by posting art challenges such as ArtVsArtist, TopNine etc., but I can't choose only eight or nine drawings - so once again here's a collage of all of them! I started this "tradition" two years ago and it's always fun to go back, revisit some of my old drawings, notice possible imperfections and wonder why some masterpieces didn't go viral. 😉

When it comes to statistics, the situation isn't great, but that's nothing new. My drawings usually get between 10 and 20 likes, some reels maybe a little bit more. The number of followers is still around 550, but I'm less and less concerned about it as time goes by. I'm trying to follow some trends, but I often draw whatever comes to my mind. That's why you won't be able to recognize all characters in my collage.

So here's to another year of... well, basically the same stuff, I guess! 🤷‍♂️ Happy New Year! 🍾🥂🎉

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