I’m not sure when the next update will be… I think I will have to temporarily revert this comic to a random update schedule until my current school semester ends. 🙁 I did try to keep up even with schoolwork, and I DID manage to just BARELY meet the update deadline for page 14, but it just turned out to be too much. ;_; The good news, though, is that this semester only goes until sometime in April, after which I should be able to resume the schedule. 🙂
…Well, in a sense, she was probably there all along, but nine years of KNOWING her, let’s say that. xD
Anyway! Today is the nine-year anniversary of the day that I first was aware of Mask Face, whom I consider my Muse… the night before, Jan. 16, I had the original dream in which she introduced herself. I also kind of consider this her ‘birthday’ of sorts. 😛
Here are some things I did in a celebratory intention… the sharing of a really old piece of art that was done in the year I met her, and a collection/timeline of art showing her development (or rather MY development in depicting her) over the years. I shall show them in that order. ^_^
On the Inside (9 year old art)
This prismacolor-pencil drawing was done in March 2009, around the time I first decided to officially write a story around Masky (Baby Dreaming-Esmeralda, OH all the good feels, it was such a magical time ;u; ) I suppose the message of this art, with Masky’s reflection in the mirror looking un-deformed, was a “she’s beautiful on the inside” kind of thing… which, while the sentiment WAS noble, presents two issues to modern-day me. xD One! I VASTLY prefer the version of her on the left, WITH deformities (personally I say she’s always made one-eyed noselessness look totally hawt anyway so it needn’t be confined to ‘the inside’ ;D) And Two: making Mask Face look ‘normal’ really doesn’t do her justice and in fact may do the opposite, pretty much defeating the point. :’D
BUT! I still really like this drawing, oldness and all, even though it kind of contradicts Masky’s message AND even though that is the WORST attempt at drawing a cello I have ever seen. xD Frets! It has FRETS. D: But I guess I can kind of forgive myself since I barely knew anything about cellos just a few days or so before this drawing was made. :’D (Masky introduced me to the instrument, fun fact. xP )
Also as I recall, I used to think that the gray/blackish pigment on Masky’s skin was part of her deformities somehow… I hadn’t developed the Gray Person theory yet. xP Thus she does not possess said pigment in the reflection.
~~~ And now getting on to the timeline-thing… 😛
Nine Years of Masky
2009: I believe this is the first color-drawing of Masky that I ever did, ever. It’s done in oil pastels and was made a mere two days after I had the dream. Masky is shown holding (and largely hiding behind) a mask that was made to loosely resemble Sekoiya the Kazzen, the older version of my ‘fursona’/spirit-beast. That’s how much I could ALREADY tell that Masky was closely bonded to my own individual spirit. :’D This was a couple months before I decided to make an official story around her, so at this point she was just an alluring shadowy entity fresh in my consciousness and not a ‘character’ yet. 😉
2010: In all truth… I’m almost certain this drawing was actually made in 2009 as well. ^^; But the info for this file on my computer said 2010 so I rolled with it! xD Besides, 2010 was a DEAD year for Dreaming Esmeralda related stuff… I dug, and I dug, and I DUG, both in physical files and digital, but I could NOT find ANY Maskies clearly labeled with the date 2010. HOW did she go on the backburner SO quickly when she’d entered my awareness SO powerfully just the previous year? …And how did I SURVIVE 2010 that way, furthermore?? :’D ALSO! That purple dragon she’s petting is a proto-version of Pan the Draggin. Yep, in the very beginning, PAN looked like THAT. 😀
2012, ’14, ’15, and ’17: I tried to give some air time to lesser-seen drawings with these choices… ’12 and ’17 are unfinished works (at least one could still get finished x3), and ’14 and ’15 were only ever posted exclusively on this website, nowhere else. I was super-duper torn between that unfinished face-shot and Music Wand for ’17, though. x’P But this one’s not been seen before and by golly, I just LOVE how her face came out, it’s darn-near close to perfect. 😀 😀 😀 Sing the praises of the Drawing Goddess!
2011, ’13, and ’16: They can all be found in my deviantArt gallery if you care to poke. ’11 is actually the first drawing of Masky I ever shared to deviantArt. ^u^
I was not expecting my first art-post of the year to be of an Esmeraldian Tapper-goat, but here one is! xD I was spontaneously overcome with an urge to draw one as I was listening to some epic music containing tap-dancing rhythms.
(Also I borrowed lyrics from the song ‘Lord of the Dance’ to title this piece… I know the song is about Jesus but it sort of reminds me of Tappers too. Sorry for any blasphemy. :’D )
No, Tappers CANNOT actually conjure fire and/or sparks from their hooves; I was just trying to visually symbolize how awesomely they dance. 😛
It’s done in oil pastels and was made a mere two days after I had the dream. Masky is shown holding (and largely hiding behind) a mask that was made to loosely resemble 
