Clear-Headed Morning and Reference Poses
Reference (2) I woke up after sleeping soundly and early. As expected, people really do need sleep. Waking up left my head crystal clear. So clear, in fact, that I could barely remember what I'd done yesterday. Still, fragments came back to me. I'm not that much of a goldfish, after all!! Good thing I'd sent those problems to Pyeong yesterday. References… My head was overflowing with ideas, but putting them into words felt impossible. First, I had to tidy up my bedding. As I folded the blanket, I mulled it over. Finding references was a hassle—should I just draw them? Or back out? That was just who I was. Start something, drop it, start again, drop it, over and over. Season N of giving up… Season N of trying again.
“Hmm… I don't know. I guess I have to? No, I really don't know.” But this wasn't a problem I could think through simply. Between waking up and streaming, I only had about five or six hours left. Subtract time for prep before the stream and eating and washing up, and usable time shrank to… maybe three or four hours. If I sliced the schedule carefully, that might work. However. I couldn't just follow through like that. After streaming, I was always too exhausted to do anything. Doing it before the stream risked being tired during the broadcast itself. Streaming came first, right? Right now, with so many floating viewers coming in, I had to hold on to them… Suddenly changing things up here would be disastrous. I'm not that much of an idiot. But this was an enormous issue. Not something I could solve alone. This was a moment when advice was desperately needed. And advice, of course…
I called Maru, but she didn't pick up. Probably because it was ten in the morning. A shame, but that didn't mean I had no options. Next was Moddeok… I didn't have to get advice specifically from Maru. She was just my top priority. I'd only be using it as a reference anyway. Maru had even told me not to take her advice too seriously. I could ask everyone. Asking wasn't embarrassing. You asked because you didn't know, right? If I were smart, I'd have figured it out myself. School too… The teachers always said to ask questions!! Questions were the driving force of growth!!
“Hello!! Tteok-nim!!”
“Yeees… hello…” Her voice was thick with sleep. She'd picked up while still in bed. What should I do? Should I hang up right now?
“Tteok-nim!! Should I call back later?”
“Ah… n-no. Why… why?”
“I called because I wanted advice!! But you sound super sleepy!!”
“It's… fine. I'm awake now.”
Once she said she was awake, I took a deep breath and spoke clearly. “I have a problem. May I tell you about it? Will you accept?”
“What is this… Yes. I accept.”
“I'm planning to replace my panel.”
“Pfft… Panel, huh.”
“Ah… yes. The panel. I'm changing it, but I'm stuck on how to handle the references. They're all in my head, you know? I just don't know how to find them.”
“Hmm…” The hum stretched on. Almost three seconds? Four? Five… A full eight seconds passed before she answered. “You can draw, can't you?”
“Ah! I was just about to explain!! I can draw, but my skills have deteriorated. I haven't drawn in so long.”
“You can't draw at all?”
“Uh… not that. I just can't get my old form back. I used to be pretty good, but now it's… not great.”
“Can you manage a rough sketch?”
Rough? I wasn't sure what counted as rough, but by my standards, after so much time away, I'd lost maybe sixty to seventy percent of my old ability. Still, my hands remembered enough to manage something basic. I'd tried before—the lines were wobbly, but the shape was recognizable. It was just heavily degraded compared to before.
“Roughly, yeah, I think so?”
“Then just draw it yourself. Even a rough sketch is enough—they'll handle the rest. I just scribble a rough composition for thumbnails and they fill everything in. You don't need to worry about that.”
“Huh? Really?”
“Really. A rough sketch is plenty. Don't put so much pressure on yourself.”
“Uh… uh?”
“And it's a good idea. Virtual original art on stream would be fun, right? You could get feedback and reflect viewer opinions. What do you think?”
“Uh… ooh? Ah. But drawing streams don't get viewers.”
Surprisingly, back when I was still decent at drawing, I'd run regular art streams. Back then, people didn't even chat, let alone watch. The only messages were “Please take commissions~” or “Draw this for me~,” and the rest was emptiness. It had been a huge shock. Being good at drawing and getting viewer reactions were two different things. Viewers had suggested I watch video donations instead, but I couldn't stomach the furry videos or male dancers in women's clothing doing women's dances, so I'd shut it down. The stream had nearly collapsed because of it. Good thing I'd cut it off quickly. If I'd kept going… just imagining it was horrifying.
“When did you do that?”
“That was… a really long time ago.”
“Wouldn't it be different now? Maybe some people want to see it? Use it occasionally, like a secret weapon.”
“Then should I keep drawing?”
“Aren't you drawing right now?”
“No… I'll show you my schedule. Nine hours of sleep, nine hours of streaming. One or two hours of free time. One or two hours for meals and washing up… That leaves one or two hours of leisure, but it's hard to focus during that time.”
Sleep was non-negotiable, and streaming was work. Those two couldn't be cut. They were promises I had to keep. I had to squeeze everything else as tightly as possible… And since I was also planning to learn singing, I couldn't have everything. I'd have to give something up.
“What about taking a day off?”
“I stream seven days a week. I take breaks occasionally.”
“Is that possible?”
“Yes. For me, it is.”
“That's because you're young. Even if it's possible now, later… You should just set aside one day as a break and practice drawing then.”
“Ooh? I'm also thinking of learning to sing, though?”
“Then do it on that day. Learn singing, then come back and practice drawing. You're not aiming to reach pro level anyway, right? Just enough to draw on stream? I don't know much about art, so I can't give better advice.”
Eh? Whoa, ooh!? Moddeok was a genius. I hadn't thought of that at all. Yeah, she was right. That would free up time. Instead of squeezing nonexistent time, I could just make time!! Ooh!!
“You're right. You're so smart… I've solved it. I'll write the announcement right away.”
“W-what did you say?”
“I'm taking a day off.”
“Today?”
“No. I'll spin the roulette. I'm bad at choosing these things. When I say I'll spin the roulette, it just works out somehow.”
“Whoa… You're a genius.”
Genius? This made me a genius? Ehehe. Nice. As expected of a high woman-power woman—her compliments were always the best kind.
“Thank youuu!!”
“Did I help? I didn't really say much.”
“No, it helped a ton.”
“Okay. Then bye-bye.”
The harvest had been huge. She'd caught something I hadn't even considered. This was why I needed to communicate with people!! It had only been a ten-minute call, but I'd gained so many realizations. I'd learned. I'd grown again today.
“Alright. Le~~~~vel up!!”
Well then… I had to do what needed doing. First, I'd take the references myself!! I set up the tripod and struck a pose in front of the full-length mirror.
“Doomchit? Doomchit?”
I swung my arms like I was doing aerobics. Something about my current look felt lacking. What was it? Ah!! Right. I'd forgotten. The video I'd watched so intently yesterday… I needed to play it again. I carefully copied the twin-braid hairstyle. It had looked hard when I watched, but trying it myself turned out easy. Just tie it and shake it around, right? Done. Time to change clothes too. Back into the usual black outfit. The current clothes had a big character print that didn't work well.
“Good. Again. Doomchit doomchit. I'm, Seon-a!! I'll show you my reactions~ Doomchit. Uh… uwah! Uwah! Ooh? Ooh? Seon-a~ I'm Seon-a. Hoo… This is tiring… Haa… haa…”
I waved my hands energetically in front of the mirror. It really was exhausting. This took more stamina than it looked. Let's see how the photos turned out… Huh?
“Ah!! What? No. Ah.”
I'd forgotten to take the pictures. All the poses I'd worked so hard on hadn't been captured. Ugh, it's… it's fine. Mistakes happen. I steadied myself, set the camera shutter on timer, and tried the poses again. The first one was a dancing pose—yap yap yap yap.
“Doomchit? Uuuuwah?! Oong~ Yap yap yap yap!! Khap!! Got it.”
All of them came out well. Now for the next… This was hard. Poses required a lot of thought. My brain hurt. What would be good? Everything was difficult. The world was full of hard things. How nice would it be if only easy things existed? But if I wanted to grow, I had to do it. I clenched my fists and tried my best at something. The first step was the hardest. Once I kept going, it became like this? Or like that?… I took photos in over ten different poses. Done. Now… I just had to mosaic them. Just mosaic the face and… wait?
“Ah, I almost forgot. These are references!! I'm drawing this character, after all!!”
I'd been so focused on taking photos that I'd nearly forgotten the point. This was where it really began. I sent the photos to Pyeong along with a message.
“I have one difficult request. Pyeong-nim. Could you mosaic these photos for me!! I'm going to draw the panel with them!! On today's stream!!”
Good. I'd done well. I'd completed everything I needed to do during the day. Afterward, while I was eating and resting for a bit, a call came from Maru.
“Hello!! Maru-nim!!”
“Yes~ hello. You called earlier~ so I called you back.”
“Ah…!!”
I'd already solved it, but… should I still tell her? Or not? No!! That kind of thinking itself was wrong. Seon-a. I had to tell Maru everything!! That was the right thing to do.