Hello all my friends of steemit, first of all I want to apologize for my long long disappearance. Its been a VERY difficult few months to say the least, on top of an even harder year. BREAKUPS SUCK!!!! Me and my misses had a falling out about 4 months ago now and it was a 6 year relationship. Part of this was due to the fact that my mother was dieing of cancer and we were the ones who were taking care of her. So I suppose that all the stress and fear got the best of our relationship and tore it apart. BUT at the same time this was a true test of what we were as a couple, we failed the test... or well she did. I fought till the bitter end to save what we had, I loved her truly but she quickly found a replacement for me... so much for just a break. -_-. OH WELL Ive been going through quite a transformation since all this shit storm and im ready for it to transfer into my art and my soul and allow it to only make me grow and soar. I mean... what else can I do but use the darkness to my advantage?? Im sorry for the long introduction, just a little bit of whats been going on. I wont go into much more detail, so without further adieu lets bring on some new art shall we? :) 

I have begun a new series of sketches on top of my regular commissions and work that is starting to bring back my old style mixed with my new! I need to get comfy in my dark places, I used to just draw with ink and only do monsters when I was first starting out. So in order to reground myself and find me anew this is what I have to do. Here are a few sketches that ive done with a little bit of explanation for each. 


This one is demon girl sketch #4, The witch. I started with this one because its one of my favorites but ill go back to #1 next. It was made from a reference but I took it pretty far. I want to get back into my comic work so this really felt like home making this. She even has a little monster familiar with her :) 

![demon-girl-4-witch.jpg](https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmYkVCdRcqxvNDEzNzt7TaVmyNry5iNnGboxsunN2ebNbD/demon-girl-4-witch.jpg)  

Here is demon girl sketch #1, as you can see I started off very sketchy and very expressive with these.. but thats what I needed. I NEED to express again, take from all this pain that I have in my heart and let it explode on the screen.... and I love drawing both monsters and girls so why not. 

![demon-sketch.jpg](https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmfYBAECke9SPc4sT11s42cSQ8rVeNXuemgc1XrtHRcD5F/demon-sketch.jpg)

Girl #2, here you can see that im starting to play around with gradients and really trying to feel that comic/manga vibe... Im really starting to love this at this point. 

![zombe-girl.jpg](https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmUAADqbMmpBtBS9c7wLkzadYkY9LLRTYBSM47TAuzLM86/zombe-girl.jpg)  

Girl #3, this one is another favorite.. I met a great and very beautiful friend online from another country and i was inspired to draw this piece. She was very appreciative of it :). And again you can see that I am playing with the gradients and simple lighting... 

![demon-girl-3.jpg](https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmTmocHbEW2Cz9hvzUUD4k1b9fZiFvU6VZir1cB1Dyoo83/demon-girl-3.jpg) 

Heres the last one for now, this was actually more of a study from the cosplayer Panchan, i just had to draw it though and it fit well with my series. Definitely looking very manga like in this one :). But yea... thats it for this post. I have much more work to do, more healing to do... but im gonna make it. 

![demon-girl-5-c.jpg](https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmRta2ugs5uQU7G1a9p9jGpHr7HEXyWhC3nWnEbqv2XnNR/demon-girl-5-c.jpg)


Life is difficult, life really sucks sometimes but what would hurt even more than these hard times would be if I just gave up completely, NO i will not do that... Ive done it before in my younger years and I still regret it to this day. Be strong. 

Feel free to comment below and tell a tale of sadness or breakup you might have, or just let me know what you think of my new stuff. Ill see you all soon. 

-Nycto