Website Updates 11/1/25

 Hey! Hi there! It's been a while (again).

I finally found myself with some free time to finish up the website! I finished my active comic work for the year earlier in October and have been doing some light prep work for chapter 6 of Swave, and I've just been kind of noodling around doing nothing but hyperfixating on TV shows.

I'd finally gotten enough of the hyperfixation out of my system to where I can focus on other things again, and today ended up being a website day!

 

So as far as the updates go:

    - updated the links page, it looked absolutely butt-ugly with just plain text links so now there are some nice, shiny new buttons linking to all my social media

    - revised home and about pages, I mostly just moved some things around between the two pages so the home page now has a cleaner, more direct look while the about page has more of the rambly, silly stuff. I also put a nicer drawing of myself on the about page, as much as I like my silly little doodle of me dying on the floor I wanted a nice one for that page. 

    - added project progress bars to the home page for a visual status on what I'm currently working on, this has been something I've wanted ti implement for a LONG time and I'm so glad I can check that off my list.

    - updated the resume page with recent projects and managed to change the color of the hyperlinks from that awful intense blue into a nice gold to better fit my color scheme

    - changed all the little stars from five-point ones to four-point ones. At smaller sizes they're kinda hard to see bc they're so tall but it's fine, it's just for flair. They're not, y'know, load-bearing PNG files or anything.

    - added Hex Bites (18+) to the comics page 

    - fixed the gallery page (sort of), I'm not 100% happy with it yet but I think just having two columns of art static on the page was better than being in the little scrolling box. Ideally I'd like to make some sort of dynamic gallery where you can click on the image and it'll show a larger version so you can see the details, but that's a bit beyond my skill set right now and I've already spent most of my day on these seemingly small edits.

 

I feel like this last little cluster of updates was what I needed to get it to a finished state, everything looks and feels so much more cohesive and clear in presenting myself as an artist and it just feels complete now. I'm still going to try and get the gallery to the stage I want it to be, but that's a project for another time. I also need to update that with new art (absolutely tooting my own horn here: I feel like my recent illustrations have been outstanding and I feel like I'm on the verge of leveling up my art again) but I'm not in a huge rush for that either. I'm not actively seeking out freelance work or anything right now so it's not really a huge priority. 

As we go forward into winter, disoriented from the time change, I'm mostly going to focus on chapter 6 of Saffron Wave. I'm going to do my damnedest to do 2x weekly updates and in order to do that I need to have a lot prepped ahead of time. The script is mostly done, I'm giving myself a break from working on it to let it marinate and will probably go back to it with fresh eyes and a clear head in a few weeks to see if there are any revisions or additions I need to make. I've also written a good chunk of chapter 7 so that'll help a lot with this 2x weekly updates thing. I'm hoping I can stay at least one chapter ahead in the script of what I'm currently drawing and being able to get a jump on chapter 7 was a huge boost to my morale.

 

That's gonna be it for now, just wanted to give a quick update and announce that website construction is finally done!! I'll see you around~! 

Website Updates 5/6/25

 Wow, hi, it's been a while, huh?

 I've changed some things, naturally, the biggest one being my username (again).

I don't really dislike kellerybird in any way, but I'd been wanting to get away from the 'kel' part I'd been using for all my usernames for nigh on a decade. I wanted a fresh start with something new, especially since I feel like such a different person from even 5 years ago when I changed to kellerybird. I don't feel like any of the usernames I've chosen in the past were really unfitting or unsuitable, but I really feel like AuraLuxe suits the current me best, especially as I try and broaden my creative horizons.

We'll see how long this one sticks, lol. 

So, on to the website changes.

First off is the URL, I bought a new domain with my new username today so everything finally feels "official" even though I'd begun the process of changing everything over last month. My social handles are a little inconsistent unfortunately, I didn't think to research if anyone else was using any sort of variant of AuraLuxe beforehand (turns out there is, ah well), so I've decided to incorporate 'art' into nearly everything and how certain platforms handle usernames has led to some platforms having oh-so-slightly different handles.

So the website URL was the topmost priority for me, now I have one single consistent space I can direct folks to so they can find me and my works instead of trying to link five or six slightly different handles.

All the assets, etc have been switched over too, so now everything feels complete.

 

Which leads me into the next point: I've finally filled out the links page! I don't think there's much else I really want to add to it, I don't use nearly as many platforms as I used to and have also just been limiting my time on social media a lot lately anyway. The formatting is fine, I may add some decorative doodads here and there but that's basically it for this page.

 

I think the next big thing is going to be swapping out the stars for some four-pointed stars, to better match my logo/branding/etc better. I use that specific star shape a lot with Oh Holy Hex! things so it feels like that particular asset belongs to that comic. Also I think the yellow is a bit strong compared to the other colors on the site, so swapping to a more pastel shade would work better overall. I know OHH has a very similar color scheme but the colors there are more saturated so the more intense yellow fits in better there.

 

....I think that's it, actually. Everything else I've been working on re: branding has been for youtube (which is part of why it's taken me so long to get another video done, I wanted to use the new stuff but I needed to make it first). I didn't realize how much of the site is virtually finished, I thought I still had a lot more I wanted to add when I was going over my mental checklist this morning but when I opened Neocities a lot of stuff on that list had already been done. Guess I just forgot since it's been so long since I worked on this. Aside from fleshing out some areas with proper text instead of silly placeholders, fixing some stuff with the gallery, and adding in some decorative images on a few pages it's perfectly functional.

I don't know if I'll be able to get around to any of that stuff soon, between regular webcomic stuff, my persistent youtube attempts, and participating in Spiderforest's application season this summer I don't expect to have a lot of free time until maybe August. Like with crochet and playing video games, the stars have to align just so in order for me to have the time, physical + mental energy, and spoons to do it (especially since I have to do website stuff on a pc, I cannot do it from my ipad it's so frustrating on that device).

So, that's it for now. Thanks for sticking with me on this crazy identity crisis journey of self discovery! 

I'm most active on Bluesky and Tumblr right now, and Saffron Wave is once again updating weekly on Wednesdays~ See you around!

Winter Daze

 We got our first snowfall the other day. Not a lot, maybe around an inch or so. Most of it had already melted by the time I took my partner to work at nine the next morning, and it had completely disappeared by the time I left for work at two. Fortunately, though, the roads weren’t iced over.

As much as I dislike winter, I do like when it snows. The austere beauty that overtakes the landscape never ceases to amaze me, and something about the silence it brings is so comforting, like being wrapped in a blanket. That sort of feeling has been very much needed the past week or so.

Nevertheless, we persist. I’ve been toeing the extremely fine line between staying aware/informed and staying sane, because rationally I know panicking about every single thing will ultimately amount to nothing good but I want to, very irrationally, curl up into a little ball and sleep for the next few years.

I’ve been limiting my time on social media. I’ve already kind of dropped off quite a bit regarding activity, but the constant stream of madness seems like as good an incentive as any to reduce screen time. Lately I’ve just been giving a few minutes here and there, amounting to around an hour or so (give or take) per day.

You’d think this would provide ample time to dive into all my little projects, but instead I’ve been indulging in video games. I got Oregon Trail for my Switch and have been really enjoying it, and I picked up Animal Crossing Pocket Camp Complete and have been having a lot of fun with that as well. I’ve also resumed crochet and have started a few little projects. Being able to work with my hands helps a lot, and having to count (and recount) my stitches helps calm my mind.

That said, the year marches on regardless and I’ve been feeling the itch to work on my art projects again. This year we’ll finally get to a really juicy chapter of Saffron Wave!! I’ve been dying waiting to work on this one and I can’t wait to share it with you all in a few months!

I’ve also been working on another short comic for ComicFury Zine, they changed their application process this year and require completed submissions before applications open, so I’m trying to give myself a good head start so I can balance that and Swave as we head into spring.

Which leads us to the website! I really want to get this thing finished, lol. Now that I’m on a consistent work schedule again and am getting back in the creative groove, I want to set some time aside for finishing the website. Aside from taking care of the half-complete pages, I want to add a bunch of art to the rest of the site. I’m an artist, for cryin’ out loud, I don’t wanna limit the art to just the gallery page. The downside to that, however, is that I still need to make most of that art.

I do have some art I need to prioritize asap from a raffle I hosted on bluesky, but once I get those taken care of I can work the website art into my free time a lot easier.

I also have a lot of work I want to do on the Saffron Wave website, I’m still so grateful for the Spiderforest team’s help getting everything up and running for me, but a lot of the site still feels really empty because I haven’t made time to add in all the extra stuff yet. At the very least I want to get the about page sorted, which will include a blurb about me and a (hopefully) brief overview of the Minoans so readers can have more context about the culture & setting of the comic. I’m also working on finishing up the script for chapter 5 so I can start roughing out pages, so it’ll be a while before there’s anything art-wise to share.

If I had a point in making this post, I think it’s basically just to sum up that I’m still here despite my lack of activity on social media, and I’m still working on stuff (just behind the scenes for right now).

Thanks for sticking around! I’ll see you soon~

Baby Steps are Still Steps

 When I'd started building this site I'd been debating if I wanted to buy a domain. Generally I don't mind URL's that are some flavor of [name].[website].[com] but since this site is my new home and portfolio I felt like maybe this would be the time to finally take that leap and give myself a .com name.

I wasn't quite able to make up my mind until I saw that on bluesky you could have custom domains for your user handle instead of the standard [name].bsky.social and that was what tipped the scale.

So I now officially own kellerybird.com!!

The slight downside is I now need to order new business cards and stuff lol

I'm planning to finish up more of the site starting next month, I've been really dogpiled by projects and deadlines on top of starting a new job a few weeks ago so I haven't had much free time this month. I want to expand the comics page to include future projects I've been chipping away at here and there and flesh out a few more things (like fixing up the gallery page).

I likely won't be able to make any new art for the site for a while still, so that will probably be one of the last things I do before I consider the site completed.

It doesn't feel or look like I've been doing much here this past month, but I've been doing a lot behind the scenes so I am still making progress.

Hopefully next month will have slightly more exciting news.

Website updates 9/21/24

 The hyperfixation has waned but the fixation is still there, lol.

I've updated the about page, the comics page, and added a resume page listing all my current and completed works.

The plan is to eventually ditch carrd and just use neocities for my website/portfolio. Carrd has been nice but it's really limited with what I can do visually, where as neocities, while I don't know much about coding, I know enough and have looked up what I don't know and it's already miles beyond what I was able to do with my carrd site.

All I've got left as far as building the site is to flesh out the links page, fix a couple things in the gallery, and figure out what the heck I wanna do with the home page.

I wanna add some more art to the site, but everything I want to add needs to be drawn so I likely won't get to any of that until maybe this winter. I've just got too much on my plate for autumn with 3 zines on top of normal comic stuff so I'm not expecting much wiggle room until like... late November after all my zine deadlines + recovery time.

That's it for now, I'll check back in when I make more updates to the site~