My vision of the character ‘Smaug’ from J.R.R. Tolkien’s ‘The Hobbit’.
Pencil sketch, coloured digitally on IbisPaint X.
Here is a passage from The Hobbit describing Smaug’s appearance: “There he lay, a vast red-golden dragon, fast asleep; thrumming came from his jaws and nostrils, and wisps of smoke, but his fires were low in slumber. Beneath him, under all his limbs and his huge coiled tail, and about him on all sides stretching away across the unseen floors, lay countless piles of precious things, gold wrought and unwrought, gems and jewels, and silver red-stained in the ruddy light. Smaug lay, with wings folded like an immeasurable bat, turned partly on one side, so that the hobbit could see his underparts and his long pale belly crusted with gems and fragments of gold from his long lying on his costly bed.”
I am an art teacher with a master’s degree—trained by brilliant professors who believed that art could do more than decorate walls. I offer safe spaces for teenagers to grow—nourishing soil where their imaginations can take root.
And yet… I am assigned to hallway duty.
This is compulsory education, after all.
So I sit—posted like a sentinel—watching young lives stream past.
“Get to class,” I say with a smile and a nudge.
The system wants attendance; I’m hungry for presence.
Armed not with a whistle or clipboard, but with a pen—
my scribble’s soft insurgency.
The hallway stretches out like a geometric hymn.
Columns and corners chant structure.
Teenagers swirl past—half-formed galaxies of limbs and laughter—
their orbits chaotic, their gravity pulling time forward.
I begin to draw.
Not their tardiness, but their motion.
A shoulder. A blur of sneakers.
A tilted head chasing freedom.
Feet flickering like seconds.
Each mark a pulse.
Each smudge a breath.
My paper becomes a seismograph of seeing—
trembling gently through the mundane.
This isn’t about making art for a frame or a feed.
It’s about refusing to leak away in the fluorescent hum of obligation.
It’s a quiet mutiny against the clock.
I do this on long car rides, too (passenger side, mind you).
Letting the lines grow wild, jagged, and unapologetic.
Not for polish—
but for presence.
This is how I remember I’m still alive.
Still growing.
Still watching.
Still choosing to see.
Because sometimes mental health looks like
a piece of scrap paper,
a moving pen,
and the simple, sacred act of
marking time with wonder.
This painting is basically for Janamashtmi and I have made Lord Krishna in it... And people here in India celebrate it really beautifully as today is the day he was born (^‿^) Happy Janamashtmi to everyone ✧◝(⁰▿⁰)◜✧
Sorry I haven’t been around to post much. I’m always really busy during the summer months. I decided to buy a set of oil paints and experiment with them. When my set arrived, it was missing a blue paint so i had to improvise on this one. The painting is still wet so there is some glare in the image. I feel like it looks good, but I am definitely lacking the skill and technique in oil paints. That is why this painting is super simple and easy subject matter. Hopefully, I can start to get a feel for the oils :)
Gouache on paper, this was my second time using gouache, I’m pretty happy with the medium! And will do more gouache paintings whenever I’m not doing oil
It's been a while since I draw on kraft paper.
So, here is the result on the thinking process: How can faun shield themselves from sunlight if they can't put a hat on?
Answer: They tie branches to theirs horns.
...
I should be the one shielding myself from the sun just so it can't kill anymore neurones.
---
Ça faisait vraiment un moment que je n’avais pas dessiné sur du kraft.
Donc voilà le résultat de la réflexion: Comment les faunes font pour se mettre à l’abri du soleil s’ils ne peuvent pas mettre de chapeau?
Réponse: Ils s’attachent des branches dans les cornes.
…
Je crois que c’est moi qui devrait me protéger la tête du soleil, histoire que ça ne cogne pas trop sur mes pauvres neurones.
A penguin. Digital watercolor base with oils overtop. I wanted to try to paint it like those traditional animal paintings from ages ago. I gave them an ear piercing for the challenge and kept it at that. They're stuck up; they don't need much. ;P
I am amazed summer after summer seeing this tree and garden grow. I started this with a blue background and a black layer that I punched through, and from there, I painted layer by layer from the back to the front. I like the realism I got, but I kept to a painterly feel using oil brushes.
It's been a hot minute. I was taking myself too seriously until there was no fun in drawing left. So I had a break, then bought myself some chunky kids' markers and voilà!
