self

Speaks for itself I suppose!

Re-uploaded with some edits that no one will notice. The OC's name is Caroline Shelton. She belongs to the middle-upper class; her father is quite wealthy, so she knew no hardship much. But she is eccentric and zealously strives for knowledge, has many hobbies and is skilled in many things because of her pursuits. Basically, all she cared about in life was intellectual development. She had only one friend who could stand her personality and temper, James Holloway. Some time later, he disappeared, and Caroline received his bloodstained watch from an anonymous sender with no explanation, only the mailing address from which the anonymous sent the package. Caroline couldn't think of anything better than to dress up as a man and travel to the town the package came from, introducing herself as James Holloway and gaining fame with her skills. She hopes that if the anonymous hears about an albino man named James Holloway in the town where they might live, they'll contact her again when they hear about her. Her logic is this: this person sent a package containing something important to Jim to her, so they must know something about Jim, her, and their friendship, and if they hear Jim's name used by an albino, they'll understand everything. So she sets out on a dangerous journey, making herself a kind of beacon/signal for the anonymous sender to find them and through them to find Jim or learn what happened to him. She'll meet Tommy during this search.

After yet another afternoon of mind-drifting, I found something I wasn't expecting. One thing over the years, memories are bound to forgotten if I don't recognise its importance in practice. In this case, it was a basic yet very crucial element for my dynamic pieces: curly lines. Continuing from the "spirit" of that character drawing yesterday, I started early today with trying to draw the character in its updated form. Suddenly, I ran into a roadblock: I was unable to bring it to life. Running through nearly a dozen sketches, something felt missing. A bit frustrated, I just lounged around the place and listened to some music played on my phone. Turning it off after a while to prevent the media distraction trap, I just started to let my thoughts wander and looked through different things, asking myself some things... My work felt a little blocky lately. It almost felt like I was focusing too much using certain details as a starting point to improvise from. This results in me struggling to build outwards into a full picture. Often, I find myself losing track of the original concept, which frustrates me. One thought then got into my head. It was something I enjoyed in the past years, which was the concept of "Flow". Suddenly, I felt signs of an answer. The original drawing "White Bird" came into my mind, reminding me of how I started drawing that important piece. I still have a strong impression on how I started it. It started as flowy lines to carve out an outline, vibe, or energy, or whatever my mind finds to describe. Later, I would slowly narrow out the details and sharpen its precision, almost like carving a figure out of nothing. And there it was. Sketching the core or skeleton of an idea, adding the main shape, before narrowing down the to details and precision. A very basic skill in drawing that I have forgotten, as dumb as a nitwit. If I had the core idea there from the start, I wouldn't have lost it right? Putting it into practice, I saw its immediate effects. Curly lines were the only thing I used, and suddenly the White Bird was flying and "alive" again as it should be. Man, I have recorded these for years, within my personal achieve of sketches. Yet, I somehow forgot them like an idiot? I am just speechless. It almost feels like I am back to square one, although there was a takeaway. I have learned the lesson of forgetting this basic practice, which led me astray for all these months. Seriously, I really have to remember how important it is. Putting that aside, I have noticed that I have these 2 styles. One was that "start from a detail and spread out", and the other was the "start from the big picture and narrow down". I had instances of success in both, which gave me a slight dilemma on which to choose. It is obvious that I can't limit myself to either, that would be falling for the stupidity of Duality. My own solution, would be to use either when the situation calls. I can't forget either, I just need to know when is the correct time to use it... ==

Been some time since I touched the pencil. It wasn't easy to get back to drawing, since I was also distracted by the internet for some time. Lots of things went through my head, while I was out on a trip. Just drew whatever I felt like drawing, and this came alongside some reflections: I have been stuck on fixing this character concept for a very long time, trying to box it within a classification. Bird, wyvern, dragon, shadow, whatever- I came to a point today, where I felt that it really doesn't matter anymore. This is that sort of character who can be everything. I spent the entire afternoon trying to arrange all the little ideas and features, following true to creative intuition. Smashing together many of my previous character designs, this appeared. A masked and unnamed figure (???) with traits from many of my previous works. An avian / draconic / spiritual shapeshifter has always been something with me all this time, even when I tried to create a sona years back (finding it meaningless). True to its nature, it has few lively features except its eyes and requires a mask to display additional signs of life. Its clear that this character is basically a symbolic self-expression. It wasn't easy to seperate myself from my introjective tendencies, which easily distorts my concept of this figure (took weeks to untangle). Once the confusions loosen, it reappears with noticeably familiar features. The scribble above still has some room for rearrangement, just limited by the irreversible nature of pencil drawing. The grey markings were too dark, and the feet might look better staying white. The pale golden underbody markings, were actually a surprise.

We all wear masks…some are beautiful, some are ugly, we change them depending on occasions or people we meet, but every mask is just another piece of who we are. With this portrait I challeged myself to focus more on strokes than variety of techniques and brushes. I mainly used @jingsketch soft square render harmonic brush

About a year and a bit ago, I bought myself a copy of the very first Miffy book by Dick Bruna from Paper Tiger because as I often say, why not? And as many of you know I’m still a big kid at heart, hahaha. More to the point, the style’s similar to my own and naturally… inspiration intensified today!

For an Instagram art challenge, we had to draw a beat ‘em up character in the style of a robot. Here’s my contribution! I could’ve gone with some fairly obvious choices, but to challenge myself and try something new, I opted for Gon from Tekken 3. Turning this dino into a robot, now that’s where it got interesting!

I am illustrating a children's book for an author who is self-publishing. The story is about her granddaughter who wants a guinea pig and has to learn how to care for it.

I like drawing my body like this, well, I feel like I can accept the flaws in my own body. I think all my toons going forward will have some bumps and curves.

When you take a punt on a blind sticker bundle for your art… because, reasons! Can’t say I’m a huge Britney fan but I don’t dislike her though. Millennials like myself couldn’t escape her no matter how much we switched the music TV channels over as kids hahahaha! If I ever encounter anyone who doesn’t know who she is, I’ll tell them she was the Tate McRae of the late 90s/early 2000s…

A playful and vibrant hand-lettered tribute to the universal language of comfort food. Featuring whimsical doodles of pizza, donuts, ice cream, and fried chicken, this design captures that "treat yourself" mood perfectly. Ideal for foodies, snack lovers, and anyone who knows that sometimes a donut is the best therapist.

This is an airbushed stencil of myself

A bit on the rough side right now, since I'm just getting started (again) on watercolours. I've never painted this loosely before so this is a big step for me. Maybe I'll try a selfie again in a few months to see how I've progressed.

In fact, she [Mummy] said after a while, we have gone into hibernation. Nobody can get in any longer and no one can get out! I looked carefully at her and understood that we were saved. At last we were absolutely safe and protected. This menacing snow had hidden us inside in the warm for ever and we didn't have to worry a bit about what went on there outside. I was filled with enormous relief, and I shouted, I love you I LOVE YOU, and took all the cushions and threw them at her and laughed and shouted and Mummy threw them all back and in the end we were lying on the floor just laughing. Then we began our underground life. We walked around in our nighties and did nothing. Mummy didn't draw. We were bears with pine needles in our stomachs and anyone who dared come near our winter lair was torn to pieces. We were lavish with the wood, and threw log after log on to the fire until it roared. Sometimes we growled. We let the dangerous world outside look after itself, it had died, it had fallen out into space. Only Mummy and I were left. - Sculptor's Daughter by Tove Jansson #dailydrawing #tovejansson

I crawled right up to Daddy's modelling mirror which stands on the floor by the box of plaster. A great big black creature was creeping towards me. I got cautious and stood still. The creature was shapeless. It was one of those creatures that can spread itself out and creep under the furniture or turn into a black fog that gets thicker and thicker until it is quite sticky and gets all around you and fastens itself to you. I let the creature get a little closer and put its hand out. The hand crept along the floor and then was pulled back suddenly. The creature came even closer. Suddenly it got scared and ran quickly in an oblique direction and stopped still. Now I was scared. - Sculptor's Daughter by Tove Jansson #dailydrawing #tovejansson

A surprise scribble done on a whim, and I did not expect this myself. The drawing progress felt very smooth and sleek, almost like it felt more natural to draw characters in this style over my "usual" serious mode.

This is an illustration I did a few years ago for the cover of a book of children's stories written by self-published author, Jane Fraser.

Quick sketch.

I was feeling a bit down the other day. I needed to draw something to make me feel better.

AP Studio Sustained Investigation piece - 2026, Watercolor and sepia-toned colored pencil on paper.

I stared and stared at her until I had stared her into little pieces and I thought, you're big and scraggy like a carthorse and nobody can hunt for you in the grass and you couldn't hide anywhere because you can be seen the whole time and you can't surprise anybody and make them feel good! You have completely spoilt our games for no reason because you can't play games yourself! O alas and alack! No one wants your presents. He doesn't want them! You're nobody's surprise, and you can't understand because you're not an artist! And so I went a little closer and humiliated her by saying the most terrible thing of all : amateur! You're an amateur! You're not a real artist! - Sculptor's Daughter by Tove Jansson #dailydrawing #tovejansson

“Conflict with oneself occurs when you’ve split yourself in two or more.”

It got cold very quickly and the fog was there, moving thickly around us, shutting us in on all sides. The smooth swell rolled out of the fog, crawled under the raft with a swallowing movement and rolled back into the fog the other side. .... Albert picked it up by the neck and looked at it, and it began to screech and flap one wing. Let it go! I shouted. Everything looked so terrifying with the fog and the black water and the bird creeping around and screaming that I was beside myself and said: give it to me, I'll hold it in my lap, we must make it well again. - Sculptor's Daughter by Tove Jansson #dailydrawing #tovejansson

A cow thinks he can jump over the moon, so he's leapt and employed wings to succeed. Moral of the story: Believe in yourself. If you believe you will succeed, the chances are very likely you will.

For some reason, I had to prove to myself that good art does indeed take time. Anyways, this is an angel character (they're not real angels, they're a fictional species of mine) in my "spacefluff" style. I think I want to name her Mosambi, because she's sweet.

In the end I began to feel weak at the knees and then I knew that soon it would be too late, in a few seconds it would be too late, so I let it fall into the gutter and began rolling very quickly and without looking up. I kept my nose just above the top of the stone so that the room I had hidden us in would be as tiny as possible and I heard very clearly how all the cars stopped and were angry but I drew a line between them and me and just went on rolling and rolling. You can close your mind to things if something is important enough. It works very well. You make yourself very small, shut your eyes tight and say a big word over and over again until you're safe. - Sculptor's Daughter by Tove Jansson #dailydrawing #tovejansson

A detailed, hand-drawn illustration of a frothy beer mug featuring the play-on-words "Auto Therapy." Perfect for craft beer enthusiasts, home brewers, and anyone who finds peace in a cold pint.

God lived on the hill above the rock-garden and there was a forbidden cart up there. At sunset he spread out like a mist over the house and the field. He could make himself quite small and creep in everywhere in order to see what one was doing and sometimes he was only a great big eye. Moreover he looked just like Grandfather. We raised our voices in the wilderness and were continually disobedient because God so likes to forgive sinners. God forbade us to gather manna under the laburnum tree but we did all the same. Then he sent worms up from the earth to eat up the manna. But we went on being disobedient and we still raised our voices. - Sculptor's Daughter by Tove Jansson #dailydrawing #tovejansson