Yearly art overview- 2006-2025 (Patreon)

Yearly overview from 2006 til now.
I actually shared this on tumblr- and I figured since the scroll format is similar I might as well copy it over to here! I always found seeing other artists improvement really inspiring when I was still learning- it was good to see that everyone was once at a very beginner level.

I stopped doing the traditional thumbnail improvement meme format in 2017, because I started making comics and technically the art was worse, because I was making a lot more a lot faster. Also forgive me, it's a monster post, I love to talk. I'm also sorry for the size of the images, I think patreon will reduce them down- you can see slightly bigger on tumblr.

[caveat- university didn't make me that much better, having time to make art is why I shot up!]

The way I chose to continue this was a little sloppy, forgive me haha! Onwards to 2018, (the following is all written in 2026 rather than each year end, I decided I wanted to catch up!) There's an image spread for each year, and description below.

2018- I made my first (proper, longer) comics, and started my webcomic and patreon this year! I was finding it harder to make money from commissions after doing well for the first year after I quit my job, which makes sense, everyone who wanted one had gotten one. I didn’t really know what to do, but I thought I’d take a chance on a webcomic and patreon. Which…looking back, what the fuck, why? Haha. Anyway it forced me to move away from the rendering and figure out a faster, flatter style- which I think was so good for me, I was definitely falling into the over-rendering pit. It also meant I could do commissions faster! I actually strongly considered doing the webcomic in line+colour but I wasn’t confident enough.

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I'm kinda splitting these visually into...what I was doing on the side, and what I was doing as The Job, which was was making about 2-3 pages of webcomic a week, everything else was squeezed in- but the everything else was kind of where the majority of the experimentation and improvement happened. I would also be putting out sketchbook pdf's each month, a nsfw and a sfw, and they were pretty long, often 10+ pages each, I made hundreds of pages- I haven't included those, but they looked like this basically the whole time, sketches with flat tone:

these were probably where a lot of my figure improvement came from! I also made a LOT of scrappy comics in there. I also did traditional sketchbooks and studies, moreso later on. All my sketch pdf's are in the pdf collection here. [specifically, these old digital ones are here and here] Anyway, back to it.

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2019- Lesbians…I was making my webcomic but secretly I just wanted to draw old lesbians. Style wise I simplified my comic even more, I started using blockier colours, and on the side I started to try more linework because I was feeling limited by my painting style. I felt extremely bad at it and everything took SO long despite looking very simple! Sometimes...the lines felt like they were ontop, or in the way of my tones, instead of working in tandem.
I was invited to be part of a smut peddler anthology, which was a big confidence boost!

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2020- More linework, and a lesbian graphic novel pitch that would never see the light of day. Honestly this year it LOOKS like I figured out linework/greyscale but I was still very much not happy with it- it was taking way too much trial and error, and every time I pulled it off felt like a fluke. I kinda tried some more colour with my sketches/lines, but couldn’t get my head around it for anything but plain bg figures.
I also got hired for Smut peddler #2, and I got invited to the early access program on tapas, which very much helped my income.

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2021- Inking improved in leaps and bounds this year because of inktober(butchtober), I kept going well after the month was gone, and I think doing JUST black and white really really helped me boot the painting mindset that was hindering me. I wasn’t allowed to rely on soft shading or texture, all I had was black ink, and no undo. After that I went back to digital and used the hard round brush to add greys, and again that made me a lot more confident.
The webcomic continued on, getting a little prettier and softer. I think my nsfw sketches started to get more traction as my lesbian characters got more fans, but they were still very much unfinished in comparison to other work.

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2022- poking at tone and line again, since I'd about figured out lineart on its own, but I didn't branch out much- it was all gradient maps over greyscale. I DID realise that as my nsfw was gaining traction I should focus more on quality over quantity, which made it much easier to advertise on social media. I also tried to do another butchtober, but it didn't stick, I guess because it wasn't really a challenge anymore!

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2023- FINISHED MY WEBCOMIC, huzzah, hallelujah, etc. I was free to use that time to actually grow and try new things and not just squeeze them in on the sides! I tried in earnest to figure out backgrounds and characters with lines and colour, and I finally made some (nsfw lol) pieces where I felt like I’d finally cracked it! After that baldurs gate 3 came out and I went insane and started making art like crazy, getting LOTS of practice with line and colour, and working very fast. I think I finally clicked that my traditional art style using fountain pens-so limited width lines- was where I was best suited, building up weight by just going over it or filling in after, vs the brushy variable inkers I had been using digitally the year before.

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2024- This year I made So much art, and so many fast comics, I was able to try loads of different things, variations of colour and line and combining the brushes I'd become familiar with in new ways. I did an absolute fuck load of charity commissions, and I think they really boosted my speed and confidence with linework. My linework is very messy, but honestly, who cares. I don't do professional client work, so I don't need to fit that standard. I think most importantly this year I figured out a flat colour and line style that I am still using now. Also, those halsin/astarion AU comics were the blueprint of what I'm doing now- a slow comic release in a choppy sequence (and I got to use the research on sw too). I am SO fucking grateful to everyone who encouraged me, and I think back to all the times I felt guilty for spending so long on fanwork and think 'thank god I did it anyway' because I wouldn't be here otherwise.
Also! I did my first plein air paintings, and they have improved my art in so many ways, and they just bring me so much joy, to be in nature and really paying attention to it.

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2025- Oops I started a webcomic in all but name again. haha! This year was amazing for me, I don't even know what to say. I spent the 2 years before building an audience based on fanart and nsfw, so to then feel like people wanted to stick around for My stories, and not necessarily nsfw, was incredible. Art wise, I had a breakthrough with spot blacks, and stopped relying on shading or highlight layers for dimension. (things I should have learned from inktober but it didn't stick...) I also leaned more into a retro look, getting into textures and riso techniques. Speaking of retro, I did a lot of studies of old comics and manga, which I think really paid off. I previously felt quite bound by realism and I didn't know how to draw anything cartoony- especially big expressions, so I really tried to push it this year and I feel a lot looser! I also didn't want my style to feel...like regurgitated online art trends, which is why I chose to study older comics.

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Honestly it's kind of funny that my whole journey up to 2017 was learning how to paint semi-realistically, and my journey to 2026 has been about...trying to do the opposite. I'm learning how to draw manga and chibis in my 30s. It's exciting though, I feel like in a lot of ways I'm at a plateau, but there are so many paths in different directions I can follow!

[Thank you @haridraws for being there on my linework+colour journey the whole way…we kind of determined that people are naturally inclined to a way of working…and that trying to fight against that is difficult and maybe not worth it vs just making upwards progress. But. I ignored that. And they listened to my lineart complaints all the time and gave me lots of advice and inspiration and cheerleaded me while I slammed my head against the inking wall till I broke through lol :’). <3

And! for hiring me to use line+greyscale in their book, and trusting that I could do it despite my lack of confidence.]

I think for 2026 I'd like to do more sketchy comics again- I spend a lot of time in my physical sketchbook, but doing studies or media experiments rather than comics. I miss the sheer amount of comics I could make when I was doing them digitally in my spare time, too. I think I've fallen into a trap where everything I make becomes polished (to a certain level, anyway) before I can share it, and I'd like to get back to making some more bare-bones sketch comics. I'd also like to make work with the belief that people will continue to support my comics, I find it hard not to fall back into people pleasing when my income relies on it, but I'd like to try and build an audience that is invested in what I want to make.

If you read all this way...my god. I'd offer you a drink if I could. Thank you <3 And thank you SO MUCH for making my art dreams reality, I absolutely could not do it without you.