Rotting Sketches — Rescue #1: Blomässen (Patreon)

Hi, how have you been? Excited to finally start rambling to you like this.

It started with an actual vase, a new one from Ikea, sitting empty on my desk, doing nothing in particular. I just started doodling it, added some flowers, wasn't really feeling it, and shut the whole thing down. That's usually how it goes for me, some sketches just hit that "meh" wall halfway through, where I don't feel like taking them any further, and I stop without much drama about it.

It sat there for months. Honestly couldn't tell you exactly how long.

I stumbled on it recently while looking through old files, and finding it is actually what gave me the idea for this whole series. I looked at this half abandoned little vase and thought, I bet I'm not the only one with a folder full of these. So this piece became Rescue #1 because it's genuinely the one that started it all.

And normally my instinct would be to go back and clean things up first. This time, I just went straight into colouring it as it was, no fixing anything, and it turned into a wild little bunch of flowers, with these lovely dropping blooms cascading down. Not wilted, I promise, just loose and a bit untamed, and honestly my favourite part of the whole piece.

Turned out cute. Genuinely glad I finished it.

And since the whole thing started with an actual IKEA vase, I couldn't resist giving it a proper IKEA name too, meet Blomässen, $12.99, some assembly required. It could genuinely be sitting on a shelf tag right now, right between BILLY and MALM, like it's always belonged there.

I'm writing this with a cup of warm tea waiting for me the second I hit post, and there's something kind of nice about that, sitting here with this little rescued piece open beside me, half distracted by the tea, feeling oddly proud of something that used to just sit there unfinished.

If you've got one of these sitting in your own files somewhere, half done, a little forgotten, maybe this is your sign to go finish it. Or draw something entirely new, inspired by this wild little bunch. Or just tell me what you think of it below. I'd genuinely love to hear either.

Until the next rescue,

~ Hasi