✨✏️ February behind: speedpaints, ref board, sketches (Patreon)

hello! (─‿‿─)🌱

made a departure from my usual "style" this month (yes, I do have a bit of bonepicking to do with the way that word is used, but another day...), because I was really in the mood to paint something that felt cheery in a way that was specifically reminiscent of storybooks I read as a kid. 📚🐛🐥 as usual, speedpaints are in the vid above and read on for everything else~

songs used:

6 am / animal crossing city folk

cute circus / tsundere twintails

you are my music / hi-posi

concepting + reference board

a practice I started several months ago  that has worked really well for me is writing out ideas in a list while brainstorming. it doesn't have to flow or make sense, just whatever comes to mind gets written down. some stuff makes it into the final piece, other stuff doesn't, and that's the beauty of this freewriting exercise. once I have a list, I get to go back through and pick and choose what's useful. it's nice too, because now I also have a bunch of ideas I can reference in the future to jumpstart new pieces. (b ᵔ▽ᵔ)b

ahh, as I always say, one of my favorite parts of the process: gathering inspo! just looking at this board makes me feel happy, I love all the lush greens and pops of color. I also tried leaning into a looser, painter-ly style, because I love how life-giving and energetic it feels. it's something I'm always striving for, with varying degrees of success, just gotta keep trying! ( ´ ▿ ` )

gesture sketching

lately, I've been very interested in pushing abstraction in my art. I find I have a tendency to render things as they are instead of what feeling they give off and I think so much of art's power and intrigue is in helping us see what something is in essence rather than in reality.

was having trouble nailing the dance poses in the sticker and did some studies to help me better understand how the body tends to move when dancing. lot of fun spine arching and dynamic movement in the arms and legs.

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overall, I was really in the mood to try something different for February and I'm really glad I explored and experimented! I always think it's vital for artists and creatives to try new things and not feel limited by "style", what's popular, or what they think others expect from them. there's a lot of growth to be found in experimentation and it's natural for what we make to evolve with us as we change and grow! thank you for supporting my own creative exploration here on patreon, you guys are the best and always encourage me to stay playful and curious! ⸜(｡˃ ᵕ ˂ )⸝♡