Welcome to September everybody! We made it!

Summer's not quite over but we're approaching the end fast. I'm probably only so excited because this summer has been Hard. Long and chaotic and grating, with lots of interpersonal and housing stress. But I'm also a huge fan of the fall. Sweater weather and golden landscapes, oh my~

And to be fair, August was far kinder to me than the last few months before it. I ended July with WasabiCon, and dedicated myself to making as much fan art as I could this month, to pad out my collection before Rose City Comic Con (next weekend!)

I managed to make three full paintings (quite a lot for me, for one month). The first was this Adventure Time piece, with Princess Bubblegum and Marceline.

I don't do much fan art, but once I got myself moving this one came together like a dream. It's nice, sometimes, to have all the big design decisions made for you. I hadn't realized how much stress I have in the character design portion of paintings until I made this piece and didn't have to do any of that. Which is odd because before I made this my job my paintings were almost 100% character design! I'll have to do some nice character focused pieces in the next few months to get more comfortable with that process again. Something with very minimal backgrounds so I can really give the design the attention it deserves.

Anyway. This piece was a lot of fun to render, especially the hair.

It's cool sometimes to rewatch my own painting videos and see all the decision making out there on display. Every time I went back and changed a pose or fixed the perspective or re-rendered a chunk of fabric. This isn't my favorite style of timelapse to make but it sure is easy, and I hope it's at least a bit entertaining.

My second painting this month was of Ramona Flowers from Scott Pilgrim. I knew I'd have to be a lot easier on myself if I wanted to finish this one in time, so it's much simpler in a lot of ways.

Of course what I always forget is that a simpler stylization/rendering demands a much more polished composition. I ended up spending about twice as long as I'd expected, just trying to make the movement feel right. There's some things I'm not quite happy with still but I love the color pallet, the chunky dust clouds, and how crisp the shading is. This one has a little video too!

I only have 30 subscribers on my youtube channel but apparently that's the point where you start getting comments on videos. That's wild to me! I'm always best at posting consistently when I don't feel watched, when I'm just stashing art away for myself for later. That's so fundamentally at odds with how these websites want to be used and how they operate. I get to walk a tightrope now of trying to be kind and polite and encouraging of commenters without them getting in my head at all. At least everyone's being very kind so far! Hopefully it'll help a bit that I can't make videos faster than I make paintings anyway.

I made a third painting right after my birthday, very quick and simple. I don't know how long I spent on it but I knocked it out in one sitting so it couldn't have been too long. I need to find a better name for it, but right now I'm calling this Post Birthday Melancholy

I'd taken some time off work for my birthday, made some plans-- and then had to spend the whole week quarantining at home with covid. It was rough. I'm not all that attached to my birthday, but I'm very attached to my plans and my expectations. Readjusting once I realized I was sick was Hard. Actually being sick, also, sucks. We know this. It still catches me by surprise each time.

So I made this once I was well enough to paint again. No video this time-- I recorded one, but it's too short to be worth editing. Very abstract, more emotion than anything else. I spent most of my time tracing over the shapes, giving them highlights and depth. It helped. It usually helps.

I haven't decided if the fan art pieces will go on my shop with my big Fall update, but this Melancholy piece definitely will! Here's the full lineup of fanart I'm bringing to RCCC. Let me know if you'd be interested in seeing any of these in my shop! The next update will be on the 22nd of this month.

And also, just a reminder, these Summertime prints will be leaving my shop during that update, so if you're hoping to get some you should order while they're up!

Now, looking to the future. I've been thinking a lot about what direction I want to take my art career. What I value, what brings me joy and energy. There's a lot I love about doing markets, and a lot that frustrates me. My goal (over the course of the next year or so) is to find alternative ways to get my art out there and to support myself- galleries, artist collectives, teaching- and to focus on some larger projects that I'd lost track of. Namely, my tarot deck. I finally sorted out all my paintings, figuring out which tarot cards they fit best. Most of them will take some serious edits to actually be tarot card-worthy, and there's plenty of holes that will need all new illustrations, but the whole project is much further along than I'd thought. That's really encouraging.

I'm not committed to making this my career forever, but I am committed to doing as much as I can while I'm here, and to finishing that deck.

Now don't get it twisted- I still intend to be out at markets for the foreseeable future!

On September 6-8 I'll be in artist alley at Rose City Comic Con! Keep an eye on my instagram this week for a map of the venue and where I'll be located. It should be a really fun event and I hope to see some of y'all there!

On September 21 and 28 I'll be at the Portland Saturday Market.

And as always, my online store is open every day of the year <3
I only stock a limited number of each print with each shop update, so if you see something you like you should grab it while you can!

Thanks for reading to the end here <3 It sounds so cheesy to write out, but it really is support like yours that keeps me doing this. Knowing that people are signing up, that you like my work and want to follow what I'm doing, that keeps me going. Here's a little coupon as thanks. I hope you have a wonderful September!