ahhh thank you so much!!! my method which i DO recommend was to get in deep parasocial relationships with all my friends' cats and do nonstop fanart.... here's a bunch from last year:

you can kind of see i'm still figuring out shapes.... sldkfjs also IN BETWEEN the b/w batch and the current batch (several months?) i fully forgot how to draw cats and did a few iterations on the very first cat drawing to decide how i wanted them to look:

also a huge fan of (as with basically any art i do!) looking at how other people draw/simplify the subject and trying out pieces of it for size!! (like, "oh this artist i like does cat faces in THIS way, can i apply that to this photo ref") uh and i definitely use reference heavily, the poses are pretty directly pulled from the photos folks sent in!

i know sometimes anatomy study (skeleton, musculature, etc) is recommended & i FULLY believe this would be helpful in understanding poses and drawing cats without photo ref but i'm.... distractible & easily bored.... slkfjds so i have a lot more fun approaching from a "how do i stylize THIS specific photo" angle

housekeeping stuff!! some folks expressed interest in physical zines & i promised to put them up.... running a quick poll to gauge numbers as i try to figure out how/where to set up a shop

this is meant as a "if you can't make the exclusively PNW conventions i've been going to but really want a book!!" out, i'm not really looking to set up a longterm webshop (i'm so..... unbelievably lazy) but don't wanna geolock the physical books either!

batch of cat commissions!!!! everyone's creatures are really really incredible

hello friends i'm opening some Very Specific commissions... just a couple slots to test the waters, but--i love drawing cats!! fill out this form and i will draw your cat for 20 USD!

>> COMMISSION FORM HERE &lt;<

ahh thanks so much!! i use photoshop CS6 and basically exclusively the stumpy pencil v2 brush for lines (~8px brush at 70% minimum diameter for a 300dpi image)

for additional riveting detail keeping the minimum diameter high is how i get the even/thin lines look i like.... and i have recently been messing around with dropping the brush size, i feel like it looks good digitally but prints out thicker than i want slkdfs

friends i read in one sitting & truly can't recommend enough The Iron Children -- it's an INCREDIBLE ensemble cast at odds with one another in an impossible situation (war) now forced to work together in a smaller impossible situation (manager quit one day into your internship and handed the entire project to the intern). It's about loyalty and duty, cyborgs, religious ethics…… really really character-driven science fiction at its best!!

i love these STUPID SAD CYBORGS so MUCH please read this book

hello hello, i'm so glad to hear you enjoyed it, i'm going to be putting spare copies online after this cycle of conventions!! which arrrrre sakuracon this weekend and alaska robotics minicon mid-may, so i'd expect books in the shop in early/mid june!

made some beetle packs for pals & have handed off the LAST one so now i can talk about them!!! the first friends i tested these on were like "aw cute!" and then "wait did you draw this packaging by hand" and then "..... you OWN a printer"

and then i did not take this good advice and made like thirty more packs. fun to pretend to be a photocopy machine for a bit!

i think it's a little hard to tell because of "no color" and "sketchy manual reproduction" but the design was REALLY explicitly based off these old pokemon booster packs... briefly tried doing a veggie-with-legs but it was totally unreadable

and then after i thought of the card pack theming i was like, well, there should be a surprise inside!! so i made three more beetles & put a random one in each pack..... and, also,, labelled them just in case

and that was, a bunch of my december!!

stealth bonus creatures! i've been calling these ones water, ground, and grass type, and they are hercules beetles 💪

(rest of the beetles here!)

Year in review

compelled to keep the year-in-review streak alive but the 12-square grid hasn't represented anything useful since... 2016 so we're breaking form! also i simply didn't make enough art to fill 12 squares

first complete inktober! things that helped: making up my own challenge... putting stupid joke beetles late in the month that i was excited to show friends (making direct eye contact with the neopets beetle hahaha), having friends BE kind & excited about beetles!

shortbox comic: really good practical lesson in "if you do something a lot, consistently, you... improve..." this is not really the comic i set out to make (i did.... so much reading on the teleology of natural systems & not even a little bit made it into the actual comic slkdjf) but it DOES have fun borders, which was the other goal. overall, think the art came out nice and the writing could've used some more baking!

I SPY zine: a little collaborative zine of illustrated I SPY drawings that, imo, turned out really, really nice. free in PDF form! it was always meant to be digital but we formatted for print just in case and then i printed some copies (since it was already formatted!) and god this one is nice to hold in your hands.

and then i did a lot of little doodles of friends' cats which was very very fun. i love drawing cats and looking at photos of your cats!

it was a good year! two conventions, a handful of ttrpg commissions, really, i cannot emphasize enough, so may cats... i do miss making quick one-off comics and also doing, like, any illustrations at all, so those are the goals for next year

hello hello! i HAVE i was just looking at these silly bird mockups i made way back when:

or else fish would be a good time i think... mainly however i am very flaky and bad with followthrough so anything requiring me to manually ship things is kind of a dicey venture. this is vague and noncommittal--pins sound VERY fun, i have no concrete plans atm but sometimes do get kneecapped by Planning Inspiration!

N2, my comic for shortbox 2022!

ahh thank you so much!! 💕💕 i have an inprnt shop here and am happy to throw anything in if something you want is missing!

cedar beetle x letter box x HAPPY HALLOWEEN! ("is this beetle halloween themed" well i put a little human skull on the mailbox, so,,,)

(rest of beetle party here!)

i dug myself out of beetle debt and tomorrow: the final beetle! (additional beetles here)

calligrapha beetle x jupiter (webb telescope) | ten-lined june beetle x printer test rose chafer x safavid mosaic | grapevine beetle x plaid rainbow darkling beetle x razer | small hive beetle x kantha

bug parade continues apace! (additional beetles here)

ATLAS x CONSERVATORY | LEAF WEEVIL x CLOISONNE BESSBUG x HAWAIIAN SHIRT | BLADDER-BODIED MELOID x ONION DOME COCONUT RHINO x DARIGAN PAINT BRUSH | RED MILKWEED x LUSTREWARE PINK SPOTTED LADY x RETRO STRIPES | EMERALD EUPHORIA x VAPORWAVE

beetledrop (additional beetles here)

tumblebug x 80s tracksuit | earth-boring dung beetle x talavera ponderous borer beetle x jazz | six-spotted tiger beetle x holo paper squash beetle x zellige | marsh beetle x celtic knot potato bug x nebra sky disc | comb-clawed beetle x morris & co. wallpaper

october! the time of attempting to draw 1 thing a day for 31 days! i have chosen beetles. (beetle species + pattern refs in alt)

(additional beetles here)