Older drawings between July and September 2023! Doing something new with my eyes gives way to a bumper crop of much cuter, toonier lads...
Craig! - September 27, 2023
dcb turned 20 on the 17th! I unfortunately had to choose between getting the Yankee Hotel Foxtrot First Draft out on time or drawing him something for his birthday on time, and I figured I couldn't lose either way because he likes Wilco and I had a cute idea for his birthday thing. I wound up doing it about a week and change later in literally like five hours. I work so much quicker now, holy crap.
This is Craig, one of dcb's Pinede OCs! Craig is an arctic fox traveling salesman, trying to sell you a lightly-used Muradian vase. I figured he could use more art, as can all of dcb's OCs, and I got to surprise him with it in DMs and he loved it (wrote a long description in-character as Craig for the toyhou.se upload!). I think the best compliment I've gotten on my art so far has been Savannah saying this one gives her Rocko's Modern Life vibes. It's absolutely the expression and the colored sclerae, but...damn. Very proud of that resemblance.
Snowy Bunbon - September 13, 2023
And speaking of snow! I had an idea going into September to draw as many Caby sonas as I possibly could—I got to two, one of which is still a sketch, but hey! That's two more than existed prior to me starting it (and I still plan to do more!). This was the second girl I did, a rather fluffy, shy Bunny that I then did a more refined version of my watercolor coloring style on (as suggested by Caby...) The background is just some weird, abstract snowy thing, but it's cute, it suits.
I really like this girl; she came out super soft, especially with the colored lineart. This was actually the first Bunny I've ever drawn with my new eye style (since the others were for cammy.somnol, where I'm explicitly not doing that to simplify the look a bit). Super super soft. Long skirts and sweaters are basically my favorite outfit for girls, ngl.
The Crossover Episodes - August 24, 2023
As of late September 2023, I still have yet to get the Wales trip diary completed to my satisfaction (missing a few more BunnySetter pics), but here's the full-sized, non-dithered version of one of those assets anyway! Caby was the one who came up with the name "The Crossover Episodes" for any time I go to visit another Somnolian (currently only happened once, but 2024 and 2025 should see a few more <w<), and I dug it. Sounds weird and mysterious.
The trip diary has been really good for me because it's completely broken me out of the rest of my nerves about drawing Caby's sonas. I've not been very good about drawing them since I started, and I feel bad about that, so I resolved to draw a whole buncha Bunnys for this, and I'm really happy with how they've been coming out! You could probably tell by having drawn another Bunny a few weeks later...
Sleeby Setter - August 21, 2023
Fell off of drawing things because Art Fight always gives me such bad art anxiety, but here was a Setter I did in between working on assets for the trip diary. Literally woke up and doodled this boy first thing. Sleeby.
2023 Setter Ref - July 11, 2023
Major upgrade to last year's Setter ref, which I remind you, is only eight months old. Snoots and proper eyes do so much for a character's look, but really, it's all improved. I think my poses are more confident, I think my line quality is much-improved (seriously, turn your stabilizer off, no one needs that shit), and I can even write passably well with my tablet now! Downside—this took a lot of work. Seriously, a much larger size than I'm used to, and three whole fullbodies, woof. Definitely won't be doing a ton of these...but hey! Setter! My puppy boy! He can go back up on Art Fight now!
Big Kitty Eyes! - July 5, 2023
Talk about hitting the ground running! I was feeling a little stuck with my art at the end of June, and I started playing around with giving characters actual eye shapes as opposed to just the dot/line eyes I normally do. This turned out to be everything—not only was it just plain cute, but my heads were turning out a lot better structured, I could do expressions, and I had something to hang actual, rendered snouts on. My art had leveled up, and so had my confidence.
This coincided with a plan I had to get much comfier drawing Caby's characters and sonas (because I get nervy about getting them wrong, mostly), so I decided to draw Kapy! Kaplan. Her adorably soft strawberry tiger sona... Seriously, one of my favorite things I've ever drawn, and the drawing that I've gotten the single best response to on DeviantART—22 whole favorites! Given my previous ceiling was 9, I'd say it was a pretty successful experiment.
