Somebody I Know (process & inspiration)

Last autumn I had the great fortune of seeing the wonderful Petra Hermannova and several other fantastic musicians perform at Kleiner Wasserspeicher in Berlin, a hidden yet superbly spooky and awe-inducing location. 'Ritual' was a bewitching show and the evening rife with inspiration. I've been meaning to capture a fleeting instant of emotion in a piece of art ever since because my moblie phone pics aren't doing the evening justice, however as with most of my personal projects I didn't get around to it for a good while. Today I've finally managed to sit down and work out the exact composition and mood I want to evoke. I don't usually work with photos like this and it's honestly daunting to start out with something feeling quite finished as my initial 'sketch'. A part of me want to finish this piece digitally, simply using the photo as an underpainting, but I originally invisioned this piece with lots of cloudy watercolour textures. And that's what I'll be going for. Starting from scratch on a piece of paper. Maybe I won't be able to capture the exact mood again, maybe I will. Either way, I wanted to share this part of the process with you, so that however the final piece will turn out, we will always have this 'sketch'.

Lol. I rarely check Facebook comments and just found out some guy has been doing some serious trolling under one of my posts (the words 'I want you to suffer' may have been typed), including getting increasingly pissed about how I wasn't responding to said trolling. Also, somebody has been reporting all my current Instagram posts for stuff, which is fine as I wasn't breaking any rules and the content moderators agree, but now I'm wondering whether this is connected. And then I'm wondering if this is an emotionally abusive ex-client having a meltdown. If so, I'm sorry dude, you've already thickened my skin. This can't shake me anymore. (also going semi-viral on Twitter. Best way of realizing people's behaviour is mostly about them and not about you)

I'm terrible at celebrating my achievements, so here' s all I did in January:

Work Work: Illustrations: 8 Workshops: 1 Personal Work Art: 1/4 Drawing Videos: 4 Books Read: Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, The Fragile Threads of Power (audio), Paladin's Grace (audio), He Who Drowned The World (audio), A Power Unbound (audio), The Alter Ego Effect (audio) Movies Watched: Only Lovers Left Alive, Poor Things New Recipes Tried: 2 Special Achievement: Patched ancient winter coat, only accidentally sewed 1 pocket shut

Watch this weak illustrator trying to lift 10 books and despair.

The Principles of Necromancy #1 cover variant Check out the comic here.

I made a vlog!

I want to do nothing besides hibernating and eating a lot of carbs until spring.

Is that the same fox?

I don't know! It's roughly in the same area, but I don't know how large their territories are and we certainly have more than one fox around here. So it probably isn't! (But it would be cool if it was!)

I just came across this old post looking for something else and now I'm just sitting here bawling my eyes out. The two kittens both passed in 2022 and back then it didn't hit me as hard as I thought it probably should--after all they were getting old, it wasn't unexpected and I was far away busy doing stuff. Plus, 2022 was my full on eco-grief-finally-losing-all-faith-in-humanity-year and I don't think I had a whole lot of room to process any more emotions.

Lately I've a had a lot of dreams about dead family pets, the generation before these, and I'm always grateful when I do because that's the only time I'll ever get with them again. Even as my memories are fading, they're at least still buried somewhere in my subconscious. Still, the time is always too short, particularly if I wake myself up with crying.

I guess that is already influencing my general state of mind, but there is something different about seeing these sketches compared to photographs. It's realer somehow. I remember the moment I drew these pieces, trying to capture their personalities just so. I loved these cats. And I miss them. I hope I'll dream about them.

I have no pets here in Berlin, so I’m constantly missing the family pets. Can you curl up on the sofa with a book, cat or dog or both cuddled up to you? You lucky, lucky person. 

We're thinking of re-printing this one! Yay or nay?

The haunted ABC by @checanty & @jmstudio is out now! If you want to explore a creepy mansion with us, while humming eerie ABC rhymes, you can get a copy here.

Summer foxy VS Winter foxy

Hello Fox-y

Foxes have officially surpassed red squirrels in my ranking of favourite animals.

Well, I'm sorry for this.

I want the confidence of my landlady when she's explaining to me why she is doing something that I'm 99% sure is actually illegal.

I made another video. I'm a video person now.

Sometimes your mental health just needs you to hang with some moss, lichen and funghi.

I just need to fix this one thing and and then I'm done with the piece.

OK. Now this one additional detail.

Alright, this small matter needs taking care of as well, but that's it. Now that I think about it this bit looks awkward, let's do a complete repaint. (but that's the last thing)