by bulb

At present, six different people in Somnolescent draw—that’s a lot of art! Though we stopped doing the full-blown recaps last year, I thought it would be fun to turn the art highlights section from those recaps into their own recurring monthly post. This, of course, means going up halfway into the month, because I get up to too much and sometimes deadlines slip. We’re not a corporation here, just a cult.

The deal was simple: I asked each of the Somnolians to submit the one drawing they did during the month that they’re most proud of or have the most to say about along with anywhere from a paragraph to a small essay about it. We’ve got a nice grab bag of everything for the start of autumn. Click the images for full-size!

Savannah: Werewolf Moon (September 5)

Cass icon for the fall! Wanted something kind of spooky, particularly since right now, as I’m writing Wisp, I’m starting to focus increasingly on Cass and her end of the story.

Big fan of how the colours on this one came out, did sort of purplish-red shadows with orange highlights which came out really warm. I also cranked it out (prior to some additional tweaks) in like three hours? Speedy piece.

dcb: Hoodie Lince (September 11)

I doodled some expressions for Lince on a memo pad during my last road trip and lined this standing pose from that sheet, some time after I got back. I found that I had lost my sketchbook at some point which was really stressful, so I thought that lining an existing sketch would help me ease back into drawing. And I like how he came out a lot! It’s all in the eyes when it comes to expressions, so I’ll redraw them a couple times when I’m lining. This was a strong drawing for me I think, very friendly and expressive, which is kinda the goal I wanna have for my art.

Caby: Watercolour Bunny (September 23)

If you were to look at my art folder for September of this year, you’d think I’d gotten basically nothing done. And in some ways I do feel like that! But the reality is that I started university, and I’ve been busy with that and the summer homework I’d been set this entire month.

That said, if I had to pick a favourite personal piece, it’d have to be this one. There’s a little reference to uni in the folded paper she’s looking at (based on a project in class), and also something else that uni inspired me to try again, my classic watercolour style,, It was very fun working with my faux-traditional brushes again, and I’m making sure I do more with them in future. The art itself turned out a little looser than my digital tends to be, which is fun.

Plus more Bunny, because everyone likes Bunny.

Cammy: Craig the Salesman (September 27)

I’m always eager to do more gift art for folks. I’ve gotten a lot of lovely art over the years, and especially people in the group have characters I adore and think about way too much, or characters I think have been neglected. dcb has this arctic fox plushie he named Craig, and while feral/plushie/Gamedachi Craig has been drawn a good bit, his Pinede version (I guess what you’d consider his home world) has basically been completely neglected. He doesn’t even have a ref! I had to use the colors Caby picked out for him.

Anyway, dcb’s birthday came in mid-September, and while I missed it (it happened around the same time as I was finishing up the Yankee Hotel Foxtrot First Draft, and given he’s a big Wilco fan, I figured either would make for fine birthday gifts), I had the idea for this Craig a few days prior to it, and I got it done before the end of the month, so I was happy. Craig is a quirky, wandering (emphasis on wandering) salesman type, trying to pawn off lightly-used goods to those he meets. Definitely good at heart, but perhaps a bit naive?

Also, the single best thing anyone has said to me about my art so far is Savannah saying this drawing gives her Rocko’s Modern Life vibes. It’s 100% in the eyes and colored sclerae, but damn if that didn’t blow me away to hear. I’m coming into a particularly expressive, toony style these days, and I’m starting to wonder how much I’ve been subconsciously inspired by cartoons I grew up with (Rocko partially, but more Joe Murray’s follow-up cartoon Camp Lazlo). Maybe I should lean into those influences more, because I love ’em.