June 2021

August 15th, 2021

Horribly late again? Yes indeed I am! I’ll just make the next few posts in bulk and then set them to post one a day until we’re back up to speed, all good~

At some point, I decided I’d make a desktop background for Cammy’s XP machine, in a style inspired both by art I’d seen on the Yerf archives and also on the countless desktop screenshots people used to post to DeviantART. Therefore, a character done in a faux-traditional style pasted onto a very shiny, busy digital collage background.

I also made one for Lince in the same style! Is only fair, seeing that he also has a good, chunky retro computer in need of a background. You can check out that one in this here blog post, which is an interesting read on top of that.


Much of this month was spent on an art challenge I took on, in which I drew an LGBT couple of my choosing each day using a prompt. I chose Riley and Giulio, the retired pair of artistic dweebs who run the Art Gallery in Apricot Bay. I’m really pleased with a lot of the stuff I drew for it, so it’ll take up most of this month’s entry.

This first one was for day 14, where the prompt was “Lazy Sunday”, which immediately made me picture their regular trips down to the riverbank near the Gallery. Riley doesn’t do lazy, so he’s still up and painting. Giulio on the other hand is happy to be lazy enough for two,,,


This next one is day 22, the prompt was “Swimming”. Cammy suggested to me that they should be swimming in the rain, and it sounded like a fun idea so I took it. I guess I decided to make this image as challenging as possible for myself, as not only was I drawing water, I was also drawing it in the rain, underwater, and also at this curious, dramatic angle. It was all worth it though, because I’m really pleased with the outcome.

I pictured it as Riley and Giulio visiting a local watering hole to splash around and relax, and they invited Colton and Madeleine along too. At some point, it started raining, but Riley and Giulio didn’t mind, and in fact enjoyed it as aquatic mammals. Madeleine on the other hand appreciated the umbrella Colton held above her. Not much rain where she’s from~


Another big challenge I made for myself! This was day 25, and the prompt was “Festival”, so I chose to illustrate some sort of harvest festival in Apricot Bay, inspired by the harvest festival in Stardew Valley :>

I chose the various fruits and veg by finding out what time of year Apricots are harvested, and then what else was harvested around the same time. Beyond that, it was just a matter of trying to keep the perspective decently accurate and fitting the characters on it correctly. Some character sizes are off (Diesel’s supposed to be smaller than Penny, oops), but other than that, very happy with it.


Day 30! The prompt was “Wedding”. Have some context for this, too, the day before’s prompt of “Proposal”.

There was a couple issues with this, seeing that Pennyverse is set before gay marriage was legal. Though I don’t know how closely that universe follows our own history, that seems like a pretty huge commitment for all these funny animal people,,,

Beyond that, my main issue was actually that I don’t feel like they’re the kind of pair to want to get married, even if it is legal. They’re free spirits, especially Riley. But I found the idea of a “wedding party” cute so I went with that. A show of love and commitment without getting the boring old law involved,, (character opinions, not mine, hue)

Other than that, I’m really happy with this drawing. I experimented with some new brushes and lighting/colouring methods, and I think it came out about as good as I could make it, really.


One more Riley and Giulio thing, day 31, a free day. I asked Cammy if he had any ideas and he suggested a Pinede themed one. I was pretty tired out by this one, but I still had a lot of fun with it. Giulio’s design stayed the same, but I gave Riley a more dull, natural colourscheme to suit the Pinede universe, and I of course gave them some new outfits.

Just a relaxing day by the lake, painting and daydreaming~,, And I checked to make sure easels were a thing back then, and it looks as though they were, so that’s neat.


And lastly, a random doodle I did to show Red’s original design as a red-and-white red panda, dressed in the sort of clothes I wore back then for added authenticity. And yes, I had those same shoes with the cherry pattern on them. They were my favourite shoes,,,

May 2021

July 15th, 2021

Several days late posting one of these? How out of character for me!

Mostly concentrated on my social media presence and commissions this month, so I don’t really have anything to post here that hasn’t been posted elsewhere, so let me start with a drawing of Bunny holding one of my pet piggos, Rosemary!

Continuing the theme and aesthetics of the retro style, I have a lot of fun with it. Gradually figuring out new ways to make it look all nice and aged. Not entirely sure why she’s holding Rosemary, I think I just felt like drawing something a bit different.


A little piece of fanart I drew for a Twitter account I follow. They post regular updates about the wildlife that visits their garden, especially a family of badgers, the patriarch of which they’ve lovingly named “Mr Lumpy”.

He has a little wooden shed in the garden which they set up for the badgers, and it’s got a sign across the top of the door saying “Lumpy’s Shack”. I could just picturing him sat in a rocking chair outside his little home, so I had to draw it!


I had a sudden urge to redraw something, and so I redrew one of the first things I drew in Clip Studio when I got it about a year and a bit ago, a drawing of this cat lady relaxing in a green dress. I’m actually rather pleased with the results, I hadn’t realised I’d improved in subtle ways in that time. Both in my general art skills and also my ability to work the program.

Here’s the original, too, in case you’d also like to compare. It’s from January 2020. I might’ve posted it in my entry for that month on this blog, but I can’t be bothered to check right now.

Sidenote, I just noticed that the filename for the original version is a song title from the band Fairport Convention, when the design is blatantly inspired by the lead female singer of Pentangle. What the heck, past Caby.


(Click him to see the animation, the preview is just a still image -_-)

Ah yes, the rare random piece of animation from Caby. This time it’s a real quick and dirty sketch of Seb turning a page in a book. Despite the fact it’s like 20 minutes work and super scribbly, I’m pretty pleased with the general gesturing in it, so that’s why I included it here. I should draw Seb more. I should draw pennyverse more!


Speaking of pennyverse, the last two entries in this post are gonna be just that,,

So, as most artists at least know about, if they don’t take part themselves, Art Fight happens every July. And I love it, it’s great fun. And this year was the first year where I was truly happy with Cat’s design, so I decided to add her to my list of attackable characters. Each of the pennyverse lads on my profile have their own custom icons to show a tidbit of their personality, so I had to make one for Cat too. And here it is!

I’m real happy with this, how she turned out, how the background turned out. It’s her sat on her porch with a cup of tea, watching the sunset. And despite the fact I couldn’t find the brushes I used for the initial batch of icons, she fits right in with the rest of them. Have her totally-not-boyfriend Seb, and resident good boy Colton as examples.


And lastly, a random idea I had, that I might do someday, maybe. I watched a bunch of Soldier, Poet, King animation memes back when those were relevant, and it’s one of my favourites. I always thought it kinda suited the pennyverse trio, too.

So now I have editing software and am decently competent with animating in FireAlpaca, I might have a go at making that idea a reality when I have some free time. Until then, have a doodle of it instead.

April 2021

July 10th, 2021

I’m a man of my word (woman of my word?), here’s April! 😀

A fun little design I did where I attempted to turn my Elder Scrolls character Blivo into someone who could realistically fit into Pinede. Thus, caracal Blivo was born! She’s shorter and more animalistic, but still very much the curious, slightly thieving kitty she always is. And she still loves dragons!


Let’s get art style whiplash right at the start of this post by making this the next image. Recently I’ve been a little fixated on My Little Pony, specifically generation 1. As such, one of the things I’ve been trying to do is to imitate the style of the cartoon as best I can on modern equipment. This here is my first attempt I did, with my ponysona Moon Blossom and a simple background. I’m still pretty pleased with it, though I’ve made more ambitious pieces since, which I will absolutely be showing on this here blog soon enough~


Nothing particularly noteworthy about this Wyn, other than the fact I somehow failed to post it anywhere when I made it. Just sorta got lost in the flow of other drawings. He’s a cute lad, anyway,,

Looks a little demonic without his eye shines but he can make it work.


New piggo pal? New piggo pal!

Konpeito here is the newest addition to my collection of piggo characters that populate this site, and the first female! She’s a magical being like Candy Corn, with blonde fur and the ability to fly and create firework displays from her paws. She’s around during New Years and Christmas, before disappearing off into the sky for the rest of the year.

She’s based on an old fursona I had as a kid, who was also a guinea pig with the same magical powers, though a different colourscheme and no outfit,, You can see her here, the only remaining art I have of her. It’s not visible in this drawing but she did also have a star hairclip!


Had to include this one~

A self indulgent drawing of Cammy and Caby dressed like hippies, of course with flowers in their hair,, Not much to say about this one, I just like it, and Cammy does too! :>

One thing to mention is the style, it’s another one of the retro-inspired styles I’ve been working on, using a mixture of art style, colours, more organic brushes and of course a ton of filters,, Though I’m trying to narrow those down.


Not the most exciting end piece in the world, but definitely a cute one, have a Cammaroo that I drew on a whim and like very much,, Looks like Cammy’s gonna stay as a blumaroo, and I can’t say I have any complaints, blumaroos are adorable~

March 2021

July 9th, 2021

Am I several months late updating? I sure am! Fear not, I shall fix this problem. One day at a time though, because I’m a bit busy atm. I do want to get this blog sorted before this month ends too though.
So you’ll get March today, April tomorrow, etc.

While reminiscing and looking at old art, it got me thinking about my gradual adventure into creating a fursona, starting when I was about 9-10 years old and browsing art sites for the first time. I had no idea what a furry was, but I thought fursonas sounded cool. Thus I decided to create a squirrel-cat with purple fur, a blue gradient tail and rainbow markings. A series of changes and redesigns lead to me ending up with Red, my longest-running sona, in the middle there. And of course, since 2017, Caby!

You can check out Borb’s version of this right here, and her less linear, fluffy journey,,


No real story behind this one, just an experiment in colouring and lighting! A rather judgmental and a slightly more badger-esque cammy dressed in white. I like the general look of this one, despite the fact it makes no sense.


A piece of scenery for a change, something I drew while running a short quest for Cammy. Adventures in Pinede leading an otter lad down into a glowing cavern surrounded by bio-illuminescent lifeforms and a big, curious dragon! Considering this was for the most part a quick doodle, I’m really pleased with how it turned out. I did a couple other pieces that I’m sure will pop up somewhere on Somnol at some point!


Had the sudden urge to redesign my simple, cartoony self-portrait selves I used to doodle occasionally in high school. So here she is! Both in casual mode and comfy mode. I always draw myself with a round head and sleepy eyes, I’ve been told it’s accurate. Big eyebrows are a must too, of course.


I have an overabundance of traditional art supplies floating around in my room, despite the fact I rarely use them anymore. It’s more of a space issue than anything, I’ve no space on my desk for that sort of thing, so I have to go out of my way to set up my easel to draw, and it’s just easier to do stuff digitally when I’m usually already at my computer anyway.

Ramble aside, here’s a traditional piece I did of Fintan, looking very orange indeed. I had no eraser and am horribly rusty, so he came out a little wonky and scratchy, but overall I’m pleased, and I’d love to do more in future. Should be getting my desk replaced with a bigger one soon, so who knows,,


Last but certainly not least, a request from my family, who have been watching a lot of LOTR, to draw our two guinea pigs as a dwarf and a hobbit respectively. For those unacquainted, Rosemary is the orange and white one, and Marple is the black, orange and white one.

I had a lot of fun with this one too, and went a little crazy with the background, but it paid off and the drawing was a hit! And one can only hope that the piggos liked it too :3c

February 2021

March 10th, 2021

Wew, ten days into March already. Oops. All good though, better late than never, it isn’t the longest anyone’s had to wait for me to update this,,,,

So I didn’t draw a whole lot this month. My February folder is kinda sparse and sad. But! As a positive(?) I also didn’t post much of it, so I have plenty for this post. First on the block, an Eloise I doodled after realising how long it’s been since I drew her. A lot of lads that I need to draw more,,,,


Including this lad! Yep, drew Dai again, experimenting with the style I use for Pinede lads, I aim to make it a bit more solid and realistic, take more inspiration from the animals I draw. Think I did alright with that here, was nice to draw a bird lad too, don’t do that very often.


And more Pinede! Just some random rabbits this time, inspired by listening to an old Welsh lullaby. Did this mostly with a pencil brush and a watercolour brush, with a few strokes of a textured brush for the floorboards. Wanted it to feel warm and traditional. I still like this a lot, wanna do more indoor scenes. And more outdoor scenes.

More scenes in general, really.


Cammy and I have been playing a whole bunch of Stardew recently, including starting our group farm back up and dusting off the cobwebs. You can read more about that and see some screenshots by peeking at his blogpost about the whole things. At some point I started picturing our farmers as Bunny and Setter, and just had to draw it. Don’t like how Bunny turned out, but Setter’s always a cutie, so all is well.


An exciting update to the group, long time member Taywen has both got himself a fursona and started work on a site of his own. I won’t link it here because it’s still in the works, but it’s looking great so far. And he’s another lad who’s learning HTML as he goes, always good to see.

But yeah, here’s a doodle I did of his fursona, next to the reference sheet he posted in the server. I don’t know who the artist is, so I can’t credit them. The doodle is currently his icon :3c


And lastly, my absolute kryptonite as of late, Elder Scrolls. Most recently Skyrim, hence the dragon. But yeah, I’ve been playing a lot of Morrowind, Oblivion and Skyrim lately, and having a good old time.

The scene in Skyrim where you capture a dragon and interrogate it, all I could picture was my Khajiit player character, Blivo, petting its snoot and getting all excited over being stood next to a cool dragon. She’s not very good at being stoic,,,