For Starters
Ahem...Hello and welcome to our first actual newsletter! The past Month has been rather tumultuous. There has been a lot of high moments, as well as some extreme low moments.
Here we are though! Still alive, and I still have so much to do! Lets get right into it!
I want to preface this by saying this Newsletter will come out around the end of every month. My hope is that it serves as a bit of an update on what I am working on, possibly a little history on some projects... as well as a place for me to share some of my thoughts on art related topics with you! There also may be some free advice sprinkled in here and there on how you can get started on your own creative journey as well!
A Bit of History [Mom! Inky's Waxing Eloquent about Their Glory Days again!]
Here I am in the year of our Lord and Savior Cthulhu 2026, and if you had told me when I first put pen to paper for artistic intent 2 years ago that I would be embarking on the journey of becoming a Comic and Cartoon artist, I would have said you were crazy. All I wanted to do was learn to draw a couple different types of perspective, and that was it.
Then, one day, I was learning how to use my first Dip pen, and I experienced Art Block. For those who are not aware of what "art block" is: when you are sitting with your utensils in hand, paper spread before you like fresh fallen snow, and all thoughts of drawing/creating either flee, or dissolve into a jumbled mess that you cannot untangle, that is Art block. As I sat looking at the page before me, two heads appeared in my imagination. They began discussing the fact that I was not going to improve unless I practiced, so I proceeded to draw them!
This made me realize that I could actually make my learning journey fun! Every once in a while, when I have difficulties with figuring out what to draw, I will try to do a little cartoon drawing! This practice lets me tell my mind, "We did art, so we get a gold star for today." That is always my goal, is to try and make something each day. Doesn't matter if its big or small, or bad or good. I have included at the bottom some sketches and pen work from my first sketchbooks, because I feel that it's important that you see that starting out can be messy, and isn't always the curated looking sketchbook tours you see on social media. I can say I have at least 3 or 4 large sketchbooks that have nothing but Circles and squares and lines in them.
For The Learners
I will say, There are literal tons of different ways to go about learning to be creative: College courses, private tutoring, Classes offered through your local library, YouTube, and there are always artists out there looking to pass on their knowledge in some way shape or form.
For myself, I am more or less self taught, no formal schooling. I have consumed hundreds of hours of YouTube tutorials on techniques, have read dozens of books, and... between you and me and the drawing table in front of me...none of it matters if you don't practice. For every piece I have posted here, there are at least 20 or 30 pages of paper/digital files full of absolute garbage which will never see the light of day if I have any say. As an artist with ADHD, practice is hard. I find my mind wanders the second I sit down to do any kind of structured art. This is why I have like 40 projects going at any given point, to give myself options for what to work on!
On Inspiration and Dreams [or how to Support Your Local Art community!]
I had a conversation last week with an incredibly talented relative of mine who actually studied art rather intensively when they were younger, but they suffered from burnout due to another common affliction that plagues us artistic types: Perfectionism. Perfectionism can stifle even the most well thought out pieces, because you find yourself erasing and deleting lines in a fruitless pursuit of, "the perfect line". Anyways, They told me that the rough sketches I had shared with them had helped them with getting past it, and begin learning to love doing art again!
This made me so happy to hear! Tons of creatives I have seen get burned out or give up, discouraged by the algorithm, buried in a ever increasing deluge of generative ai slop. This is why our community thrives when we all help keep each other afloat, supporting your fellow artists in whatever way you can is important.
This support can be something as simple as liking their content, and sharing it with others who you feel would also like their content [with their permission and credit of course], but most importantly: ASK THEM if there are ways that they would like you to support them!
My Goals Moving forward
My goal with what I do here is to bring a little bit of my own flavor of Whimsy and Horror into the world, and inspire people to be creative. I have big dreams and aspirations in the works, and I never would have made it this far if I hadn't taken the plunge and said, "Fuckit, why not?"
I also have some rather large projects that I intend to share details about in this newsletter as certain milestones get hit, but for now all I can say is, "stick around"
If you are reading this, thank you for coming along for the ride!
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