Easter Update aka Quarter Year Recap

Happy holidays!

We are already three months into the new (now old) year, time to keep up and to give a review of the past months as well as a (careful) preview on what to expect in the next months.

In the beginning of the new year, I started (re)drawing a few characters who originated in the Inktober 2019 challenge and who I’d like to summarize as „The Small Folks“: Three fairies and a gnome. Additionally, I added a bunch of new Witchphibians OCs to the cast throughout the months and participated in two DTIYS challenges. Last but not least, I discovered the show Hazbin Hotel and got blown away by it, so I had to do fanart.

Regarding what to expect next …

I don’t want promise anything since creativity (especially when doing art as a hobby) is a process that highly depends on inspiration, time available but also motivation and – for me at least – to not feeling pressured into doing anything.So, I may have inspiration, ideas and even plans for the future, I just can’t predict ones eventually come true.

However, I’d like to share a general overview of what may (or may not) come soon. Firstly, Mermay is just around the corner. I participated five years in a roll, and I’d love to do it this year again. I even already have something like an idea how to approach it this year and how to prepare for it. Apart from Mermay, there are also ideas for some more Witchphibians characters and paintings, elaborating the inhabitants and the background stories of Witchwood (yes, the place all these stories take place got a name now).

The Bicker Fairies

In 2019, I took part in the Inktober challenge(🇩🇪) in form of kind of a puzzle picture. Part of it were three tiny fairies, the Bicker Fairies, constantly arguing about everything – just a few doodles within the big picture. However, not long after the end of Inktober, I drew them again in a proper painting (in my style back then). In the beginning of this year, I got the idea to draw them again in my current style and with the names I gave them in the meantime:

Chimney (because she once almost got burnt by a candle), the unofficial leader of the trio

Bunjee (because she once got flung through the air by some vines), the most playful of them

Batty (because she likes bats), kind of a goth

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Engie

There also was another character from mentioned puzzle picture I felt to draw again, Engie the Mechanic Gnome. Back in 2019 she fixed a golem which went out of control. No we are picking on again in this scene.

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Archie

Some Witchphibians OCs are old. Not only in terms of age but in terms of when I came up with them in the first place. Others are mentioned randomly in the background story of others and then come to life with my next painting.

Archie exists as long as I created Mirro (his wife and Samandra’s master witch) more than one year ago. Since Mirro is a master in changing things and living beings in other things and living beings, it wasn’t that big of a leap to imagine her husband living as a turtle large parts of the day to slow down his pace of aging.

Herb and Nay

Apropos the age of the Witchphibians characters, I noticed that so far I drew young witches and witch apprentices and old witches and wizards, but I still missed out the group of people of my own age, around the age of 40 years. This changed when I created Herb.

In the end of 2013, I introduced Bend Stuffcurver and mentioned Herb the Healer Mage who not only rescued them with her healing magic but also took them in as her apprentice.

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This lead to the idea of actually depicting her and to depict a mid-aged witch for the first time, almost at the peak of her powers but still with room to improve them, with a full-time job and also with a family.

Enter Nay Carpenter, her partner for 20 years and mother of their daughter. Initially, I was wondering which witch or magical being Nay could be, but then I found the thought of being a non-magical person intriguing and made her the carpenter she is. Regarding the teenage daughter, this is another story still to be told (hopefully in the near future).

Eye of the Chimera
aka The Poses Archives March challenge

Technically, this one is a Witchphibians piece, too. At the same time it’s a „Draw this Pose in your Style“ entry of the monthly challenge The Poses Archives and Tony Cartoonish provide on Instagram. Every so often I get inspired by the poses they are sharing or use them as reference photos when drawing poses I am not familiar with. When I saw the March challenge and Tony’s example of the axe holding orc, it reminded me of Kimeira Wartribe who literally uses a battleaxe as her main weapon.

In the background story of her introducing painting I wrote that she once fought a chimera and when seeing March challenge’s pose immediately the picture of her facing the chimera in this pose jumped to my mind.

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Originally, I had planned another painting depicting this encounter but this way, it made so much more sense. I also thought it’s been a nice touch to incorporate the kitchen accident which I mentioned one year ago when introducing Kimeira.

Galaxy Girl
aka Year of the Dragon

The other DTIYS I drew is my entry to the second DTIYS of Greenfich_Illustration on Instagram). I already participated in the first one and the second one again gave me the inspiration to draw my version of the Galaxy Girl.

The challenge allowed us to draw her in an animal form, and since 2024 is the Year of the Dragon of the Chinese Zodiac, the idea of the transformation from a dragon emerged. You also may spot the hare and the snake in the background, the year before and the year to come after the dragon.

Another show has been added to the fanart page of this website. Recently, Hazbin Hotel went online on Amazon Prime (the pilot already was around on YouTube for four years) and it caught me immediately to the extent that I already watched it multiple times. This said, it was only a matter of time that I drew fanart thereof.

Rise with the Morningstar

POSSIBLE S1E06 SPOILERS AHEAD

I started with Vaggie, my favorite character, showing the moment that changed her life forever, depicting it by creating two different versions (and a reel) to show the transition.

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Charlie Morningstar
aka Little Miss Butterflies and Rainbows

Charlie Morningstar, Princess of Hell, daughter of Lucifer himself, is Vaggie’s girlfriend, the lead protagonist of the show and one of the most joyful and optimistic characters I’ve ever watched in a show.

She sees the good in everyone and even when she had to defend her and her friends in the last episode of season 1, she can’t stop apologizing when fending off the attacking angels. Oh, and she sings a lot (in case you wonder about the meaning of the stripes in the background. This said, I tried to catch her vibe in my painting, and I am really happy how it turned out in the end.