Worried That Thing You Put In Your Art Or Writing Or Game Or Music Is Too Self-indulgent, Too Self-referential,

worried that thing you put in your art or writing or game or music is too self-indulgent, too self-referential, too niche for anyone but yourself? fear not! you can do whatever you want forever. and you should.

Oh, right! I nearly forgot that today was Victini Day! I threw this together pretty last-minute due to being occupied through the afternoon, but I feel it still turned out great. I didn't go too crazy with the background—ended up giving it something of a C-Gear aesthetic as a result. (I tried doing what some people do for grass, but I think the blades of grass sticking up are what trip me up when drawing it.)

As a little thing of fresh art to share on this mother's day, I'd like to delve into a bit of character lore and discuss one of my OC's moms—specifically, Ghostie's.

Here's Helen Szellem, wife of Peter Szellem and mother to the adorable Ghostie Szellem. He doesn't have many memories of her, unfortunately—she disappeared from his life when he was barely a few years old. No, not in that way you might be thinking of—Pete recalls her excitement over exploring an archaeological site far away from Pequan Island, one last kiss before she rushed off to the docks, a letter or two sent afterwards about her trip... then, nothing else. No photographs, no return trips, no little trinkets she got to keep from the excavation, nothing. It's been a while since then. Pete's gotten by without Helen by his side as best he can, while Ghostie's unfazed—he was barely a hatchling last he saw his mom, after all. But both of them would be delighted to see her again... In case you're curious about the patterning she has, here's another fact: Despite being called ghosts, their species is actually corporeal—and related to snakes! So like snakes, they can have patterning to their scales. I'd say it works pretty well at keeping their appearances from looking too monotonous, and when I create more it'll mean a lot more possibilities for designs and color sets! (Though don't expect Ghostie to get prominent patterning in the future; poor kid's scales are too pale for that.)

It's my birthday!

Here's a selection of birthday-celebrating drawings I've done over the past few years, while I work on one to celebrate mine and my twin's twenty-seventh!

(The only notable think about these is that the race car and bear slime in last year's art were inspired by my own little sister's birthday card. She's a wonderful artist! And probably better than me...)

Always a good idea to keep your workplace clear of junk! Especially when the boss has his eye on you... (Man, the Junkbot games were fun. Why hasn't LEGO rereleased them? They'd make for great mobile titles, cringeworthy though that sounds.)

Oh, you've found a Crawleh! Wonder what it could be doing? Scanning for others trying to claim its territory, I'd bet... (Originally made as some pose practice, hence the tiny Crawlehs in the upper-left.)

(Here're those poses zoomed in. I like the bottom one, very philosophical for a telescoping-robot-bug-thing.)