Following the success of the Easter bonanza, I've decided to try to make these a semi-regular monthly thing, especially for times that are known for their theming! I might miss June, but April and May are especially fun times for me, so I'm glad I got to do them both justice.

Here's all of this month's participants in no particular order; Girs, Frocta, James, Abby, Maxwell, Nylia, Song, Anna, Kauko, Zor, and Pepper - for whom, if I'm not mistaken, this is the first adult adult piece of their fursona!

As I'm likely to make a tradition moving forward, I included myself in the fun in a couple of ways, too. Fae happened to get roped into things along the way, but she didn't mind. Not that she had much of a choice, anyway.

The first and most important thing I need to stress about this piece, is that it comes from a good place.

This feels like a spiritual successor to Smoke, upping the ante to a ridiculous degree, but in a way that's fit for purpose as I've been striving to do better and, frankly, live up to my potential.

I started work on this at the end of a very intense day full of feelings; most of them positive. I had a moment of clarity of what it is that I do for a living - pursuing a life that I wish for myself and then relaying, as best I can, the experiences, thoughts, and emotions that come about from it through my art, all so that others may learn from, or at the very least, feel seen by it.

This is a rather exhausting cycle of intense, consistent vulnerability that I'm proud to have maintained and made good on in the ways that I do, at least to some degree, but the reality of it hit me like a truck. For years now, I've been desperately seeking out any way for this to be a sustainable endeavor, on several counts, despite the strongest, most visceral desire deep within me being:

To cut myself open and show everyone as much as I can of what's inside.
It may come at a very heavy price, but to me, it's worth it,
because it feels so damn good for me to be seen, understood, and appreciated that way.

This one happened to land in my lap after reading more of the book "The Creative Act" by Rick Rubin, and a concept mentioned in one of the chapters on self-doubt resonated perfectly with another that had crossed my mind when I saw these two, while browsing the tweegeemee bot's backlog.

In Buddhism, the concept of "Papancha," or "conceptual proliferation," can be summed up - rather inadequately, I should note - as a "preponderance of thoughts and feelings." I would urge you to read up about it if this art resonates at all; but considering how being full of such things almost at all times, to where regulating is so very hard for me, is pretty much my baseline, this felt worth expressing in this strange, collaborative medium I've found for myself.

The spark hit during one particularly, positively overwhelming moment while streaming, and I had to follow through on it.

This feels to me like a reprise from 07. Bathed in Shade, but I knew what it would look like the moment I saw the original generated image, and the vibe was different and striking enough to be worth its own spot.

The tab has been open ever since, and I had to follow up on it when the appropriate mood struck me; just today.

I've always felt like my art style is predominantly very flat, cartoonish, and not all that technically advanced at the face of it. I covet the work and skills of my peers that employ a more adept handling of textures, shading and forms than I feel I am capable of even if I tried to emulate them, but haven't had much success teaching myself over the years of passively developing my craft. It therefore feels somewhat ironically satisfying - and satisfyingly ironic - that the techniques I used to make this and 07. go so hard in the complete opposite direction in order to appropriately convey the intent behind them, and achieve it exactly as I'd intended.

After a brief exchange in a groupchat sparked the idea, I made a special little Bluesky account for some of my found family/polycule members to confess their sexual fantasies whenever they indulge them. You can find it here.

Because a blank profile is no place for such a vulnerable, intimate space, I quickly went about decorating it with an avatar and banner to go with it. It was a quick job but I'm really quite pleased with the results.

I saw a post recently about how we outgrow our emotional coping mechanisms, likening it to a thick sweater we put on to keep ourselves warm (safe) when we were otherwise cold (less so) - but later, if and when things are hopefully warmer and safer, the sweater becomes a burden.

That gave me pause and encouraged me to reflect on how I've been trying really hard to shed mine for many years now, but it's so interwoven with many various aspects and insecurities of mine that it often feels unproductive; often cyclical in nature.

Drawing this in stream got some rather intense responses from chat, so I decided that everyone deserved to see a happier ending to such an emotional piece.

I couldn't resist being a bit more of a menace, but it's okay; I still got my treat in the end.

Today's Arwyn's birthday, so I made some time after working all day on my upcoming con panel to make her a little something special. She's been working on her car a lot lately, and we both seem to enjoy me calling her my "Diesel Dyke," so the idea was an easy choice.

Vanta, one of my friend Spid's headmates and a voidhound, has a taste for rabbit. I have been told that I am particularly appealing to their palate even on top of that.

I've always found this to be strangely very flattering.

I've been sitting on this title for almost a year now. I had a different idea in mind for it, but it served my purposes just fine for this project instead.

I started out with this teaser pinup that stands on its own as a bit of visual storytelling, and it ran double duty as an ad for folks to know I was taking Easter commissions! The idea was that I was behind on my quota, and needed help - which wasn't entirely wrong!

We start with a handful of critters who wanted to be depicted bearing the eggs, but not laying them; Penny, Kenny, and Joe.

The Easter Council can make special arrangements for these folks wanting to contribute while maintaining certain levels of comfort, and just look at them glow. I'm especially fond of the expressions here.

Then we get into the option that the vast majority of folks went with; laying the eggs themselves.

I led the charge since I still needed to contribute some amount of them for my referrals to count for anything, but after that we have Melody, Charlene, Cyric, PlushWah, PlushWah again (how eager!), Derran, Vlue, James, Jake, Marlo, Jamie (before and after), Cobble, Snowy, Claire, and Holly!

Such helpful, productive egg-layers. I more than beat my quota for the holiday, so thank you for participating!

Some folks wanted to nominate my dear Sissy to help out too, which resulted in this bonus piece right at the end of the stream. Unfortunately we only got around to it past midnight, so the eggs won't actually be needed.

Oh well!

Consistency is hard, and Potential rather meaningless, when you don't even know what to expect from yourself.

I made these badges for my friends Plushie and Ran, in time for ScotiaCon '26; both plushie themed! Quite pleased with how the art turned out on them both.

I've been experimenting with a straightforward method of making badges that can be easily replicated, and simplifies the printing process. I tried it out already with the badges for myself and Fae, using a standard passport-ish size to fit in matching plastic lanyard envelopes, and I quite like it!

My only issue with these designs, much like with most other badges I've seen, is that the name's text is hard to make easily readable at a distance. I like the idea of being recognized from across the room at a con, and I find that the art in a badge doesn't convey enough of the character's identity from a far glance to be reliable enough for that.

Sometimes, all of the words in the world aren't enough to express feelings in a way that they deserve.

Regular programming will resume soon, with any luck. Until then, thank you all for your continued support.