I enjoyed celebrating Christmas with a handful of close friends at Never's place this year. While making plans, some of us ganged up on and teased her with the idea of making her a child-friendly dish using the different parts of the meal being served.

She seemed really upset by this, to the point of threatening to throw a tantrum if we decided to pull such a stunt.

So I knew I had to draw it.

I asked her friend Tower, who was doing the vast majority of the cooking, if this could happen; they'd already made plans.

So I made this as a birthday gift for the fussy fewwit, to commemorate and immortalize the occasion.

Happy birthday, Sissy.

Ever since Chili became a thing, I've been feeling things out, and it seems like I've found a few more rabbits bouncing around inside my head. One particularly loud voice was one that I've chalked up to my habitually intrusive, anxious, fearful, and worried thoughts.

Flake is the one whose been mostly responsible for those thoughts, is unsurprisingly a hare, and seeks out problems and danger for us to be careful of and stay away from - perhaps a tad too insistently at times. Her fur colours are more muted, wears a shock collar, is "taller" than me but stands shorter cause of how she slouches. She often doesn't bother wearing her glasses.

When we're feeling especially scared, I've taken to calling it "Flaking out," as I depicted in the follow-up comic I made after first pinning down her design.

Expressing this aspect in different ways has actually made it easier at times to give room to the worried, scared, perhaps spiralling thoughts that sometimes crop up. It's let me give them space, rather than letting them fester inside my own head in the interests of keeping us safe. It's been interesting, to say the least.

The first of May is Beltane, a traditional Celtic celebration. Given how I've been getting more and more into Pagan practices thanks to my closeness to Garnet, and that the most important way to celebrate it and do rite on this day is with sexual pleasure, I knew what I had to do.

Making this piece was rife with problems while streaming, but I was unrelentingly determined to do it against all odds. I might not have enjoyed the process, but I'm all the more pleased with having still made it and how lovely it turned out, too.

This is a lot less intense than I perhaps would have hoped for, but I feel like it more than makes up for it with tenderness and intimacy, and for that much I'm very satisfied.

I love you, Garnet. Happy Beltane, everybody.

Lately I've gone a little overboard with drawing my pupself in all sorts of situations. This isn't a bad thing, of course, but it still happened. Especially given my experiences with expressing that side of myself lately, it makes sense that I'd be feeling myself through that lens a lot more. It's equally as comforting as it is expressive to me.

I'll start with the saddest, and work our way up in tone and vibe.

I made this at the end of a very bad night, to the extent that I drew it through teary eyes as I cried for most of the evening. It's very much the saddest I've ever drawn myself as a puppy and probably will for a while yet; even the first time I drew her, beat up and abused, she was still smiling.

For the longest time I've wanted my pupself to be more happy-go-lucky, and less burdened by my personal neuroses and tendency to overthink. Be that as it may, puppies can get sad and upset by things too, and that's okay.

This one came to me while thinking about something to make that was both easy to execute and with which I could try exploring some puppy vibes while I was at it, too.

Puppies tend to be good at asking, or rather, begging for things that they want. The past couple of weeks have certainly been coloured by this need and likewise the inability, or at least an intense reluctance, to ask for things I want. It's been a real struggle for me, but maybe I could learn something about that by striving to be more like a puppy.

Dialing the expression in just right was a fun exercise, and I went through a revision or two before settling on this one. Capturing just the tiniest hint of hope behind those big, soulful, begging eyes was essential. You wouldn't ask for things if you didn't believe deep down that you'd get it, now would you?

My friend Ru inspired this one while talking about one of dogs' favourite way to play that he called "bitey game," and it made me think about how puppyfurs might go about it.

Here I am winning a round of bitey game while playing with him. I'm especially pleased with how the muzzles' and paws' poses came out in this one.

I think this one stands on its own but I feel compelled to provide the direct inspiration for it too. I love it to bits.

Last but by no means least, a cozy little scene inspired by a slice of real life, which likewise inspired another earlier piece. I miss my Mommy, and this was my way of rekindling that lovely cozy comfort we shared during the time we were together.

I adore our expressions in this one so, so very much.

There was a tweet Garnet shared with me a while back that I've since lost track of; showing a short story about a young unicorn in denial that meets an older unicorn, who knows what they are. When asked how they figured out that they were one, they replied, "by meeting another older than me."

Update: Tagaziel helpfully found the story for me here.

While my journey has certainly been improved and spurred on by a lot of folks (such as my dear Arwyn, especially early on), Garnet has certainly stood as my "Unicorn" in this lovely little fable. She's been present and involved from when I first started seriously questioning, well before we even started dating. She helped and encouraged me through the hardest of times and continues to do so to this day, and has never led me astray.

I truly cherish her being a part of my storied journey, and I genuinely don't know where I'd be without her.

Every now and again, the Little Troubles team organizes a gift exchange for participating artists. It works just like a secret santa, and this time it was themed around Summer vacation. We each submitted our Summer experiences, past or current, which acted as the prompt for the art we'd get from our assigned artists. That art would then be made into cards to be printed as part of the game's set.

You can see more about the game over at littletroubles.com.

My assigned recipient was Plant Panda, whose prompt talked about the deserts near their parents house that they loved to explore, enjoying the plant life found there. I decided to play with the idea of a literal "Baby Saguaro," which poor little Plant fell afoul of just because of their curiosity.

As I later found out, they seem to have a knack for getting pricked by the cacti they care for, so the pieces were truer to life than I was expecting.

It also turned out that some other artists had to drop out of the exchange, which left Melly Moona without anyone to make their gift art. Basil kindly offered a bounty for someone to fill the gap, and not wanting to leave her with nothing, I went for it.

Her Summer experience was a long road trip, where she got to stay in and see various places. Seemed to make sense to me that long stretches of road would cause anxiety for someone who might struggle with potty breaks, which led to this idea.

She said that this is how she looks during car rides, so I'll definitely chalk this one up as a win as well.

And here's the set I got! BottleBear treated me and Garnet to an absolutely precious set of scenes that about perfectly summed up my experiences lately. I submitted Garnet's reference sheet along with my request because she was involved in many of my adventures this Summer, but I expected (and specified) that her inclusion was optional, and only nice-to-have.

Either way - and needless to say - I was extremely happy with what Bottle cooked up for us, and it gave us lots of cozy, sweet feelings to enjoy together. I especially enjoyed how he played with my bun-to-pup transition in both illustrations, and love how adorable I look snuggled up to her.

These were posted with permission, and you can find BottleBear over on SubscribeStar as well as many other places besides. Please do check him out.

For Halloween I made something for myself as a treat, cause I was needing something fun for a change. This was actually Garnet's idea, which she shared with me with the intention of commissioning it, but I liked it so much that I made it anyway. The hardest part was naturally deciding between drawing myself as a puppy in a bunny costume, or a bunny in a puppy costume.

I neglected to put this on my site originally because I figured posting it publicly right away would make it redundant, but I forgot that's kinda the point of being on 10 different sites, after all. So here it is!

I still can't get over how much I love the response of "I'm bunny" to Garnet calling me a clever girl.

Feels almost like a lifetime ago now, but even still, I hope you had a good Halloween.

A while back I was feeling especially little and especially good, so I funneled that happy energy into something special for me and Garnet.

I'm always quite proud of the faces and expressions I draw, but the smiles on this one are extra special to me.

Today seemed like an especially appropriate day to post it, too.

After a stint of focusing on commission work a while back, I figured I'd make good on a bunch of inspiration I got hit with for puppy-related shenanigans.

here's a scene involving Garnet, who I was visiting at the time; she started a new job and we were navigating how to share the space that we both needed to work comfortably during my stay. While discussing what might happen if I tried to sneak in while her webcam was on during a meeting, this idea came to mind.

She absolutely adored it when I first showed it to her, and frankly, I love it too.

I really wanted to give it a splash of colour before calling it done, and I'm glad I did.

Here's an assortment of puppy stuff I got done over the past several weeks.

I needed a new display pic to properly capture my two sides at one go. The mix of broken and contiguous lines across the boundary between the two was fun to work with without simply duplicating all the layers that would otherwise overlap. That, and it turned out real cute.

And speaking of cute; I needed a "quick" warmup one day and decided I'd lose myself in sketching out a happy lil' wuppy who seems very excited to see you.

My girlfriend Garnet needed some cheering up a little while back, and I couldn't think of a better way to do it than puppy kisses. The two pictures might look the same, but they're not.

After a stint of focusing on commission work more recently, I figured I'd make good on a bunch of inspiration I got hit with for puppy-related shenanigans.

First up is another scene involving Garnet, who I'm currently staying at; she recently started a new job and we've been navigating how to share the space that we both need to work comfortably during my visit. While discussing what might happen if I tried to sneak in while her webcam was on during a meeting, this idea came to mind.

She absolutely adored it when I showed it to her, and frankly, I love it too.

I'll probably give it a touch of colour and format it into a mini comic page before posting it up.

At that point I was on a roll with the self-indulgence. The first was inspired by some stream-related shenanigans related to mot, Plush and Arwyn donating to my streams, when I allowed them to provide one prompt each to combine into a picture.

The second was once again inspired by Garnet and her husband Piter, this time teasing me about "leaving me in the car" while they were out somewhere. The obvious connection was pretty much inevitable. There is absolutely nothing going on behind those dinnerplate eyes. Not a single solitary thought in that fluffy noggin.

Garnet commissioned a piece for herself and one of her other partners, with the sole prompt effectively being "something related to the moon" as a connection that bridges the physical distance between themselves.

Garnet's partner also needed a fursona of her own, so it was up to me to design that for her. Fortunately she decided that she'd be a rabbit, which is obviously well within my wheelhouse. Playing with the colours and shading to imply that they're under the moonlight was a fun part of the project, and although I don't feel super confident in my shading, I quite like how it turned out.

As a finishing touch, Garnet and I have a shared interest in poetry, so I figured I'd write a little stanza to add to the piece.

Probably one of the most tumultuous first years of a relationship that's grown as strong as it has.

We're still here despite it all, and I'm excited to see what new and wonderful memories we can make together.

I love you, Garnet. Thank you for being so good to me, for believing in me, and nurturing the very best out of me.