"He couldn't look handsomer, I couldn't feel humbler, we couldn't be happier"

Almost a year since I last updated, huh?

In truth I got The Big Sad and didn't much feel like drawing, but I truly feel like I'm out of it. I've had phases like this before where I think I'm feeling better only for it to come crashing down around me, but this is just feels different somehow. Like I'm not trying to force anything or go through any motions, I'm just lighter and more engaged again. I feel like the old me, and it's wonderful. And I've slowly felt like drawing again, for myself without pressure, and this is the first thing I've felt like sharing.

Earlier this month Wicked shared a publicity shot on Twitter of Brittney Johnson and Sam Gravitte as Glinda and Fiyero respectively and something about their posing made me instantly want to draw it. I also really got into fountain pens this past year, and originally painted this with layers of inks in the colors Blushing Mushroom and Adventurine by Ferris Wheel Press. It's my first time trying to incorporate inks like this, and I'm having fun with it and enjoy the texture. I ended up going over the inks with a light brush of colored pencil just as it lacked definition. Hopefully if I keep practicing I won't have to do that, but also this probably wasn't the best image to practice that method with as areas are too small and detailed. The inks are shimmery though, which left a neat effect!

Although this is based on an image featuring Brittany Johnson, I've drawn my own design of the characters as I always do. I am not whitewashing Glinda, she is white in the book which is integral to Fiyero's character development as the only person of color in Shiz. As I've written about before I prefer to keep the characters as a combination of their musical and novel selves as it adds more depth and I love them both. I just wanted to take a moment to explain so no one misconstrues my intentions! I'm by no means trying to diminish Brittany's acomplishment as the first Black Glinda on Broadway, which is about damn time. Casting should always be colorblind.

This isn't the best thing I've drawn, but I'm just happy to be drawing again. Perhaps I'll share some of the earlier things in this sketchbook, but I also have a lot of ideas for the future. I can't say when as I have a lot going on right now, but know it's coming.

Washi tape

I designed a washi tape! To be honest I wasn't sure whether to save posting this until I can show the finished manufactured product, but I worked too long and too hard on it and want to shout about it as much as I can.

As I was wrapping some parcels for my shop I thought how fun and 'on brand' it would be if I had my own washi tape I could use to secure everything (I currently use a generic patterned one I bought in Japan). I knew it would involve creating a long, run on image, and I immediately thought of my Folktale Week drawings, which to this day are still some of my favorite illustrations I've ever created (all of my work from 2018/2019 is to be honest, I feel like that was when I peaked 😭) As much as I love that artwork, it doesn't all make sense because it was following a prompt list, so I decided to create a new version and this time really commit to the theme of Russian folktales instead of just being inspired by the general aesthetic.

There's not a huge amount of characters, partly because I wanted to keep it identifiable to a global audience so didn't want to go for anything too obscure, and I didn't want it to look too crowded, it's mostly just supposed to be a forest with a few magical elements.

Obviously I had to include Baba Yaga and her hut, which is probably the most iconic character to people from around the world, and I also included the Firebird which crops up in a few different Slavic tales. And a bear, because it's the Russian forest, and they do crop up in folktales (plus I just love bears OK)

Now I just hope it comes out OK! I put a lot of detail in and I hope it isn't too pointless for such a small product. It'll eventually be sold in a set with another tape, and I'll be sure to update when it's ready!

Angel of Music

I hadn't even thought about The Phantom of the Opera in years when I suddenly had the urge from nowhere to draw this. I listened to the soundtrack as I drew it, decided to book a ticket and go see it for old times sake, and it's kind of all snowballed from there.

Poor fool, he makes me laugh!

Carlotta Giudicelli from The Phantom of the Opera.

The Phantom of the Opera was my OG musical obsession and is really what got me interested in musical theatre and going regularly, and was what lead me onto discovering other productions as I followed my favourite actors careers after they moved on from the roles. So I have a lot to thank it for! I haven't paid it much attention for a while, but I gave the 25th Anniversary concert a listen a few weeks ago and have been on a bit of a Phantom kick ever since. I really want to re-read the book again this year!

Carlotta has always been one of my favourite characters, and it always saddens me how much she's overlooked or dismissed as nothing but a 'diva' and pitted against Christine. Carlotta is quite a lot older than 16 year old Christine - she's probably in her 30s or 40s and would have dedicated her life to working damn hard to win the role of lead soprano at one of the biggest opera house's in Paris. And like so often happens to women in the entertainment industry, her hard work and dedication to her craft is being overlooked as she's passed over for a younger actress who, as far as Carlotta is concerned, hasn't had any proper vocal training nor worked her way up through the lower ranks and gained that experience. And if that isn't insulting enough, she then has her performance sabotaged in front of a full house which would have impacted her reputation. She's a tragic character! Her throwing a few bitchy comments Christine's way doesn't make her a bad person when you consider everything she's being put through, her upset is valid!

I also love her relationship with Piangi. As much as I love Phantom of the Opera, the two main relationships of Christine and Raoul and Christine and the Phantom are BOTH toxic as hell, and then in the background barely noticed you've got Carlotta and Piangi showing what a healthy, supportive relationship looks like. Piangi isn't initially being targeted by the 'Opera Ghost' and his job is safe, but he still takes a stand and backs Carlotta at every opportunity, and is always behind her for moral support when she's being treated unfairly. What a gem!

Oz

A catch up with all of my Oz related illustrations this past year. Some of these are super recent so I show no signs of stopping yet!

I've been wanting to draw something from Return to Oz for ages. It's actually my favourite Oz related movie - I can take or leave the Judy Garland movie to be honest, I don't know if that's controversial but it's the book of the Wizard of Oz that captivated me rather than the movie version. I grew up watching Return to Oz and I think it's what gave me such a love of horror as scenes like the Wheelers and Mombi's hallway of decapitated heads both terrified and enthralled me! And as an adult I was so excited when I picked up Baum's books for the first time and realised they were much more in keeping with Return To Oz rather than the overly saccharine MGM movie. I want to draw more from Return to Oz at some point, but here's a start! Princess Mombi and a few of her heads.

After I first read The Wizard of Oz I drew the scene of Dorothy meeting the Scarecrow and it's what catapulted me down this whole art journey I've been on these past two years. My style has developed a lot since then as I was still very much finding my feet back then, and it's a scene I wanted to revisit. I'd love to know which version you prefer! I had to make references to the Scarecrow being Fiyero because this is me drawing it after all!

And I figured I'd draw the following scene where they meet Boq the Tin Man! He was a lot more of a challenge to draw than I realised he'd be, and whilst I originally wanted to do my own take I did end up taking a lot of inspiration from Denslow's original illustrations. Most of the difficulty came because a tin man would obviously be very rigid, whereas my art style is much more fluid and I wanted him to look stuck, not stiff and lifeless.

Drawing Wicked characters is my happy comfort place. I've been playing around with trying to give Fiyero his blue diamond tattoos he has in the books to try and give him back some of his cultural identity that they took away in the musical, but it's difficult not to make them look crap.

I can't believe it took me this long to draw this scene honestly!

This is a really old drawing that I did for Inktober of 2019, and I've been wanting to colour it for ages and finally got around to it last week! So this literally brings everything bang up to date. I don't know if you can even really tell, but I've been trying with a slightly more painterly style as my colouring process was starting to feel a little formulaic and dull. It's always really intrigued me with how many story possibilities there are with Fiyero turning into a Scarecrow and how that would effect him, his relationships, and how he interacts with the world around him. But unfortunately no one else seems to care about anything beyond "Gelphie" and I'm not a writer, so I just try and touch on it in my illustrations as best I can.

Inside my sketchbook

I haven't been posting here much because I've got so much art to post and catch you up on that it's a little overwhelming tbh! I've been feeling similarly about Instagram - I hear everyone say about how it's good for engagement to post every day so I saved a whole bunch of work up, but I can't say posting every day has made a jot of difference to my engagement whatsoever, and being less spontaneous about it all has sucked all the fun from my account. I was scrolling back through my feed and I honestly think I was doing better before I started overanalysing it, so once I've caught up it'll be back to basics for me! Sharing things I'm excited about as soon as I've created them.

So this is going to be a bit of a catch up post!

I'm still getting used to trying to draw backgrounds and perspective and stuff, but also in a more simplified way. I don't know if it's because I draw realism as well, but when I draw a location I tend to get caught up in all of the little details rather than catching a mood or energy of a place and it's something I'm trying to work on as it's a style I really admire. I also think it would be a really nice practice to get into for my travels too. I drew this from a photograph and I was quite pleased with how it came out!

I originally wanted to digitalise this, but I also drew it so long ago that I've kind of lost all motivation and would rather work on new ideas ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ When the world first went into lockdown a year ago (OMG!) I had a ton of ideas, more illustrations than I could keep up with and so many that I wanted to colour digitally and turn into "proper" works, but I ended up with such a backlog that it began to feel like a chore and I've given up on a lot of them for now at least. I at least painted this one so the idea is still kind of there! I had wanted to incorporate some of their key lyrics into their clothing and background.

I kept working at my ballpoint illustrations, and here's one of Mika I did last summer before I went to Kyoto. Stations in Japan have all different stamps and I love how they looked in my sketchbook.

I realised I never drew the Cowardly Lion! I'm very out of practice with drawing animals so they're always a challenge for me.

Of course I've still been drawing Aaron.

And the Joker too! I tried before to colour the Joker's makeup after I drew it, and last time I used Copics which turned out way too vivid and kind of killed the drawing. I still really wanted to try the idea though, so I used coloured pencils this time which I think worked out much better! And I did the blood in gouache to make it really stand out.

I had this idea of a friendly bear for a while, I kind of want to put it on a shirt? 'Goddag' is just a way of saying Hello in Danish, I'm trying to incorporate more of it into my work to show a bit more of my cultural identity instead of defaulting to English all of the time.

It was autumn and I wanted to draw something cozy! This is like, my ideal day to me. Books, candles, music, cookies, and a raging storm outside. If you zoom right in the books on the shelf are some of my favourites I grew up with!

Branching out in my musicals, ey? XD Les Mis is one of my original musical obsessions way back and I wanted to show it a little love. I tried to blend Enjolras's stage and movie costumes - I had to do the vest because it's iconic, but I prefer the movie's pants and blond wig.

I have a whole bunch of Oz illustrations too, but I'll add them to their own post!

Godt Nytår

Happy New Year!
Wishing you all the best for 2021 🎉