Author: Angela S.

[WIP] The Blade Beast of the Steel Forest – Thumbnail Sketches & Design Sneak Peek

I’ve been busy working on an intense and extremely fun commission for a client, Malus the 16th, of their demigod character, Ganjo, the Blade Beast of the Steel Forest, from the Exalted tabletop RPG from Onyx Path Publishing. I’m designing this character from the ground up with the final goal to draw an illustration of a scene featuring a resplendent moment for Ganjo after an intense battle.

I hope to do a Patrons-only Secret Sketchbook post to collect my extensive notes and process for this one once I’m finished, but I wanted to drop a few teases of all the neat stuff coming from this commission in the meanwhile.

This has been an exciting project for me because I get to fully dive into the wonderful and weird Epic Fantasy of a tabletop setting after spending many years in a completely different Art Nouveau mode.

From graceful goddesses to bug demigods, I love where art takes me!

In the meanwhile, feel free to play my fave art game – guess which thumbnail we ended up going with!

More soon~

– Ang

Meet the Artist Event at Staffords Art & Craft Gallery

Head’s up to my local Georgia folks! I’ll be at the Staffords Art & Craft Gallery this weekend, Saturday the 28th from 3-5 pm EST, for a Meet the Artist event at this small, cozy gallery.

I’ll be hanging out at a table in the corner of the gallery where you can come chat with me about art, pick up one of my books, and browse all the lovely wares in the gallery. Come say hi!

The Gallery’s street address is:

120 Walker Parkway Ste E, Fayetteville, GA, United States, 30214

Follow them on FB & IG to keep up with them. They’re new in town and could use the support!

A peek at the books I’ll have on hand at the gallery. I’d be happy to sign a copy for you!

[Art] Commission Gallery – Vamps & Vigilantes

I’ve been a little quiet around here while I’ve had my head to the desk working through a few private commissions to help catch up with all our medical bills from our tumultuous 2025. I thought you guys might enjoy seeing a couple I’m allowed to share!

Echo for Aquatica1000

You may have spotted this tragically handsome vamp in my Year in Art post. I’m always giddy to get more Exalted TTRPG characters into the queue. This was a small headshot, but even with these smaller pieces meant to be in a simple flat style, I always try to work in the DRAMA, which I achieved with subtle gradients and dramatic desaturated color choices that pushed the saturated elements, like Echo’s soulsteel eyes and branded caste mark.

Enjoy a quick 1 min timelapse with my text narration of the process and decision-making:

Even for these small pieces, I like to workup a few thumbnails! We had a lot of fun variations for Echo. I really liked 4 to show off the dimensionality of the mask, but we ended up choosing 6 as both the client and I felt it showed Echo’s reluctant nature. He’s technically working for a big bad evil, but he’s not morally on board with his boss’ evil tactics and will one day rebel to follow his own better nature. (But 4 really would have looked cool, too!)

Splintered Fate April & Casey

A commission for a good friend inspired by their favorite characters from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles! In which I studied many trash cans and enjoyed the many varying character designs of April O’Neil throughout time during my reference research.

This is quite the departure from my usual Fantasy fair, but it felt good to get back to my own artistic roots in 90s comics and my own nostalgic love for the world of TMNT. The graffiti turtles on the right are a nod to how I used to draw the turtles as a kid, as they were some of the first subjects of my early budding art skills!

A timelapse to appreciate how much I fiddled with the graffiti:

And now the thumbnails! There were no bad options here, as each one showed a different facet of these two characters. We had some cool ‘super model’ poses for an aesthetic approach, some more action-oriented comic posing, and finally the thumbnail I went with, which was actually the first one I drew.

The client and I agreed that the casual glance between the two just before they hop into a fray with The Foot was the fun vibe to shoot for!

Side Adventure: During research into graffiti art for this image, I stumbled upon a news story about a mysterious Pizza Graffiti Bandit who has been tagging pizzerias in New York with their unique pizza tag.

In my mind, of course this had to be Mikey on his own vigilante crusade to mark the pizzerias under his protection! I HAD to include an homage to that in the image somehow.

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If you have characters you’d love to see me draw (be they yours or fan art you want to see in the world), definitely check out my private commission info and commission FAQ. I have limited slots for private comms you can view here,

Onwards to the next images in my queue!

<3 Ang

Ang’s 2025 Year in Art

EDIT: I’ve added a video about my Year in Art 2025 summary to the top of this post, for those who enjoy listening instead of reading. I’ve also made sure the video includes proper subtitles and links in its description on YouTube. Enjoy and let me know what your fave piece of mine from this year was! I’d love to hear your thoughts. Was it the same as my personal pick?

I wanted to do a video as I normally do for the yearly art review, but flu hit our household hard, so I’ve lost my voice! I hope you’ll enjoy a tour of my featured art for this past year. While I did more than was featured, these were the pieces that stood out.

January – “The Boy With the Seven Word Name”

Ever since I joined in on the Exalted Secret Santa gift exchange hosted by ShiftingPath over on tumblr, my first art of any year is usually a gift for a fellow artist in the TTRPG community! I had a blast practicing a Hades-inspired style for my gift recipient’s character with the epic name.

Watch a timelapse and see my mini-tutorial on drawing in the Hades style here.

February – “The Empress’ Secret Library”

The Exalted TTRPG fan community also hosted a matchmaking challenge which tempted me this past year where two characters of ours were sent on a date. I chose a secret heretical library full of risque literature and artifacts.

Watch a timelapse of this image and learn more about the characters involved in this romp here.

March – “Exalted Character of the Month: Yorigasu”

The Exalted pattern continued as I also participated in the Exalted Character of the Month event where the Discord community gathers to draw each a chosen character each month. I always enjoy doing these to practice my skills and try new things!

Read more about Yorigasu here.

April – “Artorias Collbrande”

This portrait marked my return to doing private commissions and a level up in my skills and style goals. I’ve been trying to push my art towards painterly semi-realism with an intent to draw more story-driven art. As most people comment that Arty has a very self-satisified punchable face, I consider this a job well done!

For more about Artorias, read on here. You can also get a deep dive into his process in his Secret Sketchbook posts.

May – “Detective Claw Zu”

Another Exalted Character of the Month entry! This Pink Panther-inspired detective character presented a fun challenge for me of a character type I don’t draw too often.

June – “Dahlia”

A lovely character by Sam Hogg from her Whaler Girl universe. She was one of my commission giveaway winners where I got to practice a simpler flat color style.

For a timelapse and process pics of Dahlia, read on here.

July – “Cassius, Life and Death Necromancer”

Another giveaway winner, this time featuring a character by my friend, Zan.

For a timelapse and more story behind Cassius, read on here.

August – “Art Fight Emotes”

I technically started these in July, but there was too much art to fit in just that month’s slot. Art Fight is another yearly event where artists gather to draw each other’s characters while tallying points for their teams. This year, I wanted to teach myself how to do simplistic emote portraits in hopes of later designing my own for Discord and Twitch. I think I got a good start!

Watch timelapses for each character here.

September – “The Lingering Smile”

My Favorite Pick of the Year! I consider equipment, weapons, & FX a huge weakness for me, but this image pushed me in untested ways. I’m pleased with the results & how much fun I had along the way!

Read more about the story behind this sword concept here.

October – “The First Eclipse Meetup”

Another group activity with the Exalted TTRPG fan creators discord. With all of our health challenges this year, I’m not sure I would have drawn as much if I didn’t have the constant enthusiasm, encouragement, and inspiration from this community. This was my first time drawing a YCH (Your Character Here) template, where we all got together and drew our characters based on this pose template. That’s my happy drunk gal, Kalara, there at the end toasting with a mug. Featuring other characters from the fan community.

Featuring art and characters from left to right: Basileios (Jen), The Mournful Chorus of Shattered Heavens (Tuskface), Suriya (Epee102), Kalara (me) Serpent Twined Graveflower (shiftingpath), Shame (Neev), Ashen Heavens (Dr. Gelic), Forsaken Bride of Crimson Vows (ToxinFox), and Edan (Kess).

November – “The Twin Suns”

For November, I like to do a bit of writing, which I spent some time developing the rest of the cast of characters for The Uncrucified, a story I’ve been working on for a long while. These twins represent new characters on the cast I’m developing as divine twin heirs exiled from their kingdom because of their choosing by The Unconquered Sun.

They may end up changing in the future, but it felt good to get them down on paper after they’ve been living in my head for a long while now!

December – “Echo for Aquatica1000”

A commission which played to my strengths in goth vampire loveliness, which was a great way to close out my year!

Watch a timelpase of Echo’s creation here.

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What was your fave piece of mine from this year? Let me know in the comments!

I feel like Exalted really snuck in big time and I hope to listen to that urge more as we move into the future and I wrap up other projects.

Here’s to another year where I hope to keep pushing my storytelling, fundamentals, and personal stories!

<3 Ang

Birthday Musings, Art vs Artist 2025, & Help Save My Studio Closet!

The hubby is recovering well after surgery, while I’m happy to report I’ve finally been able to return to a normal human sleep schedule! The past few weeks have been a flurry of post-con recovery, at-home nurse duty, Halloween, birthday celebration, and adjusting back to the normal grind again. It was a quiet bday this year enjoying a viewing of Del Toro’s Frankenstein with a small group of friends and some cake. It’s the simple things!

Frankenstein is hands down my favorite gothic novel/figure so I’m always happy to see when adaptations get closer to the source material. This version wasn’t a one to one, definitely being more skewed towards the Creature being inherently good when he was far more ambigious in nature in the original novel.

However, Del Toro’s adaptation gave us his usual sumptuous set design, as well as a moment of tenderness between the Creature and the Blind Man that made me cry at its simple heartfelt human connection.

All in all, worth a watch! Pan’s Labyrinth and Crimson Peak are still my Del Toro faves, but I still appreciate any take on the Creature that portrays his elegance and intelligence, in spite of his monstrous origin.

Art VS Artist

I always take a selfie around my birthday to document the years gone by, so I thought I’d turn this year’s selfie into my latest Art VS Artist collage! Alas, only one of the pieces in this collage are from this year, but that just goes to show you the kind of year it’s been…

Reflecting on what I want to do with my next year of life, I’ve found some comfort in the acceptance that it’s ok to slow down on the plans I’ve had to stall because of all of our medical and financial drama. Survival comes first, even if that means I have to temporarily slow down my serious efforts to continue my art career and personal writing/art projects.

So many things, AI, the economy, the quiet mass layoffs in the tech industry, medical bills, etc. are making life harder than ever and I can continue to rage at it, or just buckle up till the ride’s over. I’m afraid sometimes I’m too old and tired too succeed, that AI has especially made artists obsolete, but now, more than ever, we must find our own voices, keep ourselves healthy, and find balance to weather the storm of change.

Save My Studio Closet! 40% Off My Coloring Books

In other news, I’m hoping that when tariffs, shipping costs, etc. all die down that I might be able to rev up future crowdfunding projects I had in store (more coloring books, Art Nouveau amulets, etc.) that I had to put off because of this hostile economy for small businesses. While things stabilize, this is a good time for me to create some space for future projects!

By space, I mean physical space! My studio closet is still half full of book boxes from the last Kickstarter.

Angela in front of the full closet of books.Buried in books. Send help!

Snag a Book

And so it’s time for a book clearout. Help me get this closet empty! I’ve marked the Birthstone Goddesses Coloring Books 40% off till Dec 13th. This includes the pencil case bundle as well, which would make for great gifting for the season (but hurry I only have 7 pencil bags in stock as of this writing). No code required. Snag a book here!

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Here’s to keeping it moving even when life gets us down, here’s to filmmakers like Del Toro keeping the flag of hand-crafted media flying, and here’s to remembering that our creative sparks won’t die, no matter how old we get, as long as we remember to carry and protect it.

♥ Ang

Con Report – Multiverse Convention 2025

It’s been a long time since I did a con report! Ah friends, it felt really good to be back on the circuit. The small, chill show that was Multiverse Convention was the perfect event for me to make a convention comeback! This year, I came representing my Birthstone Goddesses since I was the most prepared with inventory for this spread, but I’m hoping next year I can apply with my Dark Fantasy/TTRPG work instead.

Multiverse was small enough to not be too stressful and right on our doorstep as a local event, which made it also doubly amazing for being an easy setup and for getting to network with other creative types in my area.

I was so thrilled to reconnect with other artist friends like Ariel Burgess, Rachel Rieckenberg Becker, and Amy Brewer-Davenport and to meet new friends in-person like Emily and Lauren Brown! Lauren and I, in particular, have been admiring each other’s work for years, so it was one of my biggest joys of the con to have our parallel Art Nouveau worlds finally collide!

Meeting a few writers at the con also energized me to start indulging that side of my artistic spirit again. It’s been difficult to start for many reasons, but seeing other people passionate and motivated infects me with their spark.

PANELS! I also worked 4 panels over the course of con! I got to geek out about video game adaptations, chat references and figure drawing, and sketch costumed con-goers.
(Did you attend one of the panels I was on? Say hi in the comments!)

Who knew that the gentleman tv would be my fave sketch of the figure drawing panel?

My Bestsellers

Unsurprisingly for the down economy we’re currently in, most of my sales were of small items. I tried to keep most of my items $25 and under, with the exception of things like my original paintings and masks that were pricier, none of which sold from my booth or the Art Show. Most people bought:

  • Stickers (that 3 sticker deal was popular for gifting)

  • Enamel Pins

  • Drawstring Pouches

  • Coloring Books

If I could ever get organized to do a tote bag Birthday gift set for each of my Birthstone Goddesses, I think that would be really popular, but I’m still brainstorming how to present that at in-person events and how to present them in a shiny and unique way.

My Convention Display

I always take a picture of my display for future improvements! I have to say that this year I was very satisfied with my display and how the crowd interacted with it. Beyond a few minor fixes, I don’t have any major improvements I’d make.

Most of my nitpicks would be related to the space for the booth not being consistent with what was advertised by the vendor info. We were supposed to have an 8×8 ft space with a 7.5 ft table, but ended up with more of an 8x10x8 space with a table that was too large for an 8×8, which is the reason for the gap in the back. Thankfully, my vendor neighbors were forgiving and the staff assigned me against the wall where I had more flexibility after discussing my carpet walls with them.

Otherwise, I’m so pleased with how the new Lady of November standee worked out! She’ll be perching in my studio till the next event.

I’ve already gotten a few questions about where I got my displays, which I’ll share in a dedicated post with a list of the equipment in the near future!

The Verdict

We made a small profit after making back the fees, but the true gift of con was finding my kindred spirits again. I hope to come back next year with more writing under my belt so I can also experience the Writing tracks of the con that I missed this time around.

I also have a list of local art shows and figure drawing to check out since this con was so close to home, which is an awesome bonus.

This might be my last con again for awhile till life and medical chaos calms down, but I’m so grateful for my time there, for the awesome people, and for the chill atmosphere.

Catch you all again next year, hopefully!

♥ Ang

Planning a Convention Booth + Art Show Display with Visual Aids

Peeking my head up to say “Hello there” I’m alive! With Multiverse coming up in October, I’ve been hard at work envisioning ways to make my grand return to cons a big one and thought I’d let you all in on that process.

My Old Booth

My very first big con booth debuted at DragonCon 2019, which also happened to be my last big booth with COVID’s surprise dropkick that kept me out of cons for years afterwards. Even still, it was a valuable experience in figuring out how to layout my products, how foot traffic and customer flow works, and how to make everything visible and easy to find. I’m definitely drawing upon everything we did right back then to plan a new booth!

My Upgraded Booth Mockup

To plan how to upgrade this old setup, I started with creating a mockup first, with the next step being to set up a live booth in our sunroom to make sure everything fits and THEN to do a run to make sure we can fit it all in our car. Seeing everything laid out visually like this makes it easier for me figure out spacial relationships and what signage I’ll need.

Some of the changes of note:

  • Self-Serve Area – On the right side, I’ve added a small table that allows for showing off more art where people can also enjoy browsing a portfolio and self-serve items like greeting cards and flip bins without being in the way of people at the main checkout table in the back.

  • Folding Bins in Front – In my 2019 display, I had the bins under the prints in back-left in hopes that people would come up to the big wall to flip through. Instead, people seemed afraid of going into that corner as if they were intruding on our seller space behind the table. Hopefully, having print bins up front will encourage more people to browse freely!

  • Added Masks – The Birthstone Goddesses were such a HUGE body of work that I hated leaving the masks out. People tend to find them interesting handmade items that make for great conversation pieces, so I wanted to give them a chance to shine!

  • Added Sticker & Pin Displays – My stickers were displayed in one barely noticeable plaque that didn’t have room for more than a few examples. Meanwhile, my enamel pins weren’t even on the table, which was not ideal as they’re some of my bestselling items! I’ve sacrified showing off the matted pieces on the main table to have ALL of the available stickers and pins featured front and center since they’re some of my most in-demand items.

    Many thanks to my Patrons here because your support helped me to be able to buy these displays instead of having to choose between them and groceries this past month!

  • QR codes instead of clipboard signups – In my long gap in vending at cons, technology has moved forward enough that QR codes are the standard. Instead of needing table real estate for a bulky tablet for newsletter signups, I’m going to put out a QR code with a Meet the Artist plaque instead. This will link to my landing page with links and my newsletter signup form.

  • Adding a Birthstone Chart – It’s amazing how many people don’t actually know their birthstone/birthlower, so I’m going to create little visual where they can look up their or a loved one’s combo for easier gift-giving.

  • Adding a Lady of November Standee – My brother runs a sign shop and has been wanting to make me a standee for years! I FINALLY found a reason to indulge his urge, which I’m sure will be a thrill for him. Backup plan in case the standee won’t fit in the car is to put a roll up verticle sign I already have.

  • New Tablecloths – I found these awesome table covers with openings in the back so we can easily store things, rather than using the unwieldy crushed velvet fabric square I had been using before. (Another expense made possible thanks to Patreon support. Y’all are awesome!)

  • Lighting (Not Pictured) – Dragoncon provided booth lighting, but it’s not guaranteed at other events, so I’ve bought a couple of sheet music lamps for a more budget lamp option.

The Art Show Mockup

Next, I also have a large bay in the Art Show. I like to fit as much as possible, while still having breathing room, so I like to plan a layout in advance in Photoshop. Bid sheets are also unwieldy, so it’s easy to forget that they will take up so much space!

This year, I’m including as many original paintings as I can. Having this layout available also helps if someone else other than me will be hanging my art, usually my husband or other helper for the show.

What you’re not seeing here is all the adding and removing of several pieces I couldn’t find that were lost after our house move or too big for the display once I swapped others out…but at least I can fill out the pre-con paperwork now! It’s like a game of Art Tetris.

The To-Do List

Still a few things left on the agenda to be fully ready for this show, including:

  • Sort out stock and packaging for the Print Shop area I’m also included in. Most of my prints are already packaged, but some might need bag and backing. Also pre-con paperwork to do for this area as well.

  • Cut mats (I HATE this part) and wait for frame glass to (hopefully) arrive in time to be inserted into the frame that didn’t come with glass by default.

  • Prep for my panels. I’m on a really fun schedule in the Art Track as a Guest Artist/Author which I want to refresh myself on info so I can be prepared. That’s me, the Very Professional Artist and not an imposter that everyone will discover soon!

  • Make sure I have all the signage I need, along with making sure prices are current.

The convention chaos begins!
The mockup booth begins to form in the corner of the sunroom.

PHEW have I missed this convention prep dance! Hopefully, everything will go smoothly this year, despite being quite rusty at this after my very long hiatus. Thanks again to everyone who has kept supporting my Patreon despite my sluggish updates lately. It’s helped make this prep so much easier for us while we also continue working through our medical struggles.

Now, back to prep with me!

<3 Ang

Art Fight 2025 Collection – Video + Image Gallery

Art Fight has concluded and what a glorious battle it was! This year, I used the event as a way to practice drawing simplified emoticon portraits with the hope that one day soon I can make some of my own emotes for my Discord and Twitch. Watch the video above for the run down or scroll through this article for the rundown at your own pace!

(Paid Members are getting this vid a few days early before everyone else as a little treat for your support! <3)

However, this proved more difficult than I anticipated! Drawing emotes to visually express an archetypal emotion requires picking up on a strong defining emotion, which requires knowing something of the defining personality of a character. This is easier said than done if a reference sheet provides neutral expressions, I don’t know the character personally, or there aren’t any visual references hinting at the character’s personality.

Luckily, most of my guessing at character types proved correct or at least amusing to their creators!

The next challenge was also taming my own inability to keep art simple because emotes are very small and must portray the character silhouette and emotion extremely clearly and minimally. I got better at doing this as the event went on.

STRAP IN because this is a LONG post with a LOT of artwork embedded. My apologies to those of you on slower networks!

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Attacks by Me

Here’s a closer peek at all the cool characters that inspired me this year, plus the emote I made for each of them.

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Hesper by Kessinder:

My first Attack was of Hesper, who is an acrobat who enjoys collecting knowledge.  She seemed very quiet and thoughtful to me so I tried to make a more subtle emote. I love Hesper’s soft lavenders and red.  She helped me explore and define what kind of style I wanted to use for the rest of the event.

My Hesper emote:

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Glittering Blade by ShiftingPath

My Glittering Blade emote.

Glittering Blade is a flamboyant swordsman whose expression came in loud and clear when I was trying to think of a strong, defining emotion for this character.  His flirty emote ended up being my favorite one from this event!  I think I nailed the balance of expressiveness and simplicity the best in this particular emote as well.

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Iselsi Toshiaki by GuyBitesAtGames:

My emote of Toshiaki:

I adore all of Toshiaki’s interesting costume details and glamourous personality and have been wanting to draw him since I saw him during the Exalted Art Challenge event.  I drew him throwing shade and sparkling with charm all in one emote.

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Yorigasu by Lobsopdoy

My Yorigasu emote:

This one stumped me at the start because I am not too familiar with avian anatomy, much less how to chibi-fy avian anatomy.  Thankfully, Yorigasu showed through at the end, no doubt looking down at one of her failed charges with embarrassment at how sorry a warrior they are and how she must guide them to their destiny, regardless.

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Sheireen by KuroCyou

My emote of Sheireen:

I’ve admired Kuro’s art for a long time and had to do something for this Art Fight!  I chose this character because I was intrigued by her story of returning from the Grave to uncover some sort of mystery. I have a soft spot for my death-positive Grave Domain folks.  I also highly identify with this character’s amount of eye bags!

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Caelin by Lumaris

My Caelin emote:

Next, I had to do something for Lumaris because I love their art.  Here’s Lumaris’ Caeilin, who looked like a kind sort of emotional support knight.  I thought a reassuring wink suited him!

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Falloren by Kakkobeast

My Falloren emote:

Falloren caught my attention for being multiple things I love. Witchy, purple-haired, and mischievous.  I loved your expressive reference art of her doting on her gnome champion, Kakkobeast!

The aforementioned silly reference by Kakkobeast:

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Nova by Aulianna, art by Eviraitari

Nova emote by me:

I admittedly wanted to draw this character purely because I love moth antennae and his design is absolutely gorgeous!  I apologize for giving him such a silly face, but that’s what came through to me because I admittedly missed that there was reference link offsite until after I already submitted the attack and now upon checking info for this video, I know that he might not make this.  He seems much nicer than I drew him haha!  Sorry about that!

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Rania by Jadequarze

My Rania emote:

Rania caught my attention with her amazing design and cool backstory.  She is a ruthless, discerning crimelord who also makes wood figurines for her crew and has two adopted kids.  I enjoyed this juxtaposition!  It also seems the crankier the character, the more fun it is to turn them into a chibi.

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Sprite dela Cruz by Creativeidiote

Sprite emote by me:

Finally, we have Sprite dela Cruz by Creativeidiote.  I loved this character’s hair and freckles and really enjoyed coloring the hair.  Probably the most adorable emote of the bunch! I also identify with this amount of nervous sweatdrops.

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Attacks On Me by Other Artists

Here are the attacks/art I received of my characters this year for the event. My sad boys, Nils and Mask of Golden Lies, were very popular this year! To be fair, Mask of Golden Lies was also the featured character this month over at the Forge of Wonders, so participants were encouraged to double-dip on Art Fight as well. You can see all the cool Golden Lies art over at The Uncrucified’s blog soon.

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Nils by Kakkobeast

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Nils by Creativeidiote

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Mask of Golden Lies by ArtbyDungeon

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Mask of Golden Lies by GuyBitesatGames

An adorable chibi version of Lies! He’s dressed for colder weather and stole The Lover’s hat from 2e, which I’ve always had beef with that hat. He rocks it better than she did imo.

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“Forbidden Fruit” (Mask of Golden Lies x Grave Goods Gardener) by ShiftingPath

This one comes with a fun story explanation you guys should check out here.

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Thanks for the Fight!

Not going to lie, this year has been extremely difficult and July has been a new emotional low for me as I’ve been coping with some existential shifts in my life and career. Receiving cool art of my characters brought me some much-needed happiness!

I look forward to this event every year. Did you participate? What was your fave piece that you made this year? Feel free to link in the comments!

Which of my emotes is your favorite? Let me know in the comments! ;-*

♥ Ang

July 2025 Studio Hangout + AMA – Art Fight, OC Art, & My Fave Tropes

Time for July’s Studio Hangout! It’s coming to you a little late because I wanted to give the Art Fight art feature room to breathe, but here we are with the monthly wrap-up of everything you might’ve missed in July!

Feel free to watch the video above or read and enjoy this article at your own pace below. A transcript of this video (attached to this post) and captions.

Personal Updates

  • Layoffs suck, AI sucks, tariffs suck, and life is rough on our end for many reasons, but I’m tired of being mad and sad about it. Tell me something good that happened to you in the comments! (I’ve thankfully got some happier news below in the Announcements)
  • Keep your head up, friends and fellow artists. Let’s take it one day at a time!

Announcements

  • Upcoming Convention Appearance! I’ll be appearing as an official Guest at Multiverse in October! Read more here. I’m back at cons after 6 years away!
  • New Poll! Free & Paid Patreon members, I want to know your thoughts about how you’re liking these Studio Hangouts! Only a couple of folks have responded thus far and I’d like to hear from more of you.
  • New Ask Me Anything Archive. We’ve accumulated quite a few Q&As over the past few months, so I’ve finally started listing them in one handy location organized by category. Ask and ye shall receive!

New Art in July

Art Fight 2025 – Go Team Crystals!

Art Fight happened in July and led to the creation of many fun emote portraits of the amazing characters created by the Art Fight community. If you want to deep dive into the reference art created by others not shared here, check out my art feature of Art Fight.

The Attacks on me by other artists featuring my characters (You can get a full view of each of these images at the Art Fight feature):

Character Commission – Cassius for Psycheen on BlueSky

This was prize art for another commission giveaway winner, Psycheen, who gave me free reign to play with their design of their solarpunk-themed character, Cassius. Find out more about this character’s tragic backstory and watch a timelapse of this piece’s creation here.

Cassiel’s Servant WIP – 3D Modeling

I’ve been very art-blocked on this piece and it has taken me FORever to make progress on it! Likely because I decided it was past time I taught myself how to use Clip Studio Paint’s 3D model posing tools to create reference for myself for the complex aspects of this piece, such as the daggers in perspective and the foreshortening of the main figure.

It took a lot of shouting at the interface to get it right, but I arrived at something very useful for my purposes! I’ll likely be covering this part of the process in a future Secret Sketchbook entry for paid members, so keep an eye out for it.
(Watch the video on this post for some more cool things that I discovered how to do in CSP).

Ask Me Anything

Q: (From Psycheen on BlueSky) What is your favorite trope and why?
A: Watch the answer here. SPOILER ALERT for a 20 year old show (Avatar the Last Airbender)!

Q: (From Psycheen on BlueSky) What do you want to draw, but haven’t yet, and why?
A: Watch the answer here. Lots of Elden Ring: Nightreign gushing!

Q: What art of yours would you like to redo?
A: Watch the answer here.

Happening in August

  • Kev’s surgery. With our health insurance finally sorted out, my husband can finally get the surgical procedures he needs! I’ll be focusing on his care, first and foremost. With luck, everything will happen this month without being prolonged any longer and we can be on the road to better health!
  • Finishing up the “Cassiel’s Servant” cover. I have the reference completed after much fighting with Clip Studio Paint. It’s finally time to get to the meat of the art-making process!

Links in the video:

  • Mimimaru – Artist who did Zelda and Arcane character art in the style of Klimt.
  • Christian Angel – Artist of the Elden Ring art done in a classical style.
  • Sam Hogg – Artist of the reference art of my character, Nils.
  • Psycheen – Artist and creator of Cassius.
  • The Uncrucified – My Exalted TTRPG blog

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Here’s to another month of surviving. Hang in there, everyone!

<3 Ang

Studio Hangout June 2025 + AMA – The Health Insurance Circus, New Character Art, and Discussing My Fave Media

Have a look at all the happenings and posts you might have missed in June, plus the monthly Ask Me Anything segment where I answer questions from fans and Patrons! Watch the video above or read the TL;DR summary below. The video includes captions with the transcript attached to this post.

Personal Updates

  • We were dropped AGAIN by health insurance after finding a new plan. But only after I spent weeks calling offices and the insurance company where nobody knew whether we were covered by our doctors or not and their own system said we were covered. It was a very frustrating process which ate up so much of my time this month! Meanwhile, we’re still bracing ourselves for multiple surgical procedures for Kev on the horizon, which have been stalled by this whole insurance coverage uncertainty.
  • The Silver Lining! The hubby MIGHT be starting a new job with new health insurance, which will help us with most of our current challenges! Even if that doesn’t work out, we are thankfully able to change our current problematic plan within 30 days. Phew! Please redirect all spare luck and good fortune to Kev as the interview process continues!
  • Considering a career pivot? After doing the math, I’ve decided not to reopen for small private commissions. Better to focus my energies on studying for entry level IT helpdesk which I can also do remotely, as it promises better pay than what I can currently bring in with art. (I’ve actually started studying in May, while also balancing my current obligations).Our current life challenges combined with the past few years of an imploding illustration industry thanks to AI, shrinking freelance opportunities, and impossible convention table rates /competition, something has to give and that’s unfortunately been my own mental health and our stability.

    If/when this career pivot happens, I’ll need to reconsider how this Patreon is structured. If our situation changes in the meanwhile, awesome! But I want to be prepared in case things don’t work out the way we want.

    I’m never going to abandon creating art, but the amount of time I have for it may change depending on how life plays out! We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it…

New Art in June

I finished the first of the two commission prizes for the winners this month! Sadly, I won’t be continuing to take commissions as I focus on studying for my IT certification, but I didn’t want to leave these winners hanging!

A peek at a few other pieces in-progress this month, mostly for casual fun events related to tabletop gaming. Watch this month’s Studio Hangout vid above where I talk a little more about the story behind each piece.

[Character art in the bottom left by Psycheen, which is a sneak peek of the character I’ll be drawing for the final giveaway winner next!]

Announcements

  • Review of Fourthwall Samples – I’m vetting this shop platform for my own side projects. Have any questions about them? Drop a comment! Find the quickie review and a video overview here.
  • Introducing my new YouTube channel – I’ve decided to break my more gallery-minded art videos off from my main channel so my geeky tabletop art doesn’t clash too badly with galleries scouting my paintings for display. Find out more about my new Fine Art channel here!
  • Ask Me Anything Archive Coming Soon! – I’ve gotten enough AMA questions now to merit creating an archive which will be categorized by topic. Look for it here when it’s complete!

Mentioned Links

Posts from June

Ask Me Anything

Q: [From Kit Chimera on BlueSky] How does being a traditional artist influence your digital art?
A: Answered here.

Q: [From Psycheen on BlueSky] What media are you into lately and why?
A: Answered here.

Q: [Also from Psycheen] What character do you hate in media lately?
A: Answered here.

July Goals

  • Hopping into Art Fight 2025 – I’ll be participating in this art trading event with some simple art! Find my profile here. I don’t have a lot of time to participate, but I need SOME HAPPINESS in my life and this event brings pure joy!
  • Clearing out my Art queue – I’m wrapping up as many of my in-progress images as I can so I can pivot my focus to studying for entry level helpdesk certification.

[My Art Fight card for 2025. Go, Team Crystals!]

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My eternal thanks to those of you who keep supporting here even when things have slowed to a crawl because of our IRL challenges. I’m remaining hopeful for a kinder turn of fortune in store for us in July!

<3 Ang