Ragora57 

I haven't shown you my sketches in a long time (or have I ever shown them at all? Good question). This is a real example of the kind of sketch I start with for every single commission—it’s exactly what the client sees for the first time when we begin the feedback and approval process. As you might notice... I'm a pretty chaotic person, let's put it that way :) I don't like working with line art at all, I just love to SLAP PAINT AROUND WITH A BRUSH UNTIL IT LOOKS RIGHT! That's why I've always envied artists who do such clean, detailed line art; to me, that's just some next-level, out-of-this-world skill. Though I should probably say it's not really envy, it's more like total admiration for people like that. "So why don't you just go and learn it, you have a tablet at the very least," you might ask. The thing is, it's just beyond me—my brain goes into full panic mode at the mere thought of those prospects, haha. So nope, no line art allowed here, it's completely banned! Only chaos, only messy sketches. I might post other stages of this piece later, and yes, her hand is in that position specifically to hold grapes—we all caught onto that immediately without any extra explanations, right? :)

During these past few years that I’ve been gone, I managed to go through depression, work a regular job again because I was completely disillusioned with myself, lose my best friend, and bury my cat. "Wow, that’s a lot of heavy stuff you just dumped on us," you might think (honestly, as I’m typing this, I realize how fatalistic it all sounds), but that’s not my main point.

I’ve finally found the strength in myself to start drawing for my amazing followers again, and I’m so happy that many of you didn't forget about me, even with my complete absence from social media. Your attention and your orders helped me get through a pretty dark chapter of my life, so thank you so much.

"Why are you opening up so much all of a sudden?" you might ask :) The thing is, I’ve never been particularly chatty on social media. And it wasn’t because I had nothing to say; I just don’t speak English at all, even though I understand everything. Basically, in that sense, I'm not much different from a dog, haha. Thanks to AI, I can now write the way I normally do, and you’ll understand everything - even my jokes will translate well (before, they always just stayed in my head, and you guys got dry responses like "Great! Uh-huh, yeah!").

Don't get me wrong, I haven't become an AI ambassador. I still believe that the original sin of neural networks (I'm talking about stealing images from artists) hasn't been forgiven. You can rest assured that all the drawings I make for you are done completely without the use of AI generation.

Speaking of drawings, you won't believe what I discovered a few months ago. Turns out, I’d been drawing on a broken tablet for god knows how long. I have no idea exactly when it broke, but it seriously messed with my sanity. What I mean is, I've finally properly set up my new tablet! You can compare the drawing below with my previous posts (on Twitter) - it really did get better, right? I'm not just imagining things? Haha :) Anyway, this made me so happy that I just had to share the news with you.

By the way, what's happening in the drawing is just a warm-up (cue me looking at you, you looking at me, me keeping my eyes on you... and both of us realizing that absolutely no other alternative versions of this drawing have ever existed anywhere, ever).

I don't think many people will actually read all of this (heck, I won't re-read it either, otherwise you'd never even see this post - die of cringe before hitting publish). All in all, this is my first attempt at being more open with you, and thanks again, everyone! Stay tuned for updates, they'll be coming more often now.