Autumn Cryptid

Here's another commission from that "experimental" batch! It's watercolor on top of an outline I made with micron pens.

Rankin/Bass Bilbo Baggins!!! I watched the movie before doing this painting. It was quite the ride, a beautiful piece of traditional animation. And Bilbo is such a little sweetheart!! 😭💕 I feel like I need to get into the hobbit now. I know I have the book around here somewhere, I just haven't read it yet.

I watched the animated Hobbit movie so long ago I couldn’t actually remember much about what Smaug looked like, except that as a kid I watched all his scenes with equal parts fear and fascination. I thought I’d look him up, since I was fondly remembering Rankin Bass’s dragons from Flight of Dragons - was not disappointed! What an absolutely rad creature design. Beam eyes, viscerally pleasing pebbly scales, fur all over and the face of a wolf/wildcat/goblin who has Seen Things (probably things he caused himself, but whatever)

the grey sky looking particularly warm under the glow of candles

playing music at every chance

eating. eating for your body and your heart, and learning to feel good about it

dinner early and falling asleep to a movie marathon

bundling up to catch snowflakes

thinking about what ways to make your friends smile as the year comes to close

buying flowers for every occasion because you Feel Like It

opening a new journal

accepting that people come and go, and the most important ones will always return

using your downtime to channel your creativity

calling up people you haven't talked to in ages because you think of them sometimes

rereading your favourite books and binging your comfort shows

writing every exam like it's your last, savouring each meal, every moment with your close ones

thinking about ways to get better

learning a new language just for kicks

trying something you've always wanted to do—play guitar, learn to crochet—because if not now, then when?