Howdy Reader! 🤠

Hope you’re having a lovely week so far! It's rainy here, cold even, but I'm enjoying this month nonetheless! I'm really loving spring this year 🌸

So, today I have a bit of art progress to show you, with more fish than usual, some flowers, and something new I started doing on YouTube :D

Let's start!

Still working on the aquarium 🐟

I’m continuing my Inktober-redraw project, and last time I showed you the illustration I’m working on. This one is the aquarium scene, and I have to admit it has been a bit harder to approach than I expected!

Here is the sketch and color test I already did to refresh your mind:

You see, in my illustrations, I usually draw roofs, plants, or a mix between the two. That’s my happy comfort zone! I don’t need to look up as many references; I can just sit down and think of what fun thing I can do differently this time, or focus on composition and the general mood.

But an aquarium sure is different, first because it’s an interior but also because I'm not used to draw sea plants and underwater texture!

And then, of course, there are the fish.

I realized pretty quickly that I was drawing them a bit too automatically. They were “fish-shaped,” sure, but not really recognizable. And if I want to sell the idea that it’s a lively place that you’d want to visit, I’m gonna need a bit more than that 😄

Typically, I don’t want to accidentally draw a bunch of tropical fish when the aquarium is supposed to be about the local sea fauna. So I took a step back and did some fish studies instead.

So this weekend, at the sketching meeting I’m going to regularly now, I spent some time practicing from references. Some were from the internet, and some were my own fish pictures I took at the zoo.

It was honestly a very nice break. I’ve been a bit stuck on this illustration, and doing smaller studies without the pressure of finishing the whole scene made it easier to get back into it.

Now that I’ve warmed up more than enough, I hope I can make much better progress on the ink. Fingers crossed, I’ll have something more advanced to show you next week :)

A few flowers on the side

If you’ve been following along, two weeks ago I also showed you an illustration of two cats I’ve been making with my fiancée :)

I’m still not going to explain exactly what it is for, because it’s not quite ready yet, but I can show you another part of it: flowers!

It’s not very deep haha, they’re just flowers. But I had a lot of fun making them. So I figured I’d share them with you!

I also enjoyed how quickly I could make them -- a good break from the illustrations that take me a month to complete. I didn’t have to overthink too much; I could just draw, add shapes, and make something cute 🌸

There are still a few blockers before I can show you the full thing properly, but I hope it will be ready next week. Fingers crossed again!

Oh, also, I started making videos on YouTube

Now a small but special announcement: I started making videos on YouTube :)

To explain, here is the reason I’m doing this: I’ve noticed that I often had trouble speaking, especially in English, and formulating my ideas clearly on the spot. I’m also very uncomfortable on camera!

So I decided to post one video every day, dive into this project, break the ice, and get my reps in so that those flaws don’t limit me anymore.

To be clear, I don’t film every single day. I usually record several videos at once, so I have a bit of a backlog. Otherwise, I think this project would become super stressful very quickly, and that’s not really the point (and I also have art to do!)

The topics are often around advice I would give to my younger self. Things about mindset, adulthood, work, growing up, and small lessons I’ve learned along the way.

It’s not directly about art; for that, I have this newsletter! 🙂‍↕️

But if you enjoy my blog posts, or some of the little rants I sometimes post online, you might like those videos too :)

See it as something extra if you don’t have enough of Nighten every week haha

I have posted 7 videos so far! Here is the list in order :D

• ​Stop Solving Problems You Don’t Have​
• ​be weird, please​
• ​Why I make bad videos​
• ​Rambling is good, actually​
• ​Please get a real job​
• ​Don’t fall for these people​
• ​You can just change who you are​

I’m thinking that maybe I’ll add this small list at the end of each letter with the latest videos, so you can click only if one of the topics interests you, without being intrusive. Let me know what you think!

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Alright, that’s it for today! Thank you for reading and following along today :)

I’m looking forward to having more aquarium progress next week, and probably the context behind the cat/flowers illustration if everything goes well!

In the meantime, I wish you a very pleasant rest of your week!

Take care,
- Nighten

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