Digital watercolour illustration of the Pokémon, Fennekin. It stands smiling next to a bowl of food. The Fennekin is missing a leg (I forgot to draw it).

#Fennekin to keep my hand active

#Pokemon

Digital watercolour illustration of the winner's character, a steel green Scyther equipped with dark-coloured blade guards (is steel green a real colour?). They wear a headband that reads "FTL", as well as a waistcoat-like garment on the torso. Wrapped around the neck and shoulders is a light-grey-and-orange cloak or adjacent blowing in the wind. The Scyther is smiling.

3/4 Raffle reward for @fumikage141.bsky.social ! Thank you ^__^

Looking at my media tab to get this omg I've barely drawn this month... started PowerWash up again like the sick and twisted little man I am....

My awful update to this (no I am not open yet sorry!!!!!! I've still got 2 raffle pieces to draw) is Sorry Gang this is being moved to GBP instead of USD (£35 roughly equating to $47 but I'm taking that with a grain of salt). Significantly better for me in the long run but oops...!

トレジャータウン

Literally!!! I respect anyone who enjoys it of course, my personal tastes err on the more obscure side and I know that haha but. My experience with it is mostly like thirst art where it has a 500-pack and it's like. You do you but at some point my eyes glaze over. I could learn to like it but......!

Only just found out you can actually select the Pokémon variants for mega/etc I have no idea how to do that my bad...

I got my VGen codeeee ☺️☺️☺️ Yay

TRUUEEEE I think I love how absolutely Out There Probopass is... when I was a lot younger my #1 dream location was Easter Island, and it's always reminded me of Ahu Ko Te Riku, so there's always been a passive fondness for it! Oops I guess it doesn't fit in "idk why".. I just figured out why...

I love all of Hoenn there's not a single Hoenn mon I dislike!!!! Spinda gets beyond a pass from me :-P!

you've changed someone for the better that day and maybe friendships can be built from that and lives can be changed overall.... it's all just very sweet and beautiful to me so I love it when there are people who want to be talkative and friendly towards others 🥺🥺

others. Thankfully I think it's relatively easy to learn who's more open to interaction than others, and also like.. throughout my time I've learned so many people are a lot lonelier than they might appear, because we never really know who everybody interacts with often, it's entirely possible that

OF COURSE AND NO WORRIES AT ALL!!!!!!! I love talking sooooo much my messages on Discord etc are crazy overwhelming though (go my 200 word Normal Conversational Messages)... human interaction is so joyous and beautiful but it's sooo easy for us As humans to feel like we're taking up the time of

K*mala is like actual bottom of the bottom for me like the mon itself didn't even do me wrong I just can't stand its ability for personal reasons 💔💔 So I "hate" it but Not Really. Only kind of

the appeal of it outside of it being like Furry Adjacent. I get absolutely Nothing from looking at that mon I'm sorry....... it's like absolute bottom tier for me but it's the most popular of my bottom tier so I put it in there..... also I would take very good care of a Seedot OK. OK. Grass win

grids.fun/t/about-me-p... Link and all that... I don't actually really have any strong feelings on eeveelutions/etc. A lot of the mons I like are "underrated" too so I just picked one I like a ton (Klawf is also up there)... Z*ra*ra I'm sorry I actually dislike seeing you SORRYYYY I don't understand

Did one of thooooseeeee

Woah!! I don't think I've seen it, or at least not clocked it (I'm very forgetful I apologise haha). If you get around to releasing it.... (gives you a subtle little wink)...... heh...... Hello....... (I also want to try being vocal and talking with others!!! I always have too much to say KJFDHGK)

is planned to be public in the future 🥺 (My apologies if it is and I've missed it, I'm very much blind to everything around me LOL)

smaller things before taking on something huge! (Kind of like game development in that sense I guess lol). I love locations and Sometimes Designing Them.. but making that final decision will be the death of me! Thank you!! I'm very excited to see what you've been working on if any of it is public/

like to consider my current work suitable for all ages haha. I'm usually throwing myself into work for others too so there's guilt not working on those and musing over OC/adjacent stuff too haha (and every time I tell myself I won't... it happens again..!). I need to know that I can complete the

Oh goodness!!! 3 years is a huge commitment, just knowing you've put that much time into something (that's readable..! Everything for me was never documented oops..) is extremely commendable. And thank you!! I'd like to work on something how I currently draw, but VV itself is more or less 16+ and I

Sorry.... I forgot to add..... I put blue in some of the text to help break the text up for readability...! I got so lost trying to make the alt text work in the original writeup that I completely forgot to specify this >__<!

VV exists, and it is going to continue to exist, as funny guys that I made and love and enjoy. But it's going to be mine, and it's going to cater to me. It always has, really, but I have to be honest with myself in that I just don't need to put all of my work about it out there. I don't need to try and be appealing or smart about anything. I don't need to convince myself that I need to make some kind of big project to be worth anything. I don't need to justify anything's existence to myself and I don't need to prove that I, myself, am worthy of existing by overworking myself figuring out things that really just don't matter. I need to have fun again. I need to love my character work again. And nobody really needs to see the inner workings of that anymore, I think. There's not really any need for me to say anything, I don't think, but I think it's important to say it. For me, you know? I feel the need to say something about it for my own sake. I don't want to repeat any of this in my head any more than I already have haha.

Around 2024, I wanted to portray my PMD characters in a comic, called "Verdant Ventures". I had a goal to get properly started in 2025, but this never ended up happening. There's many reasons for this being the case, including but not limited to; feeling as though I wasn't good enough at drawing my characters, not having locations decently-designed enough for background and the likes, not having a solid start or end point despite the series intending to be slice of life (not following any particular timeline). Mike in particular had felt like an underdeveloped character, and anything that I did come up with didn't feel "Mike" enough. Additionally, the primary conflict between certain characters didn't feel realistic, and I wouldn't have been happy if I didn't get around to figuring that out, either. When I had gotten around to maybe finally figuring something out, an event in the early months of 2025 had taken the wind out of my sails entirely, and wanting to push through with most forms of OC content felt more obligatory than anything (this event also impacted my writing of VV, meaning I would have had to rewrite/write around a lot of things that I just... constantly neglected to do, impacting my desires to work on anything further). I have always been of the mindset that I create for myself first and foremost, and that anybody else's enjoyment is a plus. I consider everything I make to be authentic in both joy and appreciation for the subject material, as opposed to following what might get me attention or followers - no disrespect to anybody who does this, it's just not for me for myself. In these past few months, there's been a very clear shift in what I've chosen to draw and share publicly: just random fanart or other things for fun, with OC content sprinkled between. I've been drawing primarily - near-exclusively - OC content in different medias/fandoms for almost 10 years now.

I trapped myself in a box that I had never really realised I was ever trapped in. I'd had realisations every now and then, but always moved onto the next thing that I loved and adored, repeating the process. I developed a very strong love for creating characters, writing worlds that I was proud of, general worldbuilding that made sense, lore that made sense, every character decision and piece of dialogue making sense. It all needed to make sense - I liked it that way. I loved having problems and figuring them out. Creative hurdles weren't obstacles to me, they were never deterrents, they were challenges that I felt pride in overcoming and always thought highly of myself for coming up with solutions for, especially when they were things other people were struggling with. And not in an egotistical way, not in an "I'm better than you" way - it meant that it felt like I could use my creative problem-solving skills to help others, which I've always loved to do. And when I could, I did. And it was exciting! But my obsession with making everything make sense had started to become overwhelming. I can't enjoy basic things without overthinking them. I can't write a character having any particular trait without needing to justify every single possible thread woven into them. It's hammering on solving things, solving things, solving things. I can't make progress on the bigger picture because I need everything around it to make sense first. There are people who enjoy what I do, which I've never been able to comprehend, because I've never worked on anything with the intention of garnering interest from others.

The genuine interest that others have had in my characters throughout the years is not something to scoff at; there are hundreds, thousands of other creators out there who would do anything for the kind of attention I received in my time, and said attention of mine was very small-scale (you certainly didn't see it on social media, it was mostly in private!). I'd had people ask me before, "Lewis, how do I make characters that are popular?" and I'd tell them, well, there's your first problem - you're doing it for fame, not for love. I always did everything for love, and I will always continue to do everything for love. I didn't realise that, at some point, slight expectations did creep up on me. People liked what I did, so I have to make something for them to enjoy, even if I'm still in primary control. I have to work my hardest on what I love because other people want to enjoy it, too, and I can't let them down. I stalled. And I kept stalling. And, I mean, I'm not really the most able-bodied person on the planet, I can't keep up with what I wanted to do every day. Everything I wanted to do was slowed, and slowed, and it kept slowing down, and it became a slog to work on what I loved. It became draining, both physically and mentally. I didn't want to think about anything anymore. I didn't want to fix the glaring holes in what I wanted to present, because I think I fell out of love - not with my characters, I love and adore them still, but with the idea of everything needing to be... it. Not every character needs an elaborate story. You don't need mountains of lore for characters to make sense. You just have fun, and you keep having fun, and you say "fuck it, I don't care, it's cool, so it's whatever".

I think I read a tweet earlier in the week that said something about not every OC needing to have like, a million pieces of media attached to it, or something. And I agree! I don't... need to make a comic or anything, for my guys to exist. I have enough vaguely going on for people to maybe see the bigger picture if they ever wanted to. I don't need to work myself into holes for other people when I only work for myself. How did I ever let myself reach this point? How did I let myself start thinking too much about how everybody else viewed what I made, wanting to meet their expectations without even knowing what said expectations are? I hold myself to a standard through the eyes of others. I have great issues about being perceived - more as a person than anything else - that greatly impacts with how I interact with day-to-day life. I have to be kind and amicable, I have to do my best to avoid upsetting others which is difficult when I'm prone to being Me; it's a constant turmoil that's suffocating me and for the most part I'm able to deal with it, but it shouldn't be impacting my approach to art the way it is. For the most part, like many others, I try to use art as a means of escaping my problems. I don't know at what point my mindset began to shift into feeling like anything I made had to be perfect in the eyes of others - especially since I'm one of the furthest things from a perfectionist..!

+ My original note that was very long-winded and over-explanatory. Oops....! Well, you have this if you wanted to read another 1,400 words. My bad!

Around 2024, I wanted to portray my PMD characters in a comic, called "Verdant Ventures". Unfortunately, for a lot of reasons, this never ended up happening, nor do I have any intent any time soon of seeing it through. My main issue is being someone who feels the need to fix things constantly - not in art, but in story. The general need for everything to make sense and be digestible. Working things out is something I enjoy greatly, but there were just too many things for me to try and patch up that I just couldn't muster up the energy for anymore. It was an awful amount of work, so much so that it outweighed the love I had for it as a whole - and I've always operated near-solely on "love". I have always been of the mindset that I create for myself first and foremost, and that anybody else's enjoyment of anything I create is a plus. I've been working near-exclusively on a variety of OC content for at least a decade; my past few months of just doing whatever has felt a lot more freeing than I ever thought it would be. I didn't need to make images that referenced character events or story or, you know, made sense. I've enjoyed my past few months creating, even if most of my character work has been delegated to the backburner. My desire to fix everything I make, to make it presentable for others, has become exhausting. I'm constantly overthinking everything I ever do, and it's been sucking the fun out of all of it. I never realised how desperately I needed a break from thinking about the logistics of everything.

So, the concept of Verdant Ventures, as something to actually be engaged with by others - non-existent! It's gone now. I don't need to follow anything through. I'm going to just do whatever I want, however I want, and if it doesn't make sense, I'll probably still figure it out somehow but I don't really care. I've always been extremely grateful for the people who have enjoyed what I've done - and it'll continue to exist, the guys are still out there, but like, man, I really don't need a talking space for it and I really don't need to overwork myself on something that's meant to exist solely for love and fun. I am very fortunate to be in the position I've been in with passive character interest throughout my life. It's very small, and it's very... interesting? Every time I've heard "I enjoy what you do!" or anything adjacent (especially deeper involvement) it's like. Woah! That's cool. I'm grateful for it. I'm also incredibly grateful for the general interest in my work! Thank you! Many people probably don't even know what I'm talking about... oh... oops... haha... that's how long it's been... I hope this makes sense. Thank you!

About VV! 🌱

Hello! I’m in real need of funds ‼️ With life happenings and vet visits, I need to reach my goal by Saturday ☹️

I have art! Wriggly icons, pkmn fusions, fullbodies, scenes, and refs! All PWYW at a min of 20$ ‼️‼️

Or, if you just want to help me make my goal, see my ko-fi!
ko-fi.com/sorakoudo/go...

Digital watercolour illustration of the winner's character, an anthropomorphic Wigglytuff. They wear a light blue dress decorated with short white lace at the sleeves and bottom of said dress, as well as white gloves that reach about the forearm. Wigglytuff also wears a sunhat-like headwear with a ribbon coloured green, red and black, and soft yellow shoes. They have long, flowing pink hair. The Wigglytuff is posed to be plucking pecha berries from a tree, holding a basket of harvested berries on their right wrist.

2/4 raffle reward, for @goblinpink.bsky.social ! Thank you! ^__^

Not for me! :-] I like to make sure I can draw a little bit every other day, so I draw things that are mindless and aren't that intensive. This is one of them! ^__^