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Flowers

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“Everybody is a main character to someone.”

— Amy Harmon

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I assure you: somebody, somewhere, is on the exact same wavelength as you are.

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it’s her again. Can you tell she’s my favorite?

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Write Believable Intelligent Characters

╰ Let their intelligence show in how they notice things

Smart people aren’t always the ones talking, they’re the ones observing the tiny detail that everyone else misses. They connect dots faster. They clock micro-expressions. They’re already ten moves ahead while everyone’s still arguing about step one.

╰ Don’t make them know everything

The smartest characters have gaps. A genius hacker who can’t do small talk. A professor who’s never seen Shrek. An expert in ancient languages who has zero street smarts. Give them blind spots, and suddenly they feel real—not robotic.

╰ Let their intelligence shape how they argue

A clever character doesn’t always win by yelling louder. Sometimes they cut deep with one sentence. Sometimes they bait someone into proving their point for them. Or smile while delivering verbal chess moves that leave everyone stunned two scenes later.

╰ Smart doesn’t mean wordy

Sometimes the smartest thing your character can say is nothing. Sometimes it’s “Huh.” Or one line that lands like a hammer. Intelligence isn’t just about complexity, it’s about clarity. Bonus points if they say the thing everyone else was dancing around.

╰ Show them solving problems, not just explaining them

Whether it’s picking a lock or defusing a political standoff, let them act. Watching them think on their feet, adapt, and surprise people is way more compelling than giving them long-winded monologues about the history of poison.

╰ Let them struggle with being misunderstood

A smart character might say something that’s totally logical but lands like a slap. Or they assume people see the obvious when they don’t. Intelligence can be isolating. That tension makes them human.

╰ Don’t make them the author’s mouthpiece

If your “smart” character exists to deliver the moral of the story, they’ll feel like a soapbox in a trench coat. Let them be flawed, biased, wrong sometimes. Let them learn. Otherwise, they stop being a character and start being an essay in disguise.

╰ Make their intelligence emotional, too

Book smart is one thing. Emotional intelligence hits differently. Maybe they’re intuitive. Maybe they know how to read a room. Maybe they see through someone’s bravado in five seconds flat. Brains plus empathy? Lethal combo.

╰ Smart doesn’t mean nice

Intelligence can be cruel. Calculated. Detached. Don’t be afraid to let your clever character weaponize their smarts if that’s who they are. Sometimes the coldest characters are the ones who know exactly how to hurt you—and choose not to. Or do.

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woah a spine. Inspired by my scoliosis and how it has influenced my self-perception. (Idk why the quality died).

when I was learning how to draw a spine, I couldn’t help but think that it looks like a sort of eldritch centipede Angel. So originally that’s what this was going to be. Uhh, however…

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Redone and made better, 1/4 of my original Jacks for a deck of cards I may or may not finish. The gnomes. He’s a wizard, Harry!

Anyway I don’t know what the queens and kings should be, so this project is currently on hiatus.

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look at this whimsical little lad. He’s my Jack of Spades for a deck of cards I’m designing.

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Do you think I meant to write "stoopid" google docs. Do you think I meant to describe a character as "stoopid." Do you think that is what I meant to do

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Love You Like I Love the Rain

I love you like I love the rain

Like I love the cold on a summer’s day

The idea of you makes me smile

And when you call I cannot wait

I miss you when you’re gone

But when you’re here I hide away

Wishing the sun would come out again

Because I love you like I love the rain

[this has been sitting in my notes app forever and I remember it from time to time. Photo credit: me]

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Chocolate Girl!

gonna be so real, she almost only had a face in the side profile but I was struck by a beam of inspiration and had a Vision for the bust on the right, and so I powered through for the portrait, though I’m not sure how I feel about it.

can’t decide if I should name her Rebecca or Claire (iykyk). I might name her something completely different. No idea.

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“Oh turpentine erase me whole / I don’t want to live my life alone”

A piece I made roughly a year ago, inspired by Erin Morgenstern’s The Starless Sea and the song “Honeybee” by Steam Powered Giraffe. I don’t know how I found the motivation to accomplish something like this.

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Angelica, though she prefers the name Siren (for now). One of my beloved characters who began her existence in d&d. However I’m trying to build an original story for her and her life on the sea.

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Ever needed to home brew a metal folding chair for 5e? Turns out the occasion arose. Twice.

(Something something “if I had a nickel…”)

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“All my friends have flowers in their eyes”

First real attempt at digital painting (with the opaque gauche brush and everything)

I love restricted color palettes with a pop of contrast :)

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Introducing: Chocolate Girls

They don’t have names yet but I hope that changes at some point.

Why was her face so difficult to draw ;-;

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She was almost a Lancer character, but I decided against it. I like her design though.

Mostly a study in side profile portraits and an interesting coloring style.