Yes kids*, you can and should drop an orange popsicle into a mug of beer. *(no, actual kids, no!)

Who wants to see what I got up to this Free Comic Book Day? Sketches upon sketches, my friends.

All art is abandoned.

What should I draw in this little sketchbook with this cool random colour pencil?

We have a long tradition of ice-cream for breakfast in the Bharadwaj household.

Once again @allvishal.bsky.social has outdone himself. We’re doing 2 Supplementals this time (Q&A this week, and Section 31 next week), so he made a double cover that splits in two.

As a working visual artist, I have less of a hardline view either way on all this AI image gen discourse* than you'd think, but it really makes me want to make more handmade art. *(- it has uses - it still looks soulless - 99% of users would never have hired a human artist anyway)

We're back on track now (show should post next week), so I can finally show off this @allvishal.bsky.social cover art, which incorporates this year's selections: A Wish for Wings that Work (the Bloom County Christmas special) + a holiday-themed episode of Spielberg's 80s anthology, Amazing Stories.

Progress is rarely linear, but progress is progress. Project 1 for 2025 now has 3 bricks in its eventual wall. 6 is an arbitrary number that people aim for. 10x that would be amazing. Public in April. Project 2 is more ambitious. August for that is laughable, and yet, doable.

Finished this page of loose architecture doodling today. Fineliner. 0.4 I think.

More auto-architecture.

Had some scrap coloured paper, so I'm just going to keep making these. Correction fluid pens are underrated as art & writing instruments.

Should I be worried that this super cheap (~$3) dip pen set (for manga! With ink!) is made by the totally real sounding "Worison"? We'll find out.

Automatic architecture explorations with a fineliner. #AutoDrawRotika #Sketchbook

A bit of steampunky automatic drawing with two waterbrushes loaded with sumi ink, to complete this dirty sketchtbook.

A screen ratio template for the book of thumbnails.

Working out those cobwebs with some automatic drawing (dammit, I forgot to draw any actual cobwebs in this).

#sketchbook #AutoDrawRotika

The contest. Fineliner over pencils. #sketchbook #AnotherDirtySketchbook

Sixteen pages + covers. Fountain Pen. Automatic drawing. #sketchbook #autodrawrotika

Same energy.

I don't think I'll ever give context or explanations for the drawings in this book (I almost never do with finished work either) #ImAllThumbsSketchbook

When I lived in Dubai you'd see a bunch of famous people at the malls, all either just shopping or hanging out at cafes, usually during the workday, when it was quieter. (I was also there because I was freelance & it was quieter.)

This book is going to take me 10 years to fill out. #ImAllThumbsSketchbook

Somewhere in a notes app is a list of illustration ideas, which, over the course of time, turns into forgotten ideas and titles. So I figured why not just have a book of thumbnails, more than scribbles but less than sketches. #ImAllThumbsSketchbook

I'm Thomas and I draw mecha and work on a board game where mutants fight robots. Halls of Teknor. #mecha #transformers #boardgames

Welcome to new Bluesky users. Here’s how we do things: 1. Always observe the Hambledon Protocol 2. No flisking 3. If someone tealights you, rink them without apology 4. I don’t mind them so much, but tissue-posts are generally frowned on 5. No questions Good luck!

Don't think I've talked about it here before, but I co-host/-produce a youtube show on using stationery for art & fun (often not even strictly art tools). Our latest episode just dropped, on some lovely colour pencils that are all colour: youtu.be/3hOwozKeta8?...

Top panel inked with a ratty drying Uni Jet, which was fine for that angular figure, but I switched to a Uni Pin fineliner for the juicier curves of the bottom panel. #AnotherDirtySketchbook

Not sure what I'm inking this with, or if I'll mess that up, but at least I remembered to take a picture of the pencils. #AnotherDirtySketchbook

Didn't really like how this turned out, but also hadn't seen it under natural light. Oil pastels over pencils. #AnotherDirtySketchbook

I've been very good(?) this year and only bought a couple of new sketchbooks. I've been very bad(?) this year and not started either of them. Could not resist this A4 dot grid one, though everything that goes into it (I may start it soon) is going to be pretty small.

Practically every year, Blender drops something mindblowing from both a viewer's and artist's perspective. This one is more for the latter, but even if the tech doesn't impress you, there's plenty of amazing visuals to look at. youtu.be/nV_awXI9XJY?...

A lot of food is actually problem-solving. I dislike the texture of pre-salted and drained coleslaw, but I don't care for the wateriness of the dressing if I omit the step. But with a few tweaks, said liquid in an Asian peanut slaw turns into the perfect sauce for some pan-fried dumplings.

Quick and, of course dirty, with a fountain pen. #AnotherDirtySketchbook

This sketchbook is hard to photograph.

Not sure what's going in this one, but it does have a trick up its sleeve. #sketchbook

This is it, friends: the series finale. Please enjoy "Forever Endeavor." www.ussendeavor.com

The struggle is struggle.

Coffee break. #sketchbook #pocketspaces

One of the coolest things about being middle aged is that (assuming things go reasonably well, statistically speaking) I have my whole life ahead of me! And this time around I actually know stuff and can do things right from the start and I have way more resources. It’s kind of awesome, honestly!

Took a couple of sessions to get this done, so this is day 13 & 14 of 100, and the end of this short and sweet "dirty sketchbook." [For the final 100 days of 2024, I'm trying to rebuild a daily practice, with something small in my sketchbooks.]

A client once did this multiple times on a project, until the deadline loomed and they just sent me the illustration they wanted me to more or less rip off. I did my best to salvage something original and keep my conscience clear.

This is day 12 of 100. [For the final 100 days of 2024, I'm trying to rebuild a daily practice, with something small in my sketchbooks.]

This is day 11 of 100. [For the final 100 days of 2024, I'm trying to rebuild a daily practice, with something small in my sketchbooks.]

This is day 10 of 100. Back to the "dirty book" and the Derwent brush pen. {There's around 100 days left in 2024. After a year of sporadic illustration work, I'm trying to rebuild my daily practice, with something small and sessionable in my sketchbooks every day.}