Making good progress today. Coworking magic ✨

I‘m so happy, that my first workday of 2026 starts with a coworking session with the wonderful coworking crew 🤩 can’t wait to work on „Flight of Fancy“ again ❤️ @nikismithcomics.bsky.social @crazy-berrin.bsky.social @weemina.bsky.social @kinderstreichkaese.bsky.social @loonaris.bsky.social

My winter hibernation is finally over. Two weeks of blissfully ignoring everything that has to do with work and taking care of my health. I really needed that 🫢 2025 was not bad to me just very off balance. I want to try to be better to myself in 2026 and take more meaningful breaks 💐

Hi 2026! I hope you have plenty of joy in store for us 🍀

So it’s finally Christmas Day ✨ I made this illustration for my client Jana Lukas and love how it turned out 🤩

It's the end of the year so it's Art vs Artist time :D It was difficult to find 8 illustrations I could use, since I did mostly comic pages and book cover designs this year. It's an odd feeling looking back at the last 12 months. This year had some very intense lows but also wonderful highs 🍃

I'm finally working on my university love story again 😂 The whole thing is such a wild process and I really don't recommend doing it like me 😬 But it will be done one day! Maybe I can even finish it until Comicsalon Erlangen next year. But I better shouldn't make a promises 🥲

Since I currently don't have a big paid project I'm working on I always think in the morning: "Oh, this is going to be an easy day. Maybe I can finish early". And then "Swoosh" the day is over and I worked on a dozen things and nothing is really done 🥲

So I'm back from a very interesting comic workshop about quantum physics in Erlangen. It was so cool! I even saw a quantum computer and think I more or less understood, how it works 🫢 Now we comic artists need to find a way to put what we learned into a comic. Amazing!!! I'm so thankful ... 😌

Life seems like a constant stream of stuff I have to do. It's hard to be happy, that something is done when there is so much more stuff lining up that has to be done next 🥲 And the next big project is already around the corner. I need a break but I don't know anymore how to give myself one 🫢

Oh btw: The new Rosenhof novel is now also available as an audio book :)

I'm back in the studio and try to get some thing from my never ending to do list done. How is November already almost over 🥲? And how is the year 2025 already almost over??? I'm confused 😭

Still sick 🤧 I think my body decided to force me to rest for a couple of days because I just won’t do it on my own 😬 so I’ll just accept it and spend another day on the couch. And I try to not think too much about my to do list that already haunts me in my dreams 🫣

I thought that I dodged it but now I’m sick 🤧 I guess I’ll spend the day with the cats on my lap on the couch 😢 Sad, because I had plans to finally renovate our studio kitchen today 😭 but the kitchen can’t run away as far as I know so we’ll do that another day 😬

Back from the 24h comic day in Erlangen. It was a blast and I'm sooo exhausted now 🥲 Why do I still do this to myself 😴 Well ... I got a lot of sketches done so future me will be very happy 😆

This happens to me all the time now. I hate it 🥲 And I can't even be mad at the clients because they usually mean well.

The feedback on the book just came and it's only a few small things ... so in a sudden turn of events I an actually make today's book deadline 🥲

Still no feedback to the book in sight. Seems like I actually enjoy a free weekend 😬 and hopefully also my two day wellness trip with my sister next week. I really need that 🫠 especially since I will participate on a 24h comic day soon 😂

So I'm still waiting for the feedback on the comic book from the authors since they are currently on vacation 🥲 They tend to treat the schedule the publisher gives them as a rough guidline instead of something you should stick to. It's very tiring for everyone else 🫠

So I really need to finish my "Umsatzsteuervoranmeldung" now 😅 no excuses left. It's the last day 🫢

So it seems that today is the day I do everything but my "Umsatzsteuervoranmeldung" which I have with prio 1 on todays to do list 🫠 But I still have until monday for it so everything is fiiineee 🎶

So restless and scatterbrained today. But I think I still got some shit done 💪

I always feel so odd and restless after a deadline 😂 My poor brain needs some time to understand, that the stressful time is over and we can go back to the normal working mode 🧠

Doooone! The book is at the publisher and the last round of feedback and revisions has started! I am free... at least for the rest of today 😍 Tomorrow I need to do all that other stuff I ignored over the last few weeks, mostly a big pile of paperwork 🥲👍 Yay me!

I just started colouring the last page of the comic book I have been working on for the last five months 🥲 almost done!!!

Lines and color flats are done!!! Now I only need to finish the coloring on 9 more pages and make some smaller edits to some scenes ... And I still have until monday, yay 🥲 It's doable. But I'm also so exhausted 🫠

Done with the lines 😭 I'm sooo glad. Now I still have 18 pages to color and a lot of small edits to do. But the end is finally in sight 🥹

This is "I want to spend all day in bed with the cats and read" weather and not "I really need to hurry to the studio and work a lot to finish my deadline" weather 🥲

This is how it's going: 5 pages of lineart left, 26 to color and 10 days until the deadline ... 👀

!!!

Repost because it's sadly still relevant!

I just booked a rental for Bologna Children's Bookfair next year 😍I've been two times while I was still a student and loved everything about it so much ❣️I can't wait to go again 😌

Btw the first "Rosenhof" novel made it to place 3 of the children's book bestseller list of Spiegel magazine 🫢 That is sooo cool! I really put everything I had in the illustrations (with the limited time I was given) 😌 So I'm glad people like it.

The heating system in the studio is still broken 🥶 But my brain works so much better when it's slightly too cold then when it's slightly too warm 😂 So I can't complain about my productivity right now. Which is good because the deadline is creeping closer 🫢

Since I miscounted how much pages I still have left to line I can actually take this weekend off 😂 that’s nice!

Haha! I just realized, that I miscounted and only have 15 more pages of lineart to do and not 17 🫢 2,5 weeks until the deadline. I CAN DO IT 🎶

Yay! The sun's out. It's still very cold in my studio (the heating system makes a lot of funny noises but still doesn't work), but the light helps to cheer me up a little 🌞 And I got the info, that I get a tax refund 😂 So the day could have started much worse ...

The heating is currently broken in my studio. I prepared and wear a lot of woolen layers and a hat. But my hands are my weak point 🥲 How should I draw properly with icy fingers?

Im making good progress with my current comic project 🎶 that’s nice! But there are still 20 pages to line and half of the comic to color 😢 and only three weeks until the deadline 🙁 luckily I have help from my assistants. Without there’s no chance I could make it 🫠

Why does this week need to start with a dentist appointment 🥲 I don’t want to go (although it’s only professional cleaning and check up) 😭

Finally Saturday 🎶 I’m going to work a little bit later today because the next book deadline is so close and I have no time to lose. But I’ll enjoy this free morning as much as I can ☀️

After a full day of creative work, my brain always feels like soup 🥲I'd love to do something fun in the evenings. Some sports would be great as well. But I'm sooo tired.

Those last few weeks working on a comic book are always so intense 😂 I really tried to not get in trouble again. But it never really works out. 26 pages of lines and 26 days left. Oh and 2/3rds of the book still need to be coloured 🥲 the next few weeks are going to be stressful 😩

My past me really did not bother while sketching this little guy 😂

Listening to Stromae while working on a rainy Sunday afternoon 🎶

I have exactly one month left to finish the book. There are still 30 pages of lineart missing and only a quarter of the comic has been coloured 🫠 It's going to be a long and busy October!

On some days it's so hard to get my legs to turn left in the direction of my studio and not right an run into the forest 😂 But today, I bought my running clothes so after I finished the most important things on my to do list, I will go for a run 🌳🍃

"BLOODY MARY" BOOK RAFFLE! (Europe) I'm giving away 3 signed copies of my graphic novel "Bloody Mary: A Graphic Biography of Mary Tudor" (US edition in English) among all those who share this post! 😊 RULES: 1) You must be 18+ and in Europe to participate. 2) No purchase necessary to enter.

I should get in the habit of posting here right at the beginning of a workday and not at the end of one 🫠 my brain feels like jelly and I can't think of something witty 🧠💦

What a day 🥲 It started nice with writing an invoice and working on the english version of an old comic of mine. But right after lunch it spiraled into a madness of pushing digital cakes around, sending stuff to the printer and trying to squeeze in some time to work on my current comic project.