So the first month of 2026 has passed by! I hope the start of the new year is doing well for you!
It has been quite busy for me and I had some unexpected issues like my laptop suddenly breaking down and my day job got work piling up, so it will be some setback for my plans and ideas.
I decided to take a step back from merch and booth events for awhile (probably first half of the year) since the scheduling has been tough and I got a bit burnout, so I want to take more time with developing personal projects like bringing in more of my original characters. My usual online shop merch orders will still run as usual though, and I might still open booth pickup at events with my friend’s help from time to time!
I’ve been thinking to draw more of my characters – my chibi avatar with my mascots the blob Kokoba and the bird Ayayam, as I want to introduce them more to the world and to develop more of their interactions. I’d like to imagine them as my companions, so I thought of what will happen if we do these activities and how will they interact with each other? It brings some sparks of joy to my day when things get tough.Â
Here are some original character art I managed to draw this month! One of them is from my art stream where we talked about favorite fruits so I decided to draw it out, while the other is more of a self-reminder for myself to try not to be too overwhelmed with my spiraling negative thoughts and trust more that things will eventually be okay. I hope I can do more art streams in this year.
I’m thankful for my close ones for the support when I’m drowning in my overthinking when I feel things are too gloomy. I’m trying to do my best with what I can at the moment, one step at a time, even though I know while there are other ‘what ifs’ and ‘could have been’, this is alright too. For those who can relate to this feeling, I’m wishing all the best that things will do be okay for us eventually.
I’ve always wanted to make more storytelling and expressive kind of posts as compared to merch style, something more like emotes and comic strips – I hope I can make more of that in the future!
While I enjoy drawing original art, my heart also still calls out to draw fanwork of the things I like. I managed to squeeze in time to join some Nikke community events. The left one, the new year Anis artwork got delayed after my laptop broke, but thankfully I get to finish it on time for the Blablalink art event and won the prize! The right one is part of the Ark Guardian story event creator campaign. If you enjoy Nikke or like making content for it, I do recommend joining the Blablalink official Nikke community platform for its various events and community features.
While I’m officially not publicly open for commissions regularly yet since I worry for my unstable work schedule, I decided to take a special commission request from Foxxy which was lots of fun to work on! I get to redraw my old emotes from like, 2023-2024 to his new character model hence the difference in the color scheme, some hair style, and outfit. I tried to update the lineart colors, also tried to make the expressions and pose more visible, I hope there can be seen of some improvements from back then.
For merch stuff, I haven’t really get to do much since I haven’t decided on any upcoming booth events too so I do not want to stock up too much that may clutter my place. However, I was curious to make this product that has been on my mind for awhile – Esquie pouch! It’s still a test product and I’m still thinking to test out more for the material and size, but here’s some sneak peek pics! Disclaimer it does not fit to store wine like in the game of Expedition 33, but I hope it can bring some ‘wheee’ to your ‘whooo’ days!
So yeah, that was the stuff I managed to do on January! I’m not sure of the schedule of the upcoming months and at this point I try not to be too hard at myself with other plans or deadlines, so I’ll probably try to take it more chill though I hope I’ll still be able to create more stuff in the next months. Stay tuned! Thanks for reading and have a nice day!
