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Illustration XLI - Love, Melancholy, and Plant Parent Dreams

⬅  Check the illustration post before this, Illustration - XL 

Where intimate moments meet existential musings and botanical bliss

The Tender Embrace

There's something profoundly vulnerable about capturing intimacy on canvas—or in this case, on the iPad screen. The illustration of two figures in tender embrace against that warm pink background wasn't just about technique or composition. It was about freezing a moment of connection that feels increasingly rare in our hyperconnected yet emotionally distant world.

 

The pink wasn't chosen arbitrarily. Pink holds space for softness in a world that demands hardness, for tenderness when everything feels sharp-edged. When you're documenting human connection through art, color becomes emotional geography—mapping the territory between two people who have chosen to be vulnerable with each other.

Sometimes the most radical act is simply allowing yourself to be held.

available as print - https://www.redbubble.com/shop/ap/171567601?ref=studio-promote 

This piece joins the growing collection of work exploring intimacy, connection, and the spaces between bodies where souls meet. Available as a print because everyone deserves to be reminded that tenderness exists, even when the world suggests otherwise.

You Are Going To Be Ok (But What If You're Not?)

The weather has been particularly moody lately, or maybe it's just me projecting my internal climate onto Vancouver's perpetual gray. Either way, I found myself creating what I desperately needed to hear: "You are going to be ok."

But here's the thing about affirmations—they work best when you half-believe them and half-doubt them simultaneously. I'm acutely aware that somewhere in the multiverse, there's a version of me who has their shit together, who wakes up excited about the day, who doesn't spend Tuesday afternoons questioning every life choice made since 2019.

The beautiful tragedy is that every version of me across all possible universes probably believes there's another version who's happier. It's turtles all the way down—or rather, it's existential doubt all the way across parallel realities.


Using Hailuo.ai to animate these figures felt appropriate. If I'm going to explore the concept of multiple selves, why not use AI to literally bring different versions to life? Technology as therapy, pixels as psychology.


Hinata: Pop Culture Meets Personal Style

Sometimes you just want to draw someone who embodies a specific energy—in this case, pop singer Hinata. There's something about translating contemporary cultural figures through your own artistic lens that feels like a form of conversation. I'm not trying to create a perfect likeness; I'm trying to capture what they represent to me in this moment.


The illustration becomes less about accuracy and more about interpretation—how does their energy translate through my hand, my stylus, my particular way of seeing the world?

Random Sketches: The Beautiful Chaos

And then there are the random sketches—the ones that happen in margins, between thoughts, during phone calls when your hand needs to move but your brain is occupied elsewhere. These fragments don't always make it into proper posts or product descriptions, but they're often the most honest work we create.



They're the visual equivalent of thinking out loud, the artistic version of talking to yourself. No agenda, no audience, just the pure act of mark-making as a form of staying present in the world.

Pothead: The Ultimate Plant Parent Fantasy

Let me be clear about the title—this is about being intoxicated by greenery, not the other kind (though no judgment if you're into both). This illustration emerged from a very specific fantasy: what if you could literally immerse yourself in your plant collection?



The figure nestled among monstera leaves, ferns, and trailing vines represents every plant parent's dream—to exist so harmoniously with your green babies that the boundaries between human and houseplant start to blur. The pot sniffing the delicate red flower wasn't just whimsical; it was about finding that perfect moment of zen where you stop trying to control your plants and start learning from them instead.

available as prints - https://www.redbubble.com/studio/promote/171241330?print_products_disabled=false&ref=uploader-to-promote

The soft greens, purples, and coral create what I hope feels like a botanical sanctuary. In a world that often feels harsh and unforgiving, sometimes we need to create spaces—even illustrated ones—where gentleness can flourish.

The best plant parents don't just care for plants; they let plants teach them how to be more rooted, more patient, more willing to grow slowly.


This piece celebrates everyone who has ever felt more at peace surrounded by leaves than people, who finds meditation in misting, who believes that more plants do indeed equal more happiness. It's available as prints because your walls deserve as much green as your windowsills. 

This collection from June captures a particular mood—the intersection of intimacy and isolation, the comfort found in both human connection and plant companionship, the ongoing conversation between who we are and who we might become. Each piece emerged from a different emotional space, but they all share a common thread: the search for comfort in an uncomfortable world.

Whether it's through tender embraces, multiverse musings, or botanical fantasies, art continues to be the place where I work out what it means to be human in 2025.

Check out the next illustration Blogpost,  Illustration: XL  ➡

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