What’s up, UARRRmy? Hmm, no. Let’s try this again. How’s it going, UARRRriors? That’s not it either. UARRRmpit sniffers? UARRRstronauts? UARRRthlings? UARRRsonists? Nope.

Hi, friends!

New week, new comics. This is another one of those weeks where it feels like something shifted in the quality of the art and the ideas. I like some of these a lot.

Monday

So much has happened over the last two years, and they’ve been some of the best years of my life, if not the best. And that’s not just because my new dentist isn’t shy about handing out compliments. Moving here may have involved a weird little detour through the most depressing phase of my life, but in the end, everything worked out, and I couldn’t be happier.

Tuesday

I built a shelf for my art supplies! I now have a whole new section in my office dedicated to storing my pens, pencils, paper, sketchbooks, brushes, and paints. I love it!

The Year of Art has been going on for more than six months now, and I don’t feel like I’ll be stopping anytime soon. This really has a chance of becoming a lifelong project, so it felt worth improving the logistics around it.

Wednesday

Speaking of lifelong projects: in early 2025, I thought making music might be one of them. I’ve never learned to play an instrument, and I don’t have much of a musical mind. I love listening to music, sure, but that’s about it. I spent a couple of weeks with a course book, then quickly fell out of the habit.

So off the e-piano goes. I can use the space for something else.

Thursday

One of those days. Sometimes I can pull myself out of it, and sometimes I can’t. I guess it’s unrealistic to expect every day to be a good one.

Friday

This is the first drawing in a new sketchbook, and I love how it turned out. Anna and I spent the evening in a park celebrating a milestone in our relationship, and I love that I get to share moments like this with her—that she’s interested in them simply because they matter to me.

I tend to keep things to myself because, I guess, I often feel like no one’s really interested. So putting myself out there by sharing something I don’t even think is that special, and then being met with genuine interest and openness, feels really great.

Saturday

I watched a lot of Drewscapes videos (huge recommendation) that week, and somehow came away with the idea to use panels more often in my comics. I like how my comics flow freely across the page, but sometimes it’s nice to know exactly where something needs to end. That fourth panel, for example, wouldn’t work without panel borders, because those two people carrying the dresser would look weird if they were just cut off like that without a visual border.

Sunday

I’m always a bit nervous about drawing and painting in public because I don’t always feel very confident in what I’m doing, and having someone look over my shoulder isn’t very conducive to my process. For the first time, someone actually stopped what they were doing, came over, asked me a couple of questions, and shared their art journey with me and it was... nice. I liked it. If you see me painting in public, say hi. But please don’t stalk me just to say hi, that’s weird.

That being said, here's what I was working on:

That’s it for this week, UARRRthritis sufferers. Thanks for reading, and I’ll see you next Wednesday!

But wait, there’s more...

You’ll need to be a paying subscriber to see it, though.

That’s life.

The rich get richer. Try eating them, perhaps that’ll solve something.

Feeling Misunderstood

One of my hang-ups is that I’m not very good at dealing with feeling misunderstood. It’s one of my biggest triggers, if you want to call it that.

I know this about myself, and I’ve become much better at recognising when it’s happening and regulating my emotions when it does. I’m fairly sure it has something to do with my mother and the way she behaved when she was still part of my life, but we don’t need to dig that deep today. I’d have to introduce a much more expensive newsletter tier for that.

Anyway!