Farewell to 2024

Another year come and gone and it felt so quick. Maybe as I get older, the years just seems to zoom on by now. I look back on some of these themes and just thought "wow, I felt like I drew them just yesterday!"

The themes

There is no specific theme this year for my patreon but one secret internal focus I wanted to work on this year was to try more unique color schemes. After dozens of themes, it gets harder to find new colors to explore. As an artist, I tend to gravitate on more comfortable colors that I connect with. Those colors are soft blues, grays, and pinks.

This year I wanted to try more ambitious tones such as the dark black & reds of Spider Lily, saturated green & orange of Tangerine and the muted purple & teal of Earl Grey. I struggled a lot with those themes and I asked for help because when I try those colors, they are so confusing to use!

I also try to keep mixing types of themes. There are three kemonomimi characters (Wishing Star, Matcha Latte, Winter Dragon), two nature themes (Tangerine, Mycology, Spider Lily), two hobby themes (Journaling, Gacha!) and other misc stuff.

The Theme Rewards (all are winners but some I want to call out lol)

Most Popular Theme Winner: Duck

Duck was the most popular theme this year. When I drew it, it was after a detailed theme of Mycology and I was exhausted. (I try to alternate simple with complex theme depending on my energy). This theme was drawn very simple, just a girl and her duck so I didn't know it will be so well liked. I really like her hair color though!

Theme from Hell Winner: Spider Lily

I say this so many times but pure black color is my weakness!!! The amount of times I just use dark grey instead lol. For the atmosphere of Spider Lily, I feel like this theme is all in Black or it won't feel as intense so I did my best with it. Not only there is the use of pure black but spider lily flowers are pretty tough to draw. Even now, I feel like my flowers don't look perfect. However, this was another really popular theme and I almost ran out of pins. O_o shocked. Drawing random themes, I never know how well they are received so it's interesting to see the reception.

My Personal Favorite Theme Winner: Sakura Graffiti

I wanted to draw this theme last year but I ended up saving it for this year. I have a lot of fun coloring this theme as it's pink and blues and I really enjoyed laying out the comic book style of the sticker sheets and experiment with the halftone holographic finishes. It makes me curious to try more subtle foil accents in the future. ; w;

Thank you and I hope you all will have a healthy 2025. Let me know which theme is your favorite this year! ^_^