Finn's Art Blog

Because my "Finn... does art?" tag just wasn't enough.

[finniesartblog]

Happy Pride!!

For the last six(!!!) years, I have done an art piece for Pride. Usually, they feature some assortment of my queer original characters, because that's always been the way I've felt most comfortable exploring my own queerness.

In a way, they've all been self-portraits, though, whether or not I've actually been in the picture. And I have been in a few of them! Every character and story I write has a part of me in them. But this year, I thought it might be nice to do a real self portrait - just me, alone, without the filter of all my characters to make my queerness easier to talk about.

I continue to write stories about queer characters, to explore my own queerness through that lens, but I'm trying to be more comfortable being open on my own. As I am. And I feel like I get better at that every day <3

[finniesartblog]

Sometimes I'm struck by inspiration for the Mediocre Artists Club that's a little too vague to channel into writing and I do stuff like this. I love how these turned out <3

[finniesartblog]

I threw together a sketch of Reese, Tony, and Noah yesterday as a cover concept for the MAC... only to discover later that I have an eleven-year-old drawing of them in the EXACT SAME POSE. So here is the finished version of the new art, with that 11yo sketch as a bonus.

[finniesartblog]

I don't know why, but I was struck but the sudden and relentless urge to revamp this piece I made seven years ago a few days ago and today I finally did it. I really like how the new version turned out, and I feel like it captures the same feel as the original while reflecting the current design of the character it features.

[finniesartblog]

no one was supposed to get hurt.

back again with another piece I started ages ago and didn't finish until today. digital version of this, which was a redraw of one of my earliest drawings of reese. i think i actually like the colored pencil version better, but i'm glad that i did finally finish this <3

[finniesartblog]

lord knows I haven't been doing a ton of art this year, but I had to revisit this piece I did last year, but inspired by the film's sets and costumes.

[finniesartblog]

Struck by the urge to a) draw and b) work on The Agency yesterday, and came away with an outline for the book and this delightful little drawing of Alex & James :)

[finniesartblog]

This year's pride piece is a little pared down from previous years, because I haven't been doing as much art lately and the idea of going all out how I usually do felt a little daunting.

So! Just six queer characters in a rainbow sketchbook spread, because even when I haven't been drawing doing this piece every year is important to me. They each represent a different work, and they are all very special to me <3

Every year, sitting down to work on the pride project is an opportunity to sit with my own queerness in a way I sometimes avoid. It's a chance to look at who I am, and what I reach for in the stories I tell. And it's an opportunity to see that as I grow and change, my queerness and the stories I want to tell about queer characters grow too <3

[finniesartblog]

FINALLY finished my last sketchbook 😅

Last spread was this year’s pride art, so keep your eyes peeled! I decided that this sketchbook should start with the MAC kids in the hope that I’ll get a lot done on their story in the next few months 💚💙

[finniesartblog]

I’m confident I haven’t picked up my sketchbook in like. Two months. So I sketched a quick Alex as I try to get ready to jump into this year’s pride project, which I have barely even started planning yet 😅😅

[finniesartblog]

2022 -> 2025

I still really really love the original version of this piece, which if I remember correctly was actually the VERY FIRST TIME that I ever drew the five Nowak kids together. But a lot of time has passed since then, and I figured it was time for an update! I even remembered Felicity's glasses this time!

Some little details I added this time: Fliss's glasses are red for her pyrokinesis, Leah's earrings are the color of her eventual supersuit, and Sawyer's earrings have their two best friends' super logos on them suuuuuper teeny tiny, and the background colors are from their parents' super suit colors <3

[finniesartblog]

A Maddie I drew a few weeks ago, because it felt like I hadn’t drawn her in too long. I really like how she turned out!

[finniesartblog]

and goodness knows, the wicked's lives are lonely.

Okay last Wicked fanart... for now.

A revisit of these pieces I did right after the very first images of movie!Glinda's bubble dress were released. I really, really loved Ariana's performance in No One Mourns the Wicked, so this was probably inevitable.

[finniesartblog]

please enjoy this year's christmas card art of my dog Melanie <3

Usually (for the last seven years!) I draw the whole card, but my husband and I took an extremely adorable holiday photo together at an event in November this year so that's going to be the front and I drew this little Mel to go on the back with the text :)

[finniesartblog]

and the strange thing: your life could end up changing while you're dancing through...

or, alternatively: what is this feeling, so sudden and new?

I have always loved this moment in Dancing through Life, and I think it's one of the beats that the film absolutely 100% nailed. I had tears in my eyes. I had to try to capture it at least a little bit - their costumes are both more complex than I was really up to getting super detailed with but I think I've at least got the vibe down.

[finniesartblog]

i hope you're happy.

We saw Wicked last night. It was actually good, which is SO exciting and definitely was not a given, so i'm definitely excited for act 2 next year. Defying Gravity was actually my least favorite part, but for some reason is the first thing I was itching to draw. Feeling the urge to do the Galinda/Elphaba dance from DTL though so maybe that'll happen tomorrow :)

[finniesartblog]

"I hear there's been some speculation about my identity in the press, and I just want to say - I thought it was obvious."

I've been having trouble forcing myself to sit with the heartache of the Mediocre Artists Club this week, but I had to capture this moment from late in the story while the image of it was fresh in my mind. I tried to give her appropriately 2010 vibes and I do think that I succeeded lol!