CIRCLE WITH A DOT

@wrnyfyr I see, that's a pretty different direction from where I've gone with mine, keeping the weight variation very subtle and instead focusing the eye with just shape design and detail distribution (plus texture from hatching and stippling which itself makes very judiciously designed shapes). That's a difficult style to pull off, good luck! I know for me it took a long time to get confident with where to put hatching, but just a bit of texture can add a ton. Also glad my example was helpful!

@wrnyfyr I like it, but I do think I see what you mean by stiffness. In fact it feels similar to some of my earlier linework. Most of it just comes down to tons of practice, and I don't know the style you're aiming for, but maybe you'll find something instructive in the difference between these linearts of mine. I'm much more varied and intentional with line weight now but less "clean", using a textured brush to gradually build up to the line I want instead of trying to get it right in one go

@wrnyfyr I'm always in favor of trying something different, so my vote would go to ink, as nice as your usual style is

Added a new "characters" section to my website: https://molentum.me/characters/
Previously this info was scattered between different gallery pages and the Yon worldbuilding note, now I have a nice place I can build on over time as I see fit. I'm pretty happy with how this is turning out, hope some of you like it too

Also finally got around to giving this design of Salma, whom you might remember from Valentine's Day, a little cleanup and his own page

I thought I might be done with these for the time being, but then a friend commented that I should "draw her across the fold so that when you close the book she claps her hands", and how could I refuse such a request (also tried adding some alcohol markers for extra color, to mixed success)

@jaaska Thank you! I can imagine how fun they are to analyze - I'm a novice at sewing so I can only guess at the details, but I can tell how much technique and skill is involved

Changing up the way I delete old posts (autodelete still after a month, but now the only exception is manually made bookmarks, which I'll go back and delete after a year or so to save space on the server), and my old intro was well over a year old, so I took that excuse to put some recent favorites on display

#introduction, 2026 edition:

Hey, I'm Mikael, a PhD student in computational physics and hobbyist creative person. I draw and paint a lot, usually involving my characters who live in a fantasy-solarpunk world called Yon. Expect a lot of pretty ladies and outdoor landscapes. Sometimes I also do graphics programming or gamedev, or sewing, or music, writing, woodworking, ...

More about me and my work: https://molentum.me/about/

(images contain trace amounts of artistic nudity)

@hazelnot same tbh

@kexe That's a great compliment, thank you ^^

@jankhambrams Thank you

It's not the main focus of these but I'm happy about how the faces and hands are turning out in these pen-only sketches lately, I'm managing to keep the proportions consistent with changing perspective and getting the expressions I want without needing many scratchy searching lines to find them

More dress studies! These are so fun to do, and I'm maybe a fifth of the way through the full catalogue so there's plenty of source material left for more lol (again, dress designs by Firefly Path)

I have these pages of my sketchbook open on my desk and whenever I look at it I can't help but smile and think "I love this imaginary lady so much". And because she's kind of my avatar in the world of Yon, in a roundabout way I guess I'm saying I love myself? Which, uh, cool? Anyway, past me who thought they "weren't an OC guy" was a real dumbass eh

(I also just really like these drawings which is another type of nice feeling to have)

@ManoelaCosta Right? I could spend hours just browsing their catalogue

@ManoelaCosta Thank you! It's not an app but a group of people who make actual dresses, would be a fun idea for a program though

@Kitty Thank you It might also be that I just wanted to draw a bunch of dresses and Miriel made a fitting model, but she's the closest thing I have to a "-sona" character so it's sometimes unclear where she ends and I begin

@Ronflaix Thank you ^^

@eppujensen Thank you kindly

(or in other words, I added some fun extra steps to my usual figure drawing practice by swapping the dresses and faces in my references for different ones)