Character design & illustration / Shalonda π from Bowl of Mystery + LeonieUpdate!
In this little LeonieUpdate:
- character design & illustration process for Shalonda
- on art making & random thoughts ;’D

Shalonda / Lonnie from Bowl of Mystery!
Elegant, compassionate, brave and a worrywart ;D She tackles with a lot of nerves when it comes to people and things out of her comfort zone but she’s a inspiring, determined force of nature when she’s called upon to protect, fight for and help people!
Character design & illustration process

Initial sketch: originally she had a sword and shield! The typical brave personality so to speak. Tall, regal, calculated and elegant.

Second sketch: I wanted to shy away from the “tough black woman” trope so I went with the brave, worrywart and sensitive direction <3

3rd sketch: trying to get used to things :0

4th sketch: nitpicking the design

5th sketch: finalising the sketch

Lineart stage: O____O;

Final illustration: just realised how terribly thin her neck is!! Whoops!! I think my colour choices need some slight adjustments if I ever draw her again next time :0
Little LeonieUpdates! Hey it’s Friday?!
And the last day of July?! :0!!
- Carrion – the game looks fun to play as an angry, gorey, spaghetti monster (but not to watch as it gets repetitive haha)
- Animal Crossing: New Horizons August Update
- I’m too burnt out to go back to Animal Crossing to decorate my home and island properly. Maybe one day I’ll do the Dream Suite to show my finished island! But I think no one cares to visit so I won’t rush, especially when I’m still burnt out :’) I’ll wait until I feel ready and at my own pace.
- nice that there’s back up saves finally!
- I’ll go back to the game at least once for the fireworks event :0 I haven’t seen real a fireworks show before so this will have to do!
On art posting and making:
- at the moment I can manage around 1, 2 to 3 posts a week now that I don’t have any freelance work :’)
- I’m still figuring out a good balance between self expression, creating, learning, sprinkled with occasional little LeonieUpdates and not burning myself out :0 Time will tell.
- been thinking a lot about what I want to do with my art, what art I’m making and how to go about it :< So far I’m just taking things in stride. If I’m doing art at present then at least I’m progressing and interested in it :’)
- Striving to slowly push myself beyond this so let’s see how things play in action for the rest of this year! I’m not going to promise what I’m actually going to do because planning is the easy part and things keep evolving when you’re actually doing it. And sometimes projects and things don’t work out as planned/expected. I don’t want to promise anything when I’m not 100% sure ;P
- overall I need to mostly focus on studying and then applying it. Striving to balance making art, learning art and combining both. Not sure what that will look like yet! If that doesn’t work out I have to focus mostly on learning/studying :0
- ultimately the minimum is one art post a week on Mondays! ;D
- Thanks so much as always, to my kind patrons and readers for your help and supporting my art, work and learning journey! I am super grateful for you and it keeps me accountable <3
- thanks for your patience as I try to adapt and strive to do better at art <3
Anyhoo, thank you so much for reading <3
May you have a stress-free rest of the week and weekend!
Stay safe, brave, kind and take care!
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Thanks so much for your support & for reading! You help me keep going! Κ βΏΛ΅β’α΄₯β’Λ΅ Κ β‘
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