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Professional profile & resume at my About & Links page.

(page last updated 20th Jan 2026)

❧ Welcome to my rambly online home ♥ ☙

Since 2011 I’ve been slowly blogging, documenting and reflecting on my art & life adventures!

Full versions of my art, projects, studies, progress, personal lessons and thoughts reside here! I’ve been posting art online on/off since 2005 (there was a time before this blog) and I enjoy making art, learning and sharing the journey because it all feels more meaningful to me than only focusing on the destination!

I hope my work brings more positive, heartfelt vibes into people’s lives (:

Currently I’m learning and doing the best I can at character illustration and character design, reflecting and posting when I can! Striving to make a stable living through what I do. Or at least keep doing it in my personal time :’)

Please consider supporting me on Patreon or Ko-fi if you enjoy and want to support my work!

All the same, thank you so much for reading and supporting my art, rambles and work! (:

Latest blog posts:

❧ On social media boundaries ☙

Email me for urgent, important things!

If it’s relevant to me and related to work, my blog and/or industry related, please reach me at my business email. I’ll get back to you if able, needed and/or appropriate eventually.

Otherwise thank you for being patient, respectful and understanding if you’re contacting me and responding casually through discord and social media. At times I won’t be super immediate and timely because I am not too active, especially on social media. I usually post and hide away! It gets too overwhelming for me when I do get carried away with it.

I’ll lurk, engage & catch up eventually with kind online peeps when I feel ready and able to (if I feel it’s needed, appropriate, respectful and mutual within reasonable online boundaries)!

Social media is a wonderful tool where I enjoy sharing, interacting, lurking, appreciating, responding and learning from inspiring/kind people!

On the other hand it can be scarily addictive, distracting, time consuming, passive, overwhelming, depressing, full of hot takes, toxic, performative, click baity, is full of comparisons and revolves around the fast paced attention economy of engagement, metrics, clout/online popularity, monetising parasocial relationships, consistency in content, marketing your own brand, audience/community building and personalised algorithms.

It’s a lot of putting a lot of effort, posting into the void and then hoping for the best…

It usually isn’t helpful to my personal well-being, mental health, use of time and personal boundaries when it gets out of hand. Being overworked to constantly make and share things for free for a given platform is not really worth it because it’s at the expense of yourself and joy in creating. Ideally we share because we enjoy the process, enjoy in making (slow) progress and sharing that journey at our own pace.

Plus I don’t want to take it too seriously, I don’t look at my feed, don’t want to worry too much on how I’m falling behind, don’t want to feed and spiral into my trust issues, negative, depressing and insecure thoughts and not fall too deep into online parasocial relationships (I wrote at length about that in 2018) so I lurk and keep away from my social media feeds most of the time.

I don’t like being always connected and I need my personal space, privacy and emotional distance for my own mental health. I do not want to be available and online all the time, it stresses me out.

I’m friendly (with emotes) and super grateful that people enjoy and support my work but this does not mean that we’re friends. I don’t know online people super well and they are strangers to me as individuals (likewise I am a stranger to them). It makes me uncomfortable, creeped out and on guard when people I don’t know so well get super chummy, generous, creepy, personal, inappropriate, rude, putting me at a high pedestal, projecting expectations upon me, trauma/emotional dumping on me, expecting/pressuring/obligating me to follow back even though I feel uncomfortable/pressured with it, digging up things about me because they “background researched me”, manipulating me, reaching out to people I know, guilting me and/or disrespecting my boundaries and privacy (both online or in person).

It’s fine if you read my blog and what I share online but don’t equate this as actually knowing me! You don’t need to know everything about me and nor do I need to know too much about you!

Of course it takes a (long) while for me to get to know, trust, speak up with and warm up to people :’) I’m just person too!

At the same time I do have an “unapproachable aura” in general thanks to my deadpan, quiet, energy conserving, solitary disposition and drifting/scattered attention too. And people online tend to be short, friendly, casual and brief in their online interactions with me. That’s why I’m super and sadly isolated for better or for worse :’)

Always learning to stand up for myself and my boundaries better (as well as respecting the boundaries of others!) And to be better at communicating and sharing expectations, assumptions and boundaries and making that more clear in the future. I’m not perfect at it, I forget about it (because I’m hyperfocused on the present) and get overwhelmed/freeze up but I’ll do what I can to my awareness.

I hope I’m not too intense and socially oblivious – I will always strive to reflect and do better if I become aware and manage my flaws, biases, misinterpretations, traumas, Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria, demand and conflict avoidance, grumpiness and limited perspective. A lot of the time, people don’t say what’s wrong/happening until it’s way too late though…oof. I wouldn’t really know when communication isn’t really great.

Humans are complex, flawed, have agency, evolve, struggle, worry, stress and also make mistakes after all – and that includes me and you! So when we’re able – we have to communicate, help and extend some level of self compassion, patience, understanding, grace, kindness and self accountability with ourselves – and that’s not easy. Egos, biases and feelings get in the way. All we can do is to do our best day by day.

As for me, I’m anxious about talking about troubles, concerns and negative things until that rapport, trust, support and respect has been built over time :’)

just note I don’t do follow for follow! I wish you all the best with your journey all the same!
- please only follow me if you’re interested in my art and posts
- I’m just sharing my slow learning journey and art and getting inspired by other artists that I like
I don’t check my main bluesky feed so keep my follow list small, clean it up sometimes as things/people change, people drift away, don’t interact much at all and I don’t often follow new people
- I might randomly follow a small handful of mutuals if I feel comfortable enough, if it feels genuine enough and/or if I really admire an artist’s work
- (even then I put most artists on a list instead and then never check again whelp)
- note that a huge majority of who I follow are not my friends,
  - not people I’m in the loop with or not people I know personally
- admittedly some/many remain because I feel obligated and/or they’re people I used to know
following does not necessarily mean that it’s a friendship, let alone that we really know each other
Social media at its worst makes me feel jaded, isolated, conflicted, envious, anxious, insecure, depressed & lonely with:
- its false sense of parasocial “deeper friendship/connection” since peeps are passively keeping up to date without actually catching up outside of social media,
- unspoken social expectations (and everyone’s are different so you can’t please everyone),
- seeing mostly the highlights, thoughts and reactions of people’s lives,
- popularity & metric comparisons,
- negativity, noise, trauma dumping, emotional and impulsive posts,
- hot takes, reactive opinions, difference in values,
- too much personal information in one place
- it’s a struggle to get people to get off the platform to see my blog posts
- oversimplification of meaning, feelings and fragmented communication,
- absence of tone, facial expression, body language, physical proximity and nuance
  - even then I’m not great at reading subtlety and non verbal communication
  - so spelling/articulating it in text and emotes makes things clear at times
- easy to misunderstand, misinterpret, dismiss things and people
- short attention spans (generally this is the case with the internet)
- fast switching between endearment to apathy
  - and sincerity to insincerity
  - since interactions lean towards being superficial, professional, casual and brief when under the public eye (and perhaps some forced positivity)
- noise and blurred boundaries with strangers, acquaintances and friends alike :’)
- the abundance of genAi slop, deepfakes, tragedies, drama so it’s just depressing in itself
generally bluesky is overwhelming for my personal boundaries so I strive to not use it too much,
- follow less people
- and don’t want to take the online connection, performative public interactions, engagement and apathy/indifference too seriously
in some ways I’m a sensitive, isolated, lone, insecure snowflake who doesn’t have many friends in the physical world so I keep myself behind an emotional fortress as a coping mechanism ;P
- social media is a complicated, mixed bag when it comes to sustaining and making friends
  - plus I’m a super reserved person
  - don’t really go out of my way to be social on a regular basis as it is
  - so I do my best doing and enjoying 1 to 1 chats with a small handful of peeps
- social media expects and favours you if you’re engaging and “social” too
  - I don’t want to feel obligated to do it when it feels like a time consuming, neverending void
  - it’s not really an enjoyable use of my time when I don’t actually want to do it
- it puts me in a not so great mental headspace a lot of the time because of what I feel I lack in comparison to others
  - I don’t want to get and then spread my negative vibes
  - by not being engaged with social media too much, I am not as insecure and sensitive to it
inherently social media is about marketing, promotion and publishing/talking to a public audience,
- you don’t often develop lasting friendships from social media alone
- it’s still great for casual, brief conversation!
- good to follow people if you’re genuinely interested in what they post!
  - it’s not often that I follow artists because I get into the unfortunate, toxic, insecure, sad mindset of feeling like I’m not “doing what other artists are doing”
regardless, I skim through someone’s profile to see someone’s latest posts ;D
- I only check my replies/mentions (with some exceptions) because I don’t want to obsess, get addicted and worry over notifications for my mental health – it’s hard though
- thank you for your kind, encouraging support, for sharing/boosting my posts!!
- many apologies if I missed your expressions of appreciation of my work!!
  - I am super grateful for your help!
I deleted facebook! Feeling less burdened and I don’t use messenger!!
- I quit instagram because I got burnt by it and my expectations are low
- I deleted my twitter as well, good riddance
I have LinkedIn to collect industry peeps
- feel free to connect with me or follow me there in a professional and industry sense!
- especially if we’ve comfortably met but only as brief industry acquaintances!
  - Or you seem to have some industry experience!
- I don’t think most people are active there though
- and I’m not active there; I just auto post my blog posts & update my work experience there
- thank you if you do interact with them though!!
I also have my tiny discord server where I’m most active!

Although it’s my default way of being social and it’s super encouraging and wonderful when people enjoy, interact, share and support what I post, I can’t keep up with everything. I don’t follow too many people, reduce/clean out/add who I follow to manage the social media overwhelm and limit how much time I spend on social media.

Time and mental health are important, especially for a slow turtle like me!

Life is too short – I want to focus more time on art, learning and juggling with life, people and work :’D

All the same and whether we follow each other or not, we can still interact on social media as occasional, friendly, casual, professional, online acquaintances as long as everyone’s respectful, clear and understanding about each other’s boundaries and intentions! 💖

Consequently email is better for urgent, important matters, catching up, meaningful conversation and invitations.

Thank you for understanding & for your kind support!

❧ Socially quiet and autistic! ☙

I’m a quiet, low energy, solitary and introverted hermit!

I’m also autistic (self diagnosed and my ex psychologist agrees with me) so thanks for understanding if I’m slow, overwhelmed, overstimulated, dealing with sensory overload, drained, passive, quiet, confused, deadpan, head empty, zoning out, misunderstanding, losing focus, inattentive, forgetting things and taking things too literally.

If I feel comfortable enough, I do acknowledge that I forgot, lost focus or didn’t catch what was said and will ask people to repeat and clarify :’) There are times where I didn’t feel safe to ask but it’s rarer now and it depends!

Also I’m terrible at social things, groups, social cues, subtlety, body language, attention, working memory, articulating words, eye contact and having thoughts in the moment, reactions, expressions and emotions when it’s socially acceptable and expected of me.

Note: not every person with ASD is the same! I’m just rambling about my personal experience. Going forward from here, it might be too much information & personal for you! So feel free to stop reading! I tend to info/emotional dump about things I’m interested in too :’)

I have tried to read up about autism a lot. But I can’t really read the room accurately, pick up non verbal cues/body language, don’t have the energy/concentration for super long conversations and not know when it’s my turn to speak so I keep quiet (or interrupt somehow), do minimal eye contact and mask, let my thoughts and focus drift in the moment.

I do not want to mentally and emotionally drain, stress and confuse myself because I’m figuring out indirect social cues, subtle mind games and communication. I can’t do social politics – it’s too much. Also when I perceive someone is having negative feelings, I feel tense and affected from their feelings too but I can’t articulate and verbally support people well :<

Unfortunately being an anxious, deadpan ghost like this leaves me with mostly shallow, superficial, distant connections. Or people feel uncomfortable with me and stay away because I’m zoning out, quiet and inexpressive (+ when I am too tired and I stop acting/performing through my friendly social persona/mask). Or people get annoyed with me when I engage with echolaia – repeating other people’s words to make sure I’m processing and understanding what I’m hearing because I lose focus or get inattentive.

I probably fidget with my arms and shake/bounce my leg to comfort and/or to keep myself focused, comforted, awake (when sleep deprived) and reassured but I don’t always pay attention with how I’m fidgeting/stimming ;P

Regardless I’ll keep working to manage all this within my own personal boundaries, flaws, mistakes and limitations to bridge the gap where appropriate and reasonable. I am not a fast reaction kind of person…!!

Dealing with it as it comes! This is how I am and function ;P

I’m better with reliable, patient, likeminded, slower paced people I’ve warmed up to. Striving to manage my levels of bluntness, tunnel vision, trust issues, drifting attention, flaws and self-centredness (because I hyperfocus and live within my mind lots and as much as I keep mindful of it, I consequently have blind spots with my own self awareness).

I am who I am; doing my best at self awareness, understanding, communication with others, feelings, energy levels, giving myself time to process/reflect over things and (when appropriate) asking for clarification later with expectations, boundaries and what people *actually* mean and intend.

Often I don’t have the trust, respect, connection nor luxury to get clarity and honesty with people I don’t have a good connection with (as with anyone) so I let any issues, struggles, thoughts, feelings or concerns go unfortunately. Or I don’t have the emotional headspace, words nor mental energy to handle it.

Most people aren’t aware and/or don’t have the desire, time, interest, care and patience to sort out nor confront communication issues too. I don’t think there’s a “perfect” way to handle it.

I am not great at reading/doing subtlety nor verbalising my own needs, thoughts and feelings in the moment because I need time to process it (let alone mind read others’ unspoken, subtle needs and feelings too).

So please ask, clarify, discuss and let me know about things and intentions upfront because it will go over my head and I’d assume things at face value (as that’s all I have to work with). I can’t accurately read your mind and feelings.

Otherwise I lose trust, get confused, frustrated, disrespected, ignored/ghosted, hurt, petty, lonely and emotionally pushed away by someone’s lack of communication, lack of consideration, mixed signals, words, expressions and actions instead. Sometimes I have to accept that people are generally selfish (myself included) and I need to move on if someone is not worth my time, effort, care and attention.

Easier said than done of course when feelings and humans are fickle, selfish and can be vague. We’re all free to change our mind of course – let’s not be a jerk about it though :’)

It’s frustrating when nobody wants to talk from a sincere place, dance around the issues/topic and I am guilty of this too with people I don’t feel safe, comfortable with or respected by. Most of the time things go nowhere because people aren’t on the same page and it’s not clear cut at all. People generally assume a lot, myself included and sometimes it becomes a dance of misinterpretation and misunderstandings at times. Ah the human condition!!

Striving to mitigate communication issues best I can but all parties need to be on the same page and towards a common understanding and goal for it to work well (and at times we stuff up or change our minds so that needs to be worked on together too). One person can’t do all the work.

Hey I don’t want to overshare, get too fast, intense, weird and make anyone uncomfortable either! It’s better earned and appreciated when people are slowly, respectfully, openly, consistently and naturally honest about their (evolving) intentions, values, concerns, expectations, needs, boundaries, comfort levels, flaws/shortcomings, mistakes and feelings. We can support, learn, evolve, make mistakes, adapt and grow together hopefully (:

More personal trauma ramble so feel free to skip:

Common sense is not always the case to me – it hurts when people see, insult, dismiss and judge me as “dumb, sensitive, clumsy, useless, absentminded, forgetful, hyperfocused, overlooking the obvious, slow, clueless, rude, lazy, inconsiderate, inexpressive, obsessive over a topic/thing, indifferent, gullible, unfeeling, awkward and incompetent” whenever I struggle with “normal” things.

I have grown up with this judgement, being an outcast, finding it hard to speak up and feeling “not enough”. I worry about not “hustling” enough to survive because I don’t really want to struggle and feel worthless trying find jobs for years again. I know it will be difficult and it feels impossible especially during these hard times.

Throughout my life I often feel like this world isn’t catered for someone like me and many other neurodivergent peeps and minorities. I deeply dread, am mentally & emotionally drained, feel useless, meaningless and trapped with normal, regular jobs, skills and activities. For instance I cannot commute to the office for a full 5 workday week because I will not be awake nor functional to enjoy life – I would be barely surviving and functioning. I am anxious about some of the “normal” shenanigans and life skills. I am also afraid that all of this will be used and manipulated against me to put me down. That I’m dismissed because I lack “worldly” life experience, skills, connections and financial investments.

I don’t want to mask myself and pretend to be neurotypical all the time to survive. I can’t keep it up for too long and then end up being a soulless, mute zombie anyway like my previous career and brief jobs. Sometimes I question whether I can even exist and survive in this world. Why can’t I handle social group things better and just exist and people watch?? Why do I always feel drained and like I don’t belong with social groups and most people…

It feels like learning and making art is all that I *can do* as a profession in the long term (and even then that is super difficult and it requires considerable people skills!! I’d need to mask myself and fake it if I must). Is this all I’m worth?? What if I can’t do art anymore?? I don’t have anything else I feel I can thrive at in the long term. We’re trapped in a capitalistic world so I keep questioning and second guessing what “financial value” I have at all. I’m overwhelmed, depressed and scared thinking about it.

Shall have to embrace my differences and flaws, slowly face my day to day anxieties and obstacles at my own pace and make the most of what I have. I do not want to plan too far ahead because things never work out as I hoped :’)

I’ve made a lot of personal SuperLeonieMode comics but I moved on because it was too much dwelling and spiraling within my own struggles, feelings, sadness and thoughts – it’s not helping, uplifting nor interesting to me (or anyone else) anymore.

I am grateful I am able to be here though! I hope we can all keep doing what we enjoy (especially in our spare time) and survive!

Social connections are both hard and important

When I actually feel safe and emotionally ready to go outside and be around people (I don’t know if this will ever happen during these troubling times but I need to eventually and occasionally), I enjoy bonding, rambling and being quiet on a deeper level on an individual 1 to 1 basis with good company.

Activities we can do together and not worry about talking all the time (such as online gaming sessions or something with a common goal) are great too! Just doing our own thing with quiet company is nice…!

I tend to be a quiet listener, run out of energy faster, lose focus faster and get sleepier the bigger the group gets. Overstimulation and sensory overload tends to happen within an hour or two, to the point of becoming an exhausted zombie!

I tend to work and do things in intense bursts when I’m in the flow and then I need lots of time to recover from burn out too!

Ultimately I’m more interested in 1 to 1 email, text and/or in person shenanigans, mostly with people that share mutual connection, trust, interests, activities, values, goals and intentions (that is developed and built naturally over a long time). Rare friends that I continually enjoy spending quality time and rambly conversation with, where we can just enjoy, walk and exist quietly in each other’s company on a somewhat regular/periodic basis!

Something loosely scheduled is needed for me for a sense of security, comfort, reliability, respect and trust because nothing happens otherwise. I need advance planning and I don’t really want spontaneity as that stresses me out plus I need recovery time afterwards! :’)

I’m a turtle who needs a lot of alone time, enjoys solitary activities, being a homebody and is mostly okay with maintaining a small handful of friendships and acquaintances. One can’t force, expect, project, manipulate or pressure to keep the connection mutual or friendship going.

I’m not great with it – I’m too much in my own bubble and am a hermit who forgets if people aren’t in my life on a regular basis. I’m not keen on people trying to change/force/pressure my way of life either.

So I guess they become acquaintances/casual good distant friends now? I don’t know :0

I thrive much better at low key, quieter, planned social situations (ideally it’s 1 to 1) so I can better manage my low energy, warm up to kind people and develop relationships based on mutual trust, interests, hobbies, understanding, effort, consistent communication, comfort, honesty (not forced positivity) and respect. I need scheduled, regular catch ups so compatibility and enjoying each other’s company without stress, discomfort, pressure, disrespect, confusion nor anxiety is a must for that to happen and last ;P

Always learning to verbalise and maintain my boundaries and discuss social expectations better – especially when I’m not great at standing up for myself and articulating my feelings and boundaries in the moment. Plus I lean towards being a quiet, tired blob :’)

I reflect more about how I manage my autistic, inattentive brain here.

Okay that’s all from sappy, sensitive Leonie! This whole page has been edited for many years and most things haven’t changed haha

Thank you for reading! :’)

❧ What equipment I currently use ☙

Evoluent VM4S VerticalMouse 4 Right Hand Ergonomic Mouse with Wired Connection (Small Size.)
- (there’s one for left hand peeps and those with large hands)
Thera Cane Massager
- (for kneading sore back and neck muscles from sitting intensely for long periods – if ever use it)
Dygma split and angled keyboard
Clip Studio Paint Pro and Adobe Photoshop for work
standing desk on a normal desk + standing mat
Wacom Cintiq 16 Pro (2021/2022 edition)

Thanks for reading, for your interest and for coming by! 💙

About me & this blog