My 10th artyversary

This month is special because 10 years ago, around this time, I decided to take my creative hobbies more seriously  and started this GRDI "brand". In the beginning I tried with different art techniques, such as pencil, ink, papercraft, collage, polymer clay, cosplay accessories... but somehow mostly digital art stuck.

I'm not complaining, it was fun narrowing the overcrowded field and searching for my own style, changing drawing tablets and programs until I ended up here where I am right now.

And just to be honest, this wasn't my first try, but I guess whatever I'd been doing before wasn't that serious. Instagram opened new possibilities and for a relatively short time everything seemed right. That is, until they changed it to a video app flooded with a ruthless algorithm. Today's abomination of Instagram doesn't seem that important anymore and it's even less artist friendly, especially because of the rise of AI, but that's another story.

Anyway, happy 10th artyversary to me! 🥳

My socials: https://linktr.ee/grdi

#digitalart #anniversary #artyversary #grdilicious #grdi

Summer with Pinea and Cado

Summer with my OCs, Pinea and Cado.

Pose references: @theposearchives

My socials: https://linktr.ee/grdi

#digitalart #characterdesign #originalcharacters #pineapple #avocado

AI Attack

It may be too late for Throwback Thursday or Flashback Friday, but here are two of my drawings mixed into one to make my point about using AI.

One of many things I hate about AI is that it seems to be normally included into more and more programs and apps, without asking us if we really want it. 😡

I'm trying so hard to avoid it and luckily it's mostly just one of the suggested options (at least for now), but it's inevitably present, which in my case makes it difficult to rant against and still use apps that are AI-infected, such as CapCut. 🤷‍♂️

In this drawing I combined two of my characters from my Grdiverse project. Davorachnid is one of the good guys, but AI Bot is trying to recreate or clone him, making a digital version that could fight and eventually replace him. I see it as my creative idea to represent my issues with AI and what troubles it may bring one day.

My socials: https://linktr.ee/grdi

#grdiverse #davorachnid #noai #stopai #grdilicious

Spider-Man BND

Hard to believe, but as someone who's been obsessed with Spider-Man my whole life, I actually drew Peter Parker only once, and that was in 2017, when Homecoming came out. Until now there have been only Miles Morales, Gwen Stacy and my OC Spidersona Davorachnid in my digital gallery. Now it's time to change that for Brand New Day.

I still haven't seen the new movie, but it's definitely going to happen. Hopefully soon, before I inevitably stumble upon some spoilers. The story is supposed to go back to the character's comic book roots, away from the Avengers, with New York as a background, original suit etc. I can't wait!

Pose reference: @theposearchives

My socials: https://linktr.ee/grdi

#spiderman #brandnewday #peterparker #grdi #grdilicious

Medusa Zara

Once again I found my inspiration in combining two art challenges: DTIYS by @markocomix and DTPYS for July by @theposearchives.

It's Marko's OC Medusa Zara on a beach, preparing for a swim and, as usual, turning other beachgoers into stone.

My socials: https://linktr.ee/grdi

#artchallenge #markocomix14k #dtpysjul26 #mythology #medusa

7 Deadly Sins

I got the idea for this drawing about three years ago, while I was watching The Seven Deadly Sins, a fantasy anime about a group of legendary knights who protected the fictional Kingdom of Liones. They were each named after a biblical sin, although I didn'treally get the symbolism behind that. 🤔

It was interesting, but I wouldn't put it in my top 5 favourite anime. So, back then I made a sketch of all seven knights plus the princess and their animal companion and I haven't touched it until now. I'm not sure why now, I guess I got tired of looking at that file in my "TO DO" folder.

The original name is Nanatsu no Taizai and it was and is still very popular among fans. It's silly, with unusual characters (as you can see), a lot of questionable fan service and familiar but still problematic relationships and inappropriate behaviour. I mean, I guess I recommend it, although I don't think I'll watch it again. If you read the manga or watched the anime, is there anything interesting or important you'd like to share, maybe something significant or more specific I should've mentioned?

My socials: https://linktr.ee/grdi

#fanart #thesevendeadlysins #nanatsunotaizai #anime #grdilicious

Neil the Seal

He's back! Once again Neil the Seal is spending his moulting days (shedding old skin and fur) in beachside towns in Tasmania, causing commotion and filling the social media feeds with his shenanigans. 🦭

He's practically still a "baby", just a 5-year-old elephant seal weighing a tonne but still growing. Apparently, he's lonely because of lack of his peers at the beach, so the nearby towns with their infrastructure became his playground.

He's all over my feed too, so I decided to dedicate my next drawing to him. As he's treated with caution and respect, I imagined him as a king sitting on a "Game of Thrones" style throne made of everything he breaks on his way, especially traffic signs, poles and traffic cones.

But as entertaining as it is now, there's also a reason for concern. He's a "teenager" and expected to grow and no one knows what will happen once he's 4 tonnes and doing the things he does. They even tried to relocate him, but he eventually came back to the beach where he was born and continued with his usual activities. I hope they'll find some solution before they turn to sad alternatives that have happened before with wild animals in similar situations. 😞

And when it comes to this drawing, I also hope you'll appreciate my idea and creativity in this case.

My socials: https://linktr.ee/grdi

#neiltheseal #tasmania #gameofthrones #grdi #grdilicious