Dew and the Kishi

Gouache on watercolour paper. Completed 29/05/2023
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Gouache on watercolour paper. During May I was in a predicament over the direction of my work. I think this was a long time coming, as evidenced in my attempts with digital and the inconsistent look of what I’ve made in the past 6 months or so. I can get very affected by what I see and the numbers on social media, and wonder what it is I’m doing wrong. In the end, it took time to come back to my way of painting and realise that I had something good already, but with ways I can build on it.

I designed this as a low-key way to practise without having to focus on so many tiny details. The background was mostly improvised, which is unusual when I tend to plan everything down to the last detail. My aim is to loosen up more in how I paint and draw.

This is Dew as she’ll appear in my (still untitled) third book in progress. For those who don’t know, this is the character who appears in the majority of my work. At this point she’s 15 years old. She often acts without thinking and can be a little thoughtless, but always with a good heart. Her confidence has increased a lot over the course of these stories.

I’ve just realised that I first started drawing this character a decade ago. She looked very different then to how she does now.

In her hand is a being called a Kishi. These are representations of the ‘souls’ of trees and the energy of the world they contain. The shape they appear in is different depending on who sees it. In Dew’s case, it’s a little humanoid being.