Anyway, go check out The Wandering Inn! And feel free to ask me stuff! I've left out a lot because, well, 1. character limits, and 2. I didn't want some dingus to come in thinking they're funny by saying "even bsky posts about it are too long"

And really, more than anything else, what appeals to me about this is how committed the story is to what I would call its central theme (see linked essay below for more): that treating everyone with dignity and compassion is far more powerful than any ancient eldritch being.

I know how easy it is to dunk on its length, but even years into TWI, the author has still been able to knock it out of the park with emotional scenes, somehow covering new ground. This scene was particularly evocative, and more importantly, felt earned over years of character growth.

I've always been surprised by just how much the author is willing to experiment! Their attempts at playing with genre don't always land, but are usually interesting. And keeping up with the varying tones is one reason I've always played with styles. Comedy! Horror! Drama! They've tried it all!

Over the years, I've drawn so much fanart of Erin herself, because I've always loved how her character grew. She gets a bad rap for being an airhead, and yeah, that's core to her, but she's so much more than that! And I've loved painting every milestone she's had as she learned more about herself.

And conversely, it's quiet moments like these that serve to heighten the loud moments that come soon after. I'll concede that the pacing isn't for everyone--but for most of us readers, the so-called fluff is central to it! The burger selling, the stage plays, and yes, even the baseball games!

"Slice of life" is often conflated with "cozy", but it turns out it's far from cozy! And that's because it contains slices of lives of people around the world--and many of these lives are ones that see death and mayhem on a regular basis, which makes the actual cozy moments all the more meaningful.

to fishers, to kings. People, living their own lives, separately from the main character, but with resonating thematically... and eventually, weaving in and out of the inn's story. TWI didn't invent worldbuilding, but it leveraged the web serial format to do it in a way unlike any other.

And yeah yeah, I know--"oh no, it's an isekai? and a LitRPG? I hate it already!" I won't deny that it does carry some tropes associated with those, but it goes way beyond that! Before I knew it, the story grew to encompass so much more--glimpses of lives of people from all over, from couriers...

It proved shockingly unpredictable, and while the inn remained core, it surprised me just how much variety there was to it. While this looks like something straight out of an anime OP, it is in fact very literal, and I painted this absurd scene to highlight the crazy directions the story goes.

Initially, I thought that this was as far as it was going to go... but it wasn't, as I expected, just an inn where random people come in to tell stories! Far from it! I painted this to illustrate that the inn isn't merely a hub for disconnected vignettes, but a central player in the world's events.

Don't think of my art as spoilers... think of it as teasers. I started reading TWI in 2016, and it's been crazy watching it grow as my own art grew. Don't stop me even if you've heard this before--it's about a young girl who gets transported into a fantasy world. Things were so simple back then!

Hey all! Today, The Wandering Inn (@thewanderinginn.bsky.social) celebrates its physical release, and I'm making a thread of the fanart I've done over the years, to gush about why I made these pieces, and hopefully, along the way, convince you to read it. Yes, YOU.

Ooh... my art was not so good back in that era... lemme see if I can curate some that won't spoil much. There's some spoilers in here but they have no context, and some you won't even realize are spoilers until you get to that part

wait til you see what i imagine every time foliana shows up

Half of it is posts just like the ones in that vid; if you replace the references, every single line he reads out is something I hear someone say about twi every week. The other half is posts like this:

After a long painting break for learning purposes, here is another Wandering Inn painting to break my inactivity. because it's cooler to like things than hate on them and boy oh boy for some reason people who hate TWI really don't want to let you forget it

Been a while but I've not been idle! Still working on pumping those Blender muscles, this time in the class of Azusa Tojo

you'll fucking hate it

I've emerged from my Blender hole with my first try at 3d models+paintovers. I've actually been using Blender for a while now for lighting ref, but with premade assets--and I wouldn't paint over other people's models. But everything here is sculpted by myself, so now I'm allowed!

Every time someone says she has no character development, or just dismisses the story entirely, I make a painting like this out of spite. "That'll show you!" I say to myself, not understanding entirely how I'm teaching anyone a lesson by making this. Also: sympathy for goblins is NOT her big flaw

100 endings I've been going down a 3d rabbit hole the last month or two, so I haven't done a lot of 2d paintings. I promise I have at least one more coming that's already mid-progress! #HundredLine #LastDefenseAcademy

It pains me whenever a well-known reviewer gives up after a few chapters and then makes a video to laugh about how bad it is. I have much longer thoughts, but all I can say in 300 chars is that I hope, in some small way, my art somehow can help prove it's actually very good. (how? dunno. but it is!)

Happy #gwenpool and #ItsJeff day! (confession: I added Jeff at the last minute; I didn't even know Jeff was getting his own comic until the last minute when I was wondering what I should put in the lower left)

O brave new world! First project for my SmArt School class with Cynthia Sheppard. Any idea what's happening here? Maybe the quote already gave it away.

every time someone stops reading it early i pour one out for erin

"Who said anything about being done?" #gwenpool #marvel

water water froth and foam

Trying to maintain a quota of one bigger piece a month, crossing fingers. This one's for Feb. Kinda crammed it in the last few days though (all for the quota).

quick tubipaint (that's when i paint random stuff while tubi plays in the bg, sometimes it's a tubi screenshot, like now)