31 days of drawing my favorite boy, exploring several facets of his personality, relationships, alternate universes, interests…

special thanks to @thefreakandthehair for embarking on this journey with me, and also amazingly writing something inspired by every single prompt we came up with together! having your companionship and encouragement really made it a joy to do and was definitely a huge factor in my ability to draw something for every single day :’)

here’s my eddie month tag, and there’s a masterlist of every piece under the cut in case you missed any, alongside a bit of a rambling message from me 🫶🏻

hi!!! i don’t talk much on here but i just wanted to say thank you to everyone participating in (and following me for) the dress up game!! i’ve been having a lot of fun planning it and the reception has been better than i anticipated 🥺💜 keep an eye out for the next installment when the poll closes 👀

5 years of drawing and redrawing the same concept since january 2018… had a bit of trouble with timing and inspiration with this year’s so it’s a couple months belated, but once it felt like i was executing my vision & utilizing skillsets i honed in the past year i started to feel good about it.

i’m so grateful to have this snapshot of my art style’s evolution over the years. each iteration has its own tone and vision, and it’s incredible to me to see how many different places i can take this one concept. to any artists following me, i heavily encourage you redrawing old art, even if it’s just once, to have a visual of just how far you’ve come!

i continue to unintentionally alternate between graphic and painterly styles each year—the pieces on the left all have lines, whereas the right are all lineless. i’m not sure why i cycle between the two, but it’s very amusing and cool to me. i enjoy aspects of each in their own right, and these days i find myself looking back on my old art and appreciating how i would lean on my strengths with room to experiment and innovate. i take the lessons i learned on each of these with me to use on future works.

i started this blog 5 years ago, with no clue that i would stick with it as long as i have. i’ve gone through many interests, phases, art styles—alongside art blocks, slumps, and struggles. i’ve had ups and downs but art and this blog have been a constant through it all. seeing kind comments on something I made with love and care is the greatest pick me up in the world. whenever my motivation wanes, i just comb through my notes to read all the lovely things people have said in the tags. seeing familiar faces always warms my heart :’)

in the art above, i used a counter to keep track of the number of stars i painted. there should be (barring my error) exactly 1,000 individual stars in this night sky. regardless of how long you’ve followed this blog, whether you’ve stuck with me through my phases or are just passing through, i’m forever grateful for any and all support you give to my art. this really helped me contextualize and put into perspective just how many of you there are, just how many eyes are on my work. it’s mind-blowing.

thank you, truly.

(shorter versions of the art are in the read more, if you’d like to zoom in and look closer at details)

5 years ago today (August 18th 2022), I had the privilege to see this show on Broadway. It was my first time on a plane. It was my first time in NYC. It was my first time seeing a Broadway show. I was an anxious teen, graduating high school, feeling truly seen for the first time—by this musical. It was there for me when I needed it most, and not only that, it introduced me to this amazing community and friends I still talk to, to this day.

A lot has changed in my life since then, but Dear Evan Hansen still means the world to me. Its messages about grief and self acceptance still ring true and echo in my heart daily. It is genuinely hard for me to put into words the impact it’s had on my life, the mantras I repeat to quell my doubts, the positive effect it’s had on my self image. The way it creatively motivated me gave me the means to improve my art enough to be able to execute this painting I’ve had swirling in my mind since I first took the photograph I used as reference myself.

It may be closing soon, five years and a month after I first saw it in person, but I will keep all that it has given me forever. I’ll hold on, and I’ll keep going until I see the sun. 💙

from left to right, top to bottom: 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, and finally, 2022… 5 years, 5 redraws. so much time has passed since the first drawing, it’s surreal to me to think how much has changed and how much i’ve grown. every year i think it’s not going to show any noticeable improvement, and every year i’m surprised with how much i like the most recent iteration.

i don’t go back and look at the old versions until i’m finished with the new one, to make sure the idea is fresh and not just a copy of what i did the previous year. this year, i decided to depart from the blue monochrome and just be free with the colors ✨ also, funny observation, but i seem to switch between a graphic and painterly style each year, which is totally unintentional, but looks super cool!

if you’re an artist and you’ve never tried this exercise, i highly recommend it! your art can feel stagnant and stale until you truly see how much has changed from year’s past.

if you like it, i’d appreciate it if you’d reblog the newest version, here! 💕

2018, 2019, 2020, and finally—2021. whew, it’s been so long since that very first draft, i can’t believe how much i’ve grown since! i love posting the side by side of these, simply because my style has changed and evolved so much over the years.

if you’re an artist, and have been feeling stagnant or like your art is the same as it’s always been, i highly recommend giving this exercise a try! every year that i’ve done it i’ve been surprised by the visible improvement from years past. i personally make a concerted effort not to reference the old ones either, i just take the initial concept and make a new version of it as if it’s my first time rendering it.

in art, as your eye and skills improve incrementally it can be difficult to spot improvement because by the time you’re better at something, you’re also better at spotting mistakes. that’s why it’s important to me to keep up this tradition to gauge my progress at the start of each year!

if you’d like to, please reblog the newest version here c:

a side by side comparison of my latest redraw—oldest being from january 2018 on the left, middle being a year later, and now :0 i like to go into it with the concept in my mind without looking back at what i did the previous year, and boy, has that paid off! i can’t believe how much nicer the composition and even the colors look!

i feel like my art has greatly improved in the past year, i’m super proud of this one. i remember being proud of last year’s too. if you’re an artist, i highly recommend trying this sometime, because up until the point i looked back at the old art i SWORE it looked exactly the same and was going to be very little visible improvement.

we get used to the changes as they happen to the point where we don’t even recognize it, which makes an exercise like this one incredibly valuable! :D

(reblog the newest one here!)

happy 2 year anniversary of this blog!

here’s my obligatory mushy post about how much this blog (and deh) means to me

it means a lot to me to have people who want to support my art, no matter how long it takes me between posts. i’ve been going through a bit of an art funk, but i’m trying my hardest to get out of it, and you guys are a big part of that! your kind tags and messages never fail to make my day. i appreciate your support, no matter how many times you’ve reblogged with nice things in the tags, sent in requests, or if you just like every post. it all matters, i notice all of it.

dear evan hansen has changed me a lot over the past few years, how i view myself and the world around me, but perhaps the most valuable thing i’ve gained from it is friendship in the kind community surrounding it. whether we’ve had an enthusiastic convo about the show, or we just quietly support each other’s posts, it’s helped me greatly. it’s enriched my life in ways i couldn’t have imagined before.

i never expected to love this show as much as i do still. it’s still my biggest inspiration, the reason i have this blog in the first place, and met many of my friends. it’s kept me going, directly and indirectly. i’m really grateful for it.

so thank you, dear evan hansen, for finding me.

and thank you, to my followers, for supporting my art as an exstension of the show. i put a lot of thought and heart into conveying the themes and messages of the show in a visual medium, and it’s incredibly rewarding to see that resonate with someone.

i just posted my third finale piece, on the same day as the first two. (x) (x) i’m really proud of it! i could never have conceived it two years ago, but i kept going, kept creating, and here we are. never stop pursuing your passions!!!!

...and keep going until you see the sun ☀️

so, my friends, in case you've ever wondered if i read your tags... i do. (some of these did make me laugh, by the way) thank you all, so much! whether you add a compliment, a reaction, or a veiled threat, i'm grateful for your response to my art. it makes me feel seen, and glad that i share it with a community so passionate!

i was nervous about posting this piece in the first place -- there are no characters (faces), no ships, nothing immediately recognizable from the show. even the quote is pretty obscure, a stage direction from the script. it was a little personal piece. i was researching van gogh (art nerd caught in the act), inspired by the philosophy of people still occupying the spaces that belong to them, even when they're no longer there. it's a bed, some shoes, some belongings... but, it's also connor.

i'm really, really proud of this piece, and i'm so grateful that it's resonating with you guys, too. i didn't expect this kind of response at all! it already has so many notes? the fact that you find it recognizably connor makes me so happy. you let me know you've seen me, so i thought i'd let you know i see you! even if your tag isn't in this small compilation, know if you ever have left an afterthought of a comment on my art in the tags, i probably saw it and squealed with joy.

so thank you, again! for your support and encouragement, always c: <3

1 year anniversary of this blog!

A year ago today, I posted for the first time ever on this blog. I was nervous, excited, I had never run a blog for solely my art before. I had never taken requests, or had any semblance of a consistent art style. But Ben Platt was leaving Dear Evan Hansen. And I wanted to post my little tribute to him, so I did. It wasn’t perfect, it doesn’t even look much like my art does now. But it’s special to me, because of when I made it, and why I made it. How much this show means to me. And how far I’ve come since then.

Today, I posted the final piece in the biggest, longest lasting series of cohesive art I’ve ever made in my life. It wasn’t perfect either, but I can look back on every piece and say I’m proud of it. Look back on the project as a whole and say, yeah, I did that. And I grew a lot doing it. To be honest, this whole project of mine began with a heartbreak that I won’t share specifics of. I felt down on myself and my art. I didn’t think I was good enough to do anything, especially art. But through that heartbreak, the spark of passion I’ve always had for this show grew brighter. And I realized what I needed to do.

So, I decided, who cares if it isn’t any good? If it isn’t perfect? I’m going to do my own personal tribute to this entire show, and what it means to me. It’s for me, not anyone else. If other people like it, that’s a bonus. I had so much fun coming up with all of the concepts. Sharing them with my friends, seeing them come together and posting them for you all. All of your kind messages and tags of encouragement have really fueled me to keep going. It felt so nice to pour my heart in my art, and see you guys really responding to it. Far more than I ever expected.

Dear Evan Hansen means so much to me. It’s brought me friends, inspiration, and a newfound capacity to love myself that I’ve never experienced before. An outlet to express, or even discover my deepest feelings. This project has really made me think about how much the show has changed my life for the better. It's like I got to sing a little visual love song to it.

I don’t know if anyone really wants to read my sappy ramblings, but I’m doing that just for me too. I began this blog a year ago with a tribute to the finale of the show. I’m ending this span of 365 days with another tribute to the finale of the show, only this time it’s also the finale to a project I’m really proud of. Thank you all for coming along on this ride with me, and supporting me, there’s so much more to come.

I still plan to do the bonus tracks!! Just not on any time constraint like I did for the end of this. I’ll also be posting a (festive) outfit meme in the coming week! Don’t worry, I won’t be sick of making DEH art anytime soon. I love making art for you guys! I can’t wait to see what this coming year brings. <3

It’s been almost a year, 100 posts, 200 followers. I can’t thank you enough for taking the time to pay attention to my art, it truly means the world to me! A little rainbow heart for each one of you, full of all my love ❤️🧡💛💚💙💜💗

SO THIS HAPPENED. i can’t believe it, honestly, it’s been hours since i found out and i’m still in a little bit of shock. i could never have imagined this when i first sketched out the idea, and definitely not when i was watching the show through teary eyes just under a year ago. i’m truly beyond grateful for this show and the recognition they give their fans.

THANK YOU @dearevanhansenofficial!!!!!!!!

dear lovely followers,

thank you for taking some interest in my art! i'll start with a quick apology for my lack of posting, i've been busy with life stuff, and also... a little something i've been cooking up! i'm currently working on my first overarching project, a series of sorts: dear evan hansen, the "art track". digitally painting my interpretation of all 14 songs from the show, and posting them in order. it's a lot, i know, i'm past pretending i'm not absolutely obsessed with this show and what it means to me. i love it so much, for so many reasons, and this is my personal tribute to it. it's like a love letter, really. the first piece will be posted today, i'm super excited to start sharing these with you guys!! <3

sincerely, me