Drawing Myself Forward

A personal look at an evolving artistic journey

At the beginning of March, I turned 48. In previous years, this was usually the part where I would slip into a mild existential audit... making lists, measuring time, trying to understand how I wasted it.

But this time, something else happened. I found myself looking back… and smiling. Yes, smiling!

If you’ve been following me on social media, you’ve probably noticed some changes.
And if you haven’t, I’ll try to describe what it feels like from my side.

From the outside, the past year might look a bit chaotic. Styles shifting. Ideas jumping. Directions change every few months. But in recent months, from where I stand, it doesn’t feel like chaos anymore. It feels like progress.

Like I’m getting sharper. Like, I’m slowly understanding what I want from myself.
It’s like something is finally starting to align. Somewhere along the way, my work also began reacting more to reality, a bit less imagination, a bit more friction.

This post is a small attempt to trace that movement, through a few drawings, and the versions of myself that created them.

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And when I was already in the middle of all this contemplation, I found myself going back to this one.

I don’t remember exactly when I drew this. But I do remember the mindset. Back then, the process was simple: come up with an idea, turn it into a drawing, and add a punchline. That was enough. There’s something honest about that simplicity; it’s direct, immediate, and naive.

But when I look at it now, I also see the gap. It didn’t respond to anything. It didn’t really say anything. It was just… there.

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Then, at some point last year, something shifted. After experimenting with digital techniques, I found myself returning to my own style... but it wasn’t the same. It felt… more mature. (At least to me).

As you can see, it’s less “Here’s a cool idea,” and more “Let’s pause for a second and look at what’s actually happening here.” My ideas started to come from different places mostly from news and current events.

More about situations. Less punchlines, more reactions. Less “how do I make them laugh,”
more “how do I capture the absurdity that’s already there.”

It was no longer about coming up with something clever. It became about trying to capture something real. Something that could also be strange, funny, and human. Something that had always been there, but for me, it is impossible to ignore.

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And that’s where I find myself now.

Somewhere between the absurd and the real, between reaction and observation. Nowadays, I can draw an imaginary scene, and other times I respond to something that actually happened.

There’s still humor. There’s still exaggeration. And sometimes, it’s simply a colorful translation of a thought that crossed my mind.

But unlike in the past, every illustration today is built in layers. Layers of line, of trial, of error,
of all the tools I’ve collected over the years.

All of it shaped by the last two and a half years, in which I relearned not only how to draw… but also how to listen to the world around me.

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I know that a change in style is not something unique to me. We all change. We move a little to the right, a little to the left, and sometimes do a U-turn without noticing. But I imagine that this is not my last stop. It feels less like a “transformation” and more like a series of small changes.
And if there’s one thing I take away from all of this, it’s that I’m still in the middle.
Halfway through my artistic journey- in the middle of figuring out who I am and what I want to say.
And I still have a long way to go before I reach the end… if there is such a thing.
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If you want to follow along, you’re welcome to stay.
And if you want to support the process behind these paintings,
you can do so here: ☕ Ko- Fi.

Nemo