As I continue to recover from burnout and study my mental health, I've finally found some creative energy today. Friend of mine wanted me to draw a character of theirs, so I figured I'd try drawing an idea of my own first to get me warmed up.

As I've mentioned in a post or two before, I've been LONG considering a Skulldog fursona, intended as a fursuit first and a fictional character second. Pondering some ideas, I hit that point in the creative process again where I just needed to paint what I was "feeling" in order to see it (hence the details, uncertainty, and thoughts in the added notes).

In my journey to a mental health recovery from all sorts of things like grief, trauma, and a lifelong diagnosis of chronic anxiety problems; I've been doing as much as I can to learn how to meditate, better regulate my emotions, and really just to 'get a handle on myself'. Oddly enough, not only has a load of scientific research and doctor visits for my diagnosed mental illnesses been helping me out, but I've also been getting a fair amount of help from studying alternative & nature based religions, such as neo-pagan practices and Satanism. So while the design and notes of this character are unsettling at a glance, really, this design I'm coming up with is just as positive and meaningful to me as my happy nerd raccoon Talon. Yes, I am a nerd, an optimist, and everything else Talon represents. But in my current journey of self discovery and healing, a lot of these "darker" art tones have become equally a part of me in recent years. It's just been a difficult thing for me to express most days, hence the need for a more morbid alt fursona.