The Drawer Kring

RAPUNZEL (What Gothel Took)
Pencils, ink and digital
2025
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Took a chance to join Folio Society’s Book Illustration Award this year. It was a long shot, so many entries this year and I’m far from being practiced after such an inconsistent year and a half in my drawing.

Since last year’s massive breakdown (I had one I just didn’t say anything about it), I felt like escaping away from my work…I wanted to finish my projects and pushed myself to do just that but they all fell flat and bleak. So I kept starting again and correcting my work till I lost all sense of it. Only finished illustrating some stuff this year and still, they’re not up to par from where I left off before my mind dipped.

But, I wanted to try joining BIA again. I didn’t get in this year but I did my best on this one. I tried a new trad-digital technique and it seems to help shorten the process a bit. Needless to say, I gotta keep up and focus on narrative illustration again.

This year’s prompt was very familiar to so many—all the long listed entries are incredibly superb.

Congrats to all who got in! I’ll try again next year! 🔥

THE SNAKE
Pencils, ink and watercolor
2025

ANTINOUS
Pencils, ink and watercolor
2025
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One of my works got accepted into the Power In Numbers 2025 exhibition at Gallery Nucleus. I will be posting about the piece soon. But since I barely update here, I’m also showing what was eventually cut from the show.

The Snake represents personal struggles that I grappled with everyday in the past year. Whether they’re small or huge obstacles, they all feel somehow connected to one giant body of a monster of which I have to tame and control so I could function.

Antinous is a tribute piece to the historical figure who was a beloved of the Roman emperor Hadrian. One day he drowned in the Nile and was deified by his lover. His cult was so large it was once the main rival of the early Christian cults.

In 2002, a revival of his worship was created as the New Religion of Antinous; celebrating queerness and homosexual love. So, this one is for Pride month! Happy Pride! 🏳️‍🌈

I will be posting the accepted piece soon!