Most of my notebooks are filled with random conceptual crap, but every once and a while I sit down and produce a full piece. I got this idea from looking at the shapes of tree branches; I found the idea of animals growing out of tree branches to be kind of grotesque (which some of my work can be) but surprisingly most people I've shown it too didn't take it that way. It's always interesting to me when one of my pieces takes on a different meaning for others then it does for me. What was a commentary on the horrifying beauty of nature, specifically the relationship between plant life and insects and how that translates on to animals that are more well-liked, can also be viewed as a representation of spring (although I also had that in mind as a sub-theme while visualizing it).

Based on some comments I've gotten, I think people's perception of the piece hinges on whether or not they assume that these animals will eventually become fully detached from the tree. If they are simply hanging off of it and stuck like that the whole idea somehow becomes a lot more disturbing. If they eventually separate from it, it becomes more beautiful and captures the idea of springtime birth. At the risk of ruining people's idea of it, I won't reveal what my original intention was for that aspect of the drawing, other then pointing out that the creature staring up from the bottom may or may not be attached to the tree outside of what we can see.

This may be turned into a digital piece later! Sometimes if I really like one of my drawings I trace over them digitally and turn them into a lineart.

Because I've gotten comments on this before: Yes, I purposely draw on lined notebook paper, with a mechanical pencil. No, I will not switch to a professional sketchbook or artist pencils, it wouldn't improve my art in any way, in fact it would probably detract from it because I can't draw comfortably with those tools. No, I don't do this out of some desire to be pretentious or different, it's honestly how I feel I do my best work. As someone with Aspergers syndrome I have problems with fine motor skills so the crisp, clean lines produced by mechanical pencils make up for some of my clumsiness. I also don't like how regular pencils feel in my hands. The notebook part would take too long to explain and I'm sure none of you really care to hear it.