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vaelyane.bsky.social
Vaelyane
@vaelyane.bsky.social
1.3K followers 380 following 1.3K posts
🇫🇷 | Kael | 34 | He/They

Genderqueer illustrator based near Strasbourg, France. 🎨 Watercolours & digital paintings. 🖌 Currently focusing on personal art & zines.

No Gen•A•I.

⭐ https://linktr.ee/vaelyane
✨ #art #watercolor
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vaelyane.bsky.social
Running away from my problems by sketching a young man and his worms.

#sketch #illustration #darkart
Digital sketch of a distinguished young man in a historical shirt with a black waistcoat, wearing an expression of wistful innocence on his face. Escaped strands of wavy hair brush over his eyes. A frog sits on his left shoulder with judging eyes, ignoring the squirming of a few worms around it. The frog and the lad are both looking at you. Your gaze wanders down to his hand, desperately grasping at the clothes covering his own chest in a stark contrast to the calm of his face. A couple of earthworms barely wriggle out of his grip. The worms. They curl around like his beautiful hair. You can't bring yourself to find them disgusting. In the background, unfinished floral elements are left to wrap around him in a weave of splotchy scribbles.
November 18, 2025 at 7:50 AM
vaelyane.bsky.social
Frog story in a frog-sized book.
The photographer is mostly off-screen with fingers holding a minuscule book of fables in front of a green, black and white plush frog, made by Bark's Bog. The frog looks as if it is highly focused on reading a page announcing a fable from Jean de la Fontaine: The Frog and the Ox. The fable is in French. The photographer did not make the book. This is a real miniature book of fables with an ISBN code, unearthed anew while doing an inventory.
November 16, 2025 at 11:37 AM
vaelyane.bsky.social
We're snail posting, post your snails! 🐌🍃

I don't think I've posted this older piece here yet. 🤔
#illustration
Watercolour painting of a kightly rabbit fiercely riding a passably distracted snail in front of an explosion of leaves. The snail's shell looks a bit wrong, and this mistake has been haunting the artist for years despite a lingering fondness for the piece.
November 13, 2025 at 4:55 AM
vaelyane.bsky.social
I had a migraine the entire day, and now I can't sleep! So I doodled this from memory to distract myself. It was very loosely inspired by Carmilla, which I read a few days ago.

(if I wake up in the morning and the sketch looks bad to my rested eyes, be warned that I will delete it)
Pencil sketch of a woman with curly hair, thin limbs and clawed hands lovingly hugging another who looks trapped in her arms, apprehensive and unsure of herself. The artist is sleep-deprived and can't type much more for want of a functioning brain. Does this sketch look good? I can't tell. My mind fell out of my ear twenty hours ago and hasn't crawled back in in under the storm of headaches I've suffered all day.
November 5, 2025 at 12:18 AM
vaelyane.bsky.social
Happy Halloween! 🦇

This year, I am treating myself with the Beehive Books illuminated version of Carmilla, illustrated by @hirosemary.bsky.social ❤️‍🔥
An open book on a wrinkled bedsheet, featuring a full-page illustration of two 19-century women gazing at each other and holding arms in front of an ominous tapestry of Cleopatra handling the snake that would be fatal to her. It was drawn by Rosemary Valero-O'Connel (Bluesky @hirosemary) for Beehive Books. The light silhouette of the two young women starkly contrasts with the mostly blood-red backdrop.
October 31, 2025 at 10:53 PM
vaelyane.bsky.social
I feel like this piece always worked much better on a light background, so this is what it looks like with the trademark old deviantart green as a backdrop.
Screenshot of the digital painting from the quoted post on a light grey-ish green background.
September 17, 2025 at 10:44 AM
vaelyane.bsky.social
Going through some old art today! The quality of my work was inconsistent at the time, but I found a couple of old gems.

I painted this arcanine in 2015 back when I was stubbornly trying to blend with the wrong brush.

I left the tumblr link on it for authenticity. :'D

#throwback #fanart #pokemon
Digital fan-painting of an arcanine gracefully floating in front of a yellow squiggly line, bathed in warm light. The pokémon's fluffy fur was very lovingly rendered in a variety of shades of beige. For an older piece painted in bed on a laptop ten years ago as a gift to a friend, it holds up surprisingly well in its shapes and flow compared to the artist's current work, although the anatomy appears less confident, and the rendering style is somewhat different. For authenticity's sake, the artist posted this piece as it was, tumblr link included. Arcanine and Pokémon are the intellectual property of Nintendo.
September 17, 2025 at 10:38 AM
vaelyane.bsky.social
'tis done! My paper crimes have paid off, at last!

The back of my watercolour paper is more unforgiving than the front, but it lent itself beautifully to layering. This painting was a success!

#illustration #watercolor #merman #traditionalart
Watercolour painting of a merperson in various shades of blue and peachy pinks. Their hair, tail and tentacles curl delicately throughout the composition. The artist will paint on the back of that watercolour paper again, despite the cold sweats.
September 13, 2025 at 2:10 PM
vaelyane.bsky.social
This was a very satisfying sampling of "blood".

(I messed up my quote-post, my bad)
Three different swatchcards of deep red inks aligned on a desk, each dramatic in its own right. One of them looks like a brown-ish sample of dried blood, one of them looks like a colourful splash of fresh blood, and one of them is a deep berry shade, too pink to be bloody compared to the other two. All three swatches look highly satisfying to the artist hidden behind the camera. All three inks were meant for pens instead of painting. Used with a dip pen, they look rather similar to each other, only revealing their unique complexity when mixed with water in a wash. They were, in order from left to right: Private Reserve Ink - Vampire Red Diamine - Copper Red Diamine - Oxblood
August 14, 2025 at 3:37 PM
vaelyane.bsky.social
Testing some ink made for pens today!

Pros: Smoothness! Colour! Joy!

Cons: That brush will bleed red ink for the rest of my life. 🩸
Art supplies arranged on a table. A wet-on-wet inkwash swatch card rests on a closed watercolour box in an effusion of sanguine reds. Thankfully, this isn't a crime scene. The brushes in-frame look clean and ordinary... at first glance. No red ink stains the ferrule of the green-leaning one. Wet it, however, and you will be greeted with a stubborn red leak, haunting whatever surface it touches. The little stinker has been dipped in clear water and rinced over a hundred times, to no avail.
August 13, 2025 at 2:26 PM
vaelyane.bsky.social
Stop! ⛔️✋️ This is a WIP checkpoint.

QRP with your current WIP!

I'm still stuck on these (and a big secret hidden painting)! Life has been A Lot and I've been focusing on everything but painting this year.
Photo of an artist's table easel with three different watercolour paintings haphazardly strewn over it. One is mostly red, one is mostly blue, and one is bluish-green. They all look unfinished. The leftmost painting is gothic and tall, an effusion of intricate details. There is a horse. And a gaggle of knights. No wonder that one is taking so long. The paper on the rightmost painting was sadly very torn from leaving masking fluid on too long, but you probably can't see it from afar. The artist is reluctant to give it up and believes it is possible to cover it up with acrylagouache, though this WIP has been left on hold for a couple of years already. It is a bit scary. The middle painting is much simpler than the other two. A single character, posing dramatically. Come on, finish this one, at least! You're so close!
August 11, 2025 at 3:22 PM
vaelyane.bsky.social
A few years ago, I painted a lingcod merman as a test for a bigger illustration. I don't think I've shared this brief process video here!

I drew the lines digitally before transferring them onto paper, and scanned the painting every time I took a break.

#watercolor #artsky #mermaid #processvideo
July 13, 2025 at 9:15 AM
vaelyane.bsky.social
Now that we've seen this power in-game, I can finally post my art for it! :'D This guy made a deal with a vampire queen and gained a warlock power from it.

Needless to say, our paladin is NOT PLEASED.

#dnd #characterart #dndcharacter
Digital painting of a grey half-drow with studded armour, fiery hair and fangs. A ghostly coral snake is hovering around him.
June 25, 2025 at 9:15 PM
vaelyane.bsky.social
I was crouching in the garden when I typed that, but now that I'm back inside, I wonder if I saw someone else say something similar earlier. 🤔

Anyway, here's a hilarious picture of a bee awkwardly sticking out of our bellflowers, taken just this morning!
Macro picture of a bee's behind awkwardly sticking out of a purple flower. This image isn't very crisp, but it's hilarious. The photographer was crouching with a phone in hand next to the bushes to take it. There were more bugs nearby when this image was taken, which aren't pictured here. Notably: many more bees, ladybird larvae, and a very hairy beetle.
May 31, 2025 at 11:01 AM
vaelyane.bsky.social
Crimes in progress.
Work in progress of a watercolour painting depicting a blue and peach merperson, in an elegant pose. It is the same merperson from a previous post. Mermay is still ongoing. At first glance, everything looks normal. The painting is visibly unfinished and needs some contrast and polish, although you wouldn't guess it was painted on the wrong side of the paper. Off-screen, the artist is cursing himself for not choosing a simpler, smaller subject for his ridiculous test.
May 23, 2025 at 1:47 PM
vaelyane.bsky.social
Here is a little piece of digital linework for #mermay! I've missed drawing my tentacled merfolk. It hit me today that I've been painting them for nine years...

I'm not sure I'll finish this one, but I'm happy with it nonetheless!

#merfolk #illustration #artsky
Flowy digital linework representing a merperson with long hair and tentacles. They look down, lost in thought, like a marble statue suspended in time. What are they thinking about? The rough sketch that started this image isn't included in the post. It was a ballpoint pen doodle drawn in the waiting room of a doctor's office, a few weeks prior.
May 9, 2025 at 10:21 AM
vaelyane.bsky.social
I finished this watercolour piece just yesterday! Proud of myself for making something, despite current circumstances. 💪
I had a few tricks up my sleeves to keep things symmetrical, this time.

#artsky #illustration #watercolor
Watercolour painting of a winged cat monster reminiscent of medieval marginalia, in front of a stone frame. It is facing you, and blepping aggressively with the cheekiest expression you can picture on a ragdoll cat. Anyone familiar with gothic architecture in the general Rhine river area might recognise the peculiar colour of the stone as a local construction material. There are pretzels in the decorative frame, and the artist is still giggling to himself off-screen about adding those in.
May 1, 2025 at 8:06 PM
vaelyane.bsky.social
I remember this!!!

Well, here is my newest mind unicorn, right out of the brain stables.
It's an exercise I do for fun every few months, and I get stumped by the hind legs every time! :') You can see my eraser marks.

It's funny to see how differently distorted the poor creature gets every time.
Somewhat loose pencil sketches of two unicorns, done from memory. The biggest one is leaping, or perhaps floating. The other one stands proudly despite looking much rougher, smaller, with a strong body and a tiny head. Both unicorns feel reasonably recognisable as horses, despite any weird inaccuracies in their anatomy.
April 17, 2025 at 5:23 AM
vaelyane.bsky.social
Anyway. Please enjoy these wild violets from the garden.
Picture of several little clusters of wild violets in a patch of sunshine, somewhere in the dirt of a garden.
April 14, 2025 at 4:56 PM
vaelyane.bsky.social
I've made a bit of progress on this watercolour painting, today! It'd be nice to finish something again soon.

It's always a bit tricky to work traditionally with symmetry. I have to lean over the piece with a mirror to make sure things stay even!

#artsky #watercolor #WIP
Still picture of an unfinished watercolour painting depicting a fantastical cat monster with two bodies and wings framed by a stone cinquefoil. The cat's pattern resembles a ragdoll cat. The artist has painted little pretzels in the frame, and is giggling to themself off-screen.
April 12, 2025 at 7:12 PM
vaelyane.bsky.social
11. Show a wip/sketch/something that never saw the light of day.

These fairy doodles from late last month!
Pencil sketches on printer paper scattered on an off-white blanket next to a graphite pencil. All sketches represent different yet similar-looking fairies, with moth-like antennae. One of them is a portait, one of them is sitting on a branch with a bug on her arm, and one of them is holding a bouquet of wood sorrel.
March 7, 2025 at 11:19 PM
vaelyane.bsky.social
If anyone is curious about anything, I'll be joining in! I believe some of my answers might surprise you.
Artist Asks - A list of questions adressed to the artist posting this image. One like on this post means the poster must reply to one question. There are 23 questions, and they read as follows: 1. Do you prefer traditional drawing, or digital? 2. How long have you been drawing? 3. How many classes have you taken? 4. What's your favourite thing to draw? 5. How often do you use references? 6. What's your least favourite thing to draw? 7. Do you draw professional, or just for fun? 8. Are you confident about your art? 9. Do you prefer to keep your art personal, or do you like drawing things for other people? 10. Do you ever collaborate with others? 11. Show a wip/sketch/something that never saw the light of day. 12. How long does an avergae piece take you to complete? 13. Do you draw more today than you did in the past, or do you draw less? 14. What are you currently trying to improve on? 15. What is most difficult for you to draw? 16. What's the easiest for you to draw? 17. Do you like to challenge yourself? 18. Are you confident you are improving steadily? 19. Do you feel jealous when you see other people's art, or inspired? 20. Do you like to draw in silence, or with music? 21. For digital art, what program(s) do you use? 22. For traditional art, what medium do you like most? (pencil, watercolour, etc) 23. What inspires you to not just make art, but be a better artist?
March 7, 2025 at 7:53 PM
vaelyane.bsky.social
I haven't found much energy to paint, lately! Most of it has been going to some art I can't share yet, but I did make progress on something else yesterday: this pink sandstone frame.
Art supplies scattered on the surface of a wooden table easel. In the middle, an unfinished watercolour painting represents a pink-brown cinquefoil stone frame of medieval inspiration. Inside the frame remains the light sketch of a strange winged cat creature. On the top right sits a blotchy colour study of the same painting, with swatches and notes. The artist selected a palette of mostly browns, with some teal blue.
March 5, 2025 at 10:30 AM
vaelyane.bsky.social
QRP with your sphinx art!

This one is an oldie from 2018. I still used Cotman pans back then, and added a few highlight with Coliro mica paints.

#art
Watercolour painting of a sphinx-centaur, with the upper body of a woman, and the lower body of a winged lion, laying on three pillows. She seems to be sleeping while holding a feather in her hand. Her hind paws and tail are curled up in her gentle slumber, and her front paws look like they're lightly moving in her sleep.
February 27, 2025 at 6:54 PM
vaelyane.bsky.social
Altered black and white sreenshot from the original 1922 Nosferatu silent film. The image depicts bald vampire count Orlok with an uncanny human grin, his left hand giving a thumbs up. Both of these elements are absent from the original film. Under the screenshot, bold white letters in a retro font spell the word "Yesferatu".
January 26, 2025 at 5:43 AM