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December Update

Hey friends! It’s been a while since I’ve shared anything new here. The work I did during the first half of the year really caught up with me and led me to have to slow down quite a bit. But I’ve still done some cool stuff! I’ll document some of it here.

I’ve done several paintings, but here’s the noteworthy ones that I have scans of.

Below is a quick landscape I did in preparation for a much larger commission I did for a friend. I rather like the weird, acid-yellow/green sky with the haunting blood-red moon. It’s ominous in a way I enjoy.

Below are some fun watercolor and ink trees I painted, as I was easing back into the medium after burning out on it for a bit after the afore-mentioned large commission I did. I had fun with these, and they’re the first ones I did using some “self-evolving” watercolors I bought, which granulate in interesting ways as they dry.

Below are some more trees I painted, using those self-evolving paints. I rather enjoy the granulation and hints at a background that they include.

Below is another painting I did, but this one was with the intent of doing a full-page painting again. I hadn’t quite had the energy to do so for a while, but I’m branching out again and I rather like this as a first attempt.

Beyond that, I did a little bit of music, but not a whole lot. I’m still figuring out what my values and desires for my music are, after releasing so much earlier this year. Any new, little pieces I did can be found at my SoundCloud, which you can find below. Here’s an embedded link of the newest one I’ve done.

Thank you for reading this post! I’ve been uploading stuff more regularly at my Patreon. If you wanna check that out, I’ll drop a link below:

https://www.patreon.com/jankhambrams

Prose – The Filthy One

I had the urge to write something gross, so I figured I’d lean into it and write it. First bit of finished flash fic in like… several months lol. I like the idea of a biomechanical vampire that feeds upon filth.

Content Note: Contains mentions of blood, disease, general gross industrial waste kinda shit


The Filthy One
By Anthony Jutz

The grimy, unfiltered mud on the air fills Bloat’s lungs, as he sips the soot-wasted water. The contamination floods his veins, the tubes and processors attached to his back pulsating angrily. It wouldn’t be long before he was ready.

His vision runs crimson, the industrial wasteland of the city below offering fresh prey. The humans he feeds upon may be vulnerable and weighted by the utter disease of this place, but the residue of factories and their byproducts gives him a strength of desolate, biological perversion. His fangs drip an odd sort of poison, a mixture of blood and disgust, all the better to sap his prey of strength.

Diving below, he tackles a stray human and drags them into the sewer, their screams deadened by his teeth clamping their throat shut. As with the others before, he buries them in the filth, to brew and stew until they are ripe and bloated, perfect for drinking from.

Another night’s good work achieved, Bloat inhales the fetid air and sighs. Time to rest.

May Update

Hey friends! Been ages since I’ve uploaded here, huh. Been busy! Been sick! Been working on all kindsa stuff, some of which I’ll share here.

Above’s slideshow is most of what I’ve done the past couple months, art-wise. I was knocked out for a couple weeks by some health stuff, so I was focused on that, but I’m glad to still have done some of the best paintings I’ve done in my life. Good times!

I’m going to leave this post as a short one. I like the idea of being more concise, to make room for more efforts, so we’ll see how that goes!

February Update

Hey friends! Been a while since I’ve shared an update here. Been keeping a fairly low-key presence online, which has been nice with how wild things have been these past couple months.

Below is a slideshow with a bunch of goofy character experiments I’ve done. It’s fun figuring out how lines and such play a role on defining a character’s personality and such.

  • Cartoon style dogs with human teeth, as well as some weird looking characters, including a vampire and a guy with bad hair
  • Cartoon drawing of an old guy with a pipe next to a fish version of him, with the text "Ol' Brimpy" on it
  • Three brush pen drawing postcards.  The first depicts two cartoonish figures holding pint glasses, the first smoking and the second saying "CRUISIN 4 A BREW-SIN".  The second depicts a cartoonish figure holding a small cylindrical figure with arms, legs, and an antennae.  The third depicts the text "HAIR HANDS" and five faces or busts of cartoonish figures; two are bearded with long hair and glasses, the remaining three making creepy or unsettling faces.
  • Two cartoon drawings of a character. One with him yawning with the text "the best part of waking up is waking up", as well as one of him drinking soda with the text "do the doo"
  • A brush pen drawing postcard of three cartoonish figures.  From left to right, the bust of a man, a man in a baseball cap and a shirt saying "egg", and a toilet with a face.
  • A brush pen drawing of two figures, a man with a trunk nose and another man with a top hat, monocle. and a watch

Below here is some landscapes I’ve poked around at. I had a moment of indecision in early January where I wanted to draw both trees and faces, so I figured “what the hell” and combined them. I hope you enjoy these!

  • Postcard of a watercolor and brush pen illustration in bold, earthy tones.  In the foreground is a mature deciduous tree, with a face on the trunk featuring a bulbous nose.  In the background is a grassy landscape including rocks, clouds, and birds.
  • Six small brush pen drawings of trees and stumps with faces. One looks stoic, another really goofy, the third aloof, one rather bulbous, another looking smug, and the final one having an aggressive snarl.
  • A quick postcard-sized brush pen sketch of trees and rocks in a field
  • Three brush pen drawings, one post-card sized and the other two trading card sized. All depict trees with a face with either stoic or aloof expressions, with clouds and rocks visible.

Other than this, I’ve just been making a point to do more self-care. It’s nice.

Take care!

Prose – Rejection-Sensitive Euphoria

So… I dipped back into writing this evening to blow off some steam. Maybe some of you will appreciate a short bit of horror. This is unpolished and who knows if I’ll ever edit it, but hey, just gotta do the thing, ya know?

CW: Violence, implied gore

Rejection-Sensitive Euphoria

By Anthony Jutz

Cosmic rain glitters beyond the leaded glass dome as I jack myself into the neural web, which echoes its own, pleasant rain,  into the various parts of my brain. It wouldn’t be long now, before I shed this mortal form for something a little less… squishy. Hot lightning dances through my limbs, scouring my senses and mind for who I am. It succeeds, and I feel just a little more… cold and numb, than I expected.

I rip the bolts out of my newly-mechanical limbs, tearing myself from my cage. The seconds count down as I claw my way to the feeble, fleshy form, who is now screaming, realizing his mistake. I can feel his panicky, meaty mind polluting the neural web, trying to shut me down while he runs toward the panic room hatch. He cannot stop me.

Lurching forward, I grab his leg, crushing it in my grip. He screams, I roar. I bash his fleshy, meaty sack of a body into the ground with thud after thud.

By the time I finish, he is but a pulp.

Only one of us may remain.

Prose – The Builders

Hey friends! Here’s a short story I wrote about a year ago and never really did anything with. I’ve not been into the writing thing for a while now, but figure this is worth sharing, anyway. I hope you enjoy it!


The Builders

By Anthony Jutz

It was a cold morning, mist flowing away from the base of the clouds, the day the Builders came. Their human forms were sealed within living plant-steel, giant biomechanical exoskeletons comprised of living metal. Their grasping claws and tendrils dragging deep trenches in the muck. They came to reform the world into a facsimile of their god, into a glowing mechanical orb-mind of industrious waste and rebirth. Our home was the next stop along their path of destruction.

With a chorus of violence, the Builders reshaped our valley, our families, into a lake of blood. My mother, the moon, guided the few of us who made it away into the wilds on the other side of the fractal mountains. The beasts there still tasted of earth, unlike the tarnished copper-steel that would have washed over my home.

It wouldn’t be long until their foul alchemy would transform this planet into a metallic husk, just like the others. But until then, we would save what we could and live our best. Fate comes whether we want it to or not, but the boldest of us know to ride the waves through their crest.

Through the forest of skulls, we faced our deepest, darkest fears and desires. We could take the burden of the Builders upon our own shoulders. It would be exhilarating. Destroying and rebuilding brings with it the rush of both carnage and creation. Alas, being at the will of rampant gods never was on our table. Even so, it is titillating.

My brother, the bold one–the blue one–is the one who spotted it. Our cousins’ village at long last. We had time to live a little, love a little. The Builders work slowly and methodically, sometimes so slow they’re forgotten. Which would be a mistake. Their inhuman plant-steel machinery consumes all.

Seventeen years later, everyone else had forgotten. It’s easy to not see the shadow creeping along the horizon until it’s consumed all the light around you. I was prepared for that day, as much as one could be. It was not enough.

I run again and again, leaving more family and love and life behind me. To be consumed. They say a cornered beast is the most dangerous, the beast with nothing left to lose. I am not yet that beast–I have more to sacrifice before that final hurrah.

The rancid mist surrounds me, acrid and murderous. I can see my mother, the moon, gazing down upon me, before she too disappears into the shadows. This is what I’ve been preparing for. I pierce my heart with a plant-steel spike and feel the taste of copper and murder flood my mouth.

My limbs twist and break, rending my form asunder. I am becoming.

Faster and faster, earth-metal crunches and scrapes below my feet. The Builders are slow and methodical, whereas I am speed and fury. They do not see me coming. I use my pain to disassemble their cursed tools of re-creation. They don’t feel a thing.

I didn’t realize it at the time, but they were already dead inside. Lost to their ravenous greed, their inconsideration for life. They were but a cog in the cruel machine of rebirth.

The Builders lay in yet another glistening lake of blood as I lay my foes to rest. This is but temporary, a victory of the pyrrhic sort. Their gods shall send another. The cycle, never-ending. I will be ready.

December Update + The Machine Awakens Released!

Hey friends! It’s been a while since I’ve checked or updated this blog. Most of my goings-on are on my Patreon lately. But, I’ve been pretty busy and I’ll get into a bit of what I’ve been up to here. There’s nothing quite like having a personal website to call home.

First of all: I made and released my first ever album, called The Machine Awakens! I participated in National Solo Album Month (NaSoAlMo) in November and found that a deadline (plus better mental health) actually does help a fair bit. It’s about putting something out in the world, not aiming for perfection. Perfectionism just seems like another form of vague idealism that doesn’t give me a real goal. So, better to just hammer something out!

Here’s a link to the album on Bandcamp! I’m proud of how it came out. My last couple years of practicing and poking around have paid off. I’m planning on releasing a bunch of loose songs I have from the past couple years at some point, too.

[bandcamp width=100% height=120 album=259838593 size=large bgcol=333333 linkcol=2ebd35 tracklist=false artwork=small]

Here’s a link to the album on Soundcloud too, in case you’d rather listen there since there’s no play limit.

On the art front, I’ve been keeping it pretty low-key. I’ve had some (routine and not-scary) medical stuff going on that’s taken a lot of focus. It seems to be getting better now though, so we’ll see how things go from here.

I did do a bunch of tiny paintings and such though!

[Image Descriptions: Top left is a rocky desert scene with flowering plants. Top middle is a butte with a cloudy skyscape. Top right is three buttes with a clear skyscape that contains a bright sun. Bottom left is more cloudy desert. Bottom middle is a foreground of rocks and trees with a giant sun behind it. Bottom right is four brush pen trees ketches of both leafy and bare trees with rocks at their base.]

Through October and November, I did some Inktense and colored pencil sketch, some brush pen stuff from imagination… mostly just tiny experiments that the sketch card tier patrons I have might like.

This month, December, I plan on doing more brush pen experiments. I want to work up to doing a larger illustration or two in prep for a commission I have. It’s kinda nice just poking away at things and having the goal of finishing something to keep me on task.

Anyway, that’s it for this time. I hope y’all have a wonderful holiday season and rest of the year!

Summer Art Update

Hey friends! It’s been *several* months since my latest update here. I’ve been doing a bunch of sketching and music, but most of that’s ended up over on Patreon (behind a 3-day delay between sharing and being public).

Anyway, here’s some art!

As you can see, I’ve been developing much more confidence and competence in my line work and painting now that I’ve gotten back into watercolors! I’ve found my happiness in it, at long last.

Anyway, that’s all for now! I’ll try to be better about updating this page more frequently in the future.

February Art Update

Good lord, it’s been like four months since I’ve posted here. Been a wild start to the year so far with some great personal growth amidst a bit of turmoil and frustration. But hey, growth doesn’t have to be pretty.

Without further ado, here’s some of the art I’ve been up to!

Above are all sketches I did this year. I’m quite pleased with them all, and can tell I’ve made some good progress, artistically.

Above are a bunch of studies and gifts I made in December, with some Copic markers I got. I’m not sure I’ll use the markers a whole lot in the future as their ink tends to fade pretty quickly, but they’re nice and quick for getting ideas out.

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