Title: "Mario & FLUDD"
Piece Number: #009
Created on: Feb, 2025
Moody was unhappy with how Mario turned out in this one, but I wanted to share it anyway. Look at that shine sprite! Sure, this piece is more sketchy and not as refined as some of her others, but there's a purity and earnestness that persists in it.
There's something "guarded" about really fine, thoroughly finished work, sometimes, something reserved or held back. When you share something a bit unfinished, or that you find a bit "off" or a bit embarrassing, it lets people see something else, something deeper, something I think is important.
Consider the purity of "cringey" early 2000s anime art, the kind that used to fill the halls of personal sites, tumblr, DeviantArt, and MySpace pages. You cringe away not because you wholesale dismiss the art, but because it's almost too empathetic to bear. You are embarrassed for the artist, because you know their heart, because it is yours.
