Benjamin M. Cadenza

‘The girl at the gate’

A little drawing I did recently, and then made some changes based on feedback. I’m pretty proud of it and really enjoying watching my digital art skills improve at a fairly consistent rate.

If you’d like to see more of my art, I highly recommend following me on instagram, as I’m sharing there much more often than here.

“The girl at the gate represents the surprise - even shock - that occurs to our inner child when we truly begin to adventure past the boundaries of society’s expectations, and explore the dark, mystical forests of our true selves. There may appear many powerful guardians of this forest: our egos, our fear, our preconceptions of what we are allowed to be. But however terrifying they may seem at first glance, we often discover that their looming posture is actually one of warm embrace, and the dizzying, blinding spirits within us are actually there to light the way, and those binaries and false dichotomies we have been sold in the waking world are, in fact, nebulously blended in ways we never thought was poss-

Oh who am I kidding, I just started drawing and this is what came out.

I can’t stand pretentious art w**k.

What is wrong with these hands?

So, after my last post, I’ve learned that the best way to get better as an artist (not to mention increasing engagement) is to swallow your pride and ask the internet what is wrong with your art.

So… I just finished some hand studies, and now I’m here to ask you… what is wrong with them???

10 of my favourite photos from my Cambodia (and Thailand) trip, in no particular order.

What’s wrong with this picture???

You know that feeling when you’ve been looking at the same piece of art for too long and something seems off about it, but you can’t figure out what?

That’s what I’m feeling now. Something is wrong with the picture but I can’t put my finger on it. I think it might be to do with the lighting, but I’m not sure.

So I’m using my ‘ask the audience’ card.

Plz help

Do you think Ghosts can feel the rain when it goes through them?

A little practice drawing I did based off one of ‘s recent tutorials.

I could have spent so much longer on this, but I wanted to limit myself to 2 hours.

A little practice drawing of the one and only Andrea Luisa, one of the most talented and inspiring humans I know.

Something about catching the chaotic threads of energy around us and weaving it into our art, IDK.

Split into different stages of the drawing.

A summer in landscapes.

A photo for every time someone tells me I don't have enough photos of myself on Instagram.

Since this is Instagram, should I write 'the artist' or something?

I think this might be my favourite review ever.

https://facebook.com/events/s/words-are-my-favourite-clay-mu/769481455012807

The sun is setting on my Vietnam adventure, and I'm on my way home. It's a bit of a sad day, saying goodbye to my swoon and this beautiful country, but my heart is so full, and I'm already looking forward to our next adventures together.

Cuties being cute in vietnam ❤️

.jpg looks it's clouds from the wrong side!

Weeeeeee!

Kia Ora Koutou!

I am going to be playing some music - downtempo melodic trip-hop - at this delightfully comfortable little fundraiser event on Friday the 29th.

It's raising funds to help with Laura's visa, and so they can both make more cute events like this.

Come along and join us for an evening of art, poetry, snugs, drinks, and general deliciousness.

I'll be playing from 5.30-6.30 ish.

Facebook Event:

https://www.facebook.com/events/3194063927554664

Tickets:

http://softpalsclub.eventbrite.co.nz

Soft Pals Club: a gentle night of poetry and art Dear Soft Pals, we wish to warmly, gently, invite you to the Soft Pals Club Fundraiser: a gentle evening of poetry, art and possibly music.

Hey *cough* friends and *sniffle* familiars.

Alas, sickness is making the rounds and both myself and a couple of players have all found ourselves quite under the weather... 🤕🤧🤒

Weather which is, coincidentally, also a bit gross.

Sadly, we are going to have to postpone this evenings event until a later date (hopefully just a week or so).

I am having big feels about it, as I was really excited for this evening, but I know it will be better for everyone involved to wait until we're all feeling better.

Please keep your eye out for the event going back up soon!

Who do I know whose good at writing Grant Applications?

Who in Ōtautahi wants to play some boardgames at XCHC?

I need 3 more people to come playtest my CUTE AF game called The Happiest Rat (rat lovers ideal but not necessary).

Then keen to move into a gambling game which is kinda like poker with dice, working title of Snake Oil. I designed it to feel like the sort of gambling game they'd play in fantasy taverns. This can have far more players. I was thinking we could do a trivial amount of buy in (like 5 bucks each) but also not necessary.

I'm thinking 6-8pm ish for the rats games and the 8 til 11ish for Snake Oil.

Exciting news! After 48 hours of relentless drawing I’m almost finished the art for my new (and hecking adorable) board-game: “The Happiest Rat”, where you play as one six different pet rats, trying get the most pats and stash the most snacks.

If you’re already a rat lover like me, this will be the kind of game you HAVE to own. If you’re not, it’s still a hecking adorable and easy to learn game, and it might just make you a convert!

It’s sad how much of a bad rap rats get, when they are such smart, social and affectionate creatures, and I hope this game can help change that.

Check out these super cute pictures, drawn in collaboration with the incredibly talented Alice Maxwell (IG) who did most of the work for these character drawings.

Small history and science lesson? Most of the modern world owes its life directly or indirectly to medicines and treatments that were predominantly tested on… yep you guessed it rats. Even if they HAD caused the plague (they didn’t, it was fleas, which were equally carried by cats and dogs which arguably came into contact with humans even more than rats) and were responsible for all the dirt and disease they are often associated with, rats would have STILL have helped to save many millions more lives than they have ever ended. If anything, they deserve our humble thanks and gratitude, not our hate!

Alas, ever since the plague they have had a dark story told about them! It’s why (lazy) filmmakers put rats in the screen to tell you the setting is dirty or scary, and why children’s cartoons and books have had Mice as the ‘good guys’ and Rats as the ‘bad guys’ for hundreds of years.

Anyway, enough of the seriousness, look at the CUTENESS!!!

Another practice drawing made with the help of and his awesome tutorials. I seriously recommend following him.

It’s no masterpiece, but I’m glad to see the skills develop, and the tricks I’m learning to make what would have taken me countless hours a year ago take less than an hour now.

Sometimes you feel like a little beetle, in a big desert, and everything you meet is something that could eat you. Or maybe that’s just me. Too specific to be relatable?

I had 20 mins to kill so I thought I’d try a digital version of the doodles I used to draw between customers when working hospitality.

Pretty happy with how it turned out.

10 years ago today...

Time exposure photos with and .

It's weird. When you start a skill, you can't imagine what it will be like in a decade, and such a period of time feels like it will never come.

Trust me, it will come too fast.

Start now.

This past winter was not a happy one.

Seasonal depression can hit me really hard, and I had a lot of unprocessed grief that came to the foreground of my mind. I'm doing a million times better now, for which I am very grateful.

Unfortunately, I sometimes I find it very hard to reach out in any productive and meaningful way. I'm getting better at it, but it's a work in progress.

It can feel like being trapped inside, looking out through a rainy window, and all I can manage is to write a message on the foggy glass and hope someone sees it.

What I AM good at doing is channeling my sadness into creativity,and when nothing else seems to be going right, I can at least (hyper)focus my brain into learning new skills.

If my sadness is a seed planted by grief, then this drawing is one of the better fruits.

Inspired and helped by the lessons from the verrry talented

Someone at the party I went to last night had sneaky pikachu’s on there pants. Cue jokes about Sneak-a-chu the assassin, and the fact you don’t choose him, he chooses you. Today, I decided to turn him into a reality.

⚡

I have been getting really into drawing and digital art again for the last year. My strength (?) has always been more in heavy line art and comic book style and I have always been in AWE of realism and those who do it well (looking at you .musing ) but have never thought I could do it myself.

Last week, however, I decided that I would give it my best shot, and dedicated myself to trying to draw the inimitably beautiful

While I can obviously never do her justice, and while I could probably spend another year adding more and more details, and still not feel like it’s fully finished, I am about as proud of this as I’ve ever been of any drawing I have done.

Thanks Zöe for being so worth drawing, and to all my wonderful encouraging friends who help remind me I can do stuff when I put my mind to it.

‘Snow Spirit’ (Snowbody Knows) by me.

Inspired by the amazing