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Happy Holidays everyone, how's 2025 been for your? You're on the kohiu.com mailing list, so you're getting this email because you've signed up on my newsletters, basically. Similar to previous newsletters, you will get news of upcoming projects, roundup of artworks, and so on. This newsletters is also a space for me to recommend media, events, artists, and other cool projects that might be up to your radar!
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Since last year, I often get reached out by friends or private commissioners to order custom arts of their DnD party or so. In which I had to repeatedly decline because (group art IS hard!!!), finding an artist who draws group art is even harder! In which this year we finally took the initiative to find artists who would take TTRPG party commission order from you. Take a look at these lineups! You should commission then and remember to tip them as well♡

☽ BLANZE ☾

Blanze paints TTRPG characters and groups, especially in DnD and VtM. If I have specific preference for my campaign: either in anime style to semi realistic, these commissions are worth seeking out!

Blanze can be contacted via: vgen / bluesky​

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☽ LUNA VARGAS ☾

Luna Vargas (they/them) is a Picture Book Author-Illustrator and Character Designer. Stay notified on their commission page for the D&D / TTRPG Party commission for a limited time!

Luna can be contacted via: vgen / bluesky / email: fr.lunav@gmail.com

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☽ BLANKD ☾

I was first impressed with Blankd's demonstration of expressions that are often difficult to capture in visual arts, especially with high fantasy characters. 'Scene' commission type would be my recommendation for a full illustration of your party!

Blankd can be contacted via: bluesky / discord: blankd.art (blankd#0653)

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☽ OPHELIA ☾

Ophelia's vibrant art style is perfect for everything from playful characters scene to deeply emotional composition. Ophelia also offers group commission for TTRPG party!

Ophelia can be contacted via: vgen / bluesky​

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I hope you enjoyed this artist recommendation lineup! To be able to work with artists, and to work with the clients who love artists have been an incredible privilege for me personally. I hope we can collectively continue to indulge in commissioned arts, while also reject any shape, form or product of generative-AI altogether. We will do a different niche of commission artists list next time, we're happy to take more suggestions or personal recommendations!

It's the end of the year, and that means: Art Summary! I've gotten busy some months (so no arts at all) but I've managed to clean up a few old WIPs slowly after crunch period! This is the second year where I stopped drawing on the iPad entirely, for one of two reasons: (1) CLIP STUDIO PAINT Annual Subscription is way out of my budget now; (2) Screen tablet is nice, portable, can draw anywhere, but I do prefer my dual monitor setups way too much especially for design and comic works.

It makes sense that my colored illustrations are more linework focused rather than the rough painting style during my time using iPad. I cant say which one is my favorite, because with either setup (screen vs nonscreen) I still draw in the same slowpoke speed, it is what it is.

Art Highlights from April to December 2025

BOF4 !!! Published date: April 29rd, 2025.

I think it was like a week later that I learned GOG had ported Breath of Fire IV on PC. I had it wishlist right away and was looking forward to devote my time into it later... it is December now and I still haven't downloaded it yet! Ahh! I was anticipating to do a sketch dump of BOF4 fan arts too. Maybe I will *finally* play it next year.

「the prince in the basement」 FA. itchio link​

【Kan】 first comic I ever got to read from @miraongchua (TY for the RT!), I recently recommended it to my friend, describing it as “musical stageplay with tasteful analogy to genders using ❤️”, it’s 400+ pages so I’d put Sound Horizon in the background to read through it. Oh I also forgot to mention that I bought the book because of the boobie おっぱい大好き❤️

Published date: May 20th, 2025.

I think my caption at the time said it all! Boobs... I think what motivated me to buy and read the comic right away was because of the character Beloved (this is a popular opinion among readers), his first impression reminded me of my OC Toukun (桃薫), he's not at all princely but 桃薫 happened to fall into this category of 'cute, for manipulative reasons'. I'm very weak this these types, isn't what the oldheads called it 'deredere’/デレデレ?

ﾒｲﾄﾞ(?) . BGM: Puppeteer (feat. Sekihan) - EP. Published date: June 12th, 2025.

Meido in June, not much to comment, these are busy months. Utsu-P's PUPPETEER 2025 EP is fantastic though. This is how I learned that Sekihan was visiting my city this year as well!

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part of 2025 BP fan art log. Published date: July 26th, 2025.

Not much to comment! This was a WIP since last year, in which I finally got some time to clean it and complete my Blue Period fan art log that have been sitting around since early 2024.

“A woman turned into a stake will dominate the world on the blazing plate”, 🔥happy anniversary DOD🔥 Published date: September 11th, 2025.

Hi Furiae (in plural). As fans already recognized, this illustration was inspired from Ending B of Drag-on-Dragoon/Drakengard (2003), 22 years since!

Toukun and Sir Leyn (鹿の狩猟期間). I’ve put previous doodles and notes about this original BL project into a fanbox post. Enjoy! Published date: October 23rd, 2025.

I've already kept my ramble about this small project on my Fanbox, so to quote:

Short summary：Sir Leyn and Toukun (桃薫) were passengers in an interstellar ship; due to circumstances they've crashlanded into a planet that is in a region of infinite nuclear winter. In order to adapt to the planet and survive until they can meet their separated companions from the interstellar ship: they must form a cannibal cult.Even as their humanity continue to degrade withing the decades building a colony, the leaders of this cult continue to be denial of their cannibalistic rituals and call it's "deers hunting" (鹿の狩猟) instead of admitting that they've been feasting on humanoid meat.
I've had this story at the back of my mind for awhile (for my beloved 創作BL characters), however my original projects catalog has also grown infinite stage already so I'd be happy to leave this project here until I have the appropriate time and oppoturnity to pick up on it again.

No caption. Published date: November 9th, 2025.

I cleaned up a hecajun WIP since last year. I was hoping to finish my hecajun (especially Hecatia) tax at least by the end of 2025 (but no time!). I feel like I've been talking and yearning about Hecatia Lapislazuli incessantly in my private life that I never bothered to talk properly about my Touhou brainrot on my art front. "Oh, you didn't know? Hecatia Lapislazuli" that would be the first thing I'd uttered these days, no context given.

Today marks the 12th Anniversary of Drakengard 3. Published date: December, 19th, 2025.

Cent and Two! Completed this anniversary drawing in a rush because I'm always tired in December, come on. Onto next year!

As of 2025, we have extended KOHIU's commission service to VGEN as well. Give it a follow! ​vgen.co/kohiu​​

A little side note is that the commission price over Vgen will be charged 5% extra in compared to our regular commission on kohiu.com website, you can choose whichever most convenient for you!

Thank you @shonocondo for the invite code❤️Go check out their commissions as well!

Thanks Shin! My apologies that you've been looking forward to read Insect Course in 2025, as Shin already stated above, the publication of this comic is still on hold. However, you can still read it FOR FREE on my website in April 2026. Please look forward to our next newsletters once we get updates on convention schedule as well ヽ(*゜∀゜*)ノ In meantime you can read my EVA fancomic from last year, for free!

Artist alley: Color Fiesta 16, Vietnam. 4-5th, April 2026.

Considering that next year theme is going to have a traditional Viet folklore theme, do I get to cosplay as Cám Chăm Chỉ again like in 2024. If you happened to be the 1% of people in HCMC that follow my arts, hi! Please come by.

What to expect at KOHIU's table:

Original Artworks: Postcards to A3 prints.
Books: Evangelion fancomic, and 'Insect Course' Comic ('Côn Trùng Thực').

If you're a Hecatia Lapislazuli fan just announce yourself at the table and I may have something for you as a commemorative gift...!

The rest of my 2026 plans? I should at least try to get some of my fanbox compilation done, make progress on longer projects, and actually take a vacation instead of bed rotting. All the things that keep us alive for, don't they.

Health Update! In actually, I've had terrible inflammation in my left knee since since last year and I just sort of ignored it until recently. Probably asian brain thing but I just toughed it out until everyone started asking why I'm walking with a limp (bad), so I've been seriously trying to rest my knee properly while working on physical therapy for several months now! Did you know walking barefoot at home is actually good for your knees? Please do that from now on. I'm positive that I'd be in full recovery next year that I can FINALLY take long trips again, I miss hiking so much!

I did not get any media hyperfixation but I did get to play some games that have been on my to-play list since forever. Let's start with

Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen (PS4)​
I finished the first half of the "real" story in which (I think) I got hit with a surprise romance ending that felt like a prank to me that I went to bed angry and then started the next day with NG+. Yes, that's a running sentence, the gameplay was ABSOLUTELY a blast though, I like having my Arisen to play melee classes, and especially Assassin class so I could fully utilize the experience of mounting a kaiju and does a stabby stabby. Meanwhile I play dress up with my main pawn, making him wear all kinds of shorts shorts and knee high boots, very adorable. Hopefully I get to pick up continue where I left off with the story, it was the kind of campy Capcom thing where you Cannot take anything seriously but can only get the best experience if you played along with their humor. Who else have tried throwing their compulsory love interests into the ocean yet? (I did).

13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim (PS4)​
The 2023 well-beloved visual novel slash RPG everyone around me was hyping up to. The visuals are ABSOLUTELY beautiful, in combination with incredible sound design, music and voice acting that reminded me of how much I've always enjoyed JRPGs. I came in with an expectation of extremely convoluted time travel SF but it was more than that... 13Sen is about bonds, humanity's unyielding desire to preserve that bond thorough history and evolution milestones. I definitely have my nitpicks with the way the dialogues were carried via floating text which made the game felt too slow to process. There were characters I were particularly interested it but they were glossed over quickly by near end-game. I think with most visual novels I got to play nowadays, I just got a sense of lethargy once I've 100% with it (I think I'm just Bad gamer now). I'd like to replay it at some point and see if my opinion changes over time!

Rune Factory: Guardian of Azuma (PC)​
I've been a long-time fan of Harvest Moon / Story of Seasons / Rune Factory fan and I have very strong opinion of each installments and spinoffs game ever game out the franchise. While I absolutely admire their take on having a traditional Japanese universe this time (also! surprise crossover with RF5 with Hina), Guardian of Azuma (龍の国) is definitely NOT your farm simulation game. It was more story focused, characters focused, and SO much dating simulator implemented in it that reminded me of how I just couldn't finished Fire Emblem: Fates back in 2016. I miss 岩崎美奈子せんせい's art style for their 2D sprites... I think Marvelous should just stick to their robot video games. Speaking of, I should get into their latest(?) Daemon X Machina at some point! My favorite Drakengard character artist got to work on it, so ＼( ͡° ͜/// ͡°)／
Right, I haven't uploaded this anywhere (I still NEED to finish my Rune Factory rkgk log since 2023), here's my complimentary Rune Factory fan art.

Lesson (PC)​
It's BL! I got to play a BLVN this year! If counting 13Sen it's two BL games (depends on whom you ask). I've been a fan of Parade since their first installment, I was so surprised they took a more 'bromance' approach for their latest two games... I think gameplay-wise is only 9-hours long if you get to skip all the H-scenes (it's too much! it's a lot! so many wet noises!). It's not a recommendation for everyone, but Lesson's story is something that is worth exploring: who are we (as an individual, as a societal fabric, and as an entire system) that get to influence, decide, and direct definitive judgements. What Parade's MCs have in common is that they've all been subject to their own verdict since birth. Even though BLVN is supposedly a subversive genre of fiction, there's a level of 'misery conformity' that I've come to grown out of over the years. I think Lesson's final ending was good to break out of that cycle, however I'm still in between two-minds whether such 'good' ending was earned.
Maybe you should play for yourself once Mangagamer gets to localize it again into English, then come and argue with me! Let's debate BL...!

I still played more games than I thought! The rest of the year is just having Dimension 20 playing in the background, I guess I am a full-pledged Dropout subscriber now. Imagine whoever does the accounting at Dropout and seeing random VND yearly transfer from one (1) Vietnamese they/them weirdo.

That's the newsletters. Thank you for reading my incredibly disorganized writings, I can't believe 2025 is finally over. I hope this has been a good distraction (or entertainment) from whatever you've been doing all this time!

As always, you can support me via Fanbox, or Ko-fi. or order a ​Commission from me.

If you'd have any further discussion related to the newsletter, you can reply directly to this newsletter email.​
Thank you for being a part of KOHIU.COM newsletters.

Talk to you all more, in 2026! The year of Horse.

ー Kan Pham (KOHIU)

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