Clouds of smoke look like text bubbles, as two forever-long-distance friends speak to eachtoher. I love this metaphor for a long-distance relationship and how technology helps us connect even if there are mountains in between us.

Initially when I was sketching for this piece I was fascinated with the idea of portraying text bubbles where they don’t belong - in a message in a bottle - but then I noticed that they sort of looked like smoke clouds.

‘Message’ was the 23rd daily painting I completed for Peachtober 2023 - a daily drawing challenge I host each October. This piece was painted traditionally using acrylic ink, acrylic gouache and coloured pencil on cotton watercolour paper.