Small Indulgences is an exhibition that invited young artists to free themselves from the expectations of social media and express their true heart’s desires.
In this day and age, it’s never been easier to connect with others from around the world. Thats especially true for artists where they are able to reach a wider audience with just the click of a button. However, it’s also easy for artists to fall for the algorithm by obsessing over likes and followers instead of purely sharing art for fun.
For many, art is a great way to express one’s identity but as you get older, you start getting conscious of how others perceive you. Social media only amplifies this and encourages artists to suppress themselves in order to stay relevant and attract engagement.
This exhibition gives young local artists the opportunity to display their art outside social media and bring out the same passion from when they were once a child. Not having to worry about what others think or how many likes it will receive; artists are able to follow their passion which breeds in more joy and creativity.
Small indulgences showcases the strong creative passion of young people in the Darwin community and fully embraces the artworks which might not otherwise deemed fit for the digital space.
Reject conformity and embrace cringe!
The Small Indulgences exhibition was curated by Ifa Shiddiq and hosted by Casuarina Library as part of Geektacular 2025.
Alekna Worden
Procreate
In middle school I fell in love with Japanese media like the ones most people love and celebrate today – such as Anime, Manga and Japanese music. Along with this I discovered the Vocaloid ‘Hatsune Miku’, an anime style 3d rendered musical character made with a new type of music software at the time. She is a beloved character in Japan, having her own rhythm games based around her, fanart and even her own concerts. However, unlike the current times where it seems that everyone at least has seen or enjoyed some form of Japanese Media, it wasn’t so popular to like anything of that sort back in middle school 2015. I was taunted and laughed at for liking Anime, for drawing in the style that I do, and even for studying Japanese. At my lowest I even stopped all those activities for a year. But as they gained more mainstream popularity and people started liking my art or asking for suggestions on shows, I realised how important it is to always march to your own rhythm and not let what other people say affect your life and decisions, because they don’t understand what’s best for you, you do.
@letrotr and @KaosKaos
Angelina Ivers
Procreate
It was inspired by the anime Evangelion, I drew this piece for my year 12 design class.
@angie0h7
Josephine Gabor
MediBang Paint, Apple Pencil
Hello, I’m Josephine! This artwork is a redraw from the thumbnail of an object show called ‘Animatic Battle’, I have a big interest to it, and I always draw it. The episode is the second one of season 2, instead of drawing objects it’s humans!
Anyone interested in this should watch Animatic Battle! I highly recommend it if you like competition shows. Others I would recommend are BFDI and many more!!
@enbyeucerinfan
Ariel Racines
Clip Studio
The subjects in the image depicts a friendship between the personifications ‘Iceland’ and ‘Philippines’. I was inspired to draw this after recently reading one of the official manga strips by Hidekazu Himaruya that illustrates an unexpected friendship between the two countries whose personalities juxtapose greatly from one another. Iceland being the ‘cooler’ one between the two, and Philippines as bight and vivacious as the country and people itself.
This piece was created as an homage to my old love for a franchise known as Hetalia. Though I am no longer an avid fan of the series, I still hold much nostalgia over it. I made this a means to ‘indulge’ myself in the profound adoration I had and rekindle the spark for the show that had been the genesis in my love for character design and world building.
@aju.iice
Belva Syahda
Digital illustration
The artwork displays the MC and Sylus from the game Love and Deepspace. Recently an event featuring Sylus debuted and I realised it was time for me to undo my year-long artblock by drawing these two given my current enjoyment of the game. So, I picked up my pen after god knows how long and started hacking at my drawing tablet, lo and behold in the span of a week I managed to fully finish my first ever illustration. The game itself is more of a big indulgence, if I’m being honest, but it gave me a reason to create something where I would otherwise be too lazy to achieve if it wasn’t a factor.
@bell_vallens
Bethany O’Shea
Procreate
Hetalia fanart is my biggest art guilty pleasures. It’s always a fun fandom that I get sucked back into no matter how old I get, and unfortunately I ship USUK ;w; Thankfully I’ve married someone who loves it as much as I do so a lot of comfort I get from drawing them comes from drawing USUK as gifts for my wife, and this one in particular is inspired by the Hetalia Cardverse AU.
@cordial_draws
Isabelle Henderson
Pencil
I watched this show from 2004 called “Noah & Saskia”, and it was surprisingly really enjoyable?? The way that they chose to have different versions of each character based on where we view the conversation from (London, Australia, or WebWeave Chatroom) was really creative and I like it a lot. Looking online there is one other piece of fanart for it and I’m pretty sure this was made with the intent of “teaching kids about CYBERSAFETY and THE WEB” because the only other stuff I can seem to find about it are like… curriculum guides… – but honestly? They handle the topic really well and it’s still a fun watch as a standalone series.
If you enjoy stories about internet friendship (*cough* Homestuck *cough*) and can make it through cartoonish levels of sexism- the dynamic and development of the main two characters is totally worth it.
Also, Benny. Benny is hilarious.
@dippity_
Charlotte Chen
Ink pen, artbook, iPad Pro, Procreate
This is a collage of the art and sketches I’ve done during the free time I’ve had while studying Animation.
On the top left is a reference sheet of my main trio I have drawn recently.
The sketches in the middle consists of design, clothing ideas, or doodles I did for fun.
On the right are some panels I’ve drawn for my passion project webcomic Ghellios; I haven’t been able to work on it as much since I’ve started focusing on Animation more.
All the characters on this page are my Original Characters.
@chen_therice
Maureen
Digital Art, Autodesk SketchBook
I have always been a fan of cartoons since I was a kid, I have dreams to make my very own cartoon and came up with the idea, “The Loonheads”. They are a group of characters who all live in the same apartment complex and get into wacky high jinks. I came up with the idea for the characters sometime during high school, my influences for these characters was an old comic on Instagram (now deleted) called polygoons, friends the sitcom and the style of story time animation creators such as Jaiden Animations and Theodd1sout. I started off by sketching out what I wanted on to the screen, putting the library in a separate layer, adding colour and making some minor changes to the image.
I hope to one day be able to make The Loonheads into a cartoon.
@_thenenden_ 
Milo
Digital
I LOVE ATSUSHI AND LUCY SM OMG<3
@milos_big_brain
Taya Prichard
Digital, Procreate
I am not the most comfortable with posting intimate character and haven’t really drawn anything like this before, but I’m trying new things. This comic follows the love that Ezra and Jupiter have for each other and how much they appreciate one another. Showing the different moments, feelings and words they share for one another. I created these characters in a Design class last year in high school, they are based off me and my identity, reflective of the LGBTQIA+ community and some of my physical characteristics. Both characters have a colour associated with them, Ezra’s being pink and Jupiter’s being purple, they swap colours to demonstrate their love and connection. Any comic I create with these two will have a space theme since Jupiter is named after a planet and has always had a connection with space and I have always loved when comics have a thing that guides you on how to read it, so I’ve added the star trail. Since these character’s originated in a Design class, I had to find models for my first comic, so I used my two good friends.
@taya.elise2005
Skye Lavelle
iPad (Procreate)
Meet Nanami the Fairy Type trainer! I love Fairy Pokémon and wanted to create my own OC inspired by Y2K fashion. Nanami is dressed in playful colours and loves all things sweet and cute, even if they might seem childish to others! Accompanied by her best friend, Mimikyu (my favourite Pokémon!), she loves meeting new people and sharing her love for cute things!
@_.mayushii._
Samantha Oldroyd
Procreate
I made this as a part of a drawing challenge that includes drawing and posting every day in November. This piece took me only 4 hours in total and is one of my favourites I’ve ever made! The subject of this artwork is an original character of mine, her name is Eleonora and she has a long and complicated story that I won’t bore you with heh.. (just kidding you wouldn’t be bored at all cause it’s a great story very exciting) but I will say she’s not usually so sad and brooding as she is in this piece 🙂
@Spamfriedrice_art
Amelia Daroch
Pencil
‘Springle Time’ is a funny little illustration I came up with one evening trying to detox from work (my preferred time to get creative). When I was younger, I loved watching anime and used to get a lot of my drawing inspiration from different tv shows and manga. One anime that is still engraved in my mind from years ago is ‘Made in Abyss’. I think I only watched a few episodes, but I still remember the unique art style and how the creatures looked, which is what this artwork is based on. I find it easier to draw more unconventional, unsettling illustrations as it’s so fun creating random creatures and characters that don’t need to make sense.
I am typically very shy showing people my artwork outside of mum and dad, but there’s something about Springle Time that I would love to showcase.
@ameliadaroch