Thursday Art Walk 319

In Which I Experiment More With Paint.Net

So a few things:

1. Today is very gray and grody. Ech. Not my cuppa...
2. Coffee tastes great
3. The Monoprice For Kids tablet I have is not compatible with the software and computer I'm using, so I 'm in the market for an inexpensive tablet. I may have found one, but I'll look up more reviews...
4. I think I kinda like playing with layers and transparency in Paint.net
5. I like dinosaurs.

So without further ado, allow me to show you the fruits of my stupid labor: Dinorar

Dinorar base sketch; digital; 2020

Dinorar progress; digital; 2020

Dinorar!; digital; 2020

Yes, his toes are a bit messed up, and yes, you can still see the sketch layer, but... I'm kinda okay with that. Worst comes to it, I'll just go erase that layer lol!

But yeah, that was done 100% with a mouse! If I'm that okay with mouse only, I think I'll be able to do even better once I get a functioning drawing tablet.

What do you guys think? As far as very early digital attempts go, how is it?

Go Enjoy Something!
FC

Talk About Tuesday 318?

In Which I Blather

It's been a heck of a month, guys.

It's both flown past and stuck around way too long.

The less said about how much this all sucks the better. You all know it sucks. You're living it, too.

Small consolation.

Still, I've been making progress in my artistic endeavors.

• I'm learning digital art (finally). I suck, but you have to be bad at something in order to get good.
• I'm making good progress on my book!
• I'm learning how to exercise without hurting myself.
• I'm learning new ways to play Breath of the Wild.
• I'm trying to figure out how to stream when all I have is a fairly... meh laptop.
• I learned how to use watch2gether
• I'm relistening to The Legacy Music Hour, my favorite podcast!

On the other hand...

• I'm losing track of what day of the week is what
• I'm bored out of my mind half the time and stressed out of my mind all of the time
• my sleep schedule is literally dead
• I don't like sucking at things before I get good at them so it can be hard to keep my spirits up
• I've started way more crochet projects than I'd care to admit...
• I haven't cleaned my room yet. I should clean my room.
• At least my hygiene hasn't slipped. Yet.

So yeah, it's kind of a bummer Tuesday. I woke up to snow (SNOW IN APRIL WTH), it's cloudy and bleh outside, and I just want things to go back to normal.

Which isn't happening just yet. I know I have to be patient. The more patient I am, the easier it will go.

I'll be restarting daily updates in May, guys - possibly with a new look if things pan out.

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Thursday Art Walk 318

In Which I have Finally Tried DIGITAL ART

It's only been... decades since I first learned about digital art, but with very few exceptions, my art has always been 100% plain and unedited. I'm finally learning how to use paint.net, and... well... I finished the art and scanned it at noon EST if that's any indication of how it's going. I can't figure out shading. I suck at making things look the way they should. I don't understand layers. It took me over 3 hours to figure out what the cloning tool did and how to use it.

I don't like learning new things because I hate to feel like a moron while I'm learning.

It's fine when it's just facts - learning facts is easy. You take in a fact and it's yours forever until the ticking timebomb of an information blackhole hiding in your brain takes it and hides it from you.

But skills? Skills are hard. You aren't going to succeed the first time you try, most of the time, and the fear of rejection, of being made fun of for not being good at something, is ever-present.

So here's my first ever foray into digital art using a hand-drawn image as a base:

The Image, slightly cleaned up

The Image, slightly cleaner and with more (flat) colors!

"The Bomb In Buddha's Lap"; Sharpie and Digital; 2020

The Bomb In Buddha's Lap is another song from J Robert Lennon's Pieces for the Left Hand, a short story collection as well as a really cool album. If you're looking for something to read or listen to, I strongly suggest seeking it out.

That's it for me today. I'm art-adventured out lol.

Go Enjoy Something! (Maybe even learn a new skill?)
FC

Talk About Tuesday 318

In Which I Still Exist

So far today has been very short. I have only been up since 11AM (hence why this is an afternoon blog), and I don't really know what I'm gonna do today. Here's what my week has been like:

• Part 2 of my novel is now 3100+ words long (which is nice, but I have so much more to say, and I can't wait to say it!!!)
• I have had 2 kinds of Japanese noodles this week: The black garlic tonkotsu I bought and one of the tasty Mustard-Mayo Yakisoba packs I bought. I'd link to them, but because they're imports, they're super expensive right now. If you're eager for some tasty noodz, I'd suggest trawling the internets all over the place. I found mine on Amazon, but you might have better luck on ebay or somewhere else like SugoiMart or something. Go nuts, guys ;)
• Played a bunch of Breath of the Wild and had to remind myself that now that I'm on Master Mode, I have Majora's Mask and can just... walk past all the bad guys and steal their weapons. Which I do. A lot.
• Helped my mother find recipes for peanut chicken and chicken satay because she's craving it, but refuses to actually buy some from a local restaurant... because I don't know why. It's a great restaurant, and if I had a car, I'd have bought a bunch of Thai food by now (they're doing pickup/curbside only). I miss pad thai and their orange chicken and... oof. I am craving the good noms lol
• Speaking of good noms (again), I ordered a delicious pizza the other day - light bbq sauce, bacon, red peppers. Delicious. 10/10. Do recommend. Bought it with some Cherry Coke and some bbq bacon chicken bites. Yus. Might order it again in a bit.
• Ew. It's pouring. That damp is just gonna make our mushroom problem worse.
• Speaking of mushrooms...
• Any amateur or professional mycologists out here?

Because we're having a mushroom problem

Seriously, they're just... popping out of the plant pots in my kitchen!

I should add that we do not cook with mushrooms here bc my dad hates them.

I don't even know if they're all the same kind of mushroom

All I know is that they are growing in both the pot with the Sea Holly and the planter with the cat grass. I'm asking about the shrooms because I'm trying to make sure we aren't endangering the kitty. I know that cat's usually don't deal well with mushrooms, and I'm also apparently quite sensitive to the spores, but if they're not deadly, I won't have to panic-pluck them every stinkin day.

Right. That'll about do it for me today, guys! Stay inside if you can, gear up if you must be outside, and stay as safe as you're able.

Go Enjoy Something (from the comfort of your home, hopefully)!
FC

Thursday Art Walk 317

In which I made food art and have some updates for y'all

I ordered a pizza today, and in honor of this momentous occasion, I have made an art:

"Pizza Time"; Sharpie on legal size printer paper; 2020

But pizza isn't all that's on my mind today, because yesterday was a nightmare for a shocking amount of wrestlers and other employees of the WWE. Essentially, a bunch of really cool people (Hurricane, Fit Finlay, RUSEV, Karl Anderson and Luke Gallows...) were axed with little fanfare via text message. All this as Vince McMahon is now one of the most powerful business men in America. Disgusting as all this is, I think the news that hit me the hardest hit today: We have lost Howard Finkel.

Finkel was one of the best announcers to ever grace the squared circle, and if you don't know who he is, I strongly suggest looking up videos of him. I guess there's one hell of a PPV going on in the afterlife because it feels like all the coolest guys are gone now. Mean Gene, Howard Finkel, Bobby Heenan... it's been a rough several years.

There's no word on a cause of death, and Finkel was only 69 years old.

What a bummer of a day.

I hope the rest of today goes well for all of you.
I hope you have good food and aren't too lonely.

I love you all.

Go Enjoy Something!
FC

Fiber Monday 317

In Which I Have Had A WEEK

So. It's been a while since I've said hello. This post is going up way later than I meant it to, and boy do I have a lot to talk about lol.

1) I got an early birthday present from my awesome partner:

This is my Starry Tato mug!

Since the Quarantine started we've been a little worried about how May will work - hopefully we'll be allowed to get together after the 30th, but with how bad this illness is and how quickly it spreads, it's better to be safe than sorry. Since my Birthday is in the 2nd week of next month, my partner decided to send my gift early :)

The mug is, of course, based on Starry Night by Van Gogh, but the bunny is @worriedpotato, an Instagram-famous bunny we both follow and love. Fitting, since my childhood stuffed bunny, Benji, is currently guarding my partner's noodles :)

I love the mug, and after letting it rest for a few days, I washed it up this morning and had my coffee in it.

Here is the problem.

You may be able to see from that photo that said mug of coffee is precariously perched on the side of my desk. I went to pick it up and on the turn to get it to my mouth, I just... let go for some reason. I'm pretty sure it had something to do with the weird fruit fly that got into my room...

Regardless, coffee everywhere. Thankfully I use a pillowtop mattress pad to boost my bed's comfort level (the mattress suuuuuuuuucks), so that and the fitted sheet caught 90% of the coffee.

That left the other 10% to soak into my butt and my pillow.

Ugh. Not a happy morning lol.

But I grumbled and gave out and tore the sheets off of my bed and threw them in the wash. For the second time in 2 days. Because yesterday was Sheet Washing Day.

*sigh*

Anyway, I decided I'd get some work done on my crochet projects this week:

This is actually a very dark red crochet thread, not pink!

That's another delightful little headscarf I'm working on there, and it's maybe 95% done!

I swear, the photo flipped itself :(

This dragonfly headscarf is probably 50% done :) I like the pattern, but it can be a real bear!

And finally, this is my Lady Sibyl shrug... I promise there's been a little progress.

Sadly, Lady Sibyl has been largely neglected. I will be working on her more, today, but aside from that, I think I'll mostly just be watching a guy struggle to beat Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas on Chaos-Mode lol.

Here's what else I've been up to:

• I made a cooking video yesterday, so if you missed it then, here it is now lol.
• The banana bread was baked on Friday or Saturday, I believe
• Unfortunately, yesterday was kinda crappy, despite being Easter
• I didn't realize that my dad needed a shower in the morning so I took one - instant heat with the old man
• Repeatedly in everyone's way no matter what
• Every time I went downstairs I got more anxious
• Nearly had a panic attack at dinner
• Dinner was very delicious, though, and hanging out with my partner in our chat made the whole day worth it
• I didn't qualify for the stimulus cash. Ah well. I'll just apply for more grants.
• I did succeed in selling a computer last week, so that was cool too
• I received a pack of 5 bricks of black garlic oil tonkotsu ramen!
• I ordered a 12 pack of mustard mayo yakisoba that shipped today
• I played more Pick Crafter, Coloring Pixels, and Merge Magic
• I read a little
• I worked on my novel a bit more :)

All in all, this has been a productive week, and I hope next week is even more productive with hopefully far less strife in my family.

If I go completely silent online, guys, don't get too alarmed, but please understand that my area is currently being hit with a pretty massive storm - heavy rain and winds up to 65mph (105kph)! Scary stuff, especially considering the tall trees lined up neatly with my windows...

Stay safe out there, guys.

Stay inside if you can, and cover your face if you can't.

We'll get through together, apart.

Love you all.

Go Enjoy Something,

FC

Thursday Art Walk 316

In Which I Did Another Experiment And There Were Birds

Today is gross. It's in the low 40s (that's in the 4.4-7.2 range for you Celsius folks), it's windy, it's somewhere between a drizzle and proper rain. This didn't discourage the local wildlife, however, since not only were my neighbor's chickens outside (which might be a bad thing as you'll see in a moment), but we've had ducks, cardinals, chickadees, goldfinches, and more songbirds in general today than I've ever seen before a wet spell.

As any wildlife biologist or naturalist can tell you, wherever there is a high concentration of prey animals, you're sure to find predators, and while cats aren't too uncommon around here, they're not the top dog, so to speak.

That honor goes to the birds of prey we have hovering around. During the summer, the chirping cries of the osprey are so common as to be background noise. I saw a bald eagle last week, wheeling near one of the neighboring churches. I see turkey vultures at least once a week, soaring on the thermals from the slowly rotting dump nearby. Sometimes, if I'm walking at night (or if they're being inconsiderate creepers outside at 3AM), I'll encounter an owl - usually a barred owl.

But by far, my favorite birds of prey are the hawks and falcons who sometimes make an appearance, culling the overabundant pigeon flocks with impunity. Often, the crows or ravens will bully our hawks, eagles, and owls (one owl even met a grisly end due to being harried at all hours for several days - they're called a murder of crows for a reason!), but today, one of the larger hawks paid us a visit:

He's on that low branch - see him?

He hung out for a bit, then swooped towards me and vanished.

So that was my morning - coffee and birds. Kinda normal, eh?

But what art do I have to offer you?

First, the lineart of my tubby boi, Dedbert, rockin' that Self-Isolation body...

I've been testing out a new art style - intersecting lines with cross-hatching in different colors, and today, I decided to experiment with that.

"Line Frequency Experiment 1"; sharpie and graphite on legal size printer paper; 2020

I'm not particularly happy with how this experiment turned out - namely because I lost track of which lines were which!!! I just wish it was easier to keep track of :( Still, part of the problem is that I'm not going big enough with my points between lines - if I could increase the distance between lines intersecting, then I could really get some good stuff done, I think.

I'll continue to experiment :)

***

NOVEL UPDATE:

I am continuing the work, but since the last update, I've only written maybe 50 words. I'll do more work tonight and onwards.

***

Here's what I did today:

• Coffee and banana bread for breakfast - it came out great
• Observed Hawk
• Turkey and cheddar sandwich
• received package: five-pack of black garlic oil tonkatsu ramen (excited about this)
• cleaned up cat vomit (not excited about that)
• Did That Art (exciting!)
• sent a PC off to a new home (also excited for this)
• wrote a blog post
• got into argument with cat over whether or not the ramen is a suitable spot to lounge. She is for it. I am against.
• Cat has adjourned to stovetop. Thankfully stove is not in use.
• Now I'm finishing this post :P

Thanks for sticking with me guys.

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Talk About Tuesday 316

In Which I Blather About My Day/Week

Today is a fairly nice day - the sun is peeking out from behind puffy clouds, the stiff breeze keeps the bugs down, the birds are going bonkers outside, it's somewhere in the upper 40s/lower 50s (between 8.5 and 13℃), one of my neighbors keeps driving his crappy truck that sounds like a mail truck around for some reason, and I am grumpily awaiting ramen that might not arrive until sometime around the 28th...

Still, that means I won't be eating all of that Tonkotsu ramen by myself...

Regardless, here's what I've done so far today:

• I drank some coffee
• I tried to convince my cat that I was not a pincushion
• I got into a lively argument with said cat about whether or not she liked spaghetti
• It turned out that she thought my spaghetti leftovers were the source of the fishy smell. The spaghetti was not the source. That was my mother's lunch - fishsticks being cooked in the toaster oven.
• I had a second cup of coffee
• I crocheted some dragonflies into a headscarf I'm working on.
• I ripped out three rows from said headscarf because I'd botched two of them - neither of which was the row I'd been working on at the time >:(
• I was so annoyed by this that I did 25 assisted pushups and 12 squats.

I'm a bit tired today because I stayed up pretty late watching videos with my partner on watch2gether, a website that lets you share videos with a person or people! Say you want to watch a YouTube video with your best friend, but they live in Colorado. You go to the watch2gether website, open a room (which is super easy), and then you copy/paste the link for the YouTube vid you want to watch with your friend into the search bar in the Room. Click your video, pause it, and add your friend to the room. They'll be able to chat, video chat, interact with the video (play, pause, etc), change the background color, etc. You'll be able to do the same.

Once your video is done, maybe they want to show you a video from Dailymotion or something - they can! All they have to do is copy/paste the link to that video into the search bar et voila, you have another video to watch together.

Each room only lasts 24 hours, so you'll probably have to open up a new room every time you want to watch stuff with your friend(s), but I don't believe there's much of a limit to the number of people you can invite! There's all kinds of websites you can share from, too, and that selection increases incredibly if you download the plugin for Chrome. So go try it - it's a blast.

It also didn't pay me for this (I'm always very upfront if there's money involved - I like bragging about getting paid), so you know this is just an excited person blathering about something they're happy to know about.

A huge thank you goes out to Wolf Friendo and Llama Friendo, who told me about the website.

***

NOVEL UPDATE: I've written 859 words since April 1. Half of those were last night lol.

***

As for the coming week, here are my plans:

• I'll probably be watching a lot of stuff with my partner this week as a way to stay connected (and yeah, I'm really glad that video chat and watch2gether exist!!!)
• Thursday should include some Art from moi, but we'll see.
• I hope to have another 850+ words done by next Tuesday, so keep an eye out for that ;)
• I'll try and keep myself honest about physical activity, too. Hopefully I can get more pushups and squats done from here on out :|
• Gonna try to do more crochet this week, including disassembling the rat's nest my poor stash has become. It's seriously a wreck, and I am ashamed :(

I'm pretty pleased with the work I've done so far. I look forward to doing even more work, and I hope to have part 2 of the novel finished by May :)

How are your guys' projects going?

Are you keeping yourselves fed and clean? If that's all you can do right now, then that's fine, guys. I'd rather you guys be alive than be stressed out trying to finish a project. If you're reading this, that means you're alive, and that makes me happy. See? You've already pleased one person - you're alive and that's what counts.

I love you all.

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Fiber Monday 315

In Which I tell you about my day:

Today I:

• Wrote 400 words of my novel (so far)
• Read over someone else's work (it was really good!)
• Worked on the bottom of a shopping bag with a 4.5mm hook and some hemp cord I've had laying around for years.
• Discovered that I am, in fact, likely allergic to hemp (sneezing, eyes watery and itchy)
• Have not gotten dressed

I haven't worked on the Lady Sibyl, but I probably will this week.

I also haven't finished either of my headscarves and hope to this week.

I'll be back tomorrow for a more robust life update for y'all ;)

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Thursday Art Walk 315: Indoors Edition

In Which It's Very Wet Out...

The order has finally come down. Everyone in my state has been ordered to stay at home unless working or buying groceries/necessities. This sucks, because I won't be seeing my partner face-to-face for a while, which is going to be emotionally hard on both of us. Thankfully there are such things as phones and video chats, because otherwise, I'd be a miserable puddle of mush.

This also means that I suddenly have a lot of time for artistic experimentation on my hands (as do many of us, if we're non-essentials...)

So today, I decided to try something new. I did my usual coordinates like I do for bubble art, but instead of circles, I made lines!!!

Observe, lines with more lines in between!

Then I took each color for a section (so blue, magenta, and purple for one section, but blue/purple/yellow for another) and sketched in the empty spaces with hash marks!

"Indoors"; Sharpie on printer paper; 2020

I think I might start doing a bunch of weird, experimental stuff on Thursdays, so keep an eye out for more strange imagery!

Right now, though, I'm going to let my body recover from all these permanent marker fumes and relax with a cup of coffee. I'll probably watch some PushingUpRoses on YouTube and possibly even some old LGR coverage of SIMS games...

Go Enjoy Something
Preferably from the comfort of your own home

FC