Thursday Art Walk

 

In Which Today's Art is Scanned!

Today I have a couple of paintings to share with y'all. One, I completed while still cat-sitting, the other, I finished this morning.

"At the Dam"; watercolor pencil on sketch; 2023
[Animal, Location, Vegetable]

This picture was based off of a view Z and I had when we went down to the dam near the apartment we were watching for my sister. We sat and watched a bald eagle and several turkey vultures soaring over a dammed river with lots of rocks in the water. There was a small rocky island that the birds kept flying over, and while what I've painted here doesn't really look like what we saw, it's close enough to give the feel. The small gray bird to the right of the tree is a mockingbird that was flashing its wing patches at us as it flitted around the area.

"Cocoa"; watercolor on paper; 2023
[Food]

Hmm... should I add Food as a Request Category like the others (Animal, Vegetable, Mineral, Dedbert, Location, Geometric)?

I had a lot of fun drawing this, though I really need to pay more attention to shading. I Am very pleased with how the first painting looks, though. I turned the brightness down to about -30 and scanned it at 600dpi instead of 1200dpi. Since I scanned "Cocoa" first, it didn't get the brightness lowered, and I should have paid more attention to the cropping.

Regardless, I should do more paintings, and I'm still working on a digital piece that has... a lot of colors. I'm planning on doing some weird stuff to it lol!

If you'd like a say in what I draw or paint, week to week, you can send me a coffee donation over on Ko-Fi with a message telling me which category you'd like to see (Animal, Vegetable, Mineral, Dedbert, Location, Geometric, Food) and I'll draw or paint something that fits that category for the next Thursday!

I've also started taking commissions, if you'd be interested in that route, and I also have a Threadless Store! You may also see an Amazon Wishlist on the sidebar, which contains a bunch of random stuff that I would use for the blog.

That does it for the shameless self-promotion for this week, so I'll just head on out and get a little snack before working on more art!

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Talk About Tuesday

 

In Which I Speak On The Week

Let's talk about what I've been up to since last Tuesday, shall we? I have done some crochet (as seen yesterday), and I have sketched a bit, and I've written so much! But I've also had a few fun little experiences.

Firstly, everyone survived the Polar Plunge as I'll call it. Yes, there are places that routinely get down to around -63℉/-52,8℃ with windchill, but this isn't one of those places. This place tends to stay around 10 to 25℉/-12,2 to -3,9℃ in February. Somehow no one in my county even suffered a cold-related injury! I'm very, very happy about that. Of course, that's not to say there won't be tragedies discovered later on in the quiet, tucked-away places that our unhoused population feel safest in, but for now, we don't seem to have lost anyone. I am unbelievably grateful for that.

No pipes burst, no windows broke, no cars failed to start. We were fortunate. Yes, the top step of our deck's stairs came off, but honestly? That deck's been rotting for years. I'm surprised it took that long.

Regardless, the weather was abysmal. And then yesterday got up to 41℉/5℃. And today was back down to about 25℉/-3,9℃. Yoyo weather.

Now that I've told you the weather, here's some storytime:

On Friday, which was the a bitter cold day hovering around -28℉/-33,3℃ with windchill, my boyfriend and I were hanging out in my parents' kitchen, enjoying some delicious brie and coffee when I saw something under the bird feeders. Something small was wriggling around and suddenly I realized it was a mouse!

Pretty much the second I pointed the mouse out to my mom and my boyfriend, a crow hopped down and...

Brutally killed the mouse.

Plucked it up into its beak and thrashed it around until it was limp.

And then ate it.

Nature! Nothing like it!

So guess what I'm drawing for Thursday...

I won't be graphic, don't worry.

Still, that was the most metal thing I've seen in a while. Our hawk hasn't been around to cull pigeons and doves, after all.

Death aside, I mentioned that I'm still writing!

I did miss a day or two of writing, including one day where I only got seven words down (ouch), but because I was on such a roll today, I still made my week's goal! This week, I wrote 1347 words! Guess how many I wrote today? No seriously, guess.

Okay did you guess over 100? Because you'd be right.

I wrote 948 words today.

Nine hundred forty eight!

That's over an entire week's expected wordcount!

More than that - I wrote an entire chapter in one sitting!!!

So that's the high I'm riding tonight!

And hopefully that will carry me through the sketching portion of my evening. I missed a sketch yesterday because I kept interrupting myself lol.

I may not be posting on time for the next couple of weeks, however, because I'll be helping some friends out on Mondays & Tuesdays. If I am overly distracted on those days, I'll try to write a Hybrid Crochet/Blather Blog on Wednesday, but I should still have my Art blogs regularly!

Speaking of art blogs - if you want a say in what I draw (besides my attempt to immortalize the intrepid huntscrow), feel free to send me a coffee over on Ko-Fi with a message attached letting me know your preferred category (Animal, Vegetable, Mineral, Dedbert, Location, Geometric, Word), and I'll make your dream come true!

It might come true in a confusing fashion, but it'll somewhat come true lol.

As for me, I'm going to groove to Stuart Copeland's Spyro soundtracks and draw things.

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Talk About Tuesday... On Wednesday

 

In Which Tuesday Was Very Busy

I am winding down for the evening (well, technically early Wednesday morning, but gimme a break lol), so I'll make today's blog fairly brief.

Today was a day of getting out of town for a bit, because I live in an area with lower-than-the-national-average risk of COVID exposure. Some friends, my partner, and myself all piled in a car and went to another town and ate pulled pork sandwiches by the ocean, and it was awesome. We wore our masks. We socially distanced.

We were not, however, immune to reality creeping in.

Tuesday morning saw the sun being lightly filmed with a haze born from the wildfires devastating the opposite side of the continent. The fresh sea breeze was slightly salted and tanged with the touch of the hurricanes lining up like abusive suitors far to the south. Political survey people tried to knock on my front door and asked for me by name, though they seem to think my French Feminine name (on a person descended from both Scotch/Irish and German stock) is a British Masculine... My mother sent them on their way (thank goodness) none the wiser that there is no such person by that pronounciation.

You'd think that would have made the day anxious, but it didn't. None of it did.

We ate too much food by a beautiful waterfront, watching healthy mats of seaweed bob in the surf near the hewn stone below. We laughed. We talked about Dungeons & Dragons, about silly movies, about that cute orphaned sea otter I watch at night, about the food, about trips we could take in the future, people's families and their adventures (or misadventures).

And then one of the myriad little sparrows that had been investigating the area for potential dropped crumbs took flight.

And apparently it needed to clear some weight before it could properly lift off.

It crapped all over my folded hands, spattering a line of cold, slick-yet-gritty asphalt gray feces all over the heels of my thumbs.

In short, nature informed us it was time to go back into the car.

After copious amounts of hand sanitizer (in the car), a return trip to the house, several handwashings, depositing my nice yellow plaid flannel shirt in the wash with a dab or two of dishsoap on what I'm hoping were just meat-juice stains and not another bird's farewell, my partner and I settled into a sleepy torpor from which we only roused briefly to order a pizza for dinner (which was delicious - spinach & feta on garlic-parm sauce), argue laughingly over what YouTube videos to watch, and then to separate for the evening.

In short, today was great.

It never got above 65℉ (18.3℃), and right now I think it's about 45℉ (7.2℃). I'm in a green flannel shirt and capris, but I've snuck a flannel blanket bedecked in owls onto my bed, so I'm still deliciously chilly-yet-cozy. The tip of my nose is like ice, but my fingers still have some heat to them, so I'll call it a 100% win!

I'll be writing all day Wednesday (not counting this blog). Thursday I'll have some more art for you. I'll be writing Friday through Sunday, and Monday next should have a much more completed bag (with a bonus one day make for you!)

I think that'll about cover my Tuesday. I'm going to go brush my teeth and sleep deeply while dreaming of loaded pulled pork sandwiches, a warm hand in mine, and absolutely no bird poop.

Go Enjoy Something!

FC