Thursday Art Walk - Hot Town Summer in the Yarn Cave

In Which It's STILL HOT

I am but a wilting desert flower. Or dessert flower. Not sure which.

What I do know is that I love drawing Dedbert!

"Breakfast En Plein Air" sketch; 2020

"Breakfast En Plein Air" colors, wax crayon and graphite on printer paper; 2020

Yes, that's Dedbert in the shade of a pink and blue umbrella, frying eggs on the road. I might not live in Petaluma, CA but since it's currently 85℉ (29.4℃) with 50% humidity, it feels like it wouldn't be hard to fry an egg outside. 

Some morons are outside racing around with terrible engines on what sounds like a couple of dirt bikes, and I can't help but hope that when they get home, they discover they've blown something vital and cannot bike again this month. What can I say, engine sounds annoy me.

Anyway, this morning I was awakened by Quackageddon - the neighbors' ducks were furiously quacking at the wild Mallards who eat under our bird feeder sometimes, which the Mallards were heartily ignoring as they chowed down. It was deafening, but since it's freaking ducks, I also couldn't take it seriously, so I woke up overheated yet smirking because it was hilarious. Then I had to hustle outside and breakup a brawl among the four squirrels who are currently stuffing their faces under our feeder. If it's just a pair of squirrels throwing down, I leave them be, but when you have multiples, their tail fur can actually tangle and they get stuck together and it's really sad. It happens with rats, too, and that's nightmarish.

Imagine a ball of rats. Yikes. And I like rats!

So yeah, today's been a day (I also actually called for a hair appointment, so go me!), and I've only now gotten a chance to really settle in and post my artwork, but that's life, y'know? Sometimes there's other stuff we have to take care of before we can get the real work done.

If you were wondering about my bruises from the fall I took the other day, the one on my right knee is fading nicely into greens and yellows as it should. The one on my left thigh, however, still looks like a plum in the middle, fading out to navy and taupe at the edges. I'm actually photographing them and I might try to use some of the colors as a pallet in the future. I am, in fact, weird.

I'm also feeling a nap coming on (this weather, it promotes semi-mandatory naptimes), so I may take a break from the sketching and just... rest for a bit.

I hope all of you have a chance to rest and relax at some point today, too.

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Talk About Tuesday - Wow, Summer Really Is Here Isn't It

In Which Today Was Toasty As Heck

So remember how I was whining about the heat? What a wimp! It reached a Real Feel of about 100℉ (~38℃). Yes, the ambient was in the low 90s, but that's not much of a difference is it?! It was so hot that bringing the temperature down to 82℉ (~28℃) felt like heaven, and it was a good thing I got to borrow the small AC for that. I will try not to abuse the privilege (though man, do I miss it - it's so much stickier in here without it).

If you're from an arid climate, you may be snickering to yourself about how week I am, but boy, living on the coast? Heat is never the issue.

It's that humidity.

You should not feel like you're drowning when you go to pick up a pizza or get the mail.

This week I'm going to continue working on my book (I'm on page 12 of Part 2!) and on my art. I've begun trawling YouTube for videos teaching me how to use Paint.Net, since it's not entirely intuitive if digital art is foreign to you. I hope to learn how to make a bunch of cool pixel art, soon, so keep an eye out for that!

Speaking of the pixel art!

I'd love to experiment with some restricted pallets so if you find a specific pallet you really like, feel free to comment it or something! I know there are some pretty famous pallets relating to 8-, 16-, and 32-bit video games, but feel free to send me any of those you find either on Twitter or in the comments! I'm really looking forward to these experiments as I slowly peck my way through the fog background I'm slowly creating for that Noir project...

But yeah, aside from discovering by accident today that I can crochet, there's not a lot to update you with. It's hot. It's sticky. I'm constantly drowsy from the heat, so I'm constantly consuming caffeine to offset that. Regardless, I'm feeling pretty good about my work, and I hope to share more cool stuff with you soon!

Heck, this might even be the year I figure out how to animate sprites...

Who knows?

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Fiber Monday - Ow My Elbows

I promise, I can explain

So... I really have been working on my crochet projects, but I haven't photographed any progress shots and now it's hard to take pictures because my elbows are very sore and getting the right angles is uncomfortable.

Why are my arms sore?

Because... uh... yeah... see... I... kinda sorta felldownthestairs.

I'm okay!

My ankle does this thing sometimes where it just decides to stop functioning properly and just folds in, crumpling me to the ground. It looks like I'm fainting, but I'm not! Thankfully, this usually happens on the sidewalk or when I'm walking around downstairs, and it only happens a couple of times per year...

But yesterday afternoon, while my very young nieces were over, it happened to me at the top of our stairs!

I wanted some cold water from the fridge, so I had a huge plastic cup in my hands, and when my ankle turned, it went flying ahead of me down the stairs. I pitched headlong, but thankfully my arms flailed just right and I grabbed the banister, stopping me only four or five steps down and allowing me to a) survive and b) sit gingerly on the steps while my heart tried to bust out of me.

Needless to say, I was quite shaken.

I had also, as I launched down the stairs, cursed at the top of my lungs. Right in front of the little ones.

So I'm really sorry about that, guys!

And after the freakout and fall, I went into the bathroom to put some antibiotic on my rugburn and saw a huge, raised bruise on my thigh. Now, I'm not a bruise-prone person, really. I'll get the little ones everyone gets from running into stuff, but it's been probably 20 years since I had a raised bruise, and I was freaking right the heck out. My family got me to calm down, handed me an ice pack, and I grabbed my cold water and went back upstairs.

I'm doing fine, though. The bruise is roughly the size of a duck egg, the swelling is almost gone, and it's slowly not stinging anymore. I figured my knees/ankles would be the sorest parts of me, but it's my elbows that hurt the most today. Still, thank you, arms. I'd probably be a lot worse off if not for them.

So tl;dr: No updates on the crochet bc my elbows hurt too much to crochet because I fell down the stairs like a moron, lol!

So see you tomorrow, guys!

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Thursday Art Walk

In Which It is Finally Not Heinously Warm!

It's a gray, sticky day, today. The breeze from the fan is clammy. My hair will not dry from this morning's shower.

I'm alright with this because I'm not boiling in my own skin! Sure it's still too warm for true comfort, but if you sit in the fan's breeze, it's not just bearable, it's kinda nice (by comparison to Tuesday, at least).

Last night, my cat snuggled with me for about a half hour, just flopped on the floor at the top of the stairs, purring and being very sweet. We laid next to each other like that until some of my hair slipped free and she zeroed in on it as a plaything. Thankfully, she soft-paws things at the start of playtime, and she realized it was attached to me pretty quickly and gave me an apologetic headbonk before laying down a little further away, cuddling with a fabric mushroom.

Cats are weird, y'all.

Which is why I decided to share a rough sketch of a cat with you, today.

"Captain Killstreak, NO!"; graphite on sketchpad, 2020

I know Cap Killstreak (the cat's name) doesn't look like most cats, but that's because he's a dwarf Scottish fold sitting on his stumpy hind legs, about to push a coffee mug off of a table.

He's one of the characters from a story I've been working on called Sorcery Con Leche. Killstreak's owner, a down-on-his-luck barista, finds out there's such a thing as magic. Killstreak starts talking to him, and it all goes downhill from there.

I won't be working too much on SCL, though, because I need to finish my wrestling story, first. I also need a name for it.

That'll about do it for me, today.

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Talk About Tuesday: STILL TOO HOT

In Which It's Super Freakin Hot

Uggggggggghhhhhhhhh.

I've had 2 liters of water and I'm still fighting dehydration. It's stupid hot today. I was right. It felt like it was in the 90s today - that's Fahrenheit. It wasn't 10 degrees below boiling.

Sure felt like it, though.

Today has been unproductive, so far, though I did get to witness my partner catching an irate hornet the size of his thumb in a Prongles can. No, that's not a typo. My partner has one of the Prongles cans from the Cards Against Humanity fundraiser a while back. To those who are concerned for the wellbeing of the stinging, window-chewing pollinator, yes, it was released, furious, into the world once more. No one objects to the creature living. It just can't live in the house.

Meanwhile, back in the Yarn Cave, today was a comedy of errors. Comedy in the sense that, if you weren't the one living through it all, it was hilarious. 

• I got up too early after sleeping too little
• I tried to take a shower, only to discover the laundry going at the same time, resulting in a very unpleasant shower that barely washed the soap off of me. Ick.
• I had a floof of cat hair in my breakfast coffee and the cat followed this up with trying to steal my toast.
• It was officially too hot to see my partner face-to-face today which sucked, but we'll make up for it tomorrow lol.
• I made coffee and a snack to bring upstairs while I work, but I must've been on autopilot and now I am filled with regret, caffeine, and insomnia.
• why? The snack was chocolate covered espresso beans. With coffee. After 6:30. Oops.

So today has not been the most cooperative, if you ask me (which no one did, but I'm a blabbermouth, so here ya go).

Hopefully, tomorrow is cooler, nicer, and more productive. I'll try to do some art tonight, maybe some writing.

Currently, it's getting dark in here, but if I turn on the lights, I'll be inundated with gnats from outside (they fly towards the light and get sucked into my fan, it's gross).

So this week (and the rest of the summer) is going to be based on an if-the-weather-is-okay basis lol. I still plan on posting art on Thursday, but aside from that, who knows lol.

Alright, that's all the blog-focus I have for right now - I'm gonna go refill my water bottle, flush the caffeine from my system, and try to do some real work on my book. I'm going to finish this thing before 2021, even if it kills me.

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Fiber Monday: Heat Wave

In Which It's Too Toasty for this Dorkbread.

I am of Northern stock.

My ancestors lived on the seas and in the foothills of foggy mountains.

I was not, therefore, designed to withstand 80+℉ (27+℃) weather with 80+% humidity. I am melting and it's not fun.

It's been this toasty for a while.

I started work on a new project. I have paused until I can put my arms down without my armpits sticking to themselves again.

I wanted to do more work on my shawl and my shrug - again, too sticky and hot. Ew.

Even the Cat has had it. No More! Make it stop!

So no real updates today. Hopefully tomorrow is cooler. If I had to guess, though, probably not :(

Yeah, no, tomorrow will be 81℉ (27℃) with 49% humidity, which means it'll feel like 89℉ (32℃).

Ugggggggggghhhhhhhhh.

I'll blather more tomorrow I think. Perhaps some time spent in the only AC in the house will help. It doesn't reach up to the Yarn Cave, though.

Go Enjoy Something (if you can lol)

FC

Thursday Art Walk: Fan Art!

In Which I Have Made A Fanart!

I'm trying the new Blogger Format today, and I have to say... it sucks on desktop. Nothing is obvious, and it just looks stretched out and ugly. Instead of having breathing room at the top and sides, everything is just... it's trash. Ew.

But you know what's not trash?

Breath of the Wild.

Except for finding all the Koroks. 

I suck at most of the physics puzzles for Korok seeds. Takes me forever (especially with controller drift) to hit all of the balloons with arrows (and that is expensive), but I love finding the little guys, and they're so stinkin' cute!

So I drew one!

"You Found Me!"; pencil and wax crayon; 2020

Now, obviously, this is a fan art piece, so there is no way to sell it (I'm okay with that - it's not my IP, I don't get to make money from it), but I got to practice color layering with crayons, and drawing organic shapes is always fun!

So there you have it - my first Korok art lol!

Hopefully I'll be keeping up with both physical and digital art in the next week (I am still working on the noir background lol), and I'd love to show y'all some progress!

I think that'll do it from me today.

Go Enjoy Something!

FC