Talk About Tuesday

 

In Which I Have Had A Week(end)
(A Pretty Great One In Fact)

This weekend was fantastic. On Friday, Z took me to the Farnsworth Art Museum to view the collection of paintings & sketches Edward Hopper (the painter of Nighthawks, my favorite painting!) did in my hometown. It was incredible, especially since, despite having lived in Rockland, Maine throughout my entire childhood, I had never gone to the museum. It was $20 for adults to get in, but locals get in for free.

I am obsessed with Edward Hopper's work. I love that he focused on people and buildings (but mostly buildings), and I love the sense of emptiness in his work.

Since the Farnsworth Museum's bread & butter are their Wyeth collections, they had plenty of pieces by Andrew Wyeth that they showed alongside the Hoppers, and those had that Andrew Wyeth stormy, desaturated appeal. He didn't use a lot of focal colors, eschewing N.C. Wyeth's use of aquamarine, turquoise, and teal in favor of umbers and ochres. Andrew Wyeth's art seemed to be all captured during overcast and dark days, whereas Hopper's pieces tended to be in strong sun. Both had a moodiness about their work, but I think Hopper really nailed the way light works on a sunny day in Rockland.

In short, if you want to know what my childhood hometown looks like in full sun, look at Hopper's sketches & paintings of the area. If you want to know what the same area looks like in darker weather, check out Andrew Wyeth. If you want to see what memories of this town feel like, though, you go with N. C. Wyeth. His weirdly Mediterranean palette really captures the way Maine feels in more carefree memories.

We spent a great deal of time in the museum, looking at the exhibits and oohing and aahing over paintings like Emilie Stark-Menning's Strawberry Moon, or a fantastic Enamel on Canvas painting of a semi-psychedelic forest whose artist I sadly cannot remember the name of, or even a pair of Grandma Moses paintings! I just about lost it when I found out there was a pair of Chihuly glass pieces, too!

After the museum we headed back to my place where we found my dad hard at work replacing the deck.

Which he was still working on today.

The concept of a new deck is very nice, since we've had rotten boards and broken steps for a while. The problem with building a new deck is... my yard is 100% clay and rocks and roots. The auger is struggling. My dad is struggling. It took him 4 hours just to get the supplies. The cable for the railings came faster than he was able to find all the hardware & wood.

It's not going the best, especially since until today the weather has been uncooperative - rain every day but today and at random weird times. They're also building the deck on the side of our house that is close to our next door neighbors' bedrooms, so they kind of have to stop construction after dark.

Regardless, this has been an adventure and a half.

Saturday had me wandering down to my Fiber Circle and enjoying my hour outside immensely. I got so much crocheting done, and I'm continuing that trend today by getting several inches of top done (on the front of the top). I'm cruising along.

I haven't drawn yet this week, though, so we'll have to work on that.

In fact, that might be what I do after this row I'm working on...

If you'd like to be the source of inspiration for a finished piece on Thursday, feel free to send me a coffee over on Ko-Fi with a message telling me what category (Animal, Vegetable, Mineral, Dedbert, Food, Location, Geometric, Word) you'd like to see, and I'll make something based on that!

My plans for this week are:

Art for Thursday

Crochet Progress for Monday

Blather next Tuesday.

For now, though, I'm going to finish that row, throw down a sketch or two, and then play more Stardew, because dang it I am going to get my butt down to the 100 level of the Skull Cavern...

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Snowmageddon Week 2

 

The Weather Outside's Been Frightful
But all This Snow's Delightful!

The weather this past week has been unpleasant up here in the beachy north. Temperatures have unreliably fluctuated between 28 to 52℉ (-2 to 11℃), and it has rained, snowed, and blown a gale (up to 50mph/80kph), sometimes all at once. When it's been clear, it's been cold or windy. Needless to say, I've spent a lot of time holed up in the blanket fort, hooking up a small blizzard.

In total, I now have nearly a dozen snowflakes! I believe that on last Monday, I had only 4 or 5 completed. I have... more now.

I actually ended up taking pictures of all of the snowflakes I've completed up to now (including the ones from last week, sorry).

Snowmageddon Part 1

Snowmageddon Part 2

The snowflakes I've completed since last Monday are as follows:

Snowflake #1

Crochet Snowflake

Cake Head Snowflake

Lace Snowflake

Chocolate Chip Eater

Snowflake Corfu

That list above links directly to either the Ravelry page for that pattern or the pattern itself (if the pattern is on someone else's website/blog). And if I can crochet them by desk lamp light while the wind howls outside and my coffee cools on my desk, you can crochet them, too!

There is a lot of counting involved in some of these flakes, and it takes me an average of 45 minutes to make each one. In fact, it took me over 8 hours to crochet all of the snowflakes in the last two weeks that I've done. I only skipped one day, but I've hooked a few in one day, too.

On average, it takes about 45 minutes for me to crochet these using hooks between 1.5mm and 2mm on the white cotton crochet thread you can pick up at Wal-Mart. The longest I spent on a flake was an hour and a half (on the Chocolate Chip Eater), and the fastest flake I made was the "Crochet Snowflake", which took a little over 15 minutes to make. If you're going to make one single design of a flake, that might be the one to make en masse.

If you're going for fancy flakes, though, I'm really loving the humorously named flurry of patterns that Jessica Wifall is putting out this year on Ravelry, so if you're on there, those might be your idea of a good time, too. The Wifall patterns are taking me an hour or more per flake, but they're delightfully complex-looking while not being overly complicated, stitch-wise. In fact, it's mostly just a lot of yarning over for hilariously long stitches (really, I've never even seen a trtr stitch before this month, and they're so fun to make - yarn over 4x and start pulling through over and over!) and counting chains.

The crop of snowflakes available this year is magnificent, and if you're looking to make yourself a bunch of ornaments and learning some new patterns, this is definitely the year to do it.

Let's get flakey, y'all!

And Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Talk About Tuesday

 

What A Day!

Today, I went on an adventure with some friends. It wasn't like we went skydiving (though we drove by a place that offers classes), or hiking, or wakeboarding or anything like that, but I'm a homebody, so for me, an adventure can mean a short road trip with people I like where we go hang out in a town that isn't ours.

We drove to Waterville, today. You may be thinking, if you're from Maine, "why Waterville?" and the answer is: "We wanted Thai Food we haven't had before". Our Destination was Pad Thai Too. Since we headed out around noon, we needed to kill some time before we got to order, so we took a snack break at one of the two Taco Bells and then crawled along the mean streets of Waterville (they're not mean, that's just poetic license). There were a lot of fun stores and restaurants, and honestly, I had to rethink my stance on the town. See, I'd always seen it as a place like Union or Waldoboro - quiet, basically economically dead areas that would be nice to live in but weren't really busy.

Waterville is apparently a small, more river-based Portland.

There were sculptures, monuments, and parks, and honestly, it was very pretty.

I wish I'd taken pictures, but I put my phone away while we were touring the Two Penny Bridge because I didn't want to drop it in the Kennebec. Instead, I just took it in. A pair of ladies jogged past us on their exercise circuit, sending the suspension bridge jumping just slightly. It was just enough movement that you could tell the bridge was held up by wires, but not enough that you'd be truly jostled. I really loved seeing most of the locks, too - much like the Pont des Arts, couples will put a lock on the bridge to symbolize the permanence of their love, and unlike the Pond des Arts, there are nowhere near enough to warrant removal yet.

The fall pollen was collected on the surface of the Kennebec like an oil slick made from powdered ivory. The river itself was so steeped with tannins that it was almost a black brown. The overall effect was suitably spooky for someone wearing a plaid flannel shirt and a neckerchief of lace skulls, and I was enchanted.

Overall, a positive experience. Even the homeless guy who came over and bothered us was in a good mood. We left before that mood could sour. (I hope the dude finds somewhere warmer to stay as the winter rolls in. No one deserves to freeze, and a public park is not gonna cut it come November).

We went from the park to Pad Thai Too and put in our orders. I had the regular Pad Thai with chicken, my boyfriend had the Pik Pow Pad Thai with chicken, and they were both really good. I'd have to say that the Pad Thai is more sweet-and-sour than rich-and-sweet, and mine wasn't at all spicy. The Pik Pow wasn't spicy either, but it was spiced. That was a tangier, stronger sauce, and it went really well with the pineapple. Overall, I'd absolutely eat there again. I am interested in what their Drunken Noodle tastes like!

Now, normally, when there are spicy dishes on offer, I'm all in on that. I love me some spice. Unfortunately for me, though, I've been suffering some of the worst heartburn of my life for the last week or so. It's been bad enough that I've had to listen to my own heartbeat to make sure it sounds normal (a little elevated, but that's fine when I'm anxious and uncomfortable). It's just heartburn, but it sucks. I don't just get the "warm chest/hiccups" anymore, either. I get the "feels like some giant has lodged one set of  knuckles under my sternum and the other set of knuckles just under my shoulder blades and is trying to press those knuckles together through me".

Needless to say, spicy food was not an option today.

And I've started a course of Omeprazole for the first time in about a decade. I don't get consistent heartburn often, so I don't take stuff like that often, either. I've also been crunching Tums.

And hydrating.

And apparently that thing about laying on your left side? Not an old wives' tale. It works. Lay on your left side.

Anywho, you're probably wondering about the rest of the week, right? Here ya go:

• On Thursday I'll post what I've got for art this week. It's Spooky season, which means I have Art Prompts to fill, and... uh... I may have terrified myself with one of my drawings. Just a bit. Eugh.
• On Monday, I hope I have some finished projects to share. We'll see lol.
• Next Tuesday I'll be back here for a chatty like today's.

I'm shockingly tired from our little jaunt today (that and staying up until 3AM due to heartburn), so I'm going to go watch Madagascar Giant Hognoses hatch in Minnesota and go to bed.

Go Enjoy Something, folks!

FC

EDIT: My awesome boyfriend sent me a bunch of pics he took on our roadtrip!

A view from the bridge

A roofed area attached to the bridge

DUCKS!

the locks on the bridge

one of the locks

the sign before the bridge!

Talk About Tuesday

 

In Which I Am Le Tired

Yesterday was Quite A Day, let me tell you. It started normally enough - took a shower, drank some coffee, chatted with my guy, and started to get ready to finish the shrug I was working on...

And my mother told me to get ready for an adventure with the cat!

I'm always down for a kitty trip, so I threw on some Tromping Around Clothes (I'd changed back into pajamas after my shower, not anticipating the surprise adventure), and came down to find a paper bag on the counter.

The plan was thus:

• Grab the cat and the paper bag, get in the car.
• Head to the Wal-Mart for some forgotten bread and a box of tissues
• Head to the next town over to drop off some Vicks, cold medicine, and tissues for my guy, who has a chest cold (Feel Better, Love!)
• Find a beach that was open and not too crowded.

Now you may be thinking that's a lot of car time for a cat. Would she be okay? Especially with a trip to Wal-Mart?

Sure, she was fine. Annoyed at being stuck in her carrier while I tried to find the tissues (I was lied to by an endcap and looked in the wrong aisle for like 5 minutes before I could find them), but fine.

The first beach we tried was Birch Point State Park, but apparently the state decided that, despite our Septembers being anywhere from 55-75℉/12,8-23,9℃, and Mainers swimming in the ocean up until about January, the beach had to be closed. What a pain.

Well, we weren't going to let a little State Park Closure prevent our girl from having her first ever beach adventure, so we headed over to another beach - Crescent Beach. Poor Evie the Cat was chirping crankily from her carrier and reaching out with her cute little paws by now, so we made our way down and parked. By the time we got her out on her leash (which she was very curious and very nervous about), I realized we'd made a fatal error that my fellow Mainers will probably tease me for.

We forgot to check the tides.

We arrived just as the tide was at its highest, just starting to ebb.

On a beach where the beach head is 100% loose stones.

Yeah, there was no sand for her to walk on for the first half of our visit.

She enjoyed sniffing the dried seaweed and climbing the rocks (which, yeah, was against the rules, but she's a cat, so she can't read signs), and we figured that would be it.

And then another family pulled up and came hiking across the stones.

If you've never met my cat, you need to know this about her:

Evie LOVES people. She is obsessed. She desperately loves new people and wants to hang out with everyone on Earth.

So of course, she immediately had to go visit these people, dragging my mother and I with her. Thankfully the family thought our 3-Braincell Tabby was the bees' knees, and they put up with her crawling under their feet and begging for snacks (they had a banana). Eventually, the water receded enough for us to put her down on wet sand and...

She hated it.

So, Evie did not enjoy her beach trip as much as we'd hoped lol.

And she was also so squirmy and exploratory that it was very hard to take pictures between trying to dislodge her from crevices where she got herself stuck. I did manage two pictures, though!

Here's Evie sitting on a rock, about to go wrap her leash around a rugosa rose bush.
She's just noticed the family and wants to go say hi!

Here Evie has failed to retrieve banana from the other family
And has grumpily decided she'll go climb more rocks in protest.
Also seaweed smells fun to her I guess lol

After that, we scooped her up and took her home, where she sulked outside with my mom. I ran upstairs and worked on yesterday's blog.

I do have to admit, though...

It was incredibly hard, being surrounded by all those delightfully smooth beach rocks in so many interesting colors and shapes and knowing I couldn't keep any of them. It's illegal to take the beach rocks, and at Crescent Beach, they're absolutely necessary for preventing erosion, so it's just bad all around to take beach rocks from there. If I'd gone wading and grabbed one from the water, I'd have been pretty ok with it, but I wasn't going to get in the surf while the tide was receding as fast as it was (we went from no sand to 5 feet of sand in 10 minutes, it seemed).

So that was my adventure this week!

The rest of the week's plans are thus:

• If you want to send me a coffee donation through that light green button, you can leave a message telling me what theme I'm drawing from this week! Those themes are:
• Animal
• Vegetable
• Mineral
• Geometric
  
• Location
• Dedbert
• Word
• Art Blog on Thursday
• I forgot to post the tea last week so maybe I'll do it this weekend? We'll see
• More crochet for Monday!
• Blather next Tuesday!

I hope my feline misadventures have brought a smile to your face today!

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Talk About Tuesday

 

In Which I Am Still Tired, But For A Reason

I have had quite the busy long weekend! On Friday, my boyfriend came over and we had a great time watching videos and snuggling on a pile of blankets. On Saturday I overslept and dozed but still tried to get stuff done (didn't do much productively but hey, sometimes that's life). On Sunday, my sisters came over and we had a big cookout and fire pit and that was fun. And yesterday, my dad surprised me by bringing my boyfriend by again and we got to hang out all day!

Which is why there was no blog yesterday lol.

I was busy watching Unsolved Mysteries and helping treat a really messy blackfly bite.

I put in my window fan yesterday, too!

And honestly, I've just been very busy this weekend. Even Saturday was busy despite me not really doing a heck of a lot, that I can recall.

So today I am a tired bunny.

And yet I still did more! My friend messaged my guy & me and asked if we'd like to come with on errands, so we hung out in various shops around my home town today!

We hit up a couple of clothing places, the ol Wally World, and a grocery store, and I came home with Mirin (which I had not realized would need ID to buy oops) and Stroopwafel and a Cherry Coke, and my boyfriend ended up adding a few things to his wardrobe plus some fun charcuterie stuff including jam, Spanish cheeses, and some tasty meats. Now that we've gone back to our respective homes, I've gotta admit...

I'm way more tired than I should be after such a simple little stroll in the drizzle & cool!

It was a gray morning of around 56℉/13,3℃ that cleared off and still only reached maybe 63℉/17,2℃. It's been gently breezy, but that just means that the bugs that were absent on Sunday are back en force. the blackfly population has boomed.

And of course, the June Bugs are making their appearance.

I have a love-hate relationship with June Bugs. They are God's Perfect Moron. They will concuss themselves on trees, flying with less agility than a drunken bumblebee and they stick to everything. They have always seemed attracted to hair - especially mine.

But they're kind of delightfully stupid, in a way.

They're so completely inept at everything bug-related, but they're also just big clumsy creatures trying their best in a world they literally cannot understand.

And I really, really relate to that.

As for this coming week, I think we all know I'll do my best to stick to the schedule, but life uh... finds a way.

• Thursday should involve a new piece of art out!
• Monday should (hopefully [FINALLY]) have some sort of advancement on the toadstool bag we've been plugging away on. Has anyone else had luck stabilizing the mouth of the bag? I'd love pointers.
• Next Tuesday should see me back again to blather at you!

That'll about do it for me, to be honest. I'm ready for bed and it's not even 8pm!

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Fiber Monday

 

In Which I Had To Take A Break lol

So I did still work on the next part of the Mystery Project, but I paused on the Marvelous Marge because I had some birthday gifts to work on!

Holy Mackerel I made socks!!!

My oldest siblings' birthday is close to Halloween so I like to make fun fall stuff for them, but I've never had the guts to actually try a sock pattern before. I made these Candy Corn Slipper Socks based off of a pattern by Briana K Designs. They're 100% Red Heart Super Saver yarn in bright orange, yellow, and white (not sure of the color names, just that they're absolutely RHSS), and I used an H hook because my stitches are tight and if I didn't size up, they wouldn't stretch around a human foot.

Pieces of the second pair - the wonky lookin orange things are reverse-engineered heels!

We'll see if my detached heels work at all. If not, I'll have to frog those heels and hope I have enough combined bright orange yarn from the scraps I have left to make two heels. Otherwise they'll be a completely mismatched tone, which I'd really like to avoid.

But perhaps you're just here for the next set of rounds on the Mystery Project? Well, here you go:

Pen for scale I guess lol

PART 1:

Round 1: sc 6 into magic ring (6 sc)

R2: 2sc around (12 sc)

R3: [2sc, sc] around (18 sc)

R4: [sc, 2sc, sc] (24 sc)

R5: [2sc, sc in next 3 sts] (30 sc)

R6: sc around (30 sc)

R7: [sc in next 2 sts, 2sc, sc in next 2 sts] around (36 sc)

R8: [2sc, sc in next 5 sts] around (42 sc)

R9: [sc in next 3 sts, 2sc, sc in next 3 sts] around (48 sc)

R10: [2sc, sc in next 7 sts] around (54 sts)

R11: [sc in next 4 sts, 2sc, sc in next 4 sts] around (60 sc)

R12-13: sc around (60 sc)

R14: [2sc, sc in next 9 sts] around (66 sc)

R15: [sc in next 5 sts, 2sc, sc in next 5 sts] around (72 sc)

R16: [2sc, sc in next 11 sts] around (78 sc)

R17: [sc in next 6 sts, 2sc, sc in next 6 sts] around (84 sc)

R18: [2sc, sc in next 13 sts] around (90 sc)

R19-21: sc around (90 sc)

R22: [sc in next 7 sts, 2sc, sc in next 7 sts] around (96 sc)

R23: [2sc, sc in next 15 sts] around (102 sc)

R24: [sc in next 8 sts, 2sc, sc in next 8 sts] around (108 sc)

R25: [2sc, sc in next 17 sts] around (114 sc)

R26: [sc in next 9 sts, 2sc, sc in next 9 sts] around (120 sc)

R27-30: sc around (120 sc)

R31: [2sc, sc in next 19 sts] around (126 sc)

R32: [sc in next 10 sts, 2sc, sc in next 10 sts] around (132 sc)

R33: [2sc, sc in next 21 sts] around (138 sc)

R34: [sc in next 11 sts, 2sc, sc in next 11 sts] around (144 sc)

R35: [2sc, sc in next 23 sts] around (150 sc)

R36-40: sc around (150 sc)

R41: [sc 2 together, sc 23] around (144 sc)

R42-47: sc around (144 sc)

R48: [sc 11, sc 2 together, sc 11] around (138 sc)

R49-55: sc around (138 sc)

R56: [sc 2 together, sc 21] around (132 sc)

R57-64: sc around (132sc)

TODAY:

R65: [sc 10, sc 2 tog, sc 10] around (126 sc)

R66-74: sc around (126 sc)

The next block will see us reduce one more time and then we should be done with this section and ready to move to PART 2!!! I'm looking forward to part 2 because it's a very different shape (if I can get it to work) and it connects to PART 3, where we change to a different color!!!

We're getting there, people!

Anyway, my parents are being blasted by a bad cold (the first any of us have had since June 2019, I'm pretty sure!) and I have been getting obliterated by my allergies. See, that Red Heart yarn has been in my room for a loooooong time, and it got pretty dusty, so me using it close to my face meant I was basically breathing dust and tiny acrylic fibers for 18 hours and I hadn't used any allergy meds so everything got clogged. Tear ducts, sinuses, ears, all of it was burning and itchy and thick-feeling the whole time, which means that now I have to deal with the after-reaction, which is basically just me sneezing like Mt Vesuvius for a day or two lol.

That'll about do it for me today - keep up on my Fiber Mondays for the next rounds on the Mystery Project!!!

And Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Thursday Art Walk

 

In Which Sometimes Projects Change...

I've been working since the first of October on a special project. In it, I planned to have 31 pictures drawn, painted, sketched, etc. In each picture would be an animal, a plant, and a mineral that are native to my home state.

If that sounds overambitious, it's because it was.

Especially without a proper understanding of exactly what plants, animals, and minerals exist here...

So I reduced the number of pictures from 31 to 4. That seemed far more doable.  That was last week. It took me until last week to start really painting.

And then I learned something else:

I cannot draw minerals yet.

I'm not going to show you my failures. They hurt to look at. They are in the trash, and I cannot learn by observing them, only through failing, trying, failing again, and trying some more.

That brought me to this week. The last week of October. With nothing to show for it.

How frustrating!

So I started painting.

"Sweets'; watercolor & pen on watercolor paper; 2021

You may be able to tell from the blurry image there that I'm not too thrilled with this one... It's too simplistic, too wonky, too a lot of things, but I do like those colors, so that's good!

The watercolors I used for all of these, btw, are all either from my Emooqi set or from my Arteza watercolor pencil set. This one is all Emooqi, though the black is just some Pigma fineliner.

Next, I decided to go a little more naturalistic...

"Three For One Special"; watercolor and Pigma micron; 2021

I love pumpkins, though not as pies, so just painting a trio of lil pumpkin bros chilling on a table was fun! This paper is also Emooqi paper, which is why it has that odd diagonal ripple to it. It holds water weirdly and cannot possibly be a rag paper - it feels like sketchbook paper to be honest, but if that's the worst part of my Emooqi set, I'll take it!

But it's still a little simple, yeah? A little plain and obvious. What about something horror themed? Something... spooky.

Something downright Shakespearean?

"Toil & Trouble"; Watercolor and Pigma Micron; 2021

I am... so proud of this piece.

Each of the ingredients you see are included in the Witches' brew at the start of Shakespeare's Macbeth - which while not vegan is considerably more vegetative than I thought.

Eye of Newt, for instance, is mustard seed. Wool of Bat relates to holly! Tongue of Dog is just a petal from an herb, same with Adder's Sting, though Fenny Snake and Blindworm are both actual reptiles. I also have the leg of lizard and owlet's wing on there, though the owlet in question is a moth, rather than a baby owl.

Finally, I decided to go for a less chaotic image and tried that Emooqi paper again, this time using only pens and watercolor pencils:

"Witchgarden"; watercolor pencil and gel pen; 2021

This is the witchgarden - a collection of plants (and one fungus) with witchy names! The branch is a witch hazel, the pink stalk is "Witch's Moneybags" (Sedum telephium), the green stalk is Witchgrass (Panicum capillare), and the yellow feathery plant is "Witch's Hair" (Desmarestia aculeata), and that little yellow blob is "Witch's Butter" (the fungus),which is a jelly fungus that grows usually on trees. Of course, you can also see the glittery black widow spider I added at the end!

I didn't like the bubbles/circles at first, but now they're really growing on me!

So what do you guys think about my October project? Did I meet expectations, or did I fall flat on my face?

I hope you've all kept creative this season!

Next week, I hope to have some other art, too!

That'll do it from me tonight - I'm pretty tired and I have some writing to work on tomorrow.

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Thursday Art Walk

 

In Which I Have Been Shopping!!!

I'm not a shopaholic. No, really I'm not! I just... have needed things lately. For Art. And life in general, but mostly art lol.

I went for a lovely 3 mile walk on Tuesday and trotted myself downtown. There's a lovely beach down there, and you have to pass a lot of really nice local shops to get there. One of those shops was hiring and because money tastes good and I love the shop (I get my cat's favorite toys there!), I decided to apply there. It's conjoined to the fancy art shop in town, too, so I popped in there, too. After all, you can never have too much watercolor paper, and I was hoping to find some Buff Titanium watercolor.

Well, the Buff Titanium was unfortunately not available (they only had tube paint) but boy did they have a lot of other goodies!!!

The *~* HAUL *~*

Before you lies a delightful assortment of useful art supplies! A roll of masking tape so I actually have borders on my art, a gorgeous pad of cold pressed watercolor paper in size 11"x15" (27,9cm x 38,1cm) with 30 sheets for me to play with, a small block of hot press watercolor paper in size 6"x8" (15,2cm x 20,3cm) which I've never used but has a much smoother finish and is also bound on two sides so it won't warp as easily, and finally a set of 16 pearlescent Yasutomo Niji watercolors! The watercolors were only about 6 bucks and the large paper was only about 19 bucks, so those were quite the steal!

Pretty pretty... shiny shiiiiiiny...

But please don't believe I've not done any artwork since I vanished - I've got two base-colored landscapes I'm working on!

"Impressions Downhill"; watercolor pencil; 2021

"Shabby Harbor"; watercolor pencil; 2021

You might be able to guess I'm not 100% done with these (especially with how faint the colors are) but it's hard to get the layering right when you're outside! I'll be working on these, experimenting with my new paints and papers, and just generally having a blast, I think!

How are your own artistic endeavors coming? Have you worked on anything you're proud of this month?

That'll do it for me!

Go Enjoy Something!!!

FC

Thursday Art Walk

 

In Which I Have Pictures For You!

That's right - in spite of the fact that I accidentally chucked my pallet (oops - I'll have to get to work on that) and couldn't find any watercolor pencils to do undersketching in time, I have two new pictures for you!

"Fantasy Landscape"; Watercolor on paper; 2021

So first up, we have a "Fantasy Landscape" which I'm pretty happy with as random watercolor warmups go! This was made by randomly laying down colors until the whole page was finished, and then I let it dry. I'd like to try other, more abstract, works with water color so until my new pencils show up from the internet (because I still can't get a straight answer on whether or not the local art shop closed due to the pandemic...) that might be what I'm up to!

"Geostriping"; Bic Intensity Fineliner on watercolor paper; 2021

This is another idea I'm pretty happy with. Next time I try it, I'll use a bigger piece of paper, more colors, and a ruler, but as a first attempt, it's pretty solid! I love geometric designs and I adore these colors, so this was a lot of fun!

Now you're probably wondering why I'm suddenly all aflutter about watercolor pencils, and it's really quite simple:

I want to be able to draw things and then watercolor them in.

It's that simple. I just want to be able to take some water pens on the road and draw.

I'd love to be able to grab my bike and ride down to the waterfront, my art supplies in the little basket at the front with my water bottle and a sandwich... so that's my plan!

I also want to bring my little sketchbook and pencils for regular sketches - sometimes graphite it the way to go, after all!

Anyway, I just wanted to share some updates with y'all regarding the art struggles :)

Go Enjoy Something!!!

FC

Saturday Casual Gaming - Two Eyes Nonogram

 

Hey Haven't Done One of These In A While!

Once upon a time, I had a new game on her every week. I'd play the game and then review it and I'd let you all know what I thought. Mobile games, PC games, even the occasional console game... I'd cover what I loved (or didn't) about a game every week.

Except I'd never finish the games. Well... except one or two.

I Finished Two Eyes - Nonogram.

This game is lovely and a perfect time-sink. Free to play from start to finish with an option to pay for zero ads (which, admittedly, could improve your experience), and with gorgeous art and lovely music, this game was well worth a download - especially since I love nonogram-style gameplay!

For those not in the know, a Nonogram game involves you filling in squares of a grid to make an image, guided only by some numbers. The games usually have a tutorial (sometimes unskippable) which teaches you how to use those numbers to figure out what you're drawing. They're also often story-based, where the pictures you're filling in are the illustrations. These tend towards the fairytale side of fiction, so if that's not your cup of tea, you may find yourself simply in it for the gameplay, which is still quite rewarding!

Two Eyes, which is published by GAMEFOX (I've played other games of theirs!) and is available on ios and android, tells the story of a wolf and a deer slowly coming to terms with the fact that they are reincarnations of a deeply loving couple. It's very Greek Tragedy and well-told, though you can kind of tell it's a translation (sometimes the sentence structures are a bit rigid and unnatural, for instance), but in the end, it's a sweet little story, and I was, as the kids say, there for it.

The art, as you can tell, is spectacular, but I will not spoil you for the pixel art aspect - that would be cheating, since the pixel art is the gameplay!

I will, however, tell you that the story is broken into which character you're following (Wolf puzzles or Deer puzzles), and every story is broken down further into chapters. There are story-advancing puzzles and non-story-advancing puzzles, and both are fun! The story-advancing puzzles are arranged in a large 36 puzzle grid and range from 10x10 to 30x30. After you complete one character's story, you can finish the other character's story to see it from their perspective (the titular Two Eyes), or you can skip to the bittersweet finale.

The finale is the hardest part to get through with a triad of brutal 6x6 grids of 30x30 puzzles to get through. Your reward, however, is seeing the end of this lovely little story of enduring love.

Now, I mentioned the ad-free purchase option earlier. In my opinion, having an ad after ever two or three puzzles is a very fair tradeoff. For me, these ads were always easy to exit out of after about five or ten seconds, and I only accidentally fatfingered them once or twice. It was not economical or necessary for me to pay the oh-so-steep (sarcasm there, friend) price of two whole American dollars for the luxury of not seeing ads for a local guy who fixes basements for a decent price. Definitely pay for the ad-free version if you find the ads obnoxious, though, because the money goes towards making a bunch of beautifully drawn nonogram games like this one!

I can strongly recommend Two Eyes Nonogram to anyone who loves casual, untimed puzzle games.

That's all from me today!

Go Enjoy Something!
FC

Thursday Art Walk

 

In Which I have A Rough Sketch To Share!

I'm still learning digital art, so bear with me, but I think I've got a good start going on this drawing I'm doing of a rave cat!

If you're wondering why I'm drawing a digital art piece of a rave cat, uh... it's kind of a dumb inside joke involving the game Beat Saber, a friend, and their cat being very interested in what they're up to. My drawing doesn't look ANYTHING like their cat, though, so just enjoy a silly rough draft of a drawing of a cat at a rave!

"RaveCat 01" digital only!

The shadow you see under the image is my outline/gesture drawing. I just kinda forgot to remove that layer before saving as a jpg to share it on her.

My usual process for digital is something like this: I take my base color and reduce the Alpha to about... 80? Then I start sketching out scribbly shapes, scribbling madly until the shapes begin to look more like actual limbs or heads or whatever. Then I start applying my first layer of color (orange), then more layers of color get added, and eventually I'd get around to lineart (you can see the beginnings around one hand and the rave locs). I'm going to fix her shoes eventually, maybe undo her dress and replace it with uh... a more visible one lol. I might do a few layers on the dress with different colors and different percentages.

I don't have a very good grasp on the language of digital art, so if you're someone who does this, please shoot me suggestions ("get photoshop" isn't the kind of suggestion I'm talking about here - I have a hard enough time with paint.net and I am completely lost so far on Krita, which I downloaded today and 100% botched the first draft of this on). I'm always eager to learn new stuff :D

I might try a version of this with traditional art some time too!

For any teacher out there, btw, who thinks "digital art is easier" somehow, please know that you're wrong. I've been drawing and painting for close to 25 years, and I find a set of watercolors and a nice sheet of rag paper 100000000% easier to control and understand instinctively than digital art. I am having to work a lot harder to figure out how each layer works with the others, and I don't think I'll ever 100% get it. Also, just... remember that art changes over time. If you accept anything other than cave paintings, you understand this.

Alright, that'll about do it for me!

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Thursday Art Walk - A Palette For You

 

In Which I'm Working On Something That's TOO BIG

I keep doing this to myself: I start working on a piece of art in Paint.net and... it balloons out of control. I cannot stop myself. I must do this.

I'm working on a new bonkbubble piece (kind of like last week's piece, but 100% digital), and I'm using a Semi-Limited Palette! What does that mean?

It means that I filled one whole row of the palette with colors from that random palette generator site I talked about that one time (Coolors) and now I'm spreading out dots in each color across a vast canvas. Seriously, it was 120 inches by 120 inches at one point (304.8x304.8cm). It's too big. Everything's very spread out. And yet I've already had four intersections! Which means I've mixed an additional four colors!

The original palette is here with hex/rgb colors for other artists to try out!

• Aero Blue
• Hex: BFFFF1
• RGB: 191, 255, 241
• Saffron
• Hex: EAC435
• RGB: 234, 196, 53
• Wild Blue Yonder
• Hex: B2B1CF
• RGB: 178, 177, 207
• Raisin Black
• Hex: 1E1E24
• RGB: 30, 30, 36
• Dark Liver
• Hex: 403F4C
• RGB: 64, 63, 76
• Opera Mauve
• Hex: B37BA4
• RGB: 179, 123, 164
• Tumbleweed
• Hex: D8A47F
• RGB: 216, 164, 127
• Dark Olive Green
• Hex: 46782C
• RGB 71, 104, 44
• Viridian Green
• Hex: 0FA3B1
• RGB: 15, 163, 177
• Purple Navy
• Hex: 414874
• RGB: 65, 72, 116
• Arylide Yellow
• Hex: DBD053
• RGB: 219, 2018, 83
• Rose Madder
• Hex: DB2B39
• RGB: 219, 43, 57
• Shocking Pink Crayola
• Hex: F26DF9
• RGB: 242, 109, 249
• Imperial Red
• Hex: FF0035
• RGB: 255, 0, 53
• Bone
• Hex: D7CEB2
• RGB: 215, 206, 178
• Oxford Blue
• Hex: 0B132B
• RGB: 11, 19, 43

I also have four color combos which have no names so far:

• A7A25E
• E48888
• DB984A
• ED5A6C

I'm pretty pleased with how things are going so far, sheer size notwithstanding (I've got it scaled to 1k pixels per inch right now, but that will be changed by the end, I promise lol). I did have one annoying moment where I miscounted somewhere and ended up having to shift over 70 dots up by 25 pixels (time consuming but not difficult), and I keep adding too much around each dot as I go, but that's pushed me to figure out the shortcuts on Paint.net!

If I press S four times, I get the magic wand selector, then I hit M to move the pixels, which I can do with my arrow keys for pixel-perfect movement! Made an error with my brush? Just hit E for the Eraser, erase my mistake, then hit B to go back to my Brush!

My only annoyance is that I legit can't figure out how to change the brush shape or if that's even possible. I'll finish the BonkBubble painting first, then figure out more things.

I'm also using a placeholder layer for when I need to combine colors, which I do by going to the mixing layer, and make a Brush Size 20 dot of each color at an Alpha/Opacity of 127 each. Then I use the Eyedropper tool to pick up the overlapped color, reset the Alpha to 255 (maxed out!) and add that new color to my palette. That's how I got the four colors up there. You can experiment on your own with those colors to see which ones I combined for them or just wait for the finished work!

Sorry I didn't have any progress shots for you, but I can't figure out how to save a work-in-progress without having to flatten all the layers (which... uh... wouldn't really work for me. Eventually I'll be deleting the background layer and the blending layer, but I need them for now!) and I'm still pretty new at this. Hopefully it'll be done next week!

Alright, I'm gonna go back to listening to some Synthwave and radiating bubbles :)

If you use that palette to make some art, please put a link in the comments or show me on Twitter (@TheFilthyCasua8)! I look forward to it :)

Go Enjoy Something!

FC