Thursday Art Walk

 

In Which I Did A Silly Little Art

One of the things Z & I like to do is watch old commercials. They're a great way to unwind, they're low-intellectual-expenditure, and they're endlessly fascinating. The other night we were watching this block from 1988 and the bumpers for a night time movie came up. This station called their late movies "Night Owl Movies" and the illustration was absolutely adorable. Z said that I should draw the owl, and I agreed.

So this is technically fanart of a 1988 tv movie bumper from WCIX.

"Getting To Know You"; watercolor pencil & ink on watercolor sketch pad; 2023
[DEDBERT, FOOD, ANIMAL]

Getting this done was an adventure - it's been so humid this week that all of my supplies were vaguely damp, which made erasing pencil lines very hard. I also struggled to focus, since my mind was occupied with the heat. I finished the pencils yesterday, but I waited til today to color and paint it. It almost didn't happen.

This morning at around 4am, I was awakened by a bunch of rattling and crashing, like someone had dropped a bunch of pots & pans in the kitchen. Worried that the cat had gotten into some shit, I stumbled downstairs in the predawn haze and saw absolutely nothing awry. Heck, the cat was even eating the last of the previous night's dinner.

Well, it turned out that something had fallen over, but it wasn't pots or pans, and it wasn't because of the cat.

Turns out that the top two shelves in our cup cabinet let go. They're old and made of crappy particle board from 1989, so let's be real, they were gonna go eventually. Still, that was probably about as unenjoyable to discover the hard way for my mom as it gets. We're all sub 5'6" here (that's under 168cm for you metric folks out there), and the cabinets are designed for much taller people. The top shelf was about two feet (61cm) above my head, so that means a bunch of cups, thermoses, glasses, etc tumbled out when my mom went to get her morning coffee...

How very frustrating.

Mom's been wanting new cabinets for the last decade or so, so maybe that'll happen now (lol).

Anywho, that's all from me for today.

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Thursday Art Walk

 

In Which There Are Updates & Art!

First and foremost, my dad was diagnosed with COVID last week, which sucked big time. No one enjoyed that. 0/10 do not recommend. I'm pleased to be able to say he's already recovered and testing negative! Fortunately, my mom & I were masking and washing and disinfecting and avoiding each other as much as possible, so we've both tested negative, too.

Unfortunately, this is Summer in the Northeast, which means weird air quality, high humidity, and air pressure weirdness, and even more unfortunately, my mom and I have trash sinuses.

So of course, we exhibit sinus infection symptoms all summer.

Which are, of course, also largely Covid Symptoms.

Imagine my deep relief when I tested negative. It's been rough.

Since it's High Summer, high moisture, and high temperatures, I've been struggling to get enough sleep, struggling to get enough to drink, struggling to maintain my salts & minerals, etc.

I didn't like my gums' color today so I snagged a G Zero out of the fridge.

I forgot how much I hate G Zero.

I used to love orange Gatorade. Used to chug it.

Now, the sucralose makes me shudder and there's something in the mix that stings my throat (and it is just the Gatorade, my throat does not sting with water, cranberry juice, or coffee). Maybe there's some kind of melon extract. I should probably not risk it again.

So that was a low point this afternoon.

In other news, I managed to do some art!

"Dedbert"; watercolor pencil and micron pen; 2023
[DEDBERT]

I've been toying with a few other pieces today, but they're not coming together like I hoped, so I'll just table them til next week.

For now, though, I've been up since 5AM and could really use a power nap or something.

Also probably another gallon of water to get the sucralose flavor out of my mouth, eugh.

If you'd like to have a say in what I draw or paint next week, drop me a donation over on Ko-Fi with a message telling me what category (Animal, Vegetable, Mineral, Food, Dedbert, Location, Geometric, Word) and I'll doodle something up to post on the blog!

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Thursday Art Walk

 

In Which Today's Art is... Prestigious

Today's art was brought to you by Z, who bought me a coffee and asked for a DEDBERT drawing! I was, as always, very excited to draw my boy, so here he is channeling his inner Zatara and performing some magic for us!

"Prestige"; colored pencil & micron pen; 2022

Dug out an old sketchbook of mine to do this. Unfortunately, this sketchbook is too chonky to go in my scanner (if the thing is works again...), so I had to snap a pic and upload it.

I love how he always looks faintly bored with anything he's doing! He's just so... mono-expressive, and yet that single look conveys so much lol!

If you'd like to have a say on what I draw next week, feel free to buy me a coffee over on Ko-fi with a message telling me what category you'd like to see next. This week's was "DEDBERT", for instance!

Available categories are:

• Animal
• Vegetable
• Mineral
• Dedbert
• Location
• Geometric
• Word

Anywho, minor self-advertising aside, I'm looking forward to sketching and writing more this month.

Yes, it's NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month), so I'll be working even harder than usual on my various manuscripts. I'm hoping to make some real headway this month, too.

I'm not, however, ascribing to the, frankly insane, wordcounts recommended by some people doing NaNoWriMo. No, your manuscript does not have to be 80k-100k words long for the love of God.

You're not Stephen King.

You're don't need to write 1200 words a day. You don't need to avoid sleep or food or hygiene to get your book done.

Just... write.

Just sit down and write a sentence.

Will you finish your novel this month? Probably not. It's an unrealistic expectation for a world where a lot of aspiring writers work 40-90 hours a week.

Just write one sentence after another as often and as long as you can without causing yourself undue hardship. Don't skip meals. Don't skip sleep. Don't skip hanging out with friends. Don't deny yourself your life while you're writing.

Your book is in you. You're just putting it down into writing. It's not as scary or complex as you think it is. You can do that. You can write your book.

And so can I!

By the way, if you're more art focused and feel a bit of FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) with NaNoWriMo, then you could try writing/drawing a graphic novel of some sort? They're usually much shorter than a novel, but that's because you're cutting out most of the visual detail in the writing process and putting it into the art process! I still recommend writing out a script for a comic or graphic novel - that way you have a plan for what you're going to do!

Heck, if you're an artist who wants to branch out into writing, you can also use Visual Storyboarding to help you work out what you'll write! Basically, just storyboard out a scene, image by image, and then try to write out what you just drew - describe it! Writing is just describing life, whether or not that life you're describing is or was happening in the real world.

Anywho, that'll about do it for me. I'm a little bran-jellied from the art and I'm gonna try to figure out my next move in my manuscript.

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Thursday Art Walk

 

In Which I Attempt More Digital Art!

I am still 100% a novice at digital art, and I really don't know what I'm doing. I tried to use Krita today and all I can say is that either that program hates my XP Pen Star G430S, or I just cannot effectively use it. I just wanted to draw an outline! When I would start my line, the program would either hesitate and then hurry to catch up with me (which sucked, because I was tracing a pencil sketch), or it would pop up a menu.

I don't particularly like radial menus to begin with, so imagine my dismay when one kept popping up when I just wanted to trace an owl...

So I switched programs back to Paint.net.

I know, I know, Paint.net is more like photoshop than an actual art app (despite the name...), but it's what I've been practicing with for the past 5 years.

Yeah...

Progress is slow.

Anyway, I started with a sketch of Dedbert and his Pink Owl Ladyfriend (whose name he will not tell me) brewing coffee together!

As You Can See, It Was A Very Rough Sketch

I loved the composition, but I thought it was perhaps a bit too close to the bottom and off-center, so when I scanned it, I tried to move it around. Didn't 100% work, but it was cute.

From there, I started trying to outline the piece. Like I said, Krita was not cooperating with my tablet for that, so I went with Paint.net and scribbled the outline in with a gray tone. I actually liked the scribbly, scratchy outline I got from there, so I stuck with that and intentionally overran some of the colors when I laid them down!

I tried just doing flat colors, but that was less interesting than just the outline, somehow, so I did some experimenting with dark tones and transparency and managed to put down a shading layer!

If anyone wants to give me some direct pointers, maybe some links to some tutorials for absolute newbie beginners who've never used Photoshop or anything like that, please, please feel free to send me a message on here or Twitter. Links will work better on Twitter, tbh.

"Happy Owlloween!"; digital; 2022

On another note, this was a Ko-Fi mini-commission! I got a nice little donation with a message telling me my benefactor wanted to see a DEDBERT piece, so that's what my donor gets!

If you'd like to have a say in next week's piece, please feel free to hit that Ko-Fi donation button on the sidebar and include a message with your donation telling me which category (Animal, Vegetable, Mineral, Dedbert, Location, Word, Geometric) you'd like and I'll make something next Thursday!!!

I think that'll about do it for me today, guys!

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Thursday Art Walk

 

In Which I Have Squares, More Squares, And A Goomba.

"Squares 1.0" digital art; 2022

I... screwed up. Big time. See, I forgot to set things to "Nearest Neighbor" and "lock aspect ratio"... and it's now perma-blurred. Balls. I'll have to try again, sadly. Maybe this time I'll do it with fewer colors & more pixels? It's a fun project though!!!

Regardless, I also have a bit of a product review!

I recently bought some more Peter Pauper Press goodies - namely some watercolor brush markers! I decided to swatch them up and try to make a painting with them. There's 24 brushes plus one water brush (yes another one).

I swatched up the colors to see how they worked!

Swatches!

All of these colors are very bright and saturated and delightful, the paint goes on strong and thick and did I mention bright? Yeah, they're BRIGHT. They respond well to water when you try to blend, and they have absolutely no smell! There's a good variety of colors, too. Plenty of different tones.

These would probably work really well for someone who wanted to do watercolor lettering or illustration (which it suggests on the shockingly sturdy plastic box), and they seem like they'd be great for travel.

My only issues are that the brown brush has a loose cap so it's already dried out (I only got to use it once and now it's.... not really working anymore, sadly) and that the colors do not have names anywhere on them.

That being said, I really do think they're nifty!

And since it's March 10, I figured I'd get in on the Mar10 day shenanigans!

"Goombye-bye"; Watercolor brush marker; 2022

Don't worry, Dedbert isn't gonna hurt the Goomba, he's just gonna drop him off at the nearest warp pipe! (Not that the Goomba understands what's happening lol).

Alright, that'll about do it for me today. Don't know why I'm so tired, but here we are, 9:30 at night on a week night and I already want to curl up with some fun videos and a nice chat with my guy, maybe drift off to the sounds of a cute beagle who likes neither cats nor pools...

Go Enjoy Something, guys!

FC

Thursday Art Walk

In Which I Review A Palette!

 Christmas saw me getting a lot (and I mean a lot) of pajamas, but also some other fun stuff, including a very cool blue sweater and a gift card to a local bookstore from my younger sibling! It has taken me until now to use that gift card, and here is what I got:

The Peter Pauper Press Studio Series Watercolor Field Kit
With 48 Brilliant Colors!

This kit fits in my purse, is easy to carry, is relatively strong plastic, opens easily, and does in fact contain everything advertised (mixing palette, 48 colors, aqua brush, sturdy case, and a sponge). It has a foldable loop on the bottom for easy balancing in one hand.

The mixing palette lifts out on pegs!

Those are some fresh paints lol

A clearer view of the paints

A Swatch using both paints & brush!

So let's talk contents. 

The palette is a palette. There's not a ton to talk about with it - it works and it's pretty decent!

The sponge is a tiny sponge, and I don't hold much hope for its long-term survival, nor am I 100% certain what the sponges are used for, since I usually travel with tissues that I use for cleanup.

The brush... the brush is weird. I've used water brushes before, but they're usually as easy to fill as "unscrew brush from handle, pour water into handle, screw back together, voila". This one is... weird. It has a little black thingy over the opening in the handle when you unscrew it, and that prevents you from just filling it from the tap like the other water brushes I have. It's also very short, so it doesn't hold very much water when you do fill it, which you do by holding it underwater, squeezing the air out of it, and letting the water fill it up. The whole time, you've got your hand underwater and cold and it feels like you're going to break the brush handle. All in all, the worst water brush I've ever used, filling-wise. Actually using it is great, though. It seems to have a more consistent flow than other brushes. I'd say it evens out, frustration in filling vs ease of use.

As for the paints, they're pretty! They're very nice, and they go on very smooth! They do smell... bandaid-y, though. That's odd, but not too unusual for watercolors lol. I think they just contain a lot of gum arabic. No idea about their lightfastness, but since this is a travel set, rather than a proper in-studio set of paints, I'm gonna say they'd be ideal for watercolor sketching rather than permanent art. I will also say that some of the colors are water-hogs. That second lavender on the 4th row down especially soaks up water when you dampen the pans and it ends up not looking like any of the paint reconstituted. Don't believe its lies, it's perfectly fine, it just doesn't swell lol.

The pans after the first wetting/use, also the brush.

One last note on that weird lil water brush: it stains just the same as all the other nylon-tipped water brushes I've used lol. Does anyone else have that problem? It doesn't spread the color, it just completely stains!

But as we all know, the real test of a watercolor kit isn't what it looks like or smells like in a box or on swatches, it's what it looks like when you use it! And here we see my first use of this kit:

"Sketching With Dedbert"; PPP watercolor on watercolor paper with Micron ink; 2022

I think that with a more robust brush, this paint will be fantastic even at home, and on the go I usually have at least 3 brushes on-hand at any given time just bc I'm paranoid about running out of water (a real concern with the weird filling-method on this new one!). I did forget to erase the pencil lines, so sorry about that! But this was a lot of fun, and it's given me ideas on what else to do with my future art!

And that about covers today's art adventure! My conclusion is this: this kit is worth the $20 I spent on it and I encourage anyone on the fence as to whether or not to pick up a Peter Pauper Press field kit to go for it!

Don't forget to Go Enjoy Something!!!

Thursday Art Walk

 

Still sleepy as heck, but I still drew/painted a bit

Some weeks, you slam out a bunch of amigurumi and paintings, and some weeks you want to crawl into hibernation and do nothing whatsoever. This has been one of the latter weeks. Is this burnout? Eh, maybe. I still *want* to draw and paint I'm just super sleepy.

Part of the reason I'm so tired is the oft-mentioned pilling of my cat. The last few pillings have been pretty hard - she's been stealthily spitting the pills out, and she went on a hunger strike that just made the antibiotics hurt her belly, so that has sucked. She finally ate tonight after giving her a bunch of choices (including cold oatmeal and lettuce because she's weird), and she let us pill her at 8PM so that was nice.

Another reason for my chronic sleepiness is that it's deeeeeep winter where I live. Yes, there are colder places and snowier places even in this state, but let me just say I'm glad today was 32℉ (0℃) because on Saturday it'll feel like -26℉ (-32℃) and I am not at all down with that.

Thank goodness I have warm fuzzy things to wear and curl up in (like the sweater I made! And some cozy pajamas I got for Christmas along with some super comfy slippers)!

I also have my boy Dedbert to keep me company.

"Here Comes The Boy"; watercolor pencil & Pigma micron; 2022

I hope I can get together enough motivation and focus to do more art next week. I'd really like to be making more art! Hopefully after I'm done pilling the cat, I'll be more rested and can do more & better art.

How is the winter treating y'all? Hope you're warm and safe (or cool & safe if you're in the southern hemisphere!). 

That'll do it for me tonight lol.

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Thursday Art Walk

 

In Which I have HAD A DAY....

I have been painting all. freaking. day.

And I failed.

I failed so hard.

What I was trying to do was a wet-on-wet splotch background using all of the paints I currently have.

What I ended up with was a mess because my dumb butt forgot to turn off all my fans, so the "wet" part just... dried up. And puddled.

It was bad. Don't believe me?

An Attempt Was Made

I tried, guys. I really tried. And it almost looks cool, but the hope was to use that as a background, and it's waaaaaaaaaaay too saturated for that.

So I tried again! This time I wanted to paint lines, so I did that... but...

Cue Sad Trombone...

I think the worst part is that it almost looks interesting.

But almost doesn't make the grade, my peeps. It simply does not.

I have been cranky and grumpy and really, really disappointed all day because of this nonsense, and my poor boyfriend has had to hear it allllllllllllll. I probably whined for 40 minutes about how it just wouldn't cooperate.

But as you might have noticed from the doodle up top, not all is lost, because Sharpie and some random fineliners I snagged at one of our local bookstores had my back and I whipped out these lil Dedbert drawings in five minutes flat!

"Fine."; marker on printer paper; 2021

And thus ends the saga of the no-good, very bad, awful crappy art day.

Lol I just noticed that you can see the greeting card I was using to protect my notebook from marker bleedthrough...

Anywho, yeah, sometimes you can work very hard and still not have your project work out. And sometimes walking away and coming back later doesn't help. Sometimes even starting over doesn't work. Sometimes you just need to do something else lol!

So I hope y'all are having an easier time than me, creatively!

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Thursday Art Walk

 

In Which There Is A Lot Of Cold and Cheese...

I've been hard at work drawing today! Feels good to get something I said I'd do done. Which is a horrible sentence, but hey, I drew! I don't care!

And what did I draw?

Well, a couple of things, to be honest.

See, it's suddenly freezing (literally) cold again. It was all of 31℉ (-0.5℃) when I got up, and there were these horrid little flurries coming down. The birds outside were very confused.

Someone else was furious...

"What the Heck, Spring?!"; colored pencil on legal size printer paper; 2021

Poor Dedbert is not happy that his nice warm days have suddenly been interrupted by fluffy white nonsense fluttering down from a gray, dreary sky!

Thankfully, though, the snow isn't sticking around, and we should get back to springtime sooner rather than later!

Now, my other piece is somehow even sillier, and it also has to do with something white, though this something is delicious rather than precipitous. In fact, it's so delicious, it's begun to infuriate my partner with its awesomeness.

It's cheese, guys.

We're both obsessed with cheese, to be fair.

My partner is also obsessed with wombats - the adorable furry tank of a marsupial that digs burrows in Australia and whose closest cousin is the adorable, yet incredibly dumb, koala.

So I combined those wonderful things :P

"Triple Cream?!?!?!"; colored pencil and gel pen on legal size printer paper; 2021

This is Wommie. He is 100% obsessed with how perfect and delicious brie is, and he's just discovered triple cream brie - which is, in his opinion, overkill. I mean, he's still gonna eat it, don't get me wrong, but he's a bit overwhelmed at the thought of that much cream!

A minor disclaimer here, though - 99.999% of the wombat population cannot and should not eat brie, since they're herbivores and tend to have a hard time digesting dairy. Wommie is special. He's downright magical.

He also has a hard time with his R's, but that's because of the way his mouth is built. It's made for eating roots and grasses, not pronouncing silly human words!

Anywho, I'm ready for a break! If you've made something today, go ahead and tell me about it!

And Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Thursday Art Walk

 

In Which I Made A Lil Drawing!

Considering the date, y'all are probably expecting some kind of prank, right?

Well I guess that's my prank - not posting a joke art :P

April Fools?

But I did draw a little something to share with you folks!

"Owl Be There For You"; mechanical pencil, ballpoint pen, crayon; 2021

These two are so freakin cute!

I've been playing a lot of Pokemon Moon lately (what can I say, I like bats!) and named my Rowlet after Dedbert, so here they are, meeting each other. I mostly call my Rowlet "Junior" anyway, so he and Dedbert are sharing their favorite crescent-shaped treats - Rainbow Pokebeans and crescent rolls!

I love how easy Rowlet is to draw, since he's 90% ovals, much like Dedbert is 90% circles!

Actually, now that I think about it, most of my favorite creatures can be reduced to simple geometry... new idea? Maybe. We'll see.

I think I might do some more fan art at some point, but for now, just coo with me at how stinkin cute these two are :P

As for me, I need to finish this massive cup of coffee and then vacuum a bit, so here - rock out to the best boss music in Moon - Guzma's Theme while you

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Thursday Art Walk: Year End Birb

 

In Which I Got Art Supplies And Made An Art!

At long last, it's the final day of the Year of the Dumpster Fire. I'm not going to get all hopeful and say that 2021 is gonna be any better, but I'm glad that this year is finally closing out. So today I made some art to celebrate the final day. Dang, if I was a more thinky person I'd have made a Majora's Mask-based image. Instead, I just bring you something I made with my brand new art supplies!

The Supplies in question!

Both metallic and glittery gel pens!

I haven't used gel pens since probably 2008? So after 12 years of not fiddling around with them, I'm pretty thrilled with what I came up with!

"Farewell to 2020"; gel pen on sketch pad; 2020

I'm pretty pleased with how that worked out! And I can't even see the worst mistake - a blob of black ink got stuck to my hand and smeared on the bottom of the banner where the first 2 of the 2021 is. That's why I included 2021 lol.

I'm really pleased with how the plaid came out, and I think I should thank DrawingWiffWaffles on YouTube for that, since she draws a lot of plaid on her awesome illustrations, and that's what gave me the courage to try it! I think it came out pretty cute, especially considering that I initially just scribbled it in with the metallic red and layered the glitter red and glitter black on top lol.

I hope to use these pens more often in the future and try out some of the cool challenges I see on the internet (though don't expect greatness from challenges, I'm still learning how to control my flabby fingers lol).

I hope that the year did not crush your spirit, that your creativity is intact no matter what your medium may be, and that over the next twelve months, you're able to create and share and sell your art. I want to read your books. I want to see your art. I want to hear your music and poetry. I want to walk into the buildings you design or decorate. I want to try your patterns and recipes. And I want you to know that whatever you created this year? It was worth the effort you put in! Even if it was just the outline of your novel or the barest sketch, I'm proud of you. Even if you were only able to think about your art for five minutes a day, I'm proud of you, because it was hard this year, and everything you tried artistically was important!

I love you all!

Happy New Year!

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Thursday Art Walk - Final Witches and Faux Marketing

 

In Which There Are Witches
And Dedbert Has Ideas

It's been an exciting week, artistically, since last we blathered! I finished the last of my witches for Witchtober 2020, and they look pretty rad, if I do say so myself lol!

"Elizabeth"; Wildcard Witch; 2020

I may have taken Elizabeth's prompt a bit too seriously. I know that when you have a prompt list, like that of A_Ginger_Witch's, the term "Wildcard" tends to mean "Draw Whatever You Want," but I hate having that kind of freedom during a challenge (weird, I know). I just decided, you know what? 1910s witch lady playing cards. Her pose was awkward without something for her to rest her hand on, and I didn't want to draw a boring old table, so I gave her a weird looking dog. I look forward to redrawing her some day, because she's awesome and I love her outfit.

"Capy"; Pumpkin Witch; 2020

I couldn't not draw a capybara as a witch, guys. It was a requirement. After all, I was a capybara for Halloween this year, complete with a crocheted tangerine on a headband lol.

There they are! The final witches of 2020! But I finished those on Halloween, so what did I do for today?!

Dedbert was chatting with his dad, my partner, the other day, and they were talking about the Ovaltine I'd made earlier. Dedbert was a bit upset that owls cannot drink Ovaltine, so he has decided to make a malted beverage for owls! Being a very proud parent, I, of course, want to support my boy in all of his endeavors, so this is what we came up with:

"Owlvaltine! This New Malted Beverage is Really For The Birds!"; digital; 2020

Isn't he a clever young fellow?

That's my boy :)

Alright, that'll about do it for me this week!

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

Thursday Art Walk 313

In Which There Is A New Friend

So, for a while now, I have been bringing you pictures of my boy, Dedbert (seen at the top of basically every blog for a while now), but he's usually by himself. I don't want you to get the wrong idea, though. He's not a lonely birb. He has friends.

"Friendship"; ballpoint pen on sketch pad; 2020

I plan on coloring this in later, and if I can get my drawing pad working, I'd love to start doing digital art of this pair.

... it's also now occurring to me that I have never asked Dedbert his friend's name. This isn't the only bunny he's friends with, either - he's got a small brown and white adoptive brother named Benjamin, after all. (I've had BB since I was very, very young, almost as long as Patches, the plaid-pawed bear, and Mr. Bear, the white bear with the red bowtie).

I think I may start making pictures of all of Dedbert's friends and family, actually :)

That might be a lot of fun.

Anyway, it's pretty crummy out today - cloudy, drizzly, not that warm. Thankfully, this drizzle should stop soon, but it's still going to be hovering just above freezing (and it will feel colder) tonight. Thank goodness for gloves and hats and scarves.

I'm also thankful to everyone who pops in to check out what I'm doing, lately. I see you in my analytics, and even though you're all quite quiet, it's good to know you're swinging by. Dedbert and I are grateful.

I think that'll about do it for me, today.

I'm going to go check out how my Dedbert's siblings are doing, since most of them moved into the closet to hoard the VHS tapes...

Enjoy Something!
FC

Thursday Art Walk 312: Art Block And Overcoming it

In Which Sometimes Everyone Gets Stuck

Art block can happen to anyone who makes art at any point in their careers/hobbies. It can happen multiple times. It can persist for an exceedingly long time, but the important thing to remember is that, despite what your self-doubt is telling you, it's not because you're a bad artist. Maybe you've run out of ideas, or your ideas are bigger than you think you can handle, or maybe you're just not motivated, but none of this makes you a bad artist or a bad person.

Sometimes it's just procrastination because you fear failure - spending hours on a piece only to hate it to death once you've decided you're finished is excruciating, but it's part of making art. Sometimes we don't like what we produce, and it can make us very prone to giving up or not wanting to try again.

But that's not how art works, right? You know that!

Art is 100% practice.

It's a secret that no one likes to believe because we've all had that one classmate or relative who puts pen to page and produces beautiful work like it's second nature (and it may be!), but here's what that person likely never told you:

They have Art Block and Self-Doubt, too.

Unless they're a narcissist, then it's just not fair to everyone else :|

But yeah, everybody fails sometimes, everyone struggles to see the worth of their art, and everyone stares at a blank canvas or page or notebook, or through the viewfinder of their camera or GoPro or whatever, and has no idea what to put into it. Everyone is out here fighting to pour out their art into the world.

And sometimes it's a slog.

Art isn't always fun. Sometimes it's fighting the urge to break your pencil in half because it's your last one and the sketch is just not coming together. Sometimes it's staring down at an entire day's effort and realizing you have to do it all over again because something is fundamentally off. Sometimes you're bored to tears because this is the 80th time you've tried to draw that damn penguin and it's just... it looks like a panda and a peanut had a very productive New Year's Eve or something...

Sometimes, the joy of creation is actually a miserable wallow, and it can be hard to come back from that.

And sometimes you just... don't feel like making art. Even though you know you should (or you need to for a class or your job or something).

If you don't feel the art, then how do you make it happen?

You follow the advice of those dumb Nike ads, is what.

You just... get it done.

How do you start? Well, for me, I just... doodle. I start sketching out vague shapes on the page until I can start filling in the details into something more picture-like.

Sometimes that's enough.

Sometimes, I'll just find a poem and break it down into coordinates, then have the internet give me a random pallet of colors and make a bubble art from that. It's not always pretty, but at least I've started something!

Today, I did the doodle shape approach and came out with something that I actually think is adorable:

"Radbert"; permanent marker and ballpoint pen on printer paper; 2020

It's a blurry photo because I had a cat on my lap (she's still there, guys, she won't move, I have to pee so bad...), but there's my little dude pulling some (I'm sure) sick tricks or something on a skateboard. He also found a clip-on earring somewhere lol.

The shapes I started with were a long horizontal oval and a circle (the board and his body). From there, I started filling in Dedbert's recognizable features and suddenly I knew what I was drawing. At first, it was going to be a surfboard, but I think Dedbert is feeling more 90s than 80s, so skateboard it is!

Fun fact: I can't skateboard. I've never had the balance.

But yeah, doing something artlike while you're not feeling the art can absolutely help trigger your creativity, so I recommend arting when you don't want to art. It can be as simple as sketches or as silly as just mushing up some Play-Doh while you're staring into space, but creation begets creation, and there's very little better than that feeling of accomplishment when you've wrestled something from nothing.

I hope you all have creative days!

Stay safe out there.

I love you all.

Go Enjoy Something!
FC

Thursday Art Walk 311: March Weather

In Which It Is Definitely March

It's a gorgeous day out there, today. The sun is shining, the birds are going around and doing happy early spring bird things, and it's 46℉(7.8℃)!

The wind is also screaming through the trees and tried to toss me into the bay, yesterday.

Seriously, we've got gusts up to 24mph (38.6kph)! It feels like 37℉(2.8℃).

It's 100%, absolutely certainly March.

"March Weather"; ballpoint pen and graphite on printer paper; 2020

Poor Dedbert has to stay inside today, lest he take an accidental flying lesson he didn't sign up for!

I'll be heading out into the maelstrom soon enough, returning a sack of bottles for the deposit and meeting up at the library in anticipation of another day talking about books, writing, and all the nerdy things we love with my partner.

It's a beautiful day for it.

If a windy one.

Go Enjoy Something!
FC