Thursday Art Walk 327: It's still Thursday... I think

In Which I Am Making It Just Under the Deadline...

I promised artwork, but I am afraid I'm not... technically delivering.

Instead, you're getting a work in progress. Literally, I'm still making the background for this piece!

"Noir 01"; digital WIP 2020

Doesn't look like much, does it?

Those blobs/dots/etc are going to eventually form a misty background upon which I shall make a scene from a noir story I've had percolating, but for now, it's just a strange collection of color and shapes.

I'm using a 1986 edition of The Novels of Dashiell Hammett, which I picked up for a song at a local bookstore that's closing soon.

I've been working on that all day. You wouldn't think it'd take so long, but there's a lot of math and delicate work involved. Also, I've been busy with a thousand other things (like every other living person under the sun) like self-maintenance, laundry, and making sure the cat doesn't literally claw the house down around us. Whee.

But now, I shall post this unfinished first step, and I'll get ready for bed.

Go Enjoy Something!
FC

Talk About Tuesday 327: Keys Spider Doors and Pizza

In Which I Derp

Today was a fairly good day, high in the upper 70s (~25℃), partly to mostly cloudy, breezy, but humid as heck. All in all, a very good day to be productive with my partner in the Writing Camper. But as often happens, I managed to botch things in a new and surprising way.

It's been about a decade since the last time I was locked out of my house, but I made 2 fatal errors today:

1) I left my keys upstairs in my bedroom instead of bringing them out with me, and

2) I neglected to mention that our door sometimes decides it wants to be locked if you turn the knob all the way.

At some point during a bathroom break, the handle got turned all the way around and the door locked. No problem, right? Just have someone else unlock the door!

Everyone was out of town.

My keys, as I mentioned, were far beyond my reach.

So I tried everything I could think of to get inside.

I should mention that I was in a semi-panic because of a few reasons:

1) It looked like it could rain any minute, and I don't trust the 1997 pop-up camper with tarps bungied over the canvases because they're rotted.

2) We'd just eaten a very beautifully cooked Philly Steak & Cheese pizza from Dominos and the American cheese was doing terrific things to our innards that required speedy resolution.

3) I hate looking like an idiot in front of my partner.

So I probably looked like I was breaking into my own home for the better part of a half an hour. I went from door to door, opened the bulkheads, but no dice. I couldn't open a screen. My folks were over 40 miles away having a nice dinner with one of my siblings. That pizza wanted out.

So I tried all the doors again. This time, I grabbed the sickle from the toolshed and used it to cut the rope that holds the front door shut (the screen door slaps open with a stiff breeze, I should get on that).

But no, the front door, a steel behemoth as old as me, was firmly locked.

While I congratulated my family on their security, I also really needed to poop.

So I went back to the bulkhead doors.

Anyone who knows me knows I have a horror of spiders. It's a reflexive fear, but one I can manage if I need to and have space. The bulkhead doors are a literal nesting ground for arachnids.

Why was I going back to the cellar?

Because once upon a time, my father really had to take a dump and had become locked out in much the same way I had, so he had figured out a way to bypass the hefty frost door we installed. Five minutes and much grunting later, I was back inside and hastily shutting the spider doors so that my cat couldn't escape. I repaired the minor damage I'd had to cause to the frost door, and thus was able to unlock the door from the inside so that we could finally, finally purge the American scourge.

Morals:

1) Always remember your keys even if you aren't wearing anything with pockets (which is why I'd left mine inside)

2) If you're going to eat Philly Cheese Steak Pizza, make sure you have access to a bathroom.

3) Have a dad who's really determined to poop in a toilet, rather than try to defecate in the bushes or the woods...

So I'll never be leaving my keys inside while I'm outside again.

Also, I need to remember to put the sickle back tomorrow.

And I probably need better neighbors because I was literally marching around my house, talking to myself, clearly trying to get inside, carrying a freaking sickle, like, the things peasants used to use to harvest wheat, and NOBODY ASKED ANY QUESTIONS.

There were probably a dozen people out there for a birthday party across the street and not a glance was spared us lol.

Probably for the best - it would be difficult to explain that I was under the influence of Dominos and just wanted to go inside my own home.

Which I couldn't have proved it *was* my home.

Because guess what? I also left  my wallet and ID inside.

:|

Still, all's well that ends well, and my home is once again secure.

Also, I managed to write about 500 words while we were in the Writing Camper, so it's basically still a win :P

On a less humorous, yet still highly entertaining note, what do you guys know about Scott Joplin? Because I was thinking about the Father of Ragtime a lot today.

As for the blog:

• I may have plans for tomorrow, but I'm not sure yet - wrestling is a bit of a dumpster fire atm
• Thursday will definitely be art!
• Who knows about Friday, but I may have an idea...
• The weekend is very up-for-grabs
• Next Monday I'll show whatever I'm working on lol.
• Next Tuesday, hopefully I won't lock myself out again, but I'll be back to blather.

On that note, I bid you adieu

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Fiber Monday 327: Laaaaaaaaate

In Which I'm Posting Late

I meant to have this up at around 3pm EST, but as we all know, I suck at posting things on time lol.

Regardless, I'm still looking for my 2.25mm hook, and until I find it, I'm stalled on the DA Lady Sibyl, so I've kept up on the Magnificent Marge Shawl with my 2.75mm/C hook!

I'm 99% done with Part 1: Beautiful Hydrangeas.

I'll probably be starting Part 2: Marge's Handmade Curtains soon!

The weather this weekend was really hot on Friday, but Saturday and Sunday were cooler, with today being more of a standard early summer day in the mid to upper 70s (about 23-26℃), started foggy but cleared off and now it's pretty toasty in my room while I work. Also, I received a nice gift today of Love and Other Wounds by Jordan Harper, a short story collection! I really loved Harper's book She Rides Shotgun, which is a fantastic Grit-Lit fiction about a father and daughter on the run from white supremacists. I took it out of the library literally the day before the Lockdown began up here :|


I think I'll go grab a night time cuppa coffee (at the big-time) and settle in for the evening, probably play a little Breath of the Wild, watch a bunch of fun vids on the Tube, etc.

Stay safe, stay well, take as many precautions as you can, and above all,

Stay Cwispy

Uh, I mean

Go Enjoy Something!
FC

Thursday Art Walk 326

In Which I Do The Work

In my continued quest to learn more about digital art, I've begun a larger-scale painting! This was a friendly request I received - a scene from my yard:

"Chippy" base sketch and blocked-in colors; digital art; 2020

It's not, I'll admit, even quite approximating what I want it to look like, but I think I can get there! The canvas, by the way, is HUGE - possibly 20" x 20". Usually I'm working on, at max 800 pixels square.

Colorstudy 3; digital, 2020

Now the second piece I started on a 50"x50" canvas, but it turned out I needed way less than that. Think maybe 10 x 24...

Regardless, I like the peaceful green and purple tones to this semi-grayscale painting :)

My final thoughts on today: it was hot outside. Like, 80℉+ (26.7℃+), slightly more humid than I like, so it was banaaaaaaanas. I could barely concentrate, and I just now realized that all I've eaten today were a handful of animal crackers and a couple of umaibo snacks... thank goodness dinner is coming up soon lol.

That'll about do it for me, today!

Go Enjoy Something!
FC

Talk About Tuesday 326

I am so delightfully tired!

Today was a very good day for me. It was a beautiful day, with a high of about 76℉ (24.4℃), a light breeze, not much by way of clouds, and not very humid. In short, it was perfect out there. My partner and I retired out to the 1990s pop-up camper my dad's restoring and did some writing work on our respective novels (I can't wait to read my partner's novel!!!). We were even able to share a meal outside with some friends (social distancing was in effect, but we were super happy to see each other.

We were trying a new place that offered bahn mi sandwiches and bulgogi beef tacos (among a lot of other things) and it was all extraordinarily good.

But more than the food, it was nice to be outside with people I like, and while I doubt that'll happen a ton over the next few weeks, it was nice :)

So yeah, today was eating, socializing, and writing. I also did a little inking on some art I'll photograph for Thursday. You'd think I'd be wide awake.

I could nap at any moment. And by nap, I mean sink into the mire and delightful dredge that is true sleep until the first stinging rays of dawn swim through my window and prick my eyes awake.

I'll be working more on the book this month, so regularly scheduled updates are... unlikely, you may have noticed. Apologies.

But I think it'll be worth it when the book is done.

Go Enjoy Something, guys :)
FC

Fiber Monday 326: Shawl For All

In Which I Am Going HAM... ish.

So, I kinda missed my weekend blog. Oops. In my defense, I was writing up a storm. I've been writing today, too, but I also have been working on a new shawl!

A closeup, upside down. Bc I'm fancy like that.

But FC! What about the DA Lady Sibyl?!

Uh... I have to find my 2.5mm hook again. It must've fallen out of the project bag either across my room or somewhere else! Until I find it, I'll be working on the Magnificent Marge Shawl! So... keep your eyes peeled for that, I guess lol.

But yeah, I've been super busy with my novel and stuff, so it looks like my kind-of-a-hiatus-but-not-really will continue. After a whole year of almost 0 missed days, I think 2020 will be a return to my original schedule of "when I get to it" for this blog.

But fret not - I think Tuesdays will be a 100% guarantee, though they'll probably pop up later in the day (like this one did).

For today, here's a weird dream I had:

Where I live, there's a lot of abandoned factory buildings, and in this dream, someone had taken one of those factories (a woolen mill, actually) and converted it into a creative space for people who were making cloth and fiber related items. It was called the Fiber Factory, and there was a small museum dedicated to the history of the mill and its lifetime on the first floor with a fairly large gift shop as well. The gift shop was where the people who worked there sold their wares - rugs, blankets, clothing, skeins of hand-dyed yarn... it was pretty cool!

There were offices and common areas on the upper floors where people were working on things and even producing YouTube videos and stuff.

The cafeteria (yeah, there was a cafeteria) was basically an automat.

I can clearly remember the faces of everyone I saw on what was essentially a guided tour, and they were all people I've seen at local craft fairs.

It'd be pretty cool if something like that existed.

Until then, I'll just have to finish setting up my Etsy shop and sell the Pumpkin Set I made last year and hopefully this shawl I'm making right now.

If you're looking for things to buy from me in the meantime, though, feel free to check out my Redbubble store!

And if you're just gonna head on out now, go ahead :)

Go Enjoy Something!
FC

Thursday Art Walk: Digital Inclusion

In Which I Have Continued My Experimentation!

I don't think I've rendered Dedbert in Digital yet, so here you guys go: my attempt at a Dedbert digital painting.

"LGBirbTQ"; digital, 2020

I'd like to return to this idea when I'm a better artist in digital - some of the balloons are really wonky, and I want to do more shading on Dedbert, but since this took all of my hand strength and patience, I think that's a very good first go for the Birb Himself.

Check out some more art today, if you're feeling down in this rainy nonsense (it's really gross here right now, I'm sure it's lovely where some of you are and I won't lie, I'm jelly as heck), and even if you're not feeling bleh, still look for good art wherever you can find it!

Art is awesome.

Go Enjoy Something!
FC

Also, this design is available on my Redbubble!