Talk About Tuesday

 

In Which I Ate A LOT of Cheese this Week and it's only Tuesday...

American Independence Day has come and gone, and it was a weird one this year. I went to a concert in the rain so I could celebrate my dad getting a tile at the veterans' monument in my town (he's not dead - the monument is for literally anyone who served or is serving in any branch of the Armed Forces...), got soaked, and then was able to meet up with my partner as a bit of a surprise.

We celebrated this surprise visit with a block of brie and some summer sausage while watching a bunch of Irish Lads talk about the Hobbit movie. And we also ordered a pizza and bread bites. Which we annihilated and washed down with Coke & Mt Dew...

Yes, I'm that gluttonous. No, I don't regret it.

Yes, I'll absolutely do it again some day.

That being said, I really should be kinder to my poor body - it puts up with rather a lot from me.

So of course Monday saw me jamming it full of too much coffee and hot chocolate.

Today, though, I made a little plate (and I mean little - they're 6" plates [approx 15.24cm]) of Cathedral City Vintage Cheddar (10/10 do recommend), some dry salami, four crackers and a cup of tropical fruit.

I have eaten that and two Strawberry Pop Tarts today. Plus 2 cups of mocha and a half liter of water. I already feel better lol!

This might sound weird, but I don't really have any major plans for this week - I've got ideas but I haven't got a clue how to get started on them, so I don't want to blather on about things right now. I have the most tentative of tentative plans for this week:

• Go shopping for snax & random stuff on Wednesday
• Maybe see if I can repot my watercolor paints
• Check prices on watercolor pencils
• Look for my set of watercolor pencils even though I know half of them are shattered inside
• Gather a bunch of reference images
• Test-Sketch some ideas out
• Try to walk a couple miles by Sunday
• Drink more water
• Eat more cheese because it's delicious
• Try to paint some more

We'll see how many of these I get done this week lol!

As for today, it's hot in my room, warm downstairs, and hot in the sun. The ambient temp is about 78℉ (25.6℃) with about 68% humidity. It's partly sunny out there, and the squirrels have been play-fighting all day. My cat has become obsessed with my tote filled with torn pants I want to make things out of. I am wearing yoga pants and a Peanut Butter Gamer t-shirt because I had no plans to leave the house today and have succeeded in those plans lol.

Is anyone else feeling the inertia this week? Is it just me? Are things you love coming harder? Or am I just overtired and under-exercised...

It's probably that last one :|

Anywho, I'm going to go try to figure out how to draw various goofy animals as Japanese warriors.

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Thursday Art Walk

 

Guess Who Forgot To Post Until Midnight Again?!

I have no excuse. Today wasn't even that hot - it never got above 75℉ (23.9℃) outside, was barely sunny, and never got above 80℉ (26.7℃) in the house. I just... never got around to posting. I didn't even get around to sketching today. It was a very hard-to-focus kind of day.

I lost track of time, conversations, random crap around the house, and I spent three minutes looking for my razor in the shower when I was holding it in my other hand. It's just... it's been that kind of day.

So sorry it took me so long to post!

But I do have at least one image for this week:

"Misty Afternoon 1"; watercolor on watercolor paper; 2021

For having limited lighting, no plan, and having completely forgotten my techniques, I'm pretty okay with how this little waterdoodle came out! I'll be doing other landscapes and hopefully a cityscape some time (hmmm... violet does make a very nice sky, especially when it fades to rose...) - and I have some killer sketch ideas thanks to some friends of mine!

Now, just so I don't keep harping on how much I suck I want to immortalize the few things I did manage to do today, focus be damned.

• I managed my first attempt at darning (which I'll show off next Monday I think...)
• I unraveled two failed crochet projects and started another new one
• I learned about the Colosseum in Rome!
• I dug up my favorite summer top!
• I put away two more skeins of yarn
• I obtained a new skein of very pretty cotton yarn
• I finally detangled one of my Big Spools of cotton thread
• Came up with an idea to draw each of my OC Trainers & their starters... Haven't thought about Flare (Crystal) and Sabore (Red) in literal years. Mick (GO!) I see regularly, and I don't even remember what I named my poor Y trainer. I think my Moon trainer is named Haku... Anywho, I'll try to remember everything and throw them onto a page. May have to include a new OC I've been thinking of, too. I'll have to figure out how to draw tattoos though... And Porygon.
• Also dug up some capris I'll probably need tomorrow (if I don't need pants - I heard it might be something ridiculous like 58℉ (14.4℃) somehow!)

That looks... like rather a lot, to be honest.

No wonder I'm tired.

That and it's technically Friday...

Oops!

Well, that'll do it from me for now...

So Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Talk About Tuesday

 

It's too hot

I'm not a summer person. I don't like heat, I don't like humidity, and I don't like the sun.

Unfortunately, like a lot of folks right now, I'm experiencing Summer with a capital S. It's not anywhere close to as hot as it is in the PNW right now, we're only at about 90℉ (32.2℃). With humidity it feels around 97℉ (36.1℃), and it's slowly rolling between partly cloudy and sunnier than an optimist's disposition and twice as obnoxious to my pessimistic tush.

I've drank 2 liters of water today, had a bowl of cereal, ate a handful of cold, wet baby carrots (they were from a leftover veggie tray and still pretty good), and of course had my morning coffee (which was probably a mistake since hot beverages are a bad idea lol). I also took a cool shower (cold showers can cause shock! Just pick a temperature that's juuuust warm enough to be comfortable and don't go any higher!) and dressed in all breathable clothing. Natural fibers like cotton and linen are your friends!

You may have guessed already, but blogs will be slow to appear in hot weather. My laptop heats up quickly and uncomfortably in this heat, and my phone just hates the blog format. My bedroom has no AC, so I'm just cycling the warm updrafts from downstairs and across the hall as opposed to actually cooling down. It's 76℉ (24.4℃) downstairs, but up here has to be at least 82℉ (27.8℃). Thankfully, due to the downstairs AC, the air up here is nowhere near as humid as it could be, so I'm fairly comfortable so long as I take breaks from the laptop and spread out my limbs every so often lol!

But yes, tis very toasty this week. Looking forward to whenever it breaks and hoping it's not a traumatic event like a wind storm or something. It'll totally be a massive weather event, though. It always is.

Three days of light to moderate rain with thunder wouldn't be so bad, though. It'd give me a major chance to focus on my writing, which always goes better with consistent precipitation, weirdly enough.

This week will probably consist of a lot of research into how different people handle different elements in watercolor. I'll watch people make neon signs seem to glow, how they make shadows deeper or lighter, how they approach foggy landscapes or rain, etc.

It's been years since I took a class, and those classes mostly consisted of color theory and avoiding unintentional focal points.

No schedule this week because I have no idea what I'll be up for or when - there's a lot going on.

I will try to keep working on things, though, and I hope you do, too (within reason - don't exhaust yourselves!)

Keep an eye out for the following symptoms as you endure the heat:

• dizziness
• sudden chills
• you were sweating hard but now you suddenly aren't
• muscle cramps/weakness
• lethargy
• diarrhea
• nausea
• sudden/severe headache

If you feel any of that - if you feel off at all - get to shade, get something cool to drink and sip it slowly, place cool cloths or bottles against your lower back, the bottoms of your feet (if you're not diabetic and don't have Reynauds - don't do things that will physically hurt you!), under your arms, etc. You are overheating and if you can't get these symptoms under control in say 30 minutes you should probably go to Urgent Care or (if your symptoms are bad) get to the ER. Heat exhaustion is no joke and since you're probably not a ham, you should not bake yourself.

If you don't have AC/access to AC, make sure you have airflow through your whole living space - one open window on either end helps especially when you run a lot of fans. Block as much sunlight as possible with shades/curtains/tacked up towels or pillowcases/etc. Find cool tile, vinyl, or wood floors to put your bare feet on. Take a cool bath once a day and dip your feet in cool water. Anywhere you can feel a pulse, you can press a cool cloth for some relief.

Please, please, please take care of yourselves, and don't let your pets or kids outside without you - they can burn themselves on sidewalks, cement, fences, etc and none of them can really recognize the signs/symptoms of heat exhaustion or heat stroke.

If you develop little clear bumps on your skin, that's heat rash. Yes, it's usually red bumps, but it's still heat rash. Go cool down.

If you don't think you're thirsty, take a sip of water anyway.

Take care of yourselves out there,

And Stay Inside and Enjoy Something!

Thursday Art Walk

 

In Which I Try Out Some Stuff!!!

Buckle up friends, because this is a saga of me trying to buy art supplies online for the first time in about a decade.

I used to paint with watercolors a lot. I picked it up in college while doing some art requirements and fell in love with how luminous the paints could get, how every aspect of the environment and medium could change the outcome of a painting, how fun it was to layer and adjust different areas of a piece... I just loved everything about watercolor!

Except for how hard it is to do it on a tv tray in a bedroom without a sink nearby.

So when I started seeing ads for water brushes I was ecstatic! Finally, a way to paint with watercolors that wouldn't get everywhere if I, in my eternal clumsiness, knocked an open container of water onto my floor!

And I saw a sale on a site called Arteza.

And I had, for once, a little disposable cash...

It seemed like fate - for the price of a medium cheeseburger pizza with jalapenos from Dominos, I soon had a six-pack of water brushes in various sizes and shapes plus a three-pack of small, hard-cover, ring-bound watercolor notebooks ordered!

The website said 5-7 business days.

It took quite a while for the order to ship, and then I saw my mistake.

Arteza uses DHL.

Not FedEx, not UPS, not even USPS.

DHL.

oy.

So I've never had a good experience with DHL - ordered stuff from Etsy that shipped and then never arrived, ordered things from ebay with the same results, and even had some school books back in college that arrived water damaged.

My excitement waned.

My order shipped separately. The brushes had a slow but smooth trek up the coast to me, but for some reason, the notebooks stalled out in Georgia for about a week.

My excitement was already nearly gone when my dad handed me a tiny six-inch-cube (15.24㎤) box.

A box with a lot of dents...

Names & Addresses redacted of course...

I was unsurprised, given my history with DHL, but hey, at least it didn't seem punctured and nothing rattled when I shook it? But really, that size seemed... suspiciously subpar for a six-pack of brushes on a cardboard backing...

WHAT'S IN THE BOOOOOXXXXXXX?!

Inside the package, I saw a bunch of crumpled brown packing paper. I appreciate the dedication to securing the card in the box, but it seemed... excessive.

Oh thank goodness, they seem alri... hold on, what?!

The brushes were all blisterpacked neatly, but the card seemed... bent.

Really?

Yeah. They bent the card in half to use a cube box when a flat box would've been just as good and just as cheap...

My excitement built again for about a day when I checked the tracking on package two and saw that it hadn't moved an inch out of Georgia for about a week. I had no paper to practice my watercolors on. I didn't even know if my watercolors were still good! It had been probably about ten years since the last time I painted.

Then, one day, I checked the tracking again and... success! The package was in my hometown waiting to be delivered by my local postal carrier! My local post office dudes are sometimes a mixed bag, but they're usually pretty prompt.

The thing is, they also tend to send packages and mail out at different times of day, so as you may have noticed on Tuesday's blog, I was literally listening for the mail truck the whole time I was typing lol!

And suddenly there it was!

I abhor overpackaging. I simply detest it. That up there? That's optimal packaging for a trio of sketchbooks prepackaged in plastic wrap! There's not a whole lot that can get damaged in transit with books like these, so seeing such an easy-to-unwrap-and-dispose-of packaging was a treat after the Tiny Box nonsense of the brushes!

And they're in perfect condition!

I am beyond pleased with these notebooks. They feel sturdy, the paper is thick, and the smaller size makes them super portable! At last, I could test out my old watercolors and my new water brushes!!!

But not my old palette, since that broke...

True facts: Anything smooth can be a palette if you're brave enough.

My ancient set of Marie's Watercolors from when Ocean State opened nearby...

I'm cheap. I am just a cheap person. I hate to spend money when it's not explicitly necessary and I don't want to buy paint if I don't have to. Thankfully, Past Me did Present Me a massive favor and held on to my watercolors even after I ran out of good paper.

My setup!

I have a tv tray in my room that I use as a table, and I've got a folding chair pulled up to that. But the table is flat and I like to paint at an angle, so I decided to use the awesome tray my partner got me as somewhat of an easel, and I gotta tell you - it works amazingly well!!!

Observe! A functioning art station!

I swatched these paints out on Wednesday using my new brushes and I loved every second of it... except for putting the paints on the palette. See, most of my earthtones are dried up so I had to use a plastic yarn needle to get in there and pull out some pigment. I'm planning on taking the watercolors out of their tubes permanently and putting them in some containers I bought at the local cheap shop. Saves money, and I still get to use my paints because watercolors are, by their nature, water soluble. They're still useful, just stuck!

But how, you may ask, did the brushes work?

In a word: Beautifully.

It took me a second to figure out how to unscrew the ends and fill them, but once assembled, it's pretty intuitive. Some brushes require more pressure to squish the water through, others are fairly consistent, and if you have patience and a napkin on hand, they're self-cleaning. Just squish and swish! Squish the barrel a bit to get some more water in the bristles, then swish it around on the napkin to dissipate the pigment!

The paper held up well, only doming slightly on the violet, which I added way too much water to. It's hardy paper, which is perfect for a notebook! 

The colors!

For those who may have a hard time reading my Sharpie chickenscratch, the colors are as follows (vertically):

• 102 White
• 215 Lemon Yellow
• 218 Gamboge
• 676 Yellow Ochre
• 301 Orange Yellow
• 324 Vermilion
• 336 Rose
• 315 Crimson
• 684 Burnt Sienna
• 687 Burnt Umber
• 509 Green Light
• 568 Sap Green
• 570 Green Deep
• 455 Cerulean Blue
• 443 Ultramarine
• 430 Violet
• 445 Prussian Blue
• 793 Black

And as I mentioned, several of these colors have solidified, rendering them hard to put on the palette.

Today was the first time I tried to paint with these watercolors, and because I can't find my watercolor pencils, I decided to work without a sketch today! Instead, I laid-out my image using a layer of Lemon Yellow, which was far, far fainter than it looks in this picture:

Comically lighter than this, in fact. It's barely visible!

From there, I just worked in layers of different colors, adding droplets from my very fine brush and mixing colors on the plate.

My supplies for the day - I never did use that marker...

All in all, however, I am proud of how the image came out - especially since it was the first figural painting I've done in such a long time!!!

"Flora" watercolor on watercolor paper; 2021

I'm very proud of the work I've started here, and I can't wait to add more to the notebooks! I hope to fill at least one before fall :)

And that is the story of how I ordered art supplies and everything turned out alright in the end (despite DHL's best efforts...)

Do any of you have silly art-supply-buying stories? Are y'all working on anything in particular right now? Let me know!

For now, that's all for me!

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Talk About Tuesday

 

In Which I Still Wait.

So my water brushes arrived last week. The box was... not in the best shape. It had obviously been kicked around a bit, and it was this tiny cubic thing, which I thought was weird, since I knew the brushes were packed on a card. And they were.

They'd just... bent the card to stuff it in a box that was obviously a bit too small for it. Why not just ship it in a padded envelope or a rectangular box? It weighed next to nothing, I can't imagine the shipping was that expensive!

But thankfully the brushes themselves seem to be in good shape. I haven't yet received my watercolor notebooks (they're due today!) so I haven't tested them yet. Gotta admit, my enthusiasm is waning rapidly due to the shipping nonsense. Why did my package of notebooks stay in freaking Georgia for a week before moving on? Why would anyone ship via DHL? So many questions!

On the other hand, I'm still looking forward to testing out the ol' watercolors for the first time in literal years.

Griping and shipping woes aside, this hasn't been a terrible week for me. I mean, yeah, it was so hot the other day that I couldn't do more than stare into space and groan (which, let's be real, is not that hot for anyone who lives where summer means 90℉ (32.2℃)

Hold that thought... books may have arrived just now...

HECK YEAH THEY DID

And in a lot better shape than the brushes, I must say. And in packaging that fit them!

Anywho, that means I can start swatching tomorrow! Why wait? Because I prefer to do my art when it's quiet and we're pretty close to the time my dad gets home and starts watching The Walking Dead at top volume across the hall.

Not exactly conducive to artistic endeavors lol!

But that is a worry for Future Me. Present Me needs to figure out what the coming week will be like!

• Thursday will have me posting the results of my experimentation, my opinion on both the watercolor notebooks and the brushes, etc!
• Sunday might involve a noodle bowl review... If I get up on time lol!
• Monday should have my work on the latest crochet projects!
• Tuesday should see me back here, blathering away!

All of this is, of course, contingent on the weather - if it's too hot to think, it's too hot to work. If it's too hot to work, there is no blog.

I'm excited to start working on stuff now, so I'll probably go write some more lines in my novel and plan what I'll do for my swatches!

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Talk About Tuesday

 

I'm maybe a little too excited lol

So much is happening right now, you guys, you don't even know! Well... you don't know yet...

First things first: today is another alright day weather-wise. Yeah, it's too humid, and yeah I just had to run outside to tell off a crow trying to kill my mom's favorite chipmunk (Chippy's okay! The crow is not happy with me but I let him know he is welcome to all the suet he wants he just can't eat the lil fluffbutt), but it's not hot and it's not particularly sunny. In fact, it rained last night, which is really, really good!

It's about 64℉ (17.78℃) and 88% humidity, overcast, and still as can be. Perfect day to sit inside with coffee and books and art.

Speaking of which, here's the second bit of news:

I ordered new art supplies! They haven't shipped from Arteza yet, but I ordered a set of watercolor notebooks and a six-pack of various water brushes. I've never used a water brush before, but I love painting with watercolors and it's been literal years since I last had the chance. Mostly I can't due to lack of space and the hazards of having open containers of water near laminate floors with rugs that aren't readily cleanable...

But hopefully these brushes and pads mean I'll be back to painting again! I was always better at painting than sketching or digital art, in my own estimation, so I look forward to getting paint on my fingertips and watching cityscapes appear before my own eyes!

My third bit of news is not exactly something y'all don't already know about, I'm sure.

I loved The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild when it first came out. I've played it start to finish multiple times and even fully leveled-up the Master Sword and overcame the Ballad of the Champions and everything and have been thoroughly craving more and more ever since.

Then Nintendo posted that eerie teaser for the sequel a couple years ago and... silence. Then Virus happened and there was even more silence, which S U C K E D.

But today at E3? We have a release year. We have a trailer! We have...

Maybe Link flying through the air in a Skyloftian outfit?!

Oh my god I'm HYPED!

I literally cannot wait!

Is that Time Travel? Is the arm the new Sheikah slate? Has the world truly been fractured and sent back Above or is that straight-up Skyloft?! Wait, did Link just teleport a la Twilight Princess?!?!?! I NEED TO KNOW I NEED TO PLAY I NEED IT GUYS!

So I might be a little keyed-up lol...

But I do still plan on blogging on Thursday (who knows, I might have art supplies by then lol). And I do still plan to do more crochet for next Monday. I might talk about other video games on Saturday, though I'm not sure.

Whatever I do, I'll enjoy it, so I hope you all can...

Go Enjoy Something!!!

FC

Fiber Monday

 

In Which Some Progress Is Better Than No Progress

Guess who did the bare minimum on their crochet project this week after getting repeatedly distracted by literally everything on earth? This dingdong!!!

But I still managed a couple of rows:

It doesn't look like much, but we're now at 100% length!

As you can see, it's pretty!

And it's a long boi lol

And I'm starting on the decreases soon!

Turns out this big boi is about 19.5" long (49.53cm), which is honestly a lil longer than I thought, but that's good because the bread bowl is also a longboi lol.

Also I'm about 51% done with this project now!

It's about 10pm now, which is honestly about 12 hours later than I should've posted, so apologies about that, but I'm super duper excited about something I'll talk about tomorrow (hopefully before midnight lol).

Alright that'll do it for me tonight! I'm gonna go play a Pokemon game and waffle about on the internet until I pass out :P

Go Enjoy Something!

FC