Karin Wanderer Learns

Make An Impression (Like A Bos)

Children are learning machines. They absorb every experience like sponges, except they never reach a saturation point. Every single thing that they see & hear makes an impression on them. If you want that impression to last, however, children need to be more than passive observers. If every single thing that they see & hear makes an impression, can you imagine how many impressions that is in a single day? It adds up fast. Children benefit from having as many different hands-on activities as they can get to help them engage with & process everything. In fact, everyone does. Even you!

If it hasn’t been in the hand… it can’t be in the brain. -Bev Bos

Inspire Others (Like A Bos)

In my experience, you are either inspired by Bev Bos or you’ve never heard of Bev Bos. She was a teacher – ostensibly for preschoolers, but really for everyone – as well as a program director at Roseville Community Preschool. The way she talked about her students showed her deep respect for them & her dedication to them. Bos also taught thousands of seminars for teachers & wrote many books on the subject, some of which I have listed below. Although she passed away in 2016, her work lives on in countless schools around the world.

...always trust yourself & also trust children, they know what they need to do. -Bev Bos

Keep It Basic (Like A Bos)

Bos identified three basics for human beings: Wonder, Discovery, & Experience. Keeping Wonder alive, especially as you get older, can be quite hard. Paying attention & staying curious about the things you experience is as exhausting as it is encouraging. Once you are curious, you can move rather easily to the second basic: Discovery. Having an environment where you feel secure enough to explore & discover new things is liberating, no matter your age or understanding. A lot of time adults shy away from the idea of ‘play’, but everyone needs play. Playing with music or art or cooking (etc) gives you open-ended Experiences that allow you to learn more about yourself & how you think, feel, & operate as a person.

Bos often followed talking about the three basics with adding one more – Reflection. Taking the time to reflect on your Wonder, Discovery, & Experience allows you to process what you’ve learned about yourself & what you’ve been creating on a deeper level.

Keep It Open (Like A Bos)

Art activities are some of my favorite ones to plan for preschoolers, as well as myself & other adults. A blank piece of paper is a truly open-ended opportunity. Will you paint it? Fold it? Crumple it? Tear it into little pieces? Don’t get me wrong, I like a good session with some building blocks, but it’s art that keeps me coming back again & again because the options are practically infinite.

Make Some Art (Like A Bos)

Simple art exercises can be liberating, relaxing, & eye opening. You don’t need fancy art supplies, though they certainly can be fun. Find something to write with & some scrap paper & let yourself go! You may draw a pattern, or a doodle, or write a poem. You may forgo the writing tool altogether & fold some origami, you may forget about the paper & create something on your computer… There are so many options, there is a type (or many, many types) of art out there just waiting for your discovery!

Experience is not the best teacher, it is the only teacher. -Bev Bos

Read A Book (By Bev Bos)

• Don't Move the Muffin Tins: A Hands-Off Guide to Art for the Young Child
• Together We're Better: Establishing Coactive Environments for Young Children
• Tumbling over the Edge: A Rant for Children's Play
• Before the Basics

What type of art project or genre inspires you to Wonder, Discover, & Experience more? I’d love to hear about it on Ko-Fi or mastodon.art

See you on Tuesday!

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• All pictures posted are my own work.
• All reviews are my own unpaid & unsolicited opinions.

Why Use Reference Photos?

My memory is terrible. Yours probably is, too. Human memory is so bad we have a term for people who are good at remembering things: we say they have photographic memory. The vast majority of people do not have photographic memory. Do yourself a favor & just use actual photographs!

Could I paint this without a photo? Yes. Will it be better with my reference? Also yes!

It's In The Photograph Of Love

Few things are more frustrating to me than spending hours looking for reference photos & coming up with nothing, or nothing I really like. If you take your own reference photos, you don’t have to rely on others’ views. You can get the angles, the shadows, & the framing you want! Best of all: you don’t need a fancy camera! The odds are very good that, if your cell phone has a camera in it, that camera is good enough to take reference photos. All my reference photos are taken with a Samsung Note 8 that’s at least four years old & it does a great job!

Last time I painted jellies I lacked a clear pic of lagoon jelly tentacles. Never again!

Rule One

Take many photos from many angles & at many distances. I watched a man taking pictures of a corinthian column once. He started out very far away & slowly worked his way towards it while walking back & forth, taking at least one hundred photos from dozens of angles. He probably ended up with some amazing reference photos!

Also pretty important

• I saw someone almost walk out into traffic taking pictures the other day. As you walk around taking your amazing reference photos, be aware of your surroundings.
• Try playing with the horizon line. So many people put that smack in the middle of the photo! Tilt your camera so the horizon line is in the top or bottom third of your photo.
• Think in terms of things like shape, shadow, & contrast. You know what you like!
• Think about your own skill level. High contrast & basic shapes are easy, low contrast & complicated shapes are hard, everything else falls somewhere in the middle. What should you be aiming for?
• Have something/someone in at least one photo (a person, a car, etc.) to lend a sense of scale.
• I really can’t say this enough: take a lot of pictures!

Strong shadows & basic shapes make this a good reference photo for beginner artists.

If A Photo Is Good, 24 Photos Per Second Is Better, Right?

Don’t get me wrong – nothing beats a lot of good reference photos. However, one of my favorite things to do while painting animals is to put on a nature documentary about that animal. I get to see where it lives, how it moves around in its environment, & learn some bonus nature facts! I’ve found some artists who shun reference videos entirely, but I disagree. I believe they can enhance – but do NOT replace – reference photos.

Incoming Reference Photos Alert!

I’m traveling to see family right now. I’m taking a ton of pics using all these tips & tricks! Keep an eye out on Ko-Fi & mastodon.Art for a superfluity of super photography!

See you on Tuesday!

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Donate to support my works & get cool perks on Ko-Fi

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• All pictures posted are my own work.
• All reviews are my own unpaid & unsolicited opinions.

Humanity has invented countless different ways to make paper. The base ingredients change with the place & time. They can involve plant fibers, old fabric, wood, recycled paper, & even plastic. Price, variety, quality, & availability change too. However, one thing remains the same: as soon as paper becomes affordable enough, people start slicing it up & using it for art.

My “paper” is digital. I drew this “paper cut” boat in Krita.

Sailing Over A Cardboard Sea

Paper cutting is an art form that has been popular since paper was invented in China roughly 2,000 years ago. As the knowledge of paper making spread around the globe, the concept of paper cut art followed. Each place adapted their recipe for paper to the materials they had available. This created different types of paper with regional variations. Each place also found their own way to incorporate paper into their culture’s traditions – again, with regional variations.

It Wouldn’t Be Make Believe If You Believe In Me

Some paper cut art traditions are so old, they pre-date paper! The Mexica people cut religious figures out of amatl; the bark of mulberry trees. This practice continued until the introduction of Chinese silk paper in the 16th century spurred the development of papel picado as we would recognize it. Silk paper was/is rather expensive (it’s made, like the name says, from silk fibers) so it was not until the introduction of more modern tissue paper that the practice exploded to the level of popularity we see today.

This was my very first “paper cut” piece.

Yes, it's only a canvas sky

In some places, cut paper art became entwined with religious & cultural traditions. Paper cutting is frequently seen in Jewish folk art, & is still commonly used for modern ketubah & mizrah. I highly recommend image searching “paper cut ketubah” (sometimes spelled katuba or ketubbot) if the paper cut art style interests you, as there are countless beautiful pieces online!

Hanging over a muslin tree

In other places cutting paper was not only art, but performance art. During Japan’s Edo period kirie artists would create their pieces in front of an audience, often with musical accompaniment. They would even take suggestions of what to make from audience members!

Hans Christian Anderson is a world-renowned author known for stories such as “The Emperor's New Clothes”, “The Little Mermaid”, & “The Ugly Duckling”. Less well known is his talent for paper cut art. Anderson would cut paper while telling stories at parties, giving the finished pieces away to the other guests. Hundreds of his paper cut pieces still survive today, mostly in Danish museums.

How happy I would be

Paper cut art has risen to popularity over & over again. Late in his life the artist Henri Matisse turned almost exclusively to paper cut-out collages. The television show South Park, digitally produced now, began as paper cut animations. Video games like Nintendo’s Paper Mario series carry the concept even further.

Inspired by Matisse’s Fauvist period, clearly

If you believed in me

Nancy So Miller is an author/illustrator whose work truly inspires me. She combines painting & paper cut art to make amazing children’s books! Her book “Sun, Moon, & Star” is a joy to read. It was also the reason I really started thinking about trying paper cut art for myself. I am limited to digital paper cut effects for the moment, but I hope to be able to try it with actual paper someday.

Is there a paper cut style or artist more people should know about? Let us know! See you on Tuesday!

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• All pictures posted are my own work.
• All reviews are my own unpaid & unsolicited opinions.

Long-Forgotten Influence

I work extensively, though not exclusively, in watercolors. One of my favorite ways of educating myself involves researching different artists & their work. I came across the name Fidelia Bridges on a list of artists from my state of origin (Massachusetts) & decided to look her up. Imagine my surprise when I found that I not only recognized her work, but its influence on me!

When I was very small, one of my neighbors had a framed copy of Bridges’ Bird's Nest in Cattails that absolutely captivated me. I had never seen a botanical illustration before but I immediately loved the style. Years later I had completely forgotten that picture. As soon as I saw it again I remembered & understood how Bridges’ painting influenced my own. Compare Bridges’ work with two of my favorite pieces I have ever painted.

Boreal Chickadee

&

Misty

All three paintings * feature single subjects * extend past the frame instead of being neatly centered * completely lack a background

Have you ever realized that something — maybe a picture, a book, or a song — actually influenced you heavily even though you forgot it existed?

Have You Met Ms. Bridges?

Fidelia Bridges was an oil & watercolor painter whose work first drew attention in the late 1800s. She did much of her work outdoors, all over New England. She came to be the one thing all artists dream of- capable of supporting herself with her art. Her watercolors of flora & fauna are still displayed in private collections & museums today.

Is there an artist who has affected your work, years after you experienced it? Let me know! See you on Tuesday!

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• All pictures posted are my own work.
• All reviews are my own unpaid & unsolicited opinions.

[Hi All, Friendly Neighborhood Karin here! Due to Reddit choosing to mess w/API, putting money over people & making accessibility for people with disabilities difficult if not impossible, I have wiped all the pictures from my Reddit account/subreddit. That was, apparently, the only place I kept the pics for this article. Apologies for the inconvenience. I added a picture of Miss B, the cutest kitten on the planet, to make up for it. ~KW 30/6/23]

On Sept 27, 2022, I drew a silly picture of Usagi Yojimbo & shared it on Twitter. I am writing this on the Sixth Mensiversary of that Usagi drawing. I have posted at least one picture per day, every day, for the last six months. What’s more, I have done it working at my kitchen table in a 400 ft2 apartment occupied by 2 adults with many disparate hobbies. How did I do it? The answer is one word & you’re probably going to hate it: Organization.

No, wait, keep reading! I promise this isn’t going to turn into “8 Simple Ways To Perfectly Organize Everything!” You don’t have to be perfectly organized! You just have to be organized enough, in a way you can keep up with routinely. If you came here for the super secret, that’s it. The rest of this is a tour of my art space & storage so you can see what works for me & maybe for you.

My Desk

This is where the magic happens?

My desk is also my kitchen table. It is a folding table from Ikea that has a bunch of drawers & is only about 10 inches wide when closed. (Ikea isn’t sponsoring this blog, I just like the table.) This picture shows one wing open, making it two extra feet wider. I can fit my computer, watercolor setup, & tea things but only just barely. If I open up the other side of the table I get another two feet, but that takes up a fair amount of the open floor space in my apartment so I try to avoid doing that. Bonus: It is right next to the fridge, so I can reach the water pitcher without even getting out of my rolling chair. Is there anything better than well–hydrated sloth?

My Watercolor Setup

[This picture is lost forever] I forgot to take a new picture of my works in progress, enjoy this blast from the past!

Working in such a small space without constantly sticking your arm in wet paint is an acquired skill. This skill can be enhanced by taping your work to a board & rotating the wet paint out of the way. I am right-handed, so I rotate the board clockwise. I work my way around the board, either starting new paintings or adding details to works in progress. By the time I get back to the painting I started with, it is dry & ready for the next part. If all of my paintings in progress need more drying time, then it’s a good time for me to take a break… or set the watercolors aside & break out my digital drawing tablet! That’s what happened in the picture below, which is why my watercolors are still laid out in the corner of the table!

My Digital Setup

[This picture is lost forever] 8-Bit butterflies are the bane of my current existence.

I started digital drawing on my Samsung Note8. I became obsessed with the medium almost as quickly as I had with watercolors! The tiny stylus really hurts my hand after a short time drawing, so I had to look into other options. I love my tablet! It runs off my laptop. Even on sale it took my entire art budget for a year & although it means I can’t buy any more paint right now (cough Ko-Fi cough) I don’t regret it one bit! My laptop is elevated on a little platform with my tablet sitting underneath, ready & waiting. Digital art lets me try all manner of things; sometimes I even rough out my paintings there first to avoid wasting paper. I have really gotten into pixel art lately & am designing my own PICO-8 game using my art (check my socials tomorrow for an update!) I never would have done this if I hadn’t gotten a drawing tablet. (Huion isn’t sponsoring this blog, I just like the tablet.)

My Storage

[This picture is lost forever] This is my art shelf. It is below my board game shelf & above my sewing shelf.

It is very important to have a safe place for wet paint. This cabinet is where everything gets stowed. The board with all my paintings is on the top left, where it can dry undisturbed. A few weeks ago I tripped while walking past my desk & spilled tea all over the board, ruining several pieces, so I try to be good about putting the board away where it’s safe! Most of the rest of this shelf is organized into recycled containers. I whole-heartedly recommend raiding your recycling bin for storage containers. I am lucky enough to live in a neighborhood full of apartment buildings, so if I can’t find good containers in my building’s recycling I’ll probably find something my neighbor’s! I have pressed countless little jars & plastic trays into service.

My Plans

[This picture is lost forever] Vampires & Sisters, I have a scheme!

This is my planning board, a.k.a. the side of my refrigerator. Please excuse the big red Spoiler Alert box, there are notes & plans for projects I’m not talking about yet hiding there. The holographic Yellow Submarine poster is there for inspiration. The paper towels are there because, again, kitchen, but also because it’s convenient for my watercolors. The calendar is a freebie from the ASPCA that I use just for art reminders, planning out when I’ll finish each painting to make sure I have one per day. As you can see, I revise it a lot! Having all of this right there when I turn my head is amazing. I used to keep a lot of this in a little notebook, but having to haul that out each time I wanted to check something was so slow compared to having it right next to me.

My Conclusion

If you had asked me if I could fit this much productivity into such a small place a year ago, I probably would have laughed. I am so happy to be wrong! Would I like more space? Of course. Can I afford more space? Absolutely not! But that’s the cool thing about art- it can be adapted to fit any space & fill any need. Right now most of my paintings are 3 inches tall.If I had more space, could I paint bigger paintings? Sure. Would I? Maybe. But being in a tiny or cramped living space is a reason I see people citing all the time for why they can’t try various forms of art, & I want you to know that art can fit in anywhere!

Thanks to the people who asked me to share my workspace, I love hearing your suggestions for things to write about! I’m going to go paint something. See you on Tuesday!

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• All pictures posted are my own work.
• All reviews are my own unpaid & unsolicited opinions.

(Hello & Hello Again! You may have noticed I’ve been posting a lot of pixel art. I’ve been sick a lot recently & while it is not technically impossible to watercolor in bed, digital art is much harder to spill. I’ll be starting a new series soon!)

Where Am I Coming From?

I am fairly new to pixel art- just started last month. I love it! As a child raised by Nintendo, it hits me right in the nostalgia. I work in Krita, a free open source painting program. Krita is a great program with a supportive community. I absolutely recommend this to anyone looking to get into digital art- pixel or otherwise.

What is a PICO-8?

PICO-8 is a fantasy video game console. What this means is that it does not exist physically; It can be accessed on the PICO-8 website or downloaded to your computer. PICO-8 lets me take my drawings & play games with them, both literally & figuratively. You can play games with PICO-8, but what’s more: you can make animated art & games for it.

When I say “you can make animated art & games for it”, I mean you. You, reading this right now, can make games for PICO-8. I know because I can do it, and when it comes to programming I am the low bar. Before I found PICO-8 I never tried to program anything, never wanted to program anything, never thought of programming anything. I don’t even like math – but look at what I learned to do Saturday afternoon:

Can't get GIFs to load in page rn, please follow this link I drew that! Then I animated it in PICO-8! Look on my works, ye mighty, & despair!

Coding in Pico-8 is easy & surprisingly straightforward. To make things even better, there are a plethora of tutorials out there for you to follow. I have been watching a lot of tutorials from Krystian at LazyDevsAcademy. Even though I haven’t gotten far enough in anything to implement 99.99% of what he’s talked about, I'm learning how to get in the right headspace for programming. Honorable mention: I have heard good things about NerdyTeachers from people I trust, but I have not had a chance to check them out personally.

Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Bat Game!

I have dreams & schemes, & they include making my own little PICO-8 game! I want to make a SHMUP to develop both my pixel art & my programming skills. To that end, I drew & animated this adorable little squeak. What do you think their name should be?

Can't get GIFs to load in page rn, please follow this link

I Am The Night!

I just started this weekend & haven't had time to draw much yet, but I have managed to make my bat fly using keyboard arrows! Even better, you can try it out with your phone or computer!

I want to make this into a game, not just a super cool bat flying around a black void. I will be following more tutorials & updating you all on the process as I go. Let me know what you think!

What? We’re done?! What am I going to talk about next time? Tune in & find out. Or head over to my socials (below) & tell me what you want to read about! See you on Tuesday!

Get my art on mugs & vinyl stickers in my Shop!

Donate to support my works & get cool perks on Ko-Fi

Join us for #ArtABCs, the best art challenge on the internet!

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• All pictures posted are my own work.
• All reviews are my own unpaid & unsolicited opinions.

Animals Are a Lot of Fun to Paint

In the few months I’ve been teaching myself to paint, I’ve painted a lot of animals. I’ve painted birds, fish, mammals, insects, reptiles, & amphibians. I’ve painted so many foxes I could mix those colors in my sleep. I’ve drawn so many anthropomorphized rabbits I’ve lost count.

This is my second Pixel Art Miyamoto Usagi, but the total number? No idea.

I love depicting animals running, jumping, or just hanging out drinking tea. I could draw that all day! Sometimes I do! But I’ve been working specifically on people for the last month, and I have to say that-

Humans Are My Least Favorite Animal

Humans have no glorious plumage, no shiny scales, no fantastically patterned fur. I’ve been having fun with minimalist crowd shots & fanciful caricatures, but the moment I try to focus on accurate individual portraits I’m bored. Of course, that’s not the only reason I dislike depicting humans.

Ask yourself: Which of these figures look “right” to you, & which look wrong? Why?

Imagine Mental Imagery

Part of the reason I don’t like painting people is that we as humans generally have a solid idea of what a person should look like. If I asked you to draw a human being right now you probably could sit down & draw something recognizably human without much thought. If I asked you to draw a Malayan tapir right now, could you do the same? Most people are more familiar with a wide variety of people than a wide variety of tapir. That specific familiarity leads to some wild perception issues ew as people are still struggling to understand.

Uncanny Title for Uncanny Valley

When a human likeness is obviously fake, such as a cartoon, our brains generally accept it. When a likeness approaches what people look like in reality but only, say, 80%, our brains reject it utterly. We are left with an uncomfortable feeling of something “wrong”. When this happens, it is an example of the Uncanny Valley phenomenon. Remember the computer generated Carrie Fisher in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story? That wasn’t even a fully CG character- Leia Organa’s face was digitally imposed on an actress wearing her costume from Episode IV – A New Hope. Her brief CG scene did not fill people with hope. All these years later people barely mention Peter Cushing’s CG revival in that same film, but everyone remembers Leia’s empty-eyed & almost predatory smile.

That’s Just, Like, Your Opinion, Man

Scientists don’t know why we have these reactions, or why some people are more sensitive to the Uncanny Valley than others. People who have trouble with eye contact, like me, are often more sensitive, whereas people with face blindness are understandably less likely to be affected. It is not always so straightforward, which is why scientists are working to isolate the parts of the brain responsible so that they can study it from a new angle.

A Problem for Future Us?

The Uncanny Valley is more than just an issue for movies & entertainment. We live in an increasingly technological world, with multiple corporations trying to build robots that can care for our elderly, police our neighborhoods, or train our medical & emergency staff. Leave aside how well these robots may operate for a moment & think of how people may react to them. Imagine you are in a stressful situation & a robot offers assistance. Right now your choices for that robot’s “face” are an oddly shiny & strangely hungry looking Carrie Fisher, or a simple smiley face icon on an otherwise blank screen. I would prefer a smiley face, what about you?

I did it! I managed to write an entire blog entry with Save Ferris’ cover of Come on Eileen caught in my head! Now it’s caught in yours! You’re Welcome! See you on Tuesday!

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Donate to support my works & get cool perks on Ko-Fi

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• All pictures posted are my own work.
• All reviews are my own unpaid & unsolicited opinions.

It’s Children’s Book week! Every year there’s a week of literacy-focused events all around the United States, starting on Read Across America Day (2 March.) The National Education Association (NEA), started Read Across America in the 90’s to promote a love of reading in young people & it is now touted as “the nation’s largest celebration of reading.” Each year has a different slogan & this year’s is: Read Books. Spark Change. This slogan seems especially apt in the face of the book bans that are becoming more & more widespread.

Why Talk About Books in an Art Blog?

Books are important! In case it’s not obvious yet, I’m a bookworm. I spend a lot of time thinking about books,specifically picture books. Art can certainly enhance any book; who doesn’t love finding a map in the first few pages? Picture books, as the name implies, rely just as much on art as words.

Books Build Babies’ Brains, & Pictures Make It Possible

Newborn babies have to learn how to focus their eyes. Many books for newborns don’t even have words! See books by Tana Hoban which are stark black & white images designed to help newborn eyes focus. In a world of blurs, here are images designed to engage their eyes, & let me tell you- it works!

Ed Emberley’s Go Away, Big Green Monster literally breaks a monster down, piece by piece, into individual shapes. As one of my students once said after we read it the first time, “Who’s afraid of a triangle?” Art helps children understand concepts on a tangible level.

Here are more book suggestions from NAEYC if anyone is interested.

Books Are So Very Important!

I’m going to keep saying it until it’s sunk in. Books suggest new ideas in a safe way children can examine at a safe distance. Every spring & summer as our 5-year-old students get closer to Kindergarten teachers rely on books like School’s First Day of School (by Adam Rex & Christian Robinson) to help children get ready. The story allows children to confront their feelings of excitement & nervousness. It introduces concepts & facilitates discussion in a way that can be hard to do otherwise.

I have a copy of The Dead Bird by Margaret Wise Brown (illustrator changes depending on the edition). This book stays at school in my cubby. The children I teach (2-5 years old, generally) often experience the death of a loved one for the first time while they are enrolled at my school. Whether it is a friend, family member, or pet, MWB’s timeless story helps children process the concept of death.

Children Are Socialization Machines

“Do as I say, not as I do” is a completely worthless sentence. “Actions speak louder than words” is the rule of the day. Children are learning what it means to be a person in the society they are growing up in. This means a different thing to every different person, & is a hugely difficult concept that adults struggle with, so imagine how hard it can be for a 3-year-old child! Reading a wide variety of books is one of the best (& if you have a local library, cheapest & easiest) ways to show children the wide wild world we live in. They help us explain situations before a child might even encounter them! Words to Make a Friend (by Donna Jo Napoli & Naoko Stoop) demonstrates ways to work together even when you have trouble communicating, & who hasn’t had trouble with that?

Oh, this is so long. Rant over? Rant over. See you on Tuesday!

Get my art on mugs & vinyl stickers in my Shop!

Donate to support my works & get cool perks on Ko-Fi

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• All pictures posted are my own work.
• All reviews are my own unpaid & unsolicited opinions.

When Last We Left Our Karin…

I was battling imposter syndrome & getting ready for unseasonably cold rain. Then I woke up this morning to find my heater was broken & my window was leaking. Also my laptop’s power cable only works if it is positioned just so. Also my tea is cold. Doesn’t matter what I planned on talking about, today is a day to focus on things that make me happy!

If You Can Read This, Thank A Librarian

No, really. The library is an amazing resource when you are trying to teach yourself anything, & art is no exception! I would not be able to teach myself so much for free if not for the physical & digital books I borrow. My art, & therefore this blog about my art would not exist without libraries! Check yours, in person or online. My local library network also offers free classes on a whole host of subjects & has recently even started lending out musical instruments! What might yours have? You won’t know if you don’t investigate! I’m going to keep this up until everyone with access to a library is taking advantage, you may as well give in now. YouTube (etc) works too, but you have to wade through so much upselling… The library is much more peaceful.

The shelf under the window has the art books I’ve read so far this year. Almost every book in my Reading Log came from my library.

If You Can Read This, Thank A Curator

Mastodon.Art is a lovely, inclusive community. Its Curator started the dotart.blog & encouraged people to contribute, which is why I’m here at all. I cannot emphasize enough how important it has been to have people that support me sharing my silly pictures, from my SO to people on the internet who also giggle when someone says “butts.” Maybe dotArt is your type of place, maybe it isn’t, but find your place to share your stuff. Maybe it’s at the library! (ok, fine, I’ll drop it… for now).

Here We Are

We’re all caught up on my story now, from this point on we move forward together. For now, I’m going to keep painting & learning. In the future I will be selling stickers, etc. of my watercolor animals & hopefully writing children's books, but that is something for a future post. I finally got my Ko-Fi running with a goal & a membership tier & everything! I’m curious what kind of subscription rewards you like to get (digital & physical) because I am still working on that. Drop me a line (socials linked below) & let me know what else you want me to talk about!

…& Bonus Facts

What else is there to say? I like vanilla more than chocolate. I listen to metal & punk but lately I’m so tired of finding out musicians I liked are bigots I’ve given up & started listening to ska. I like all kinds of instrumental music, They Might Be Giants, Letters to Cleo, & Veruca Salt. I like zombies more than vampires & I think Korean zombie movies/shows are absolutely knocking it out of the park at the moment.

OK, we’re either best friends or mortal enemies now. See you on Tuesday!

Get my art on mugs & vinyl stickers in my Shop!

Donate to support my works & get cool perks on Ko-Fi

Join us for #ArtABCs, the best art challenge on the internet!

Find me

• All pictures posted are my own work.
• All reviews are my own unpaid & unsolicited opinions.

We interrupt this riveting artist backstory to address a glaring omission:

In my efforts to compress the last five months of personal growth into a few hundred words, I left out some details. I know, right? Imagine! I realize now that I make sharing my work sound like it was easy. Like posting it online for people to see was no big deal. In reality I psyched myself up to post that first picture again & again, but I kept chickening out.

Nobody is paying attention!

Just send the tweet!

On the fifth try, I finally did.

After that, it got a little easier. I still occasionally had to tell myself that no one was paying attention to me, but I’ve got to the point where – in spite of my nerves – I do enjoy sharing my pictures & facts. Sometimes people even share more facts in the comments, I love it! Everyone is so nice that I kind of forgot how nervous I had been…

… until our beloved dotArt Curator started this WriteFreely instance.

I started this blog by getting writer’s block for several weeks. I ended up doing a few different polls on Mastodon. (please vote on my polls, they really help me focus!) I changed the title from “blog 1” (intending to count up) to “blog 52” (so now I count down) & somehow that helped, too. I wrote a basic introduction, then started the old familiar song & dance.

Nobody is paying attention!

Just post the blog!

On the third try, I finally did.

Nine people read my first blog! Nine! I was flabbergasted. Maybe a few of those people clicked the link by accident, but at least one or two had to have done it intentionally. Fully jazzed up, I wrote the next entries back to back. It is a two-parter. Three hundred & nineteen people read part 1.

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It’s good that part 2 was already written, because I was officially intimidated by those numbers. I was so nervous when I posted part 2, I used the wrong title card! I haven’t allowed myself to see how many people have read part 2. Whether those numbers go up or down, I’m worried they would impact my ability to write this entry. It’s something I’m working on. Typing this out has helped.

& now, my thrilling conclusion:

Share your work! Share it with everyone! Tell your imposter syndrome to go pound sand! & maybe – just maybe – find a better mantra than “nobody is paying attention” so you won’t be blindsided if people actually do!

OK, I feel better now. See you on Tuesday!

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• All pictures posted are my own work.
• All reviews are my own unpaid & unsolicited opinions.