Karin Wanderer Learns

Friendly Neighborhood Karin here. Usually my updates are limited to the beginning of these posts, but this post is all updates, baby!

Friendly Neighborhood Karin’s Friendly Neighborhood Shop Is Now Open!

Finally! It is here! The long-awaited GRAND OPENING! Check out my TeeSpring shop!

Many of my painting are now available as mugs, notebooks, & vinyl stickers so you can put them on something other than a mug or notebook.

More designs added soon!

Check It Out!

Get yourself a something neat. You deserve it! Then pick your favorite social media site & tell me what you think. You can find me on Ko-Fi, Mastodon.art or IG

(If your favorite social media site isn’t on that list, pick one that is & tell me which one I’m missing)

The Shop Will Be Expanding!

I will be adding more pieces soon. One thing slowing me down is I need to take new pictures. I don’t have fancy lights or anything, which means taking pictures outside in the sunshine is important. This means I have to wait for a day with strong sunlight & weak wind so my paintings don’t blow away while I photograph them! That’s a bit of a challenge this time of year, but I’ll manage it. If there is a piece I have made that you would like to see in my shop, let me know! Check back for frequent updates

What Do You Want To See?

What should I add to the shop that isn’t there already? I will certainly be adding more art, but what else? What do you think of printables, e.g. Habit Trackers? To-Do Lists & other Organization Templates? Coloring Pages?

The options are limitless, so let’s explore them!

We will return to our regularly scheduled nonsense next Tuesday, Same Karin time, Same Karin channel!

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, a year-long art challenge!

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

I’ve been dealing with a lot of mistakes & problems lately. Some are smaller & some are larger, but all of them are purely my own, & they are starting to affect my art. This is how I work with them, instead of letting them stall my progress completely.

Step 1: Identify the Problem(s)

Ever notice how one small mistake can grow & combine with other small mistakes into huge issues? Like a trickle to a flood, a snowball to an avalanche, that moment where one line of dominoes splits into a dozen different directions at once… Something simple becomes simply unmanageable. My problems were all too common: exhaustion & an overloaded schedule.

Thinking about stress is stressful. Please enjoy these fluffy clouds

Step 2: Identify The Cause(s)

Knowing what the problem is can help you manage it, but knowing why the problem is can help you solve it. My causes could be neatly split into two categories. First: I was jet lagged, which threw my insomnia completely out of whack, & I hurt my knee so moving around was (literally) a pain. I made the mistake of thinking all that would be over quickly & did not pad my schedule accordingly. Second: my schedule was already overloaded, & getting worse as I fell further behind.I’m trying to follow the prompts & do all 31 days of Mermay as well as the 4 weeks of Hippy Sheep Fest, which means 1-2 deadlines per day every day of the month. I made the mistake of planning too much for an average month, & I was starting May thousands of miles away from my home. I also planned on starting an online shop through a POD company to sell my watercolors on stickers, stationary, etc. I had done a fair amount of research, & decided on a company. I was a week away from opening a shop, & that company announced they were changing their entire business model to take more money from artists, designed in a way that hits new artists hardest. I have to pick a new company, but I didn’t keep my notes on the others, so my to-do list just got a lot longer. I made the mistakes of not bothering to pick a back up, & absentmindedly throwing out my notes.

Whew! That was a lot. Please enjoy this pretty flower

Step 3: Identify the Solution(s)

Some causes just needed time to resolve: jet lag & my insomnia will both respond to a regular sleep schedule, hopefully soon. My knee needs rest & careful stretching. My other problem could be solved with time, too: if I could add 6 or 8 hours to each day that’d be perfect! Since I can’t, I need alternative solutions to alleviate these problems now & avoid them in the future.

I use these 3 questions to find those solutions:

What Can I Learn?

How to better estimate the time individual pieces will take me. I based my expected drawing time on how long I spent per day doing each of the 31 days last Inktober, without taking into account how different my drawings are now. For example, this drawing took longer than all the all the Inktober ones I linked to above Clearly, I need to start setting a timer to get a better idea of how much time I am actually spending on each piece!

What Can I Do?

Art smarter, not harder! We are 2 weeks in MerMay so I have 2 weeks’ worth of marine life photos ready to use for reference, as well as my own work. I’ve also been working mostly in Krita instead of watercolors, which means I can reuse the parts of my own drawings that I like best. For example, this is my favorite mermaid I’ve drawn: So I used that layer in my Friday the 13th parody poster (above) & saved the time I would have spent drawing another silhouette.

Who Can I Ask For Help?

Why, you lovely people, of course! Do you use a POD to sell &/or buy art? Which one? Why do you like it? Why do you dislike it? Let me know!

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, a year-long art challenge!

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

Say Your Cup Of Tea Is A Wall Of Branches

I’ve written about the importance of taking your own art reference photos previously. This week, I’m going to expand on that entry with a topic near & dear to my heart: Nature photography.

Rule One

Take many photos! Take them from many angles, at many distances. This is important for any type of photography, but it is especially important when you are outside. Indoors, you have a more protected area to work in, where you may even have total control of the lights. Outdoors, everything is up in the air & can change from moment to moment. You cannot always see the ideal ray of light or breath of wind coming, but if you take many pictures instead of just one you have a much higher chance of capturing that perfect shot.

This picture makes me so happy. The other 14 I took of this same tree, not so much.

Come Back Again & Again

If it’s at all possible, come back & take more pictures at many different times of day, or even different days. Nature photography relies so heavily on the sun & weather that it is practically impossible to take the same picture twice. Each photo will have a slightly different tone, which will produce a slightly different effect. This happens with all outdoor photography, for example, architecture-focused photographers benefit from the drastic changes in shadows over the course of the day even though their subjects remain largely static. This effect is much greater with nature photography however, where the subject of your photos can drastically change day to day or even hour to hour.

I checked this flower bud every day, but it did not bloom in time to help me make this point.

The Magic Hour is Gold & Blue

Fun fact: the so-called “golden hour” typically lasts less than an hour, & it’s only half the story. The golden hour is the first 20 minutes after sunrise, & the last 20 minutes before sunset. During the golden hour, the light is warm (reddish) & shadows are soft. The blue hour is the last 20 minutes before sunrise, & the first 20 minutes after sunset. During the blue hour, the light is cool (blueish) & shadows are soft. Try playing with different types of natural light, & don’t forget to contrast them to the stark light of midday, with its crisp shadows! (Specific amount of golden/blue hours depends on the time of year, location, elevation, weather, pollution levels, etc.)

Also pretty important

• As you walk around taking your amazing photos, be aware of your surroundings. I once saw someone almost walk out into traffic while taking pictures!
• Play 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?
• I really, really can’t say this enough: take a lot of pictures! Take many, many pictures, & nothing else- leave the pretty plants to grow where others can enjoy them.
• 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 nice photos. All my photos are taken with a Samsung Note 8 that’s at least four years old & it does a great job!

Reminder: not all nature photography takes place outside!

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!

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, a year-long art challenge!

Find me

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

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!

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, a year-long art challenge!

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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!

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, a year-long art challenge!

Find me

• 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!

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, a year-long art challenge!

Find me

• 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!

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, a year-long art challenge!

Find me

• 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!

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, a year-long art challenge!

Find me

• 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, a year-long art challenge!

Find me

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