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Month: April 2017

Bernie’s tree

Acrylic on board, 9×12″. Well, not really Bernie’s tree. I was trying to figure out how Bernie Fuchs did that amazing thing with light through tree branches. I didn’t quite figure it out — but I was pleased to get closer than I expected. I like that blazing sunset, too, even though it lost something in the scan. Here’s the illustration I was working from, in the children’s book Ride Like the Wind, which Fuchs wrote, as well as illustrated. I wasn’t trying to copy the tree. I was trying to copy the technique as near as I could (while…

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Quick FYI: Thrive Life storage foods

Just a quick FYI: Thrive Life is having its semi-annual sale on storage foods. NFI to me, but if you want your purchase to benefit Lisa over at SurvivalMom, here’s her affiliate link. Thrive Life is on the pricey side, but uniformly they are the best-tasting storage foods I’ve tried. I usually buy Augason Farms foods myself, because they’re good, affordable, and available at Walmart or Walmart.com. But if price was no object, I’d stock my pantry with Thrive Life and Mountain House. So finding TL on sale is a Very Good Thing. Anyhow, sale ends April 24. So if…

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Small-town life, 21st century style

Just returned from the morning walk to town. Where the owner of the nearest pot shop recognized me, stopped his car, and reminded me that today is 4/20. Discounts on bud, beverages, and bongs. Today only. Free munchies while they last. C’mon down. I rarely go by his shop any more. I never was that big on using his product, though I did like to support him and loved to view the wonders of his store. Now that it’s a very long walk or a short-but-PITA bus ride to his place, I don’t go there. But dontcha love the small-town…

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Midweek links

  • Shut up, be terrified, and do what you’re told, Americans.
  • Eleven charts that show just how mainstream cannabis has become. We’ve come a long way, baby. (Although as the first link shows, not always in the right direction.)
  • Get a load o’ this. A cop (ex-cop now) is ordered to pay out of pocket to compensate the family of the teen he killed. Individual accountability begins at last for agents of the state. 9 Comments
  • And sometimes you do art just to test your new pencil sharpener

    Very small colored pencil drawing on Stonehenge paper. Playing with defining the central subject almost entirely in terms of negative space. This required sharp-sharp-sharp pencil points, but colored pencils and pencil sharpeners tend not to get along. The last sharpener broke their soft little points and in revenge they destroyed its motor. So far so good on the new one, though. The text I input later on computer. I think I’ll go back and add some random paw prints around the lightest area. A puppy is also in the works. These could be illustrations. If I had something I wanted…

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    Hortense the Censor

    In her books and classes on rediscovering creativity, Julia Cameron (of The Artists Way fame) asks students to envision their “inner censor.” Our inner censor is the nasty voice in our heads that tells us, “You’re no good,” “You might start that but you’ll never finish it,” “Everybody will laugh at you,” “You’re lazy,” “You should just stick to the way things are now,” “You don’t have any talent,” “You’ll embarrass yourself,” “You should give up now because you’re going to fail, anyway.” And on and on. Last week I started following another of Cameron’s 12-week programs, but without much…

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