The Shit Show That Keeps on Giving
No. Nothing gets better. The INSANE Budget bill is BAD. So bad. Sooooo soooo soooo bad. Call Congress! Like A LOT. 5Calls has you covered! They have scripts for all the various aspects of the “Big Beautiful Bill Act” which is really just taking money from the lower class and giving it over in a silver platter to fucking BILLIONAIRES who already have all your money!!! Heather Cox Richardson covers WHY this bill is racist AF too. I would say, watch the Heather Richardson video first, it’s only half an hour and very concise.
My Hamilton book order arrived last week and most of them were great! BUT, and I have had this issue before- I got punked! One of the horror novels I ordered is YA!!! ARG!!!! I don’t like YA novels because whatever the genre (fantasy, horror, SF) is takes a back seat to romance. But I am not romance reader! The problem is that Hamilton has no YA category so a lot of genre YA ends up in the regular categories. I got fooled a little while ago with a book titled “She is a Haunting”. It sounded good, but it turns out it’s a YA novel :( I might give them both a chance which is why I haven’t taken them to the used book store yet. But I really shouldn’t be buying books since I don’t read anymore! I bought a book of short stories this time around, by Edogawa Ranpo, a Japanese mystery author. I saw an anthology movie based on his work years ago and it was great so I was happy to find a translation of his short stories. I have actually been in the middle of a horror novel (really well written) for MONTHS. And to think I got so happy a couple months back for reading and finishing a book!
Art updates for the 12x12 show. I had to fix how lopsided the teacup was. I also bought some Catalyst paint shapers- basically paint combs that SUPPOSEDLY make perfectly parallel lines at different widths and shapes which differ depending on the shape of the comb. HOWEVER I discovered, after trying to use them, that they don’t work on wood panel! They are too stiff. I think the art supply store and squishier silicon ones, but they were more expensive and I didn’t know it would matter. But the squeegees I bought are hard plastic and need the give of canvas to work. So that was $17 down the toilet.
I really need to learn how to use my liner brushes. Someday I will get to actually practice with my brushes and mediums.
Recently I saw a YouTube video about Adobe Fresco so I downloaded it. It’s clunky to use without a pen tablet. It’s also NOT a photo editing software. But it’d pretty simple and I like that. It also does vector without being a nightmare like Illustrator. So I started looking at pen tablets- they are the ones that have a screen you can draw on. They are cheaper than they used to be, but still $170 or so and up. So I am going to have to make some real decisions soon. I’m still waffling on what to prioritize. Prints? Cards? Then I should get/find that fucking Photoshop 7 disc and hope to Blob Jeebus that I can still install it. I’ve had good luck before- the thing is you just don’t register it online. It WILL keep asking you just don’t. If I proritize stickers then I should be trying to work with Fresco a LOT and watch more tutorials. Gallery work? MOre painting! More art supplies. But a lot of these are things that I cant scan in and the cameras I own only take the most mediocre of photos. It would be nice to be able to offer prints of some of my larger pieces.
For fun here’s an article about a Cooper’s Hawk using a pedestrian crosswalk to ambush prey birds using cars as cover.
And another pic of the irises.
Breath. Sorry this is a long one!
Love all the rendering on the cat. So much detail in the whole piece, too.
Your irises are gorgeous.
And we are drowning in the shitshow, sadly. But just have to do what we can—no other choice.