Fault

Creatives deal with the hard reality that comfort while making, as if by an artisan AI bot, probably is reproducing, not creating. The end product looks so great because of established, proven to work—hence are not creative—workflows. That ”F” teaches us to do better.
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Nationalist

I guess I’m not very patriotic myself. We don’t do a mandatory pledge of allegiance where I live, mostly because of freedom of religion, and separation of church and state. Although populism is certainly a thing here, extreme nationalism is frowned upon.
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The blogging prompt for 22 december is:

nationalist

This is as far as I know somewhat synonymous to patriot. As with everything, it becomes a negative when coupled with covert bigotry and elitism. We are all equal, yet some are more equal than others.

Hike

I suppose I never made a long hike. The problem is that I can’t leave my cats alone for longer than a day. Day trips I have done, several times. The longest day hike I can remember was about 60 km in 14 hours, in summer, no water. That was a mistake, as is the drawing.
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iPad OS 16.2 Freeform seems an excellent tool to do concepts with rough sketches, references, etc. I can also see it as an artists' collab board, to have some fun together for a set period. Alas, there’s no video recording, nor a live video sharing built in, so others can watch.

The random blogging prompt for December 21 is:

hike

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I tried some Mathologer stuff, and found it very hard to replicate. Often it’s just too hard for me to follow. Maybe I’m just too old or scatterbrained. I’m seriously contemplating to enter my doodles in Doodleaddicts, aka DA, not to be confused with deviantART.
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Peasant

I watched a documentary about the European medieval history of peasants and landlords, and how 80 percent of the population worked the land. Some (70%) were serfs, and not all were poor, as you might expect. They were mostly neglected, though.
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Today’s—December 20—random prompt is:

peasant

Watching Drawing Wiff Waffles on YT, and Rin brought up Laffy Taffy, which so sounds like a dad-joke. Who comes up with these names? 🤣

Dribble

Knowledge and experience are similar in the sense that they both come in small quantities and accumulate over time. It makes me realize how little I know, and that I can’t possibly know it all. And then there are things we can never know nor live through.
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Today’s blogging prompt is:

dribble

What comes in dribs and drabs I suppose.

Drawn in French Girls App on August 20, 2016. Even back then, there were “technical difficulties”. Apparently, few things have changed since then.
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I have a deviantART account, but no longer use it. A more modern alternative I just found is DoodleAddicts. There’s a limited free account and an affordable paid account. I’ll try it for a while and then report back if I liked it.

Brain

Literature often returns to this mysterious organ on top of our bodies. Be it Frankenstein who got a bad one, or the scarecrow from Oz who had one after all (spoiler!). Alas, its response often makes no sense, hence the mysteriousness.
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Today is December 18 and my random prompt is:

brain

From ⚡️ Frankenstein to 🎈 Wizard of Oz, 🧠 grey matter!

Lump

Recent developments with AI on online artists communities (DeviantArt and ArtStation) make clear that art and artists are denied any deference for their key role in society. No consent is deemed necessary. So sad 😞
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Today is December 17, and the extended blogging challenge prompt is:

lump

(Insert one of lumpy space princess’s trashy quotes here.)

😏 proudly exclaimed by some humble unknown artist

I read this article on DifferenceBetween, and the gist of it was:

A proud person always considers himself superior to others whereas a humble person doesn’t.

Of course, this is a generalisation, in reality things are a bit more nuanced. However, the desire to learn of one’s own volition is mostly based on recognizing one’s flaws that need fixing, be it only partially. This requires some modicum—more likely a lot—of humility.

Since art is mostly about perspective (point of view), the artist has to keep an open mind to new ideas. The business of art, on the other hand, requires a cultivation of ideas, a confident persona. The pride of an accomplished professional artist is what draws attention, sells their craft and vision to an audience.

This attitude is a performance, though, to market oneself. On their own, the artist is (or should be) full of self-doubt and humility. Most people only see the art selling persona, while the art making persona stays mostly out of sight.

Don’t think for one moment that the artist you admire so much never has a bad day, and never produces art that makes them dispare and feel like an imposter. Artists are humans that work hard to achieve their goals, and they do fail on occasion. And like most humans, they don’t like to share their cringeworthy mistakes, at least, not openly.

It would be prideful to think that every of one’s strokes on a canvas is to be a god-given masterpiece. The creative process requires exploration, and not every artistic journey is going to be succesful. The artist will often embrace their mistakes, learn from it, and finish the piece. Real artists ship, after all.

So humility drives the eager artist to do better next time, and only share their best attempts to the wider world. And yes, older pieces can make them cringe, a sign that even artists have moments in which they feel superior… to their past selfs.

To err is human, to forgive divine, as the English poet Alexander Pope would have it say. So forgiving oneself is what should follow embarrassment over past accomplishments.

I wrote this, because I needed it. I published, because someone else might too.

Sticky

When you’re on a web service that’s full of fun and interesting people, that service tends to be sticky in a nice way. When that service turns sour from misbehavior, it’s sticky in an uncomfortable way. You might even call it fishy, since it reeks from discontent.
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