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.
🧠🎨🍂✍️

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 😞
🎨🍂✍️

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.
🎨🍂✍️

Today’s (December 16) randomly chosen word is:

sticky

Split

The guys from the Connected podcast left Twitter en masse, because they couldn’t take the verbal attacks, bigotry and downright neo-nazism anymore. I can only hope they will become happier by no longer reading what a bunch of close-minded idiots think is free speech.
🎨🍂✍️

Today’s prompt couldn’t be more apt for me. I might go beyond 280 characters. It is:

split

I was affected by the announcement that the follks at @relayFM have abandonned Twitter, because of recent developments and years of taking verbal abuse for granted b/c of FOMO and inertia.

It seemed to me that LiveJournal was the perfect journaling web app. Why did it fail? It didn’t fail, it was popular amongst Russians, was acquired and relocated by a Russian banker loyal to Putin, and then the Kremlin started persecuting critics of the regime. Read more here.

The question remains if I should explore ballpoint pen art, knowing my failure rate at pursuing such topics has been 100%. Well, actually, I was too passionate and burned out before I approached anything like mastering. I should pace myself.
🎨🖊

attic

There’s a place in many houses where stuff is stored, or, more accurately stated, stowed away until people move house (and sometimes not even then). Up and away out of people’s minds.
🎨🍂✍️

Today’s prompt for my blogging challenge in the last month of 2022 is:

     attic
  /   🔔   \
/  🦇😜  \
- - - - - - -
H     H     H
H     H     H
- - - - - - -
H     H     H
H     H     H
XXXXXXX

I grew up in the era of the Apollo space program, and see it as how human explore space. Of course, robotic space exploration is much safer for humans and requires less onboard support. Therefore, robots have gone further into deep space than human ever would or could.
🚀🎨🍂✍️

Today I will challenge myself blogging about the prompt:

rocket

Very apt now Artemis 1 has completed its mission successfully.

I’ve ordered pastel-colored gel pens and ink markers for my online ballpoint pen art. The colors I have are too saturated to be useful for art-making. They’re fine for writing, I guess, though I seldom write analog—pen on paper.

That I’m doing it now, is because I’m so excited. I’ve seen some artists on YouTube using ballpoint pen, and they all color with alcohol-based color markers, since the good ballpoint pen ink is permanent. I’m not sure about the pastel-colored ballpoint pen inks, though, and if it is water-soluble, to what extent. Anyway, I can adjust my order of operations if those pastel-colored ballpoint pens do indeed smudge.

Art is all about adjusting, after all.

R.

I’ve ordered some new art supplies for my ballpoint pen arting. I’ll still be using lined notebooks, as to lower my anxiety for the blank page. After all, a blank page is perfect nothingness; any mark will ruin its eternal bliss.
🛒ing ON〰〰 4 🖼 📥

If one’s only interaction with publishing is liking, retweeting, snarky oneliner comments, and shameless selfpromotion, blogging is going to be quite the adjustment. Have considerate somewhat original opinions on niche subjects that isn’t oneself is totally new to that person
🐣✍️

Instead of a mastadon, they could’ve opted for another trumpeting being, the swan or goose. »hôngk«
🎨🦢

I suppose they call it a computer 🐁 mouse, not a computer 🐀 rat (or 🐹 hamster), for good reasons?

Who knows?