• Of course, Wednesday season one launched on Wednesday November 23 globally on Netflix. It wasn’t bad πŸ“Ί

  • A new profile picture, drawn in ballpoint pen, scanned, and digitally retouched and colored. I’m curious how long it’ll take before my avatar is picked up. I suppose most Fediverse users don’t update theirs regularly.

    Digitally colored ballpoint pen selfie sketch
  • Ritual

    It is said all things come in threes. Black in the numbers, black in the thoughts and black (and blue) in the face. Online buyers, beware of all kinds of shenanigans today!
    πŸŽπŸ˜ˆπŸŽ¨πŸ‚βœοΈ

    ballpoint pen sketch of baby’s third birthday party cartoon

  • Retain

    How do you keep your employees in your failing social media company? Well, those who aren’t bound with feudal bonds as foreign workers you lock up with strict contracts under NDA, and throw away the key. It seems ye olden days of cruel overlords are back, baby.
    πŸ°πŸŽ¨πŸ‚βœοΈ

    ballpoint sketch of medieval building with two towers

  • Since Tumblr is ganing traction because of what’s happening right now to a certain birdy site, I decided to start using it again, as not to clog this feed with my inking foibles.

    thumbnail of a ballpoint pen portrait sketch

  • Update

    We get the latest news about microβˆ™blog from @manton@manton.org.
    πŸŽ¨πŸ‚βœοΈ

    ballpoint pen sketch comic of manton as a newspaper boy

  • I guess there are lessons to be learned here.

    1. Keep that point clean!
    2. Spend more time on analyzing the big shapes, then carefully draft then looking at the reference, not the drawing.

    ballpoint pen sketch of VW car

    Other than that, I’m pleased with this messy drawing, for now.
    🎨✍️

  • Great ballpoint drawing tips from Jess Karp on YT. The most important:

    1. forget it’s a ballpoint pen; treat it as a pencil
    2. use a paper scrap to regularly clean the tip
    3. build your values in layers

    Inspired me to sketch some faces from the microβˆ™blog Discovery Tab.
    🎨

    ballpoint pen sketch of several bloggers on the microβˆ™blog timeline

  • As per that previous post for microblogvember, I need to teach myself to draw everyday objects to a level that it’s recognizable as the object. Random scribbles aren’t going to cut it.
    🎨

  • Graze

    I had no idea there were boxes filled with delicious food you can mindlessly eat from, like a sheep in a meadow.
    πŸ‘πŸ±πŸ₯³πŸŽ¨πŸ‚βœοΈ

    ballpoint pen sketch of a graze box

  • Ice

    Her frozen lips felt odd. Days she had been looking for her herd. There’s warmth and safety in numbers. More eyes see further. The biting wind makes it hard to think. Soon sleep will come, everlasting slumber.
    🦣🧊πŸ₯ΆπŸŽ¨πŸ‚βœοΈ

    ballpoint sketch demonstrating the concept of ice

  • Maybe we should have a competition for amusing server error pages πŸ’‘

  • Repeat

    In the olden days we all could still write computer programs to illustrate today’s prompt. It isn’t old, though, but retro. It was a brief period when one person could still fully grasp every aspect of their computer and create carefree.
    πŸŽ¨πŸ‚βœοΈπŸ‘¨β€πŸ’»

    ballpoint sketch of Commodore 64 computer and monitor, displaying basic program and its output from a for-next loop

  • I suppose I’ve decided not to run the marathon in eight days from when I write this. Too much has gone wrong in the past four weeks that haven’t yet been righted, not in the least this nasty cold I caught two weeks ago and just keeps buggering on.
    πŸ€§πŸƒβ€β™‚οΈ

  • Novel

    Tell me a story, one you haven’t told me before and can be read in a book or any medium stories are told in. Make it a good story I can get lost in.
    πŸŽ¨πŸ‚βœοΈ

    ballpoint sketch of the concept of novel

  • Tire

    It delivers a cushioned ride after so much exhaustion that a towel was thrown.
    πŸ›žπŸ˜©πŸ˜ΌπŸŽ¨πŸ‚βœοΈ

    ballpoint sketch showing a tire, a tired kitten and a thrown towel

  • Rough ideas are perhaps wishy-washy, trite, or even dead wrong. The text is also in the alt attribute.

    To communicate clearly, what you show must be read, then understood. Simplicity, then, is of utmost importance, so anyone is able to get what you mean. Simplicity requires the creator to think before committing to their medium. What can be left out, should be left out. It won’t come easy, nor at first attempt. Unintended details will creep in, confusing the creator. Stepping back, often literally, is a useful tool to get back to that initial spark of inspiration. At a distance, details tend to get lost, the overall picture emerges, rough indeed, yet clearly visible. Art is a process of consideration and reconsideration, never done, always in flux. Planning, inspiration, clearness of vision. 17-11-2022 Rene van Belzen, after reading Drawn to Life by Walt Stanchfield, on Innovation pp 3-6.

  • Barrel

    Some people like to enter a scene unannounced for dramatic effect, to draw attention to themselves. It inevitably results in a lot of eye rolling and sighs. It all looks so natural on TV, but in real life, not so much.
    πŸŽ¨πŸ‚βœοΈ

    ballpoint sketch of a barrel

  • Since this month I’m doing ballpoint sketches in my notebook, it makes only sense to upload a selfie in a similar style.
    🎨

    ballpoint sketch of caricature of author’s face

  • Telling a joke-no-joke

    An πŸ˜‡ child 😭ing after slipping over a 🍌 peel isn’t funny; it’s almost banal, if not 😱ing for πŸ‘¨β€πŸ‘©β€πŸ‘§β€πŸ‘¦ However, a famous πŸ€‘ bloke doing the same thing, now, that’s 🀣 ←the 😭ing. Unless, unless, you happen to be πŸ€‘ and ♂️
    ✍️