I guess these are easter eggs, or from a very strange bird. It’s amazing the direction a painting will go. A couple more, if you’re interested, below the cut.

I guess these are bottles?

From Valentine’s day, a love tree. It had not started out to be a tree. It had not started out to have anything to do with trees, or flowers, or… anything mushy. But here it is.

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In any case, although I brought pencils with me, and acrylic pens, it was hard to do anything creative while I was gone. It was a lot of get up, go to my dad’s house, clean/pack/sort, go back to the airbnb, sleep, do it all over again. We did get away for half a day to the beach, at least.

So, here’s a work in progress – I’m not sure where I’m going with it, so how it turns out will be a mystery for all of us.

And, one of these days, I’m going to get better at taking photos of my work.

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The world kinda sucks right now, but. That’s okay. I’m still here.

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I would, however, like to get better at photographing my paintings, because I’m not terrific at that. :)

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Remember those little boxes I made a while ago? Made some more of those, too. And am combining the two things to make art drops.

And the assembled little package looks like this:

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So, another doodle, in a somewhat different tone from my last.

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I was just amazed at the difference. I started with a speedball-knock-off tool with changeable blades, and picked up a package of Temu woodblock carving tools (with real wooden handles!). I currently own on flexcarve palm tool – a very small V-cut that I use for outlining and fine details – and thought that the flexcarve was the biggest upgrade I could make.

After stropping, even the temu tools are feeling good.

So, I felt the need to “doodle” in lino – there was no major plan for this, and it’s just a scrap from a larger piece, but it cut SOOOO nice.

I have some water-based black to proof with, so of course, here’s a print:

Having sharp tools means my control is so much better – not having to use force, but just allowing the blade to cut, guiding it across the material – it’s amazing.

I suspect there will be more doodles in the future, because doing the small things are just fun!

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The valentine/reduction print is not turning out quite as I had hoped. Part of it is skill – I’m not experienced in reduction printing (this is my first), so I have things to work on regarding the best order to color-application, ink on the block, and print registration (to start with). I think, too, part of the problem is that I’m using speedball oil ink, and I’m just not particularly impressed with it. I’ve got Gamblin black, and the consistency, spread, and results are like night and day. So, it seems, it’s worth spending more money on the color. I wish I was surprised, but I am not. Another issue is the cardstock I’m printing on – probably not the best paper for it.

It is annoying to me that introductory, or entry-level, tools and resources for any hobby are of such low-to-mediocre quality. Many people quit because they can’t afford the good stuff and think they’re shitty artists, when the results they’re getting would be improved immensely by better tools. If I lived closer to anything, I’d be finding a print center or art co-op to join, so I wouldn’t be footing the bill for all the stuff myself.

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There’s a practicality to painting small garbage: if you mess up or don’t like the results, you can just bin it, minimal resources expended. And if you DO like the results, it’s easy to find a place to put it. (Sort of; I’ve got tiny canvases, scraps of paper, and random painted things floating around my desk like a halo. But never mind that.)

So here’s an example of a fridge magnet gone wrong. It started life as a magnet that held a calendar from the real estate agent who sold us our house; it’s current incarnation is a mess. But I’m learning from it, I think – need to get better with matte medium, and textures, and the control for very fine lines.

So, some bad art for your viewing pleasure:

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