Tower Line Work
When the pencils for a drawing are particularly messy, I like to treat the outline like I would a really large tattoo.
(Ink on Paper)
I line everything with the lightest weight, erase all of the pencil, and then go in with blacks. I’m sure there are smarter inkers/tattoers than me who can hold their plan in mind when staring at chaos, but sometimes I need a little clarity.
The Ten of Swords
So much drama.
(Ink on Paper; see more in the Tarot Gallery)
Pollack writes about this card that “it signifies more of a reaction to problems than the problems themselves.”
It’s hard to not react. It’s hard to not take things personally when it feels like the things (often quite scary things) are very much personal. I struggle with this every day, mostly because I'm a dramatic little bastard and my first reaction to unpleasantness is mutual unpleasantness. I can damn well out-unpleasant anybody, just watch me!
But now I know the “punch it in the face until it plays nice” approach to life is not only egregiously stupid, it also just doesn't work. Ever. In a twist that I find very upsetting, there are also very rarely clear wrong and right sides. As you may have deduced, this is one thing that gets in the way of punching solutions.
When one is hoping for a simple solution (e.g. “I am right and good, you are wrong and bad, ergo I punch you and win) and finds that a more nuanced approach to looming threat is necessary, one is bound to… take that badly. Maybe get a little woe is me. Maybe get a little “toss oneself in the pond to drown with a bunch of swords that are totally unnecessary except in a tortured-soul aesthetic sense.”
It’s mostly the card of unnecessary suffering. Life is bad enough: you only need one sword to die, don’t get all dramatic and add a bunch more.
Swords in Progress
(Ink on Paper; WiP detail)
The viciousness of air and intellect never ceases to impress me.
Off the Rails
I just wanted to draw something mindless and shiny…
(Digital)
…and I accidentally ended up with C3PO crossed with an Oscar’s statue. Can’t all be winners in the originality department.
I'm Pretty Sure This Place Isn't Real
From a dream.
(Digital)
I’ve had benign dreams. But I haven’t had many.
Separating the Wheat
A detail from the WiP of the Empress.
(Ink on Paper)
Unrelated but relevant: I am tired.
