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a nap after lunch

support the fundraiser

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Hermit-a-Day May, day 31: Etho + perler beads (wip)

[Image ID: A digital pixel art of Minecraft YouTuber EthosLab. The body proportions are chibi, with a large head and "cutesy" features. Etho is kneeling on the ground, looking at a frog that he is holding in both hands at arm's length. He is wearing dark navy pants, black shoes, a green vest, a dark navy cropped shrug or shoulder covering that extends into a mask over his mouth and nose, and a dark navy headband with a silver rectangle at the front. His hair is white and pulled into a high bun. His left eye is red and has a scar running through it; his right eye is gray. ./End ID]

Today's style/medium is perler beads! Except I ran out of time to iron them. If I'd finished arranging all the beads like... ten minutes earlier I could've been done in time, but alas it is nearly 1am here and I must speedrun this post. So here's the pixel art for now; finished version to come as soon as I get it ironed!

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Hermit-a-Day May, day 29: Skizz + Rorschach inkblots

[Image ID: A digital painting of Minecraft YouTuber Skizzleman in the style of a Rorschach Test inkblot. Skizz is depicted from the neck up in monochrome splashes and washes of dark gray-brown ink, looking at the viewer with a neutral, slightly wondering or fearful expression. He has dark, messy hair and a full beard. Six small, detached wings, three on each side, frame his face. The paper is a peachy ivory. The painting is almost entirely bilaterally symmetrical, except for the halo above his head in textured gold leaf--and the bottom of his neck, which is dripping gold leaf almost like blood. ./End ID]

Today's style/medium is the Rorschach Inkblot Test! Since Skizz's pyramid of needs is based on a widely-known theory in psychology, I figured I'd pull out another classic psychological concept (albeit a rather disputed one) for today's art. An explanation of the Rorschach test, reference images, and some credits can be found below.

The Rorschach Inkblot Test, named after its creator Hermann Rorschach in 1921, is a projective psychometric test. Now, the most widely-used psychometric tests today are typically objective tests--ones that aim to be, well, objective. Their "selling point" is essentially that if you were to go to ten different psychologists with the same symptoms and they all gave you the same test, you'd get the same result every time. It (hopefully) leaves as little room as possible for bias on the part of the test administrator by sticking to limited, standardized response options like "yes/no" or "strongly agree-strongly disagree." If we were to liken psychometric tests to academic ones, objective tests are true/false and multiple choice questions.

Projective tests, on the other hand, are your essay or free response questions. There are infinite different ways for a test-taker to "answer" them, and it's the job of the test administrator, who is hopefully very, very experienced and well-trained, to interpret those responses. The test administrator is usually looking for hidden subconscious themes--for instance, if you show a picture of a man standing in a doorway to someone who has unresolved conflict with their absent father and asked them to explain what was happening in the picture, that person might say that the man is leaving his family. Someone else, who has an entirely different set of issues, might instead think that the man is waiting for his spouse or child to come home, or even just watching the sunset. The idea is that what's going on in your head is expressed, almost accidentally, when you're shown an ambiguous stimulus and asked to describe or explain it. Your explanation will follow the patterns that your psyche does. Theoretically.

Projective tests have been criticized for being too ambiguous, allowing bias on the part of the test administrator (for instance, your therapist might project their own daddy issues onto you), and having little empirical evidence of validity. They have some advantages over objective tests, like theoretically circumventing the tendency of test takers to "fake" or answer inaccurately based on the image they want to project. If you don't know what you're projecting because it's all subconscious, you can't exactly fake it. Nonetheless, they've largely fallen out of favor in recent times.

In its heyday in the 1960s, however, the Rorschach Test was wildly popular. Its premise was that test takers were shown a series of 10 cards, each with an abstract, symmetrical pattern of ink (like what you'd get if you put ink or paint on one side of a piece of paper and then folded it in half, transferring the pattern to the other side). The test taker was then asked to describe what they saw in each picture--a butterfly, two bears high-fiving, their absent father, etc. Through these responses, the test administrator is meant to infer subconscious themes. Personally, as a psychology student, I don't put much stock in the Rorschach Test as the "tell all" that many people treat (or treated) it as. I just see too many weird, utterly random things to believe that it's actually revealing hidden aspects of my psyche (the two bears high-fiving is one of my personal interpretations). But hey, it makes for pretty cool art.

Below are a couple of the Rorschach cards I used as reference, sourced from rorschach.org.

[Image ID: A symmetrical blot of dark ink on faintly yellowed paper. The main body of the shape resembles a triangle with the point facing down, with four triangular gaps of blank paper towards the middle--two on each side. The top outer corner splits into two points on either side. It is reminiscent of the face of a wolf or fox, or perhaps the body of a butterfly or moth. ./End ID]

Personally, I see two Pikachus without tails standing on a skateboard, but you do you.

[Image ID: A symmetrical blot of dark ink on faintly yellowed paper. A few splatters of red ink are also present. The two sides of dark ink curve towards each other, with protrusions extending to meet in the center at the top and bottom of the shapes. ./End ID]

(Bears high-fiving. Do you see my vision.)

In drawing Skizz, I tried my best to replicate the ink effect, though it was... incredibly difficult and fiddly. The gold leaf is just for fun, but I figured I could get away with it because of the use of color in some of the later test cards. My premise for this piece is kind of like... you're being shown a card and all of a sudden you see this image of an angelic being staring back at you. Maybe you blink and it's gone again. Anyway, I'm really happy with how it turned out!

Krita brush pack credits because they saved my bacon:

The InkP pack from this video, especially the Blender Water brush.

Textured Chaotic Irregular, Textured Big Sponge, and Shape Blocker Textured from Deevad/David Revoy's 2025-01 bundle.

05, 06, and 07 from Pesi's Watercolors.

The "Metallic; Foil - Fill, Crumpled" brush from Draneria's Metallics pack. (P.S. this pack is my new favorite toy it's so much fun.)

Thanks for reading this far! Happy arting!

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Hermit-a-Day May, day 25: Beef + Click Clack Moo

[Image ID: A digital drawing of Minecraft YouTuber VintageBeef in the style of the children's book Click Clack Moo: Cows That Type by Doreen Cronin. The lines of the drawing are gestural and inexact, frequently overlapping or leaving gaps. The coloring has a watercolor texture. The drawing is divided vertically into two "pages" with a shadowy line in the middle, like a real book might have. On the left page, Beef's Hermitcraft Season 10 starter base is pictured at the top of a yellow-green hill. The base has dark brown beams, ivory walls, a brick-red chimney and shutters, and a brown gable roof with gray edges. On the right page, Beef is pictured, frowning cartoonishly. His eyes are simple black dots with angry eyebrows above them. He wears a dark gray and green plaid shirt, blue overalls, and a red baseball cap. He also has a bushy brown beard and sideburns. A dark brown fence spans both pages, winding between Beef and the house. In the bottom left corner of the left page, there is text that reads: "Farmer Beef has a problem. The Permit Office is out of control. All day long he hears WOOP, WOOP, that's the sound of the Poe-Poe. WOOP, WOOP, Permit Office on patrol." ./End ID]

Today's style/medium is Click Clack Moo: Cows That Type by Doreen Cronin. I don't know if this book was a universally beloved experience or if absolutely no one is going to get this reference, but Click Clack Moo is a children's book about a farmer and his cows. The cows find a typewriter and start using it to leave notes demanding amenities. Farmer Brown is understandably perturbed by this. A picture of the page I referenced, as well as some rambling, below!

To be honest, this style was a bit of a last-resort choice--I was racking my brain trying to come up with any farm-related media other than Stardew Valley, since I did that one last year. I'm not familiar enough with Beef's content to do some deep cut reference beyond "hee hoo he has a farm" so I went with this. It was actually,,, so much fun, though?? I got to be looser and sloppier with my linework and coloring than I usually ever am and it still looked good in the style (in my personal opinion). I'm a little frustrated with the color balancing and I probably could have fiddled with filters for a while, but I'm happy with how this turned out!

Here's the original image:

[Image ID: A two-page spread from the children's book Click Clack Moo: Cows That Type. The left page shows a red barn with a white roof. The right page shows a disgruntled-looking farmer with a scraggly white beard. He is wearing a frayed yellow straw hat, a red bandana, blue overalls, and a yellow plaid shirt. The text on the left page reads: "Farmer Brown has a problem. His cows like to type. All day long he hears Click, clack, moo. Click, clack, moo. Clickety, clack, moo." ./End ID]

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Hermit-a-Day May, day 20: xB + water-soluble pastels

[Image ID: A traditional watercolor-esque painting of Minecraft Youtuber xBCrafted. He is shown from the shoulders up in a body of water, with his face half-submerged. The camera is level with the water surface, so the viewer can see both above and under the water. XB has blue eyes; short, tousled brown hair; a brown beard; and teal fins with orange spines sticking out of his head where his ears would be. He is wearing a white shirt and a black hoodie with teal edges. The hood of the hoodie is floating slightly in the water. ./End ID]

Today's style/medium is water-soluble wax pastels/crayons! I chose it because, y'know... xB... and water.... (and I hate regular watercolors and refused to use them this year). I used to use these pastels all the time as a kid, but I haven't picked them up in years. It was a fun blast from the past, even if it was still a little too close to watercolor for my tastes.

I recognize that the composition of this is incredibly similar to my Gem piece from last year, and it wasn't intentional but I also don't hate it? At least xB is partially submerged on a different axis this time. I honestly don't have much to say beyond that (and it's almost the beginning of the next day) so I'll wrap it up here. Thanks for reading! Happy arting!

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Day 18 - Fav Build

deffo the lighthouse and fishes! im busy today so this is from an old art i did

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day eighteen - big rons

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Day 18:

Favourite Build + Art Deco

For favourite build day I drew an Art Deco poster of Skizz's pyramid! To learn more about Art Deco please continue below the cut.

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Art Deco was a style of visual arts and architecture from the 1910s and 20s. This movement started in Paris.

Art Deco featured geometric shapes, bold perspective, and bright colors. In visual arts, this style was often used in advertisements and represented luxury and technological progress.

Technologies had emerged in the late 1800s and early 1900s that allowed architects to design taller buildings. This propelled the emergence of skyscrapers across major cities and this urban growth spurt then influenced art.

To design this, I looked through a collection of Art Deco posters online. I was also particularly inspired by the 1933 Chicago World's Fair poster by Weimer Pursell.

Here is a cropped version of the image.

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Hermit-a-Day May, day 18: favorite build + Lego

[Image ID: A digital render of a Lego micro build of the Monopoly Mountain sandcastle from the Third Life series. The structure has a dark tan base with a brown front door and a sienna roof that is textured somewhat like ric rac (i.e., going up and down in tight waves). From the base, two light tan towers rise, one about as tall again as the base, and one twice as tall. A small flagpole sits atop the tallest tower. There are olive green bushes, made of the Lego ice cream brick, scattered around the base of the build. ./End ID]

Today's style/medium is Lego! Specifically a Lego micro build, since building Monopoly Mountain to scale sounded... a little overambitious for the time I had. Micro builds are exactly what they sound like: a Lego build done at an extremely small scale. These builds are very frequently architectural or structural in nature, because good luck trying to build organics at that scale. (Though some people manage it!) I picked the Monopoly Mountain sandcastle from Third Life for my build, even though it's not strictly a Hermitcraft build, because I never left the desert and it shows.

Now, I'm not made of money, so this build is unfortunately not a reality just yet. Instead, I designed it digitally in Bricklink Studio, which is a delightful little program that I highly recommend. I actually have a slightly bigger version of this same build in progress, but I... ran out of time. I'm really delighted with it though, and I'm looking forward to showing it to you guys! I'll do a longer post for that one, but for now: thanks for reading! Happy arting!

P.S. The "Third Life Remade" map by Nooah on Planet Minecraft was invaluable for this. I genuinely couldn't have done this without their work.

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Hermit-a-Day May, day 16: Scar + The Dragon Prince (wip)

[Image ID: A digital drawing of Minecraft YouTuber Goodtimeswithscar in the art style of Netflix's The Dragon Prince. The drawing cuts off at his upper torso. Scar has green eyes; long, pointed elf ears; and russet antlers draped in vines, purple snapdragons, and poppies. His eyebrows are shaped like lightning bolts, with a jagged top edge. Scar is wearing a brownish-green hooded poncho or capelet that sits asymmetrically on his body, with one side hanging much lower than the other. The poncho is embroidered with sunflowers and has a small sunflower pin at the throat. Beaded tassels hang from the hem. He is not wearing any other visible clothing, meaning most of his right arm and a small portion of his torso are visible. ./End ID]

Today's style/medium is The Dragon Prince! It made sense to me because, y'know, Scar's whole forest elf thing. He's drawn here as an Earthblood elf, and there are plenty of fun details I'll get into some other day, but I need to post this ASAP, so I'll keep it brief: I didn't actually get a chance to add shading yet, but I'm tired and my hand hurts, so y'all get the flat colors for now. Yippee! I'm going to sleep now.

Thanks for reading! Happy arting!

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autism be damned our guy can work a grill (sorta)

check out the raffle and the fundraiser

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Day 15 - Jevin

Recently remembered an old Ukrainian cartoon called Kapitoshka and thought that it might suit the theme :] It's a very short but nice cartoon that can be enjoyed even without understanding the words!

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Day 15 - Jevin

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the forest flowers are finally in bloom

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[dbhc flavored] Hermit A Day May '25, Day 15: Jevin!

An angry, angry exile!

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Hermit a day may - day 15

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Day 15

iJevin + Abstract Expressionism

For Jevin, I made an abstract expressionist painting!

To learn more about abstract expressionism, please continue below the cut.

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Abstract Expressionism was an art movement from the 1940s and 50s that emerged after World War II. Work in this style was very emotional and personal to the artist.

This movement relied on spontaneous and subconscious creation, with many well-known pieces made using highly physical action painting techniques. To Abstract Expressionists, the creation process itself was central to the art, and the paintings they made were the result of expressive artistic action.

One of the most famous artists from this movement was Jackson Pollock, who was most well known for his drip paintings. However, despite often being credited as such, Pollock was not the person who pioneered drip painting. He was inspired by Ukranian-American artist Janet Sobel, who first developed this technique. I studied both Pollock and Sobel for this piece as well as a third artist named Helen Frankenthaler.

In the spirit of the movement, I focused on the process and emotional expression for this piece. First I covered my hands in watered down blue oil paint and petted the canvas as if I was petting my cats. I also rubbed some blue blacklight paint onto the canvas, but I don't have a blacklight right now to see it. If I get a blacklight at some point I'll post an update.

After that dried, I dripped blue and white acrylic paint onto the canvas while dancing to the excellent intro music Jevin played at the beginning of his last Twitch stream. Yes, painting in this way made a mess.

Here is an cropped picture of the painting: