#pattern: Rhapsody Jam

[darlingillustrations]

Be Joyful. None of this matters.

This year I'm bringing back 2018 Tumblr nihilism. It’s all Bohemian Rhapsody and living in the moment and not letting the overwhelming weight of our world crush us with despair. This tumblr post in particular encapsulates the emotion that I'm after: “If nothing we do matters, then all that matters is what we do."

This is the emotion that I want to offer in my new series.

To me, this is what HOPE looks like when we exist in a world like the one we find ourselves in.

In this series, I feature endangered animals who are framed by endangered flora. Each anthropomorphic animal is holding a sign upon which is written an ethos for the month. For example, here you see a Black-Footed Ferret framed by Sacramento Mountains Thistle with a sign that reads: “Be Humble. Everyone is in pain.”

Each sign is going to have a different drying pattern. I love the way this one is creating beautiful watercolor drying patterns.

So then I tried to go back and rework some other signs to get a similar effect. I won’t know if I was successful till the paint dries!

I’m also fond of the drying pattern on this one. I think it looks a little like a starry sky, and I just hope that it’s not too busy for the piece as a whole.

People often ask me how long it takes to make my art. The truest answer is--each painting has been a lifetime in the making, and the actual process of painting is a drop in the cosmic bucket of how long I've been thinking about each individual piece I develop.

I have been developing this particular art series for about two years--planning it, researching it, dreaming about it--and these next few weeks I will be in the thick of things, putting paint to paper.

When things are all done, I will have TWELVE new images for you, and they will be put together in my FIRST CALENDAR.

My hope is to fund the calendar this June with a Kickstarter.

Stay tuned to see even more sneak peeks of my painting process and follow the progression of the project!

Next week I'm going to talk about the Tumblr artist who was a huge inspiration for this project and who encouraged me to develop this series!

PATREON EXCLUSIVE

I have TWO COLORING SHEETS from this series available to my Patreon supporters. If that's your jam, hop on over to my Patreon and grab the downloads!

This writing first appeared in my newsletter. If you don't want to miss out on updates to this project, sign up for my newsletter here!

[hhummingbee]

“Jazzasaurus”

A digital image of last month’s Patreon Print gift, which is kind of like a fourth illustration of the card set that’s made in secret and mailed as a physical reward to some tiers.

This year, I'm showcasing the monthly seamless patterns I make in the print gifts, since that seems like a more tangible reward other than just getting your peepers on exclusive art and my illustrative process. So yup, I make seamless patterns for Adobe Photoshop, because details are important! For just $3 you can get the pattern shown here (called Rhapsody Jam), 11 other patterns for Adobe Photoshop, plus all my behind-the-scenes content for my greeting cards and illustrations.

This pattern was entirely digitally made and though I’m not too fond of how it came out, I am glad I stuck the lineart through until the end. I tried something new; I love the pattern I made, but the blocky and neon style and shapes just don’t jive with how I usually paint or draw things. Last month’s card set were the Brass Hoot line of cards, which depict jazzy dinosaurs -  Hadrisauridae, specifically - having fun and playing brass horn instruments.

Happily be!

Digital

Art by Pam Kimball

⬢   Patreon   ⬢   Etsy   ⬢   deviantArt   ⬢   Instagram   ⬢   Twitter   ⬢

[palenoface]

Connor Murphy Headcanons

he has two middle names : larry, after his father, and james, after his mom’s dad.

he has baby wipes and chewing gums in his nightstand for the days he’s too mentally exhausted to take a shower and brush his teeth.

he thinks he has high-functioning autism, but he has too little information and not enough fucks to give to look more deeply into this.

he ! needs ! stimulation ! he needs sound and vibrations and colors to ground him and make sure he isn’t dissociating.

on the other hand, too much stimulation makes him feel on edge and it’s always a lot of work to maintain the balance between numb and hyperaware - a work he rarely has the patience to do.

his original hair color is very close to zoe’s, but he’s a stubborn bastard who wants to make a point so he’s been dying them for the last five years.

it’s also incredibly fluffy when he has the time and energy to brush it.

he can do handstands.

he and zoe used to take gym classes together when they were younger, and while he’s too out of shape to do wheels or backflips, he can still do handstands without much effort.

he has selective memory : he can quote more than 500 vines from the top of his head, but has no idea when WWII started.

the little prince and alice in wonderland are his childhood favorite books. then he got his hands on terry pratchett and ooooh boy.

(he has a soft spot for death in discworld.)

zombies ! he like pop culture zombies. they’re trash and they’re gore and they’re his favorite creatures.

his music taste includes, but is not limited to :

barber shop quartets

pop-rock

ukulele covers of generic love songs

metal

beatbox and acapella stuff (he is totally blaming evan on that one)

choirs

whatever imagine dragons think they’re doing

don’t start him on disney songs

muffled recordings of zoe training for jazz band in her room

he never was much of a gamer but ? minecraft ? that was the good shit. he’s sure he still has his very first map somewhere in his crappy laptop.

speaking of his laptop, it’s covered in sharpie drawings and half-unsticked stickers.

his weed is stashed in a cardboard box under his bed with his previous years’ notebooks, and the layer of dust is his indicator to know if anyone found it or not.

he keeps all his notebooks since... as far as he can remember. sometimes he opens one of them and laughs at the sarcastic little notes he wrote in the margins.

his favorite of all times is from 4th grade. there’s an empty page between two full of doodles, and in the middle of it, written very very tiny : bitch.

he gets very tired very quickly. it’s like his internal battery just. goes flat. as soon as he gets invested in something. brain.exe stopped working.

he has a fidget cube and a finger twister in his hoodie’s pocket.

he actually has several fidget toys hiding all over the place, but these two are the ones he keeps on him at all times.

absurd humor is his jam. he’s particularly fan of reaction pics with the caption cropped out.

he makes typos when he’s under pressure.

DO NOT get him started on political subjects unless you’re willing to sit on your ass for hours and listen to him rant about everything wrong with the american system

given enough time and fuel (granola bars usually do the trick) it will always go back to capitalism and supremacy

he is paranoid. he knows that, his parents know that, zoe knows that, hell, evan of all people knows that. it doesn’t mean he’s anywhere near able to keep it in check, though.

it always takes him way too long to calm down and look at things in perspective, and by the time he does that he’s already hurt someone.

he has a thing for spiderman. it’s everywhere in his stuff if you know where to look.

evan challenged himself to find every single spidey merch in his room, but he’s still far from finding all of it (connor is definitely not telling him about the old pair of boxers at the bottom of his drawer).

when he’s confined somewhere - school, his room - he daydreams about getting in his car and drive until everything is calmer in his head.

in the same fashion, he’ll start running out of the blue and just... go. somewhere, anywhere as long as he can stop thinking so loudly.

he has one (1) plant in his room. it’s a little ceropegia woodii that evan gave him at some point, insisting on the fact that connor really had to want it dead for it to peg out.

connor makes a point of watering it once a week. it’s, oddly enough, one of the only things he can’t seem to forget easily. plus, he likes the little chain of heart-shaped leaves on his shelf.

his top three movies of all time are hidden figures, the imitation game and bohemian rhapsody.

sometimes at night when he can’t sleep because his thoughts are too loud and his room gets too stifling, he goes to sit in the hallway and listens to the house breathing in the dark. it calms him immediately.

when it’s not enough, he goes to sit on the porch and wait for the sun to rise behind the trees and doesn’t go back inside before he’s absolutely certain another day has come.

(and it makes everything okay, somehow, because the sun will always rise, and connor feels less desperate. less like he’s about to fall and never get up.)

(connor never falls. it’s sometimes very damn close, but he holds onto the seconds and every one of his breaths, and things are okay again before he realizes it.)

he and zoe still have a chaotic relationship that involves a lot of shouting and door-slamming, but he knows they’re doing better. it’s not perfect, and it probably never will be, but they’re working hard on their communication issues and it shows.

he’s weirdly territorial when it comes to his room : its is his space, and the doorway is the limit, and you have to ask to come in, dammit. it’s not that hard, larry.

evan always knocks. connor told him he could stop, because connor has nothing to hide from him (except a pair of boxers), but evan stubbornly keeps knocking every time he comes over. he’s says it’s good education, but connor knows it’s because evan, deep down, is a bastard who doesn’t like being wrong.

he has rituals - he doesn’t want to call it superstition, because he doesn’t really believe in this kind of thing, but he feels uncomfortable if he doesn’t execute them. his most recurrent ones are :

twisting his hair tie three times around his wrist before tying his hair so it doesn’t break

walking systematically inside the patterns on the ground

drumming a beat with his foot and his fingers to make time go faster

aligning anything lingering in front of him

notching every desk he sits at to see if they’re moved around

by extension, sitting specifically at his approved desks on bad days so he doesn’t get more irritated than he already is

he is weak to sleepy evan. don’t get him wrong, he likes every version of evan - sarcastic, pleased, blushing, soft, angry, self-deprecating, laughing - but sleepy evan is just... something else entirely.

the first night evan spends at the murphy’s they watch documentaries on his laptop until late, and they’re so captivated that it takes connor’s arm growing numb for him to notice evan asleep over his shoulder.

(connor doesn’t move for another half-hour, but he eventually has to pee and the sleepy, confused face evan gives him as he get up is just too much for his heart to handle.)

(and it will take him a long time to handle, he knows, but there’s no rush.)

(the sun will still rise tomorrow.)

[eldritchsurveys]

831.

1: when you have cereal, do you have more milk than cereal or more cereal than milk? >> I don’t eat cereal anymore, but from what I can remember, I didn’t really like having a lot of milk in the bowl.

2: do you like the feeling of cold air on your cheeks on a wintery day? >> Not usually.

3: what random objects do you use to bookmark your books? >> On the occasion that I’m reading a paper book, if it’s my own, I just dog-ear it. If it’s a library book, I use the receipt that I got from checking out the book.

4: how do you take your coffee/tea? >> Black (or in the case of some teas, with a little honey).

5: are you self-conscious of your smile? >> I’m self-conscious of my entire face.

6: do you keep plants? >> I just have the one spider plant in my room. It looks pretty done for, but like... it’s not dead, exactly, so I have no idea what to do with it. Sparrow, on the other hand, has about fifteen plants on the balcony, two in her room, etc.

7: do you name your plants? >> Sparrow has named at least one of hers.

8: what artistic medium do you use to express your feelings? >> I just wrangle the written word the best I can.

9: do you like singing/humming to yourself? >> Absolutely.

10: do you sleep on your back, side, or stomach? >> Side.

11: what’s an inner joke you have with your friends? >> Sparrow and I have this thing where we just mangle words as badly as possible. Like “chicken” has become “chimkin”, stuff like that.

12: what’s your favorite planet? >> Mercury and Pluto, for completely opposite reasons (as I’m sure is obvious).

13: what’s something that made you smile today? >> I saw a random crop of mushrooms while walking. It was just... random! I don’t know what died there or whatever that made the mushrooms grow in that one little spot, but it was adorable.

14: if you were to live with your best friend in an old flat in a big city, what would it look like? >> ---

15: go google a weird space fact and tell us what it is! >> I don’t feel like it.

16: what’s your favorite pasta dish? >> I don’t have one.

17: what color do you really want to dye your hair? >> I don’t.

18: tell us about something dumb/funny you did that has since gone down in history between you and your friends and is always brought up. >> ---

19: do you keep a journal? what do you write/draw/ in it? >> I technically have one, on Dreamwidth, but I never bother updating it. This is my journal, along with my personal blog.

20: what’s your favorite eye color? >> ---

21: talk about your favorite bag, the one that’s been to hell and back with you and that you love to pieces. >> I don’t have one of those. I have three different bags for different purposes.

22: are you a morning person? >> Sure.

23: what’s your favorite thing to do on lazy days where you have 0 obligations? >> I usually have 0 real obligations (aside from ones I impose on myself), so I have no idea how to answer this.

24: is there someone out there you would trust with every single one of your secrets? >> ---

25: what’s the weirdest place you’ve ever broken into? >> I’m not sure.

26: what are the shoes you’ve had for forever and wear with every single outfit? >> There are no shoes that I’ve had for forever. I only have two pairs of shoes, so basically both of them get worn with every single outfit (the boots in the cooler months, the sneakers in the summer and for walking).

27: what’s your favorite bubblegum flavor? >> Well, isn’t bubble gum only one flavour?

28: sunrise or sunset? >> Both are good. Although I like saying hello to the Sun more than I like saying goodbye to it.

29: what’s something really cute that one of your friends does and is totally endearing? >> ---

30: think of it: have you ever been truly scared? >> Sure.

31: what is your opinion of socks? do you like wearing weird socks? do you sleep with socks? do you confine yourself to white sock hell? really, just talk about socks. >> I like wearing socks with funky patterns and designs on them, and sometimes I mismatch them on purpose for my own amusement. I do not sleep with socks.

32: tell us a story of something that happened to you after 3AM when you were with friends. >> I can’t really think of one right now.

33: what’s your fave pastry? >> ---

34: tell us about the stuffed animal you kept as a kid. what is it called? what does it look like? do you still keep it? >> I don’t remember what I kept as a child. I think I had a lion or two. I only remember that because my father is fucking obsessed with lions so of course I had lion plushies.

35: do you like stationery and pretty pens and so on? do you use them often? >> I do like them, but I don’t have occasion to use them.

36: which band’s sound would fit your mood right now? >> I don’t know.

37: do you like keeping your room messy or clean? >> I like keeping it tidy.

38: tell us about your pet peeves! >> I’d really rather not right now.

39: what color do you wear the most? >> Black.

40: think of a piece of jewelry you own: what’s it’s story? does it have any meaning to you? >> I don’t really have any stories behind any of the jewelry I own.

41: what’s the last book you remember really, really loving? >> Well, I reread The Phantom Tollbooth recently and I’ve been fond of that book for almost as long as I’ve been alive.

42: do you have a favorite coffee shop? describe it! >> No.

43: who was the last person you gazed at the stars with? >> I don’t remember.

44: when was the last time you remember feeling completely serene and at peace with everything? >> Oof...

45: do you trust your instincts a lot? >> I don’t know.

46: tell us the worst pun you can think of. Any burger of the day ever written on the board at Bob’s Burgers. I love them though. <-- I’m going to stick with that, those are just utterly shameless puns lmao

47: what food do you think should be banned from the universe? >> ---

48: what was your biggest fear as a kid? is it the same today? >> I was afraid of thunderstorms and flying insects. I still have a reflexive aversion to flying insects when they’re flying around me (even though I actually like a lot of flying insects, like bees and moths and stuff), but I am definitely not afraid of thunderstorms anymore.

49: do you like buying CDs and records? what was the last one you bought? >> I don’t buy CDs and I rarely buy records. I think the last record I bought was a deluxe copy of Pearl Jam’s Ten that I found at ALDI, of all places.

50: what’s an odd thing you collect? >> I don’t collect things.

51: think of a person. what song do you associate with them? >> ---

52: what are your favorite memes of the year so far? >> I don’t remember what memes came out this year.

53: have you ever watched the rocky horror picture show? heathers? beetlejuice? pulp fiction? what do you think of them? >> I tried watching RHPS and Beetlejuice and didn’t like either one. Didn’t even finish them, in fact. Heathers was okay. Pulp Fiction was entertaining.

54: who’s the last person you saw with a true look of sadness on their face? >> *shrug* What even is a true look of sadness.

55: what’s the most dramatic thing you’ve ever done to prove a point? >> I have no idea.

56: what are some things you find endearing in people? >> Meh.

57: go listen to bohemian rhapsody. how did it make you feel? did you dramatically reenact the lyrics? >> Listening to Bohemian Rhapsody doesn’t really make me feel anything, but it’s fun to reenact sometimes, yeah. Especially in a car, Wayne’s World style.

58: who’s the wine mom and who’s the vodka aunt in your group of friends? why? >> ---

59: what’s your favorite myth? >> Oh god, that’s the worst question. I love so many different myths.

60: do you like poetry? what are some of your faves? >> I can’t usually get into poetry, a lot of it is inscrutable in a way that’s just annoying to me instead of intriguing. There are some poems I like, though, but don’t ask me to remember them right now.

61: what’s the stupidest gift you’ve ever given? the stupidest one you’ve ever received? >> ---

62: do you drink juice in the morning? which kind? >> Not usually.

63: are you fussy about your books and music? do you keep them meticulously organized or kinda leave them be? >> I’m fussy about my everything. I don’t own enough books or physical copies of music to really warrant being meticulous about their organisation, though.

64: what color is the sky where you are right now? >> Pale blue.

65: is there anyone you haven’t seen in a long time who you’d love to hang out with? >> I mean, sure, why not.

66: what would your ideal flower crown look like? >> I used to have a really big one that someone on tumblr made for me a long time ago, lmao. That was good.

67: how do gloomy days where the sky is dark and the world is misty make you feel? >> It depends on how I already felt. If I was having an okay day, then it’s just dreamy and ~goth~ and I will probably make 100 Silent Hill jokes. If I’m having an off day, then the fact that the Sun isn’t even out just makes me feel worse.

68: what’s winter like where you live? >> Cold.

69: what are your favorite board games? >> I don’t have one.

70: have you ever used a ouija board? >> No, never got a chance.

71: what’s your favorite kind of tea? >> Ginger, peppermint, etc.

72: are you a person who needs to note everything down or else you’ll forget it? >> No.

73: what are some of your worst habits? >> Picking at my lips, mainly.

74: describe a good friend of yours without using their name or gendered pronouns. >> ---

75: tell us about your pets! >> ---

76: is there anything you should be doing right now but aren’t? >> No.

77: pink or yellow lemonade? >> Either is fine.

78: are you in the minion hateclub or fanclub? >> I can’t stand them.

79: what’s one of the cutest things someone has ever done for you? >> ---

80: what color are your bedroom walls? did you choose that color? if so, why? They are the colour of Nothing and I did not choose it. I rent. <-- “the colour of Nothing” is exactly what the fuck it is.

81: describe one of your friend’s eyes using the most abstract imagery you can think of. >> ---

82: are/were you good in school? >> I was great as a child. Once puberty (and trauma) hit everything went out the window.

83: what’s some of your favorite album art? >> I don’t even know where to begin with this... there are so many album covers I like, but I don’t feel like expending all my survey energy on one question, you dig...

84: are you planning on getting tattoos? which ones? >> No, I’m not planning on it.

85: do you read comics? what are your faves? >> Sure. Promethea, Sandman, Preacher, Doctor Strange, various Lovecraftian comics, etc.

86: do you like concept albums? which ones? >> I do like concept albums. Dream Theater has done some pretty interesting ones, and so did Vanden Plas with Christ 0.

87: what are some movies you think everyone should watch at least once in their lives? >> ---

88: are there any artistic movements you particularly enjoy? >> I had been reblogging a lot of art recently that had a similar look and feel to it, and I was wondering if they were related, like part of a certain art movement... and then I was watching a Youtube video about the movie Silence the other day and I accidentally found my answer in that video! It was the Baroque movement. I really like the feel of some of those pieces, particularly the darker-hued paintings.

89: are you close to your parents? >> No.

90: talk about your one of you favorite cities. >> What can I possibly say about New Orleans that hasn’t already been said by more poetic minds than mine, tbh.

91: where do you plan on traveling this year? >> I don’t plan on travelling this year, thanks to the whole pandemic business.

92: are you a person who drowns their pasta in cheese or a person who barely sprinkles a pinch? >> Er, somewhere in the middle...?

93: what’s the hairstyle you wear the most? >> I only have one hairstyle.

94: who was the last person you know to have a birthday? >> Somebody on one of the Discord servers I’m in.

95: what are your plans for this weekend? >> We’re going to the Wayland house for the first time since... early March, I think. Besides that, just the farmer’s market and grocery shopping as usual.

96: do you install your computer updates really quickly or do you procrastinate on them a lot? >> My computers run on SSDs, so it takes like 2 minutes to do system updates and I’m right back in business. No point in procrastinating that.

97: myer briggs type, zodiac sign, and hogwarts house? >> I get a different result every time I take a Myers-Briggs test (which makes sense to me). My Sun sign is Gemini. My Hogwarts house is Slytherin, but being complex-natured like any other human being I know that I straddle both Slytherin and Ravenclaw.

98: when’s the last time you went hiking? did you enjoy it? >> I don’t remember the last time I went on a true hike. I would love to do that at some point, but aside from the M6 trail (which is just... parallel to a highway and not all that scenic), all the good hiking places in this region require me to be driven to the location first.

99: list some songs that resonate to your soul whenever you hear them. >> Death Is the Road to Awe by Clint Mansell, Walker by Master Boot Record, Ich dachte schon by Selig, Little Black Submarines by the Black Keys, Nothing As It Seems by Pearl Jam.

100: if you were presented with two buttons, one that allows you to go 5 years into the past, the other 5 years into the future, which one would you press? why? >> No.

[vegasring]

22 Question Get-to-know me!

Though I’m a bit shy... here are my answers to 22 questions 

... and tagging people you want to know better. 

Tagged by @ellis-hendrickss!

Nicknames: Ly, or Lyly. My sisters and their friends call me Ate, as it A-te, for older sister in Tagalog/Filipino.

Zodiac sign: Leo, and it shows! rawr!

Height: Barely 5 ft. I’m tiny. A halfling really.

Last movie I saw…

In the theatre: The Grinch. There’s one functional movie theater in Zanzibar, so I take what I can get!

At home: The Princess Swap, with my daughter.

Last thing I googled: How to Letterpress. I’m obsessed with paper, and paper things...

Favorite musicians: Queen, Queen, Queen - all this before we moved to Zanzibar. There are no tribute bands here, sadly. Maybe I should start one. Currently in love with M’Toro Chamou from Mayotte/Reunion, love jazz and blues.

Song stuck in my head: “I Will Survive”. My daughter keeps wanting to sing this. And “Shallow” because I’m trying to learn it on keys.

Other blogs: I wish I had others. I barely keep up with this!

Following: 51

Followers: Apparently 172. I had to find it. Wow. Thank you!

Do I get asks: Not really. Because... I barely keep up with this blog!

Lucky numbers: 8

What I’m wearing: A Swahili patterned dress I bought last week.

Dream job: To own a paper crafting store. Right now I teach graduate courses on renewable energy development. So.... it’s a long way to get there.

Dream trip: To go to Japan and bathe myself in fancy Japanese paper.

Favorite food: White sticky rice and Kare-kare, a Filipino dish made with Ox-tail, peanut-sauce, eggplant, string beans and shrimp paste.

Instruments: Primarily piano, then guitar, then now ukelele since my son has picked it up and taught me 4 chords, which is all you really need in this life.

Languages: Tagalog, Cebuano, and crap Spanish. and Swahili enough to go wet market shopping, but not enough to get out of a jam when the traffic cops stop me randomly. 

Favorite songs: Cliche now but Bohemian Rhapsody. So many things I love about this song: interesting chord progression, funky lyrics, great for piano and head banging. Love La-La Land’s Audition song because it’s fun for piano and so dramatic. I love anything you can karaoke to. 

Random fact: The house they call “Freddie Mercury House” in Stone Town, Zanzibar was his parents house. Farouk never actually lived there full time since he was in boarding school in India.

Aesthetic: Lavender and grays.

Tagging: @o0katiekins0o @natasomewhere @amazingmolly @hobbitsdoitbetter

Would love to read your answers, so please do @ me!

[louder-than-love]

I was tagged by @killer-buzz-queen to put my music on shuffle and list the first 10 songs that show up. Thanks a lot for the tag ❤ Here we go: 1. Bohemian Rhapsody - Queen 2. Redemption Song - Bob Marley & The Wailers 3. Milk& Honey - Nick Drake 4. Patterns in the Ivy II - Opeth 5. Spoonman - Soundgarden 6. Vodoo Child (Slight Return) - Jimi Hendrix Experience 7. Music To Watch Boys To - Lana Del Rey (not sure if this is a guilty pleasure, but I love her) 8. Garden - Pearl Jam 9. Rosemary - Deftones 10. Born in Winter - Gojira I tag @iowainc, @bloodsoakedpearls,, @kentuckyfriedcobain, @inside-a-break, @wellwelldroogieboy, @sweet-cigarette-and-heroin and anybody else who wants to!