strudeldoodlearts

[strudeldoodlearts]

Short post. Social battery kaput

Thinking forward to various trips, birthdays, wedding stuff, and family plans right now would be like trying to meal plan after eating past my fill at a buffet.

But I know it'll be chaotic and fun. Hopefully not as gross or as scorched as the upcoming heatwave.

Am I concerned about the way certain events can develop? Yes. But that won't stop me from doing whatever is fun and semi-sensible at the moment.

Maybe I won't see the fireworks, but the fireworks are us during our brief existence on this multifaceted rock.

[strudeldoodlearts]

I will likely re-do this one

I had the design in mind but am not so fond of the execution. The component on the lock was a last ditch attempt to save the concept. But I couldn't really come to like the added... battery-powered switch? Attached to coils wrapped around the lock? And then there's a rose?

Would the rose catch on fire? How long until the circuit gets fried? Would kaboom happen? Could the lock even be melted by this mechanism? If it could be melted fast enough before the fire/etc. stops the circuit, is the lock even that strong to begin with?

I enjoyed the process of drawing this, sure. And the end result is satisfactory in my opinion. But my brain is dissatisfied. This doesn't make much sense. So I will be redrawing this.

I still thought that this attempt was worth sharing. I'm motivated to improve it. ^^"

[strudeldoodlearts]

Happy Sunday and Father's Day!

Messaged my fam and enjoyed some barbeque on this cloudy-but-pleasant day.

I will resume drawing this week. Check out my Kofi page for some digital stickers of pride cats (from a collection that's an oldie but a goodie). For those who have donated, you can download a wallpaper based on 2 of my recent digital art pictures.

Anyhow, desserts are calling me. Have a happy Sunday ^^

[strudeldoodlearts]

The one post where I was vague about things I couldn't mention until later (just in case IRL friends read this blog) had to do with a surprise party. The scheme/dream was a long drive away so I wasn't able to actually show up for that. But there was a second party/celebration happening closer by that I attended.

Me and my partner were among the first ones to show up at that venue (a brewery place that serves spirits and various platters/eats). Then a whole lot of people from our college friend group poured in. We filled up more than half of Silver Branch's outdoor seating. Thank goodness it was a Monday evening so we practically had that area to ourselves.

I have finished a few quick sketches of what the next few weeks will look like. I will likely release those on my Kofi page next time but not this week. This week's Kofi goodies will include wallpaper designs based on some recent art pieces, along with some digital stickers for pride month.

While I occasionally entertain releasing more stuff for my RedBubble page again, I don't really want to deal with the downsides of POD and boosting my content on that site at this time.

Outside of art, I've been enjoying various types of homemade ice cream. One batch is loaded with pistachio. Another recent batch involved butter pecan and a custard base. (Time-consuming but so worth!)

[strudeldoodlearts]

Barbecue and a few more braincells~

It just occurred to me (while writing the title) that BBQ does not get spelled out as barbeque. ^^"

Taking a break this week to think of ideas for the next series of art and Kofi page releases. I have been sufficiently stuffed with steak, chicken skewers, and eggrolls at a barbecue event I attended with my SO.

On the not-so-cool side, a fly randomly decided to die in my hair. I felt a light weight land in my hair (like a spitball?) I glanced down and saw the juicy thing clinging on for dear life. I tried to shake it out. It did not move. Either because it was refusing to move or because it was no longer capable of flying away. I had to comb out the bugger with my fingers TTwTT

[strudeldoodlearts]

Whee

Somehow this week was creatively demanding but also invigorating! Caught up with a friend during a tequila night and was also introduced to an anime called Zenshu before the night went on a more chit-chat-about-random-stuff tangent. Caught up with another friend straight after that.

I would like to ramble more but on the off chance people I know IRL read this blog, I can't say anything until later! But what I *could* say now is that the timing of one friend's visit is hilarious.

Anyway. After a short weekend work block, I watched the rest of Zenshu. I don't want to spoil or gush too much, but artistic/creative people who want a mental reset and some animation/fantasy setting eye-candy: Maybe watch this! #iykyk

It gave my brain a good amount of things to chew on: How affected other creatives could be when consuming the work of other creatives, and how we're called to continue evolving these broad ideas without getting so self-absorbed into them that we ironically end up denying ourselves. Or the works of others that have shaped us. There are also themes of the inner child. They inevitably are a part of your creative process and your target audience, I think. ^w^

[strudeldoodlearts]

[RE small encounters]

If the first picture was a collection of abandoned stuff picked up on an otherwise scenic stroll, this picture is the resulting exchange of some of those goods with a feathered friend. So I had to choose items that I thought were light enough to be picked up and delivered by a crow or raven. The feather... probably fell out. No birds were harmed in this ideation. ^^"

And that's a wrap for [[Going on a walk]]! I guess the idea of this series came about by thinking of the random-but-priceless scenes and encounters you could come across just by deciding to walk away from the usual for a little bit.

[strudeldoodlearts]

Legitimately Sun day

Didn't quite get superdoses of Vitamin D today, but it sure feels like it! Enjoying some downtime before joining multiple friend groups for various things. (Palia and then some bridesmaid deets with another group).

I think I will enjoy this downtime with some desserts. And a bit of rum and coke. Because both are available and nice sounding at this moment.

[strudeldoodlearts]

[small encounters]

This is a more whimsical picture in the [[Going on a Walk]] series. This was loosely inspired some knolling pictures. I could probably picture myself in an alternate universe collecting a bunch of stuff from walks if I wasn't so worried about germs or hoarding.

There will be one more picture for this series next week!

[strudeldoodlearts]

A quick hi-bye kind of post ^^"

With today's nice weather, I am enjoying some nice chicken and pork skewers. I sat outside for a bit before retreating inside for drinks and writing this blog post. My window is even open, which feels great... except for the buzzing from this huge fly that has made itself at home. >_>

Anyhow, Happy Mother's Day to anyone celebrating/acknowledging it. I still have people to greet today so catch y'all on Wednesday!

[strudeldoodlearts]

[limination]

I kinda struggled with this one's name. I wondered if I should call it 'abandoned factory' or something related to the sunset. Then my mind decided to make up a word based on liminal and illumination.

This is loosely based on a field with long grass and wildflowers that I came across during a community service event I participated in during Earth Day. Yes, there were some distant industrial looking buildings, but I highly doubt they were as old and abandoned as the one one I painted here.

There are 1 or 2 more images left for this series about going on a walk. I wish I could remember the title of it from the top of my head, but my brain is fried from having to find workarounds for the file transfering because my phone is *still* being a butt with Bluetooth file transfer. Which isn't helping my memory right now ^^"

[strudeldoodlearts]

My phone was a total butt yesterday lol

Pretty uneventful week. The plants likely enjoyed the rain and I was perfectly content to spend today indoors. Anyway.

I totally got trolled by my phone last night! Sometimes I read, scroll through saved content or play minesweeper on my phone before turning in for the night. The night mode was on so it wasn't like blue light was keeping me up and awake. I did whatever I pleased while occasionally looking at the time. 1:38. Wow only? I'll wait until it gets to 2 am.

.... I went through the same thought process multiple times before realizing that it was stuck at 1:38 in the little upper corner. And then I looked at another clock. It read 3:26 am.

Needless to say, I restarted my phone. Thank goodness this didn't happen during a weekday (night?).

I hear that Google apps will update and anything android 12 and below will run slower. Even after restarting, there has been some other weird behavior from my device. Bluetooth is being troublesome, and the 2 step authentication for Google sign in took forever! Looks like I gotta do a system update and clean up my storage.

I almost didn't manage to transfer/download this one watercolor image to my PC. That would've been a bummer since I wanted to share it in this post.

Featuring ube queso ice cream and leche flan~

[strudeldoodlearts]

[ghost street]

Here's a cloudy, empty-ish neighborhood. I played with a saturation layer in Autodesk sketchbook to mute the colors while choosing to strengthen some within the ghost forms. (This is also something that influenced the ghosts' lineart.)

After finishing this, it occurred to me that [unleashed] also turned out like this...

Ah yes. Back when I used the older signature ^^" I had to stifle the cringe attacks while sifting through older art and looking for this. ^^""" Come to think of it.... what's stopping them from emerging from above the gates? A force field? Or is the gate itself the portal? Did I overthink this when I shared it??

Anyway hello again!

[strudeldoodlearts]

[authentic ish packaging]

#noaistarterpack

It took a few reworkings until I was satisfied with the "transparent box/shell packaging". I also wrote some side text and used a distortion tool to position it onto the box. But that may be tricky to read, so here's what I wrote:

"includes everything need for:

spontaneous short trips to somewhere

doomscrollilng

procrastination

fueling the coffee addiction

doodle skeels not include (sorry ^^")"

Catch y'all after next week's hiatus! For those celebrating, Happy Easter in advance.

[strudeldoodlearts]

It just occurred to me. I didn't post the food adventure pics from last week. So here they are ^ ^

The day was filled with snacking and chatting and listening. The unusually cold weather was cancelled out by feeling stuffed and getting a workout from walking long distances (while wearing weighty winter boots)!

These are just a few of the things I ate/drank/encountered:

I'm doing a series of art pictures related to the subject [[Going on a Walk]]. But I will be pausing that to draw something else this week.

I've been seeing the trend of people portraying themselves as action figures, which I think is linked to an AI trend of sorts. I'll be drawing that except without any AI involvement. :P

There will also be a pause for next week (coinciding with Easter and some other plans). Just a heads up that there will be crickets if you check this blog during Easter week. After that, it'll be back to the usual~

[strudeldoodlearts]

[get lost somewhere]

I was anticipating the shoes to be the more difficult part of this picture. But nope! It was actually the mat!

The design was simple enough. The line art actually started out as just a rectangle. And the sketch just had the words written out. But then I wanted more *texture* because I already added more details to the shoes and socks.

So I basically traced my design with a shaky hand to 'fluff' out the letters. And after fluffing out the letters and adding texture to the mat, a clean rectangle just looked weird.

So I redrew the squigglier lineart in a new layer before erasing the rectangle and then 'blending' the orange shading with excessive use of the color picker. (Sorry, wrist/hand!)

This is the start of another series of digital art images. The theme is [[Taking a Walk]].

[strudeldoodlearts]

Whee

Kofi release aside, most of last week was quite busy and mundane. While I don't fully know what to expect for this week, I am looking forward to a mini tour of good eats with my SO and an old friend of his.

If I get good food and venue shots and a chance to entertain dreams of having been a foodie influencer from another timeline, I will share the shenanigans along with Wednesday's art post. No promises though because I might be too immersed in the food or the present moment. And while my phone camera skills are at least okay, I can also be quite impatient whenever I'm asked to take a bunch of pictures for others.^^"