Archive for February, 2021

2 results.

Happy Groundhog Day

by on February 2, 2021 at 2:55 am
Posted In: Uncategorized

February 2nd is a special day, when the weather is prognosticated using marmots, and since woodchucks are rodents, I suppose that makes this a form of myomancy. 

The prediction is based on whether or not the whistle-pig sees their shadow. If they do, because the skies are clear, that means – confusingly, that there will be six more weeks of winter. If they don’t, because it’s a cloudy day, that means spring will come early. 

Historically, the most famous of the Marmota monax meteorologist, Punxatawney Phil, has come down on the side of more winter more often than not. While probability might expect a coin toss 50-50, the reality is that in New England, it’s still gonna be winter for a while no matter what the skies are like on the one day a bunch of humans scare a rodent out of their burrow in front of crowds and lights and cameras. 

February 2 is also Imbolc, which is the cross-quarter day midway between the Winter Solstice (the middle of winter) and the Vernal Equinox (the actual first day of spring, when the subsolar point crosses the celestial equator into the Northern hemisphere), so it’s not really possible for spring to begin on Groundhog Day.

I don’t care. Groundhogs are cute, and a bunch of people freezing their butts off in the wee hours of the morning over a ceremony that is nonsensical is absolutely my favorite thing.  

There is no better holiday. 

I’m up stupidly late (again. As usual) but not yet so late that Phil has made his appearance in Punxitawney. Still another hour to go before that should take place. 

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Advice to Artists

by on February 5, 2021 at 8:56 pm
Posted In: Uncategorized
Give yourself permission for your creative works to suck.

Everybody sucks when they’re just starting out. But you’re not doing it because you started out already a master, you’re doing it because you love doing it.

Keep at it, and you’ll get better.

Rather than looking at someone else’s art and comparing it to yours and thinking “wow, mine sucks” which is not constructive, ask “what are they doing that I’m not?” and try to find one thing that is different and something new for you to learn.

Then experiment! And don’t be afraid to go crazy here trying all kinds of things. Many of them won’t work! That’s fine, that’s expected. That’s how we learn.

Also, when looking at your own art, even and perhaps especially the pieces that you hate because you can’t get over how terrible you feel it is overall, make a list of things you DO like about it, things that worked out great, things that you want to keep doing again in other pieces.

The more you play around, the more you’ll surprise yourself with things accidentally coming out awesome. Focus on that, dissect why it’s awesome, and promise yourself to do more of that. With time, those things will come out awesome on purpose.

When you get stuck and feel like you’ve hit a plateau, and even though you are practicing all the time you don’t feel like you’re getting any better, actively look for new ways to improve:

  •  watch other artists stream so you can see how they do things
  •  watch youtube tutorials
  •  find art classes you can take (no matter what your skill level, there is always more you can learn!)
    •  If you’re still in school, take advantage of the art department while you’ve got it
    •  otherwise, there’s lots on the Internet, like 

      drawabox.com

  •  experiment with something way out of your comfort zone
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