I've been absent from the site for months, due to working on a book. But now that I have a bit of spare time, I've been dabbling in watercolours, something I haven't done in years. A bit rough to start but I'm enjoying it.
The European Goldfinch is a striking small finch with a distinctive red face and black-and-white head. Its wings are black with a bright yellow wing bar, while the body is mainly buff or light brown.
During the breeding season, the bill of male and female goldfinches is white, but at other times of the year, it is marked with a black tip.
Female goldfinches are very alike in appearance to males, and visually, it is hard to tell them apart from a distance. At close range, the sexes can be distinguished by the size of the red facial patch, with the females not extending past the eyes as it does in males of the species.
Juvenile goldfinches do not develop adults' red, white and black facial markings until the late summer or autumn after hatching. Until this point, they have streaky buff-brown markings on their heads. Info: Birdfact . com
A Female Pied Flycatcher Ficedula Hypoleuca…
The Pied Flycatcher is a summer migrant to the UK.
As the name suggests, it feeds on flies that are caught by making a quick dash from an obvious perch. There are around 40,000 pairs in the UK each summer. The Pied Flycatcher is a small unmistakable bird that often sits with drooped wings. It spends its winter in Africa.
Identification:
Adult
Adult males and females share the same plumage pattern but are different colours.
Male Pied Flycatchers are small and chunky,13cm in length and are black and white all over, they are quite unmistakable.
The upperparts are black and white, tail is black with white base to outer tail feathers, rump is a slightly paler, back is jet black, wings are black with white wing patch (tertials)
The nape and head is black except for small white patch above the black bill. Chin and throat white, extending to form a half collar.
The entire underparts are white, ie; chin, throat, breast, belly and undertail coverts. Legs, bill and eye black.
Females are brown versions of the male although tail is dark, no obvious white patch over the bill and the collar is less distinct. #piedflycatcher #brd #birdart #birdartist #birdsketch #birddrawing #bampidraws #birdlovers
In fact, she [Mummy] said after a while, we have gone into hibernation. Nobody can get in any longer and no one can get out!
I looked carefully at her and understood that we were saved. At last we were absolutely safe and protected.
This menacing snow had hidden us inside in the warm for ever and we didn't have to worry a bit about what went on there outside. I was filled with enormous relief, and I shouted, I love you I LOVE YOU, and took all the cushions and threw them at her and laughed and shouted and Mummy threw them all back and in the end we were lying on the floor just laughing.
Then we began our underground life. We walked around in our nighties and did nothing. Mummy didn't draw. We were bears with pine needles in our stomachs and anyone who dared come near our winter lair was torn to pieces. We were lavish with the wood, and threw log after log on to the fire until it roared.
Sometimes we growled. We let the dangerous world outside look after itself, it had died, it had fallen out into space. Only Mummy and I were left.
- Sculptor's Daughter by Tove Jansson
#dailydrawing #tovejansson
Theo Von, is an American stand-up comedian and podcaster. He hosts the This Past Weekend podcast. He has appeared on MTV and Comedy Central shows. Pencil illustration colored digitally in Procreate.
Orangutan sketch (Original Dimensions: 3000x3000px x 300DPI) to try out my new iPad Air M2 13 using both iArtbook Pro and Artstudio Pro artist apps. This iPad is awesome for power and quickness.
Here are three main facts about adult male orangutans:
1. **Physical Characteristics**: Adult male orangutans are significantly larger than females, with an average height of about 1.2-1.5 meters (4-5 feet) and weighing around 50-100 kg (110-220 lbs). They develop distinctive physical features such as large cheek flanges (fleshy pads) and a throat pouch, which they use to produce long calls to communicate across the dense forests.
2. **Solitary Lifestyle**: Unlike many primates, male orangutans are solitary creatures. They spend most of their lives alone, except during brief periods of mating. This solitary behaviour reduces competition for food and other resources. The males will range widely and have large territories that often overlap with the ranges of several females.
3. **Long Call**: Adult male orangutans have a unique and powerful long call that can be heard over great distances. This call is used to establish territory and attract females. The call consists of a series of roars, grunts, and bellows, and it serves to warn other males of their presence, helping to maintain social hierarchy and reduce conflicts.
I crawled right up to Daddy's modelling mirror which stands on the floor by the box of plaster. A great big black creature was creeping towards me.
I got cautious and stood still. The creature was shapeless. It was one of those creatures that can spread itself out and creep under the furniture or turn into a black fog that gets thicker and thicker until it is quite sticky and gets all around you and fastens itself to you.
I let the creature get a little closer and put its hand out.
The hand crept along the floor and then was pulled back suddenly. The creature came even closer. Suddenly it got scared and ran quickly in an oblique direction and stopped still. Now I was scared.
- Sculptor's Daughter by Tove Jansson
#dailydrawing #tovejansson
What a wonderful Kirkus review!
(Paired here with my favorite improper contraction.)
"A thoughtful look at life, in all its beauty and strangeness.
...
This delightfully deadpan musing on life urges compassion for others. Howden’s straightforward text is on the philosophical side, though also rooted in the absurd. Hahn’s spare black graphite pencil watercolor, mostly set against a white background, are imbued with humor and empathy for the pickle, with the foodstuff’s expressive eyes conveying many emotions at once. "
https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/sarah-howden/the-wise-pickle/
THE WISE PICKLE
by Sarah Howden ;
illustrated by Sabina Hahn
RELEASE DATE: June 23, 2026
Something is brewing in my head and I can't get it to stop. Sooooo, I'm thinking a supernatural feel similar to Gravity Falls. I'm not sure where these two are going, but we doing something.
I'm uploading the two pages backwards so when they are all uploaded you can see them left to right. But this is page two. I worked on this at at training the other day, training days make for great art doodle days. If you want to see more I do have a tumblr account.
And that’s a wrap from this current sketchbook! Closing things with some Peter Falk wisdom I’ve shared before, I think…
“My idea of Heaven is to wake up, have a good breakfast, and spend the rest of the day drawing.”
Last spring we had nineteen canaries. I must tell you, once and for all, that canaries are very virulent birds.
It starts with the mother bird and the father bird.
They have babies. And before the babies get a single feather on their bodies they have to leave home and the father bird sings again and the mother bird lays new eggs. That's how things go with canaries.
- Sculptor's Daughter by Tove Jansson
#dailydrawing #tovejansson
DADDY LOVES ALL ANIMALS BECAUSE THEY don't contradict him. He likes ones that are furry best.
And they love him, too, because they know that they can do just as they like.
But it's quite a different matter with Females.
If you make statues of them they become women but as long as they remain Females things are difficult. They can't even pose properly and they talk much too much.
- Sculptor's Daughter by Tove Jansson
#dailydrawing #tovejansson
Lords of War - otep
With confidence in our armed forces, with the unbounding determination of our people, we will gain the inevitable triumph. So help us, God
More wars on foreign shores
More names for us to mourn
To misguide the misinformed
To ignore the sick and poor
Thus, we praise the lords of war
On our knees and beg for more
A fresh poison for the weak
Filthy little beasts
Bred to conform
It's the dwarfed souls of greedy men
Feculent, arrogant
That shackles our young to the cold concrete
And empty their guns into bodies
They scream "I'm not guilty"
They scream "I'm not guilty"
But cowards here are only what they fear
Shoot until the threat stops
I'd rather be in battle than at peace
I'd rather be a wolf than a sheep
I'd rather be in battle than slaughtered like cattle
The weak can sleep while
You were born to be led
That's what religion says
With a bifurcated tongue
America eats its young
Bullet-toothed, empty gods
Paralyze the minds and contest the thoughts
With devils everywhere
Bombs bursting in the air
Drones flown over thrones
Of bone and brimstone
Sabers rattle in the homes
Of the cowards and the crones
As they shackle our young
Blood stains the streets
Pigs empty their guns in their bodies
Bow down to the lords of war
On your knees for the lords of war
Bow down to the lords of war
On your knees for the lords of war
We rise in defiance
We won't remain silent
To triumph over tyrants
And police violence
Shoot until the threat stop
We're not guilty
Help us God
The lords of war
On your knees for the lords of war
Bow down to the lords of war
What is so terrible about a child screaming?
Why should it disturb us?
Just because we happen to be there to hear it?
What about the child who comes from an inadequate home, where he gets no encouragement from his parents
Where he doesn't have enough to wear, he doesn't have enough to eat, he comes to school hungry...
This beautiful, breathtaking #embracingnightmares
A random sketch that became a drawing practice. Even tried to sketch the outlines of some coat. What happens when one draws without a proper plan or skeleton, ending up with a "lifelike perspective".
I don't know how the movie ends; I won't see it, considering my country, but all my headcanons are sequels to the movie.
I have no idea what happens to Tommy, but I hope my imagination is strong enough to figure out how to save him without breaking canon. Otherwise, this is all AU.
The OC's name is Caroline Shelton. She belongs to the middle-upper class; her father is quite wealthy, so she knew no hardship much. But she is eccentric and zealously strives for knowledge, has many hobbies and is skilled in many things because of her pursuits. Basically, all she cared about in life was intellectual development. She had only one friend who could stand her personality and temper, James Holloway. Some time later, he disappeared, and Caroline received his bloodstained watch from an anonymous sender with no explanation, only the mailing address from which the anonymous sent the package.
Caroline couldn't think of anything better than to dress up as a man and travel to the town the package came from, introducing herself as James Holloway and gaining fame with her skills. She hopes that if the anonymous hears about an albino man named James Holloway in the town where they might live, they'll contact her again when they hear about her. Her logic is this: this person sent a package containing something important to Jim to her, so they must know something about Jim, her, and their friendship, and if they hear Jim's name used by an albino, they'll understand everything. So she sets out on a dangerous journey, making herself a kind of beacon/signal for the anonymous sender to find them and through them to find Jim or learn what happened to him.
I stared and stared at her until I had stared her into little pieces and I thought, you're big and scraggy like a carthorse and nobody can hunt for you in the grass and you couldn't hide anywhere because you can be seen the whole time and you can't surprise anybody and make them feel good! You have completely spoilt our games for no reason because you can't play games yourself! O alas and alack! No one wants your presents. He doesn't want them! You're nobody's surprise, and you can't understand because you're not an artist! And so I went a little closer and humiliated her by saying the most terrible thing of all : amateur! You're an amateur! You're not a real artist!
- Sculptor's Daughter by Tove Jansson
#dailydrawing #tovejansson
