Kierkegaard said we undersand life by looking back, but we must live life forward. On a trip to the Chicago Art Institute with a group of students, I penned the students behind me and then I penned the rapidly moving images I saw through the front window of the bus . I still do not understand life except that perhaps it is full of energy and art and love.
I know there’s probably a few decent folks worth voting for come the general election here in Scotland I’ll settle on, though for the most part the loudest mouthpieces seem to just scream ‘bell-end’ to me...
I was playing around with Google Translate and various sentences I’d jotted down, and opted to go with the closest approximation from English into German for ‘I’m voting for Muppets’, which is 'Ich stimme fur Muppets'. ‘Ich stimme’ read to me as ‘itch stim’ for whatever reason (anglophone and neurodivergent here), which seems rather fitting as the thought of the worst candidates getting in is liable to have us all come out in stress rashes, am I right?
I keep seeing the word 'binary' crop up a lot in various discourses I’ve caught a glance at recently, whether it pertains to discussions around things like cancel culture or countless other things too numerous to mention. Funny what the lack of a middle ground these days does to certain people, irrespective of their political/ethical viewpoints...
Whenever I’m channel surfing, I often find myself stumbling into a film midway through it’s running time, and tend to stick around if there’s elements that pique my curiosity and just catch my eye etc. My Girl 2, of all films, was one of them this time around.
A line about “barbaric customs” or roundabouts prompted me to pick up my drawing kit...and here we are!
There is really nothing more I can say about this than it is truly just a doodle on a notepad while I was on the phone. The more I do this though, the more ideas I get for larger work.
I really liked the style that I used for one of the most recent labels I did for @abominationbrewingco and @snitzcreekbrewery so I decided to mess with it a bit more. Just a quick thing. I want to draw more animals in this style. This is for me, and my wife, and my daughter. Stay strong. This is for everyone. This is for you. Stay strong. No matter what you do on a day to day basis or what you go through. You are a strong person.
My husband has a chronic illness and frequently spends weeks in the hospital. I have been doodling each day while sitting with him and many of them reflect my thoughts at the time. Often appearing are desperation, hope, frustration, sarcasm, fear.
Black fineliner on drawing paper. My daughters want to hear fairytales every night at the moment. So my head is filled with magical forests, small houses, magical flowers etc.
Drawn with Clip Studio Paint and XP-Pen Artist 15.6 Pro pen display tablet.
Critically Endangered The White-headed Vulture has undergone catastrophic declines in population number, with an estimate median decline in 96% over three generations (45 years)
This decline has been seen in its very large range from West Africa, across to southern Africa also. Reductions in populations of medium-sized mammals and wild ungulates, as well as habitat conversion throughout its range best explain the current decline. Additional threats include indirect poisoning at baits set to kill jackals in small-stock farming areas. This species is also recorded in trade in West and Central Africa as this species is used for both traditional medicines and also they are intentionally killed for use in witchcraft. This species is part of the Accipitridae bird family, which diverged from all other species of bird 49.6 million years ago during the Paleogene period. Vultures split from the other genera in this family 12.7 million years ago. This species is highly sensitive to land-use and is concentrated to protected areas. Individuals were marked with patagial (wing) tags in Fouta Djallon vulture sanctuary to monitor movements and for a toxicological assessment of the vulture population of the park. Additional studies to monitor the movements of individuals within and between protected areas in underway is South Africa. Info: Edgeofexistence . org #birdlife #birds #birddrawing #birdsketch #whiteheadedvulture #vultures #bampidraws
Then everything started shrinking. Every piece of furniture became elongated and narrow and disappeared towards the ceiling. There was something crawling under the rag rugs in the hall. It was also narrow and thin and wriggled in the middle, sometimes very quickly and sometimes very slowly.
- Sculptor's Daughter by Tove Jansson
#dailydrawing #tovejansson
"A dark man went on shovelling outside the door and all of a sudden I started to cry and I screamed: I'll bite him! I'll go outside and bite him!
I shouldn't do that, Mummy said. He wouldn't under-stand. She screwed the top on to the bottle of Indian ink and said: what about going home?
Yes, I said.
So we went home."
- Sculptor's Daughter by Tove Jansson
#dailydrawing #tovejansson
I kept my eyes on it the whole time. Now it was moving so slowly that you couldn't really see whether it was coming towards you or not. Occasionally its shape changed just slightly and its black tummy swept over the concrete floor. I could hardly breathe. I knew that I ought to run away and hide bur I just couldn't. Now it moved diagonally again towards the wall and wasn't to be seen any longer. It was in the pile of junk behind the modelling stand, it was somewhere behind the sacks of plaster and might appear again just anywhere.
It was getting dark in the studio. I knew that it was me who had let the creature out and I couldn't capture it and lock it up again.
- Sculptor's Daughter by Tove Jansson
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
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
I made my golden calf in the arbour because it was a pagan place and a circle is always a good setting for sculpture.
It was very difficult to get the legs to stay upright but in the end they did and I nailed them to the socle just to make sure. Sometimes I stood still, listening for the first rumble of the wrath of God. But so far he had said nothing. His great eye just looked right down into the arbour through the hole between the tops of the spruce trees. At last I had got him to show some interest.
- Sculptor's Daughter by Tove Jansson
#dailydrawing #tovejansson
This is the 4rth piece that I painted during my train journey. I painted this scene after getting mesmerised by the view from the train window. It was Day 1, evening, 4 pm. We were passing through mountains and lakes. A group of girls ( students ) got excited when I showed some of my paintings. So I gifted one of them this (●'◡'●)
A solitary rowboat drifts across a muted, restless surface, unanchored and unattended. Rendered in charcoal, ink, and subtle white highlights, the vessel exists in a quiet state of motion—moving, yet going nowhere. The surrounding water is suggested through loose, rhythmic lines, emphasizing atmosphere and isolation over realism.
The boat is sharply defined against the hazy background, its dark contours and interior shadows contrasting with the soft, unsettled environment. Oars rest unevenly, implying recent human presence while reinforcing absence. The name Perditas—Latin for “lost”—is affixed to the hull, anchoring the emotional weight of the piece without explanation.
This work explores themes of solitude, uncertainty, and endurance. With no shoreline or destination in sight, Perditas becomes a reflection on drifting—physically, mentally, and emotionally—inviting the viewer to confront their own sense of direction within an undefined space.
...as my daughter says. Watercolour on watercolour paper. Mixing all the greens was real fun. I enjoyed every minute of creating this piece. And, of course, the first person I showed it to, found some fault with it...
Anoia is an actual Goddess, and not a Patron Saint, but I really wanted to draw her.
Anoia is the Goddess of Things That Get Stuck in Drawers, a minor goddess on the Discworld (by Terry Pratchett - and if you don't know who he is, you should read his books! You can start with Small Gods -it is a standalone in the Discworld world. Or Guards! Guards! is another good choice).
When someone rattles a drawer and cries "How can it close on the damned thing but not open with it? Who bought this? Do we ever use it?", even though the person might be genuinely irritated or even exasperated, it is as praise unto Anoia. Faithful Anoians (worshippers of Anoia) purposefully rattle their drawers and complain every day. Anoia also finds objects that roll under other objects and things stuck in sofa cushions, and is considering handling stuck zippers. She eats corkscrews. Her name is clearly derived from "annoy".
Anoia she was formerly the volcano goddess Lela. She mentions that she has not been in her current position long, but what constitutes a long time to a god is unclear.
discworld.fandom.com/wiki/Anoia
#patronSaints #terryPratchett
Pyotr Ilich Tchaikovsky (1840–1893)
At 9:30, Tchaikovsky set to work—composing at the piano only after he had dealt with any proofs or his correspondence, chores that he disliked. “Before setting about the pleasant task,” his brother noted, “Pyotr Ilich always hastened to get rid of the unpleasant.”
After lunch he went for a long walk, regardless of the weather. His brother writes, “Somewhere at sometime he had discovered that a man needs a two-hour walk for his health, and his observance of this rule was pedantic and superstitious, as though if he returned five minutes early he would fall ill, and unbelievable misfortunes of some sort would ensue.”
- From Daily Rituals: How Artists Work by Mason Currey
“Truly there would be reason to go mad were it not for music.”
― Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky
“If you do not want to write, at least spit on a piece of paper, put it in an envelope, and send it to me. You are not taking any notice of me at all. God forgive you – all I wanted was a few words from you.”
― Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
#dailyrituals #inktober #PeterTchaikovsky @masoncurrey
I forgot to post it here. I got better at drawing her. I tried a more '80s anime style recently but will keep at this style since that's how I draw. I love her even though she's not intended to be a main character
This is a story seed that I have not yet followed through on, probably won't for a while. I started drawing this mainly so that I could draw those front legs. I think I did pretty well on them, though my shading here needs work
