New Tumblr

I have a new tumblr, its for children's books!  I'll leave a link here in case anyone's interested:

https://sit-he-oo.tumblr.com/

I think this one is going to be very rewarding and a lot of fun.  :)

December Update

NaNoWriMo:

Well last month of course was NaNoWriMo, and I finished it with 50,181 words. Gravedigger is part of a trilogy so I will have to do a lot more outlining and write the rough drafts for the other two novels before I even know where everything is.  With that in mind I will end up publishing some other books first, and that means you probably won't see it for another ten years or so.  I'm sorry... long term goals...

December:

I still don't know what to get anyone for Christmas this year, so part of my time will be dedicated to figuring that out.  Also I would like to wish anyone reading this a Merry Christmas!

I will also be working on a children's book, a story about a brontosaurus who goes around inhaling poodles like a vacuum cleaner.  My sister helped me come up with it, and it is true hilarity!

I hope to publish it sometime next year... short term goals!

January:

My new years resolution for next year is to set myself both a writing challenge, and a drawing or painting challenge every month of the year.  These goals will change from one month to the next, and I will adapt according to how things seem to be going, and what I need to practice on, and what I want to come out with.

Also I would like to wish anyone reading this a happy new year!

Don't feel like you have to set goals if you don't want to.  I know I set myself all sorts of creative goals but it seems to work for me, and I feel like I'm having fun, so whatever you do just be sure not to stress out too much.  :)

NaNoWriMo Winner!

I won NaNoWriMo again this year, on Thanksgiving, two days early with 50,181 words!

Just thought I'd let you know, and while I'm posting anyway:

Happy Thanksgiving!!!  :)

Boy Chillin on a Floating Island

Sometimes you gotta just chill, y'know.  Thanks to stockmichelle: www.deviantart.com/stockmichel… for the use of this wonderful stock image: fav.me/d38jb76 ! :)

Youtube 'Made For Kids'

November 14, 2019 edition.

YOU PROBABLY DO NOT WANT TO MAKE YOUR VIDEOS ‘MADE FOR KIDS’!!!

I got an email from youtube today saying they have to comply with a new law; COPPA Child’s Online Privacy Protection Act.

They are dividing all of their content between videos that are ‘made for kids’ and videos that are not.  They did not define what makes a video ‘made for kids’ but they will be happy to suspend your account if it doesn’t comply.  It doesn’t have anything to do with whether its porn or not.

You can either set it yourself, or their automated machines will do it for you, (viz tumblr), I don’t think you can change it once you set it (or if you do you might get your account suspended).

If you set your video as made for kids, they aren’t supposed to track people for personalized advertising.

On the other hand, if you do set it as ‘made for kids’ some features will no longer be available:

• Personal advertising
• Comments
• Channel branding watermark
• Donate button
• Cards or end screens
• Live chat or live chat donations
• Notification bell
• Playback in the Miniplayer
• Super Chat or Super Stickers
• Save to playlist
• Stories
• The Community tab in the Channel page
• Notification bell
• Channel Memberships

This list was not in their email and I only found it by following one of their links.

THEY APPARENTLY DIDN’T FIND IT IMPORTANT ENOUGH TO MENTION THAT COMMENTS ARE DISABLED IF YOU MAKE IT ‘MADE FOR KIDS’?

I don’t know what’s going to happen to youtube, when all this happens.  I think eventually the only movies that show up are going to be ones that are obscene or inappropriate.  If you have a regular channel and want to keep going with it you probably want to mark all your content as ‘not made for kids’.  For most of us it probably means an exodus to other video streaming services.

November Update

Inktober:

Last month was Inktober and I only got four out of thirty-one drawings done, which you can find in my last article:

Inktober 2019!

Which isn't great but at least they're all reasonable quality, and I think I'll do a bunch of sketching and doodling and do a lot better next year.


NaNoWriMo:

This month I'm writing a story about a Gravedigger, and how he lives in the graveyard and every time undead rise up out of their graves he has to kill them with his magic shovel and put them to rest again.  He gradually amasses a band of street urchins, living statues and ghosts, who then set out to save the city from the street gangs and Imperials vying for power in the slums and the reptilian creatures that infest the sewers in a post apocalyptic empire.

The goal of NaNoWriMo is to write 50,000 words so I won't have time for much else this month, but I'll tell you all about it in December.


December:

Well December of course is Christmas, and you might think that would be enough of a challenge for one month.  In addition, I will also have the rough draft to a 50,000 word novel, to contend with.  However, I'm also going to spend some time working on a children's book.  My sister and I came up with a really grand idea for one a couple of months ago and I think it will be great hilarious.  It features a brontosaurus and his mishaps involving a whole lot of poodles.  I think it will be a lot of fun to work on, and of course to read and I expect to get it done in about a year, which is way less time than any of my other projects are projected to take at this point.

Inktober 2019!

Credits.

The top photo is based on this wonderful stock photo: fav.me/dbevbzl By: jennomat on DeviantArt
The second one is a wonderful closeup of moss: fav.me/dd1u31o By: Nexu4 on DeviantArt
The third one is out of my head, (I know I must have been).
And the bottom one is based on this excellent stock photo: fav.me/d68qn4a By: faestock also on DeviantArt

So I got four pictures done, that's one less than last year, but a lot less than next year.

October Update

I've decided to start giving monthly updates on my progress on literary and artistic ventures, and anything else I want to talk about.


Writing:

My goal is to write 3000 words this month, worth of miscellanious notes and outlines for my stories.  I'm finding that 3000 words, (that's just 100 words per day,) is an easily attainable word count goal that I can probably maintain from month to month, while juggling life's commitments, and still have time for drawing, and other art projects.

Drawing:

I've been doing a lot of writing lately but not so much drawing, so I found out that I'm completely unprepared for Inktober.  I'm still tackling it regardless and I'll put up a post of whatever artwork I've got done next month.

And of course I'm going to do NaNoWriMo next month.  Its a story about a gravedigger, I'll tell you more about it in November.


Misc:

That's about it.  Haven't had time for much painting or anything this month.

Shambling In The Dark

Here's a sonnet I wrote about shambling undead!  :)

The zombie horde that shambles in the dark,

And piles up like leaves outside our home

Seeks human flesh as dearly as the shark,

And in the dark we hear them wail and moan.

We cannot make the undead go away

They'll still be wailing, screeching with the dawn,

Unless we take the time to go and slay

These creatures, and to get them off our lawn.

So fill the chainsaws up with gasoline,

A resource that's so precious and so dear.

To hear us you might think we're very mean,

we slaughter them with jollity and cheer.

The city has already been consumed,

But if they tackle our house they'll be doomed.

Celtic Threesome

:)

Celtic Clover

Another coloring book page, this time a bit more botanical than usual.

Snowdrop Princess - Color

I finally added color to it! :D

Its based on this wonderful image: fav.me/d6546n3 by Kuoma-Stock: www.deviantart.com/kuoma-stock

I'm really happy with how it turned out!  ^_^

Domini Canis - Color!

I just did a color version with brush pens, and its brown because the dog next to Saint Dominic is often brown.  And then I put it in grayscale because black and white is the Dominican color scheme! :)

Domini Canis

St. Dominic is often pictured, or sculpted, with a dog beside him with a flaming torch in its mouth. This derives from the tradition that before his birth his mother had a dream where a dog leapt from her womb carrying a burning torch in its mouth and set the world on fire.

What it means of course is setting the world on fire with the Holy Spirit, which Saint Dominic certainly did with his preaching, and writing, and founding the Dominicans, who continue to be awesome like that.

This is my attempt at a Celtic version of this popular motif.  Of course I’m absurdly happy with it.  :D

The dog’s pose and leg tangle are from the Book of Kells originally, although I was looking at it on page 113 of George Bain’s excellent Celtic Art The Methods of Construction.

I hope you like it and would like to wish you all a happy 4th of July!     (whether you celebrate that sort of thing or not), and if you celebrate with fireworks, please don't set too much of the world on actual fire!  :)

Overflowing Island

:)

A finished picture with floating islands and the opportunity to wish you all a very happy Easter!

He is risen! :)

Witch Painting

Ink and watercolors, with some metallic watercolors which doesn't really show up, but they were super fun to use.  :)

Pig Post

I haven't been very updaty lately, but here's a pig painting.  Hope you like.