100 Short Stories Challenge - Update

 

 To summarize here is my previous post:

So I’m not doing NaNoWriMo this year because they got all BLM and I don’t want to support the destruction of statues.

But of course I still wanted to do some sort of writing challenge, so I decided to do do a short story challenge a month early in October.  So that’s what I’m doing.  I call it the 100 Short Stories Challenge, and my goal is to work on 100 short stories and that’s what I’ve been doing.  These are short stories that I’d already started and had lying around on my computer and my secondary goal is to write an additional 25,000 words.

So that’s why I’ve been kind of absent and haven’t finished or posted much artwork lately.

Also I think coming up with and working on some kind of short story challenge is a great idea, whatever time of year you do it, because it can be a great way to help finish those loose short stories that you have lying around or to start new and better ones.

Aand here is the update:

I did work on all 100 of those short stories, so I achieved that goal!  Yay!

With my word count goal I only wrote 19840 words (not counting what I’d already written before),  leaving me 5160 words short.  Oh well.

Anyway I’m calling it done.  And of course I will continue working on the stories, just not as a monthly challenge.

I’m starting to really like monthly challenges, I’m finding them a great way to stay motivated and get more work done.

Aaand since I did my totes not NaNoWriMo challenge in October I’m going do do my totes not Inktober in November so stay tuned for that!

Just because 2020 is a dumpster fire doesn’t mean I can’t work on art!

Some sort of life update

 

So I’m not doing NaNoWriMo this year because they got all BLM and I don’t want to support the destruction of statues.

But of course I still wanted to do some sort of writing challenge, so I decided to do do a short story challenge a month early in October.  So that’s what I’m doing.  I call it the 100 Short Stories Challenge, and my goal is to work on 100 short stories and that’s what I’ve been doing.  These are short stories that I’d already started and had lying around on my computer and my secondary goal is to write an additional 25,000 words.

So that’s why I’ve been kind of absent and haven’t finished or posted much artwork lately.

Also I think coming up with and working on some kind of short story challenge is a great idea, whatever time of year you do it, because it can be a great way to help finish those loose short stories that you have lying around or to start new and better ones.

Mermaid on an Underwater Floating Island

Mermaid on an Underwater Floating Island

I think it came out pretty well.

Weeping Angel

So this is something different for me.  Instead of just an outline I actually shaded it.  Of course I wanted to do this study of a weeping angel statue because a weeping angel statue is a main character in a book I'm working on.  This one is based on a photograph on Wikimedia Commons which you can view here by pasting it into your browser: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:WeepingAngel.jpg

Because Blogger had an update and the links don't work anymore.  Anyway I hope you like it.

Floating Islands

Another watercolor, this one is 9" x 12", and I think the larger size works better.  I did the original lineart back in October of 2019!

Floating Island Fairy

I got a fancy new printer so I can print my lineart on watercolor paper now, and it has a bigger scanner too.  This is super duper for doing watercolor illustrations, which is what I want to do for the stories I'm working on.  Now that I can just print out another one if I goof up I have a lot less hesitation about coloring everything in.  So you can expect to see more watercolors from me in the future.

Also I might not put up as much of the uncolored lineart from here on out, except for coloring pages.  I used to always share my outline drawings, partly because I had no idea if or when I would ever color them, but now I think I might as well mostly just put up the finished paintings.  I'm tired of putting up both, and I think it looks better with just the color ones, and anyway I don't like being so redundant with my creative output.  I'm sorry if you prefer to always see the lineart as well, I'm not intending to make people unhappy.

The printer is an Epson Workforce WF-7610.  I got it off of Walmart.  Here's a very useful youtube video by a gal that talks about this kind of printer with regards to printing on watercolor paper:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSlewmCiHRY

This was what put me on to getting this particular kind of printer.  The fairy painting above was printed on 7"x10" 98 lb. Canson mix media paper, which is kind of thin but I think its ok.  Some people use this printer to print on thicker paper but I don't know if I'll do that because it isn't rated for anything thicker than cardstock and envelopes.  I also bought a pad of the same paper in 9"x12" which I think will be a good size to work in.

Vandalism Is Bad For Art

Its still bad!  I mentioned back in August 2017 when the black live matter looters were vandalizing statues and monuments and that was on the news that I thought vandalism was bad for art, and I still do.

The fact that so many people who I thought would know better are supporting murder, terrorism and wholesale destruction to this extent under the flimsy pretext of somehow combating racism, (which it doesn’t) displays a level of air headedness that I would hardly have believed possible.

Take Uncle Hugo’s Bookstore in Minneapolis as an example:

Here are some reasons why burning down a bookstore might be bad for art and creativity:

1, Its burning books!  Books are known to contain lots of art and creative writing.  Also there were a lot of irreplaceable 1st edition books as well as autographed copies some of them by authors who are no longer with us.

2, You just set fire to a bookstore!  Bookstores are places where people can look through and buy books, making all that creativity and art available to the public.

3. Its hard to have a booksigning in a burned out building!  Bookstores commonly have social events such as booksignings which are fun for members of the community.

4. Now the authors and illustrators can’t sell their books their anymore, which means they can’t get paid!  Which is bad for authors and illustrators.

5. Its just bad for everyone!  Burning down a bookstore puts people out of work and is just all around bad for the economy which is also bad for authors and artists.

So if you’re feeling bad about supporting arson and terrorism (and being a tremendous air head), here’s a chance to support the owner and his efforts to rebuild it:

https://www.gofundme.com/f/let-us-help-save-uncle-hugo039s?viewupdates=1&rcid=r01-159106110191-60120bbd3a4a430d&utm_medium=email&utm_source=customer&utm_campaign=p_email%2B1137-update-supporters-v5b

Its probably better than bailing out criminals, and social justice posturing!

This is an art blog, not a political blog so I wouldn’t even talk about this except that it is relevant to art, writing, and creativity in general.

It might not seem like a big deal right now if they haven’t burned down anything you care about, but you or your loved ones could be next, because terrorism is like that.