I found antlions under my porch! A type of damselfly larvae that digs pits in sandy soil that ants fall into when they walk across it. I've noticed a lot of ant activity in my garden, it seems these guys have finally moved in to correct the imbalance :). I used to hunt these dudes and horny toads in the "badlands" of my youth, packed with cracked red clay and a few hardy species. These dudes thrive quite well.

I love being back at a computer where I can type out the alt thing.

Lovely find on Pinterest.

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My new year's resolution was to get my art skills to a level that I would feel comfortable selling prints as a "local artist", booths at events and coffee houses type thing. I do believe I have gotten there. I think I want to do a few of these especially, same colors, different angles. Not quite done with it, forcing myself to move slowly so I don't overwork it. Fingers crossed.

Just realized the mobile home we took over from Joe's friend came with a personalized license plate that we've been displaying the "wrong" way for years, fixed it.

The many faces of Bob the Skull.

There we go. King of Cups, master of love. So sexy.

The perfect man has this exact hair.

Current art prompt is the King of Cups, a romantic and creative character, rather bard like. I decided to put on some Concrete Blonde and daydream about the potential Hades to my Persephone. Isn't he handsome so far?

I want to do more, but I want to do some mixed media experiments first. I think I like the more realistic skull in the original sketch, might spend more time simply sketching Bob. In the meantime, I'll take photos of what I did while offline for a gallery blog post. Should be back online in a few days.

Wait. I don't want to make snarky mugs. I'm writing a book already on how I use the tarot as a secular tool in my creative process. I can do an honest and compassionate discussion of my journey with him, in a relevant way. Check out the reference to VIII Strength on the forehead. Traditional tarot imagery shows a woman gently helping a lion with a painful tooth, this symbol above her head.

Showing off before I overwork it. Bored of the soothing music, but I gotta keep that hand light.

Did the sketch while flirty during the text fight. Did the pink background after I finally pushed him to be honest about his beliefs on record. Hate it. Tried to do the first again but my hand got too heavy and now it will have to be more saturated. Don't want it. Sigh. Glad I still have lots of paper. I guess I better listen to love songs instead of the news while drawing.

Check it out. The spider mite war claimed all but two sundews and one pitcher plant (as far as my carnivores go). Look who it is. Celia, a true survivor who also made it through a couple of hospital visits. The "weed" I found and wrote about, I think it's pinned even. She lost her leaves and is only an inch or so across, but she grows. I love her so much.

To all my "I can't flirt" peeps. My fav part of flirting with Joe while sketching this design, before our final breakup (he says he's a sapiosexual, attracted to intelligence):

"Stephen King once said creative people have creative breakdowns. Gods bless that coked out fucker. Even if his creepy fiction makes me want to kick him in the nads. I believe that's the goal, so good for him. Am I sexy yet?"

Kitten keeps wanting to wrestle or drags me the cat wand while I work on this, so I'm teaching him fetch. That way my hands are free most of the time :)

The 13th Tarot card: Death

Found an old sketchbook from when the kiddo was a newborn. I was too tired for ideas, but needed something to do, so I got a zentangle book. Completely forgot about that "let's try to pick up drawing again" phase. I filled so many pages like this with no inspiration beyond attempts to sketch the baby, so I put it aside again.

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Showing you before I attempt to ink fur textures and like, totally mess it up. I'm watching this adult dude in a video game with little kids and they are trash talking him and it's awesome. "You can't even cook pizza" "I'm better than you! I can do PEMDAS!" "I don't feel like cussing right now" "Don't kill me! I'll be your best friend." Lol, these kids.