bunn

Arty Stuffs

Fri, 06 Feb 2026 00:07:09 GMT

I have been intermittently drawing things, but have been worse than usual about posting them anywhere. So, here are a few of them:

( Various Arty Stuffs Under the Cut )

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Things Done

Fri, 17 Jan 2025 17:27:49 GMT

Going to try to resurrect occasional Things Done posts because I remember they made me feel like progress had been made, rather than things instantly forgotten as they are ticked off.

Yesterday I took three paintings in to a tiny exhibition my art group is doing at the local library. It gave me much grief to pick them but eventually I decided on two local landscapes (bottom right, grey and blue) , and a sort of still life that I painted in 2020 and never got to exhibit because Events Happened (top left).
( Read more... )

Today, I contacted two customers who are on our old server7 and warned them that I was going to move them to server8. This is part of the running down of my website business to focus on the Shop on the Borderlands, which is something I urgently desire, but which some of my customers are less keen on. I feel I was very brave. I WILL move the last of them and discontinue the server next week, which will save me a whapping 250 quid a month. Server8 is sufficient to support the Shop and the smaller /low hassle sites that remain, and is also newer with all the latest Stuff.

There was some blanket-weed in my tiny pond-pot, which I suspect arrived with the water forget-me-not I added this summer (which seems to be thriving). Today I scooped it out (well, most of it) and put it on the compost heap. I began other weeding, but Theo got cold and insisted we go back inside.

I brushed up the christmas tree needles. I'd done this once already, but they have an amazing ability to hide.

I went to art group and finished painting this woodland scene, which I rather like although it's a pity that I did it on this new paper which clearly is not up to the application of much water. I had hoped it would flatten out if I put it between two books, but it hasn't.
( Read more... )

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A birthday!

Sun, 17 Mar 2024 23:33:31 GMT

My birthday, as is usual, was cold and damp. Pp had his first gout attack in over a year, poor bloke. Under the circumstances, we kept the walk short.
( Read more... )

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Things Done

Sun, 10 Sep 2023 23:38:07 GMT

This has been a good weekend!( Read more... )

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A pile of paintings

Wed, 01 Feb 2023 22:08:01 GMT

Fankil the Small Grey Gentleman

( Read more... )

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Wrote a thing.Or 2.

Sun, 08 Jan 2023 18:17:03 GMT

I DID manage to get my first FTH story written by the deadline. It's here :

Fear Fire Foes

The War of Wrath has been raging for thirty-five years. Now the Enemy has found a new strategy. He’s set a trap.

The request was for a hurt/comfort story with Elrond and Elros offering comfort to Maedhros and Maglor. It seemed to work out well enough in the end though I got stuck for ages. I may have maxed out on writing First Age Tolkien stories, at least for a while.

Then I wrote a surprisingly quick thing about a ghostly Boromir:

A Leaf of the White Tree
Boromir falls. The fate of everything he loves rides on Frodo's doomed quest: how can he leave, with so much left unfinished? Boromir's ghost watches as the War of the Ring blossoms into a peace that he had never really believed was possible.

It's been ages since I wrote more than 2000 words in a day!

Then I painted a couple of things. One was Fishguard Harbour, which I seem to have failed to photograph (yet). I should photograph that and make another post for it

And the other was this, which I call
The Opening of the West-gate of Khazad-dûm

Two young holly-bushes were planted either side of the new Doors. There was singing and dancing and drinking all night long, and lights like stars were strung along the valley to light the revels, until the Morning Sun came up and began to peer out of the East over the tops of the Misty Mountains.

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Merry Christmas all!

Sat, 24 Dec 2022 18:16:59 GMT

Some years ago we decided on the conceit that the Shop on the Borderlands packing was done by orcs. (really, it’s done by me & PP, but orcs seemed more on brand. So each year since, I have drawn the orcs doing something vaguely festive, and here they are again.

These are not Tolkieny orcs – or at least, they don’t reflect the popular ‘once elves’ origin story of Tolkien orcs. They are old-school pigfaced orcs, creatures of very little refinement but apparently a great appreciation of Christmas Jumpers.

I think it is time to admit that this year, Christmas cards have ended up as good intentions rather than actually making it to the post. Ah well. I'd like to say that it was a deliberate decision to donate to charity instead, but to be honest it was more random onset of time than deliberate choice, and even then it took me ages to decide who to donate to. Anyway, I've made a donation to Dogstar (who support dogs in Sri Lanka, including work against rabies) and also to Freedom from Torture, who (perhaps obviously) help people who have survived torture.

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Drawing from the shoulder

Wed, 07 Dec 2022 22:46:36 GMT

I do quite a bit of drawing, and quite often draw or paint for several hours. What with the kayak and the garden, my arms and shoulders do get a fair bit of exercise, at least intermittently.

Two days ago, I tried some of the warmup exercises on drawbox.com - very simple stuff, drawing some lines, planes, etc. As the tutorial recommended, I tried drawing from my shoulder rather than my arm. I didn't draw for long at all, by my usual standards., and I took breaks.

My shoulder is still aching!

I am definitely not going to learn to draw from my shoulder. Life is too short! Maybe if I were 16 I would, but I am too old now to retrain my entire musculature to draw in a different and much more strenuous way.

Also, apparently I haven't posted here since October. Don't know why.

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Rexque Futurus (one last time)

Mon, 18 Apr 2022 22:28:28 GMT

Made a cover for my story Rexque Futurus and having had more than one glass of wine, posted it on Facebook. What could possibly go wrong.

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Dungeons Llandragons

Thu, 04 Nov 2021 12:15:05 GMT

Last week, we were roleplaying in an actual physical group for the first time since 2019! Which was very nice, though slightly overwhelming as well because PEOPLE. :-D

We started a new D&D 5e campaign, which involved a lot of puzzles and mysteries, which I'm not going to even try to write down, because we had a PIN BOARD for clues, complete with pins and notes and mad string:

( Read more... )

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The Flying Frog: Final Version

Wed, 17 Feb 2021 22:28:24 GMT

Makes a big difference photographing it using the sunset mode.

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The Flying Frog!

Tue, 16 Feb 2021 09:42:00 GMT

Ages ago I offered a painting in a charity auction. The winning bidder requested a camping scene from Garth Nix's Old Kingdom books. I sketched two possible ideas, and the painting below was the result! Lirael and Sameth by the fire, with Mogget glaring at the Disreputable Dog from a distance, and the boat Finder in the background.

Here are the two sketches:
( Read more... )

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Frost, loot and New Year

Fri, 01 Jan 2021 21:38:21 GMT

It is very cold! On New Year's Eve, it was snowing as I went out to walk the dogs, though the land down below was clear and green, and the sun came out as we were walking. This very thin coat of snow meant houndy zooming, even from Rosie! Not too old to frolic, apparently.

( Read more... )

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Writing brain turned off

Sun, 27 Dec 2020 23:28:57 GMT

I don't seem to be achieving much on the art or writing front at the moment. I'm trying my best to finish off The Siege of Khazad-dûm, my Celebrimbor Lives AU, but although I know pretty well how it's going to end, actually getting words down in pixels is just awful. Write three words, hate them, delete them awful. No flow at all. I know that if I can just get back into practice, it will come, but getting back there is hard work!

I'm fairly sure that the endless scroll and constant new shinies of social media contributes to this somehow, but I am not turning it off. I may try to read more books though, I think reading books and writing is linked and I'm not doing much of either at the mo.

I tried to paint a picture as the Shop on the Borderlands Christmas card, but... the results were awful, and in the end I decided rather than messing with it any further, I would draw a veil over the entire attempt, and paint something else. But I haven't started that yet. Art stuff has been mostly in abeyance until the Great Move though, so less worried about that.

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Still not moved. And an arty things dump

Sat, 21 Nov 2020 23:29:47 GMT

There seemed to be a brief hope that we might see progress on the house move this week. But there was no progress. Pants.

Instead we continue into a seemingly-endless November of rain and mist. I usually like Novembers, but this one is definitely dragging a bit. I had good intentions in Spring, and lost a certain amount of weight, but I have now lost interest and put it back on. It just doesn't seem significant enough to bother over, somehow.

At least people continue to buy roleplaying games.

I have been experimenting with a few different arty stuff styles. Here's a fox in a blue-bell wood, made with inktense pencil and salt. Oh, and a black ink pen for the trees.

( Read more... )

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Aredhel, White Lady of the Noldor.

Sat, 31 Oct 2020 23:09:55 GMT

I feel like I've done little arty stuff for ages. My concentration has not been good this year. But I did make this. I could do with getting back to having a regular Art Day, even if not actually doing classes, probably.

I did manage to finally complete two stories for the Innumerable Stars exchange: my assignment, and a treat. It did feel like pushing custard uphill without a bowl, a bit, but still. I wrote!

And I have written about 500 words this week on another story, (The Siege of Khazad-dûm: my Rescued Celebrimbor AU, languishing unfinished for far too long) which is also progress.

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Yesterday, I procrastinated by drawing Gordon Ramsay as a Copper Dragon.

Thu, 15 Oct 2020 08:44:36 GMT

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A Tamar Valley Art Guess

Tue, 15 Sep 2020 23:36:39 GMT

A while ago, someone posted on a group that I am a member of a question about this painting :

It's called View of the Tamar by moonlight. and it is attributed to one William Payne, who lived 1776 - 1830.

(credit: https://www.nmni.com/collections/art/works-on-paper/belumu1117 )

Everyone said: well, that's not the Tamar. The Tamar doesn't have those sorts of hills! Or banks like that!

( Read more... )

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Trees on the walls

Thu, 02 Jul 2020 22:23:42 GMT

( Read more... )

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The Rain, some Arty Stuffs, Volvo woe, a fuzzy brain and strawberries.

Sat, 20 Jun 2020 00:08:57 GMT

The hot weather has gone away. Now we have Rain and Fog. A couple of days ago I foolishly risked going out for a longer walk with Rosie Roo, but without her coat: we all got caught in a major downpour so wet that you could see Rosie's under-fur spots showing through her soaked fur, AND there was thunder. Fortunately, one of the few things that dogs are usually afraid of that Rosie isn't is Thunder, and since Rosie ignored it, so did Theo.

And THEN, driving home, I stopped at the roadside veg stand to buy YET MORE strawberries, and when I got back in the car, it wouldn't start. With the rain pouring down, and I had left my phone at home... So, then I had to go bang on the door of the house that belonged to the veg stand, in the middle of a pandemic, and ask to borrow their phone. Fortunately for me, they were in, and kind enough to lend it to me. Then I had to talk to Green Flag rescue through the sound of a torrent pouring on top of my umbrella, which was not easy.
( Read more... )

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Some arty stuffs.

Fri, 22 May 2020 18:31:40 GMT

First one: an Old Gondolin, from my Return to Aman world where Gondolin has reappeared to be visited by Bilbo and Glorfindel in the Fourth Age.

This is pretty much a paint-along with Colin-the-Art, except that I substituted a ship for the rocks. A handy tutorial on painting in the style of Turner.

( Read more... )

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Tuor and Finrod having a brandy together in Tirion.

Wed, 22 Apr 2020 21:54:15 GMT

I made this for Starspray's story An Evening in Tirion
I've played slightly fast and loose with the lighting, but I wanted it to be evening rather than night, so, this is an attempt at a sunset through a partially stained glass window, casting a warm and very directional light on their faces.

I don't feel I got this quite right, and it was one of those paintings where you keep fiddling with it and it still isn't quite right. In the end, I messed about with it in software as well. I should know better than to try to do complicated things with watercolour pencils: I'm definitely better with acrylics!

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Things

Thu, 16 Apr 2020 22:24:01 GMT

So far, no motion from any of the seeds I'm trying to sprout. Possibly they are all Too Old.( Cut for art )
In other creative news, I randomly picked up my bamboo flute and played it a bit today, and then, feeling inspired, dug out my ancient clarinet and music books. It's SO LONG since I played, I had almost forgotten how to read music, and to begin with I couldn't get the top notes, but once I had played for a bit, it started coming back. I think I'll try it again tomorrow.

I feel like I'm sort of standing still a lot of the time. I know that the world for most people has changed fundementally and in very difficult ways, yet here, we have made small accommodations, but life poddles on not very unlike its state before. It feels wrong somehow, though I have no idea what would feel right. On the other hand, I have made some art and a little music, and that's a small achievement at least.

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Squiggly Poodles

Sat, 11 Apr 2020 20:13:18 GMT

Lurcherlink rescue, from which I adopted Rosie Roo, ran a Random Art Auction: people made a donation, and got randomly assigned to someone who would draw their dog(s). Some of the people drawing were entirely without any artistic pretentions: others were professional artists. This seemed like a good opportunity to try something a bit different...

( Read more... )

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In the Year of the Rat.

Fri, 20 Mar 2020 20:13:19 GMT

So, our government has just closed all the cafes and pubs officially, and are setting up ~~universal basic income (!!!~~), nope apparently they stepped back from that, and are just going for 80% paying wages. Still, that's quite a major departure.

This feels really weird : we run two small businesses from our house, and suddenly... everyone is closed apart from us, grocers and huge megabusinesses? We only sell online and all the stuff is in the house anyway, so the only reason to close the Shop on the Borderlands would be if the postal service shut down. The website hosting / maintenance side of things would keep on trucking through even that, though I do wonder how many of our customers there will be still standing on the other side of this. We shall see.

(Actually, the village pub is sort of still open, barely. You can take a jug down there and they will fill it with beer to take away. Some of the other pubs & cafes are doing takeaway food.)

Can still walk the dogs, at a safe distance from humanity, though apparently in France even that is now forbidden. Yikes. Imagine the yodelling if Rosie had to go walkless. Well, if it comes, then no doubt they will adjust; at least we have a garden. In the meanwhile, I may make a trip to a nice quiet spot tomorrow.

In other news, I popped these three tiny paintings onto Redbubble, here, this afternoon, and someone just bought six cards of them, which was nice.

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