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Bluetooth headphones going on about low battery and I'm 'ere like "My battery's at zero and I'm still gettin' a bloody shift on so buck yer ideas up!" (Here's some art anyway)

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Some concept art for today and possibly a treat for the old guard, a mostly step-by-step process post, complete with excessive annotations! Going to keep this brief as I have to make some lunch (important), then get ready and head off to work, so here's the finished effort to start with... And now, the work in progress efforts... The initial rough sketch Started on the lineart, then switched the canvas colour to black, so I could see the lines for the clouds and waves more clearly. Lineart done, image cropped... Returning to the usual canvas colour (working on these nice sandy-coloured backgrounds gives the colours a bit more warmth, which I find very pleasing.)  Starting to paint a stormy sky!  A little bit of extra colour overlay for the waves, which wound up looking like some trendy bathroom decor from the mid-2010s. After that, I put an extra layer underneath here, slightly turned down the opacity on the watercolour brushes, cranked the water setting and built up a moody w...
'Ave a gander 'ere

Take a good hard look at the motherfucking seal

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It's been a patchy one again but there are more important things afoot, such as this seal who's been on our calendar through March and looks like he's staging some kind of intervention, like the Michael Jordan "Stop it, get some help" meme. It's become a bit of a running joke now; if someone doesn't have their shit together, just sit them down with this deeply concerned-looking harp seal pup. Someone dipping into your posh yogurt without asking? Intervention Seal.  Colleagues not pulling their weight at work? Intervention Seal.  Trying to get someone off the smack? Intervention Seal.      That is just a pure Think About Your Life face right there.   Also while on this subject, I picked up this lovely book, second hand for next to nowt and it's very informative, as well as containing numerous photos of adorable seals. The pinniped brainworms are strong in this house right now, especially regarding Weddell seals; they are legitimately fascinating and ...
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Colossus-bothering!

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Returning to the comfy old slippers of Shadow of the Colossus now, and it's been so long that I completely forgot all of the controls and yeah, trying to work that out was certainly something. The main stumbling blocks were trying to remember how to use the bow and arrow, and that manoeuvre where you grab one ledge, turn to face another, leap to it and grab onto it - chaos! Your mileage may vary but I tend to find that something is significantly more likely to end in abject calamity when you can half-remember how to do something and are trying to dredge up that information, than when you're trying to do something for the first time and are learning as you go. Still, I've gotten back into a groove with it now, and here are some pictures, from the days when I was still doing Summer of the Colossus. I have taken some new ones as well but they're still on the PS4, so they'll have to wait for now. Valus is well muggin' it for the camera there. Boo! This is proper ...
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Cats vol. 18

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There's a mixture of old and new here, some Cats left over from last year, which turned up on an external hard drive, and some new discoveries. Apologies in advance if there are any repeats here; I do my best to avoid that but beyond a certain point, when you see so many odd cat ornaments, then it can get a bit difficult to remember what's been featured and what hasn't. These two are just so done with everything, I rather dig their vibe. This one would probably be genuinely charming if it were in better shape but the rough patches where the paint has worn away give it a bit of an atmosphere, like a haunted object... This one is pretty cool, but it's still bloody bizarre, therefore it fits the bill for these posts. Likewise, this one is kind of somewhere in a no-man's-land between being adorable and a bit frightening. Lovable, but still strange enough to be included here. These ones, however, are just plain off-putting. Someone get this geezer some help. Now, onto th...
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Cats vol. 17

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It's that time again, and I pretty much completely forgot about this up until I went on a mission to boot everything out of the drafts folder, so here we are. This is another one of those charmers that is still weird enough to warrant inclusion here. Look at his grumpy face! I love the stocky, substantial shapes and the textured look with this one. (Also big cats still count as Cats.) Meanwhile this one appears to have melted. This chap's got it all: grotesque, folksy, grumpy, chonky. And those little ears with that big jowly face! Just so charming. This one looks like he's going "Oi, you. Outside. Now. " And this one is taking serious offence to that proposition. And now it's time for some palate cleansers... Wherein I am shamelessly indulging my love of Peter Fagan miniatures. Just so precious! This one has very relatable priorities.
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fur seal senryū

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  This fucking fur seal Like, vibe of the century What a grumpy face
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More ghost portals, half-arsed investigation and more wandering

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Some more photos from another outing, just yesterday, enjoying the sunshine, and I stumbled upon another ghost portal (old windows and doors that have been filled in, but vestiges remain, hinting at how layouts and usage of buildings have changed over time.) I had a scout about for information on this and I don't want to come right out of the gate and say that it's definitely a surviving fragment of Macclesfield Castle, but its location and some other bits of evidence do point to that. Barring any further information from someone who knows more and can say whether it is definitely part of the old castle, it's kind of up in the air. Still, it's an interesting little architectural curio, and a lovely bit of history. Here's a closer look at the portal in question, to the side of the Castle pub. I haven't noticed this before and can't be sure if it was just me spacing out or if this has previously been covered up by something else - I'll have a rummage throu...
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