Recent pictures

Haven't got much to say at the moment as there hasn't been anything going on, unless you count grinding away against an immovable creative block, carrying on with cross-stitch (I'm determined to get that craft drawer cleared out this year and just keep any stash contained in the cupboard; it'd free up a lot of storage space) and generally wandering around. It's from those wanderings that these pictures have mostly originated, so let's have a look...

Relatable priorities here.

A nicely designed sticker on the back of an old clock (the clock itself was nowt special - I bloody love a good clock, vintage Seiko ones especially, but this one was just plain uninspiring.)

A piggy bank in the midst of an identity crisis.

Another abandoned shitter in the wild (didn't intend for this to be a recurring theme, I just seem to have coincidentally been coming across a lot of discarded thrones lately.)

View across the grass towards town in one of my usual haunts.

Stone commemorating the inauguration of West Park.


And having a leisurely wander around this nice area here.


Very appealing trees...


This little nook; pretty sure there were some round stumps in a circular formation, radiating out from either side of the big tree, but they seem to have done a bunk at some point over the years.

A little finial on the roof of the ranger's cabin.


Accents on the front of the cabin, complete with lucky ladybug!


Back home with this longstitch from a couple of years ago, that I keep meaning to get a decent photo of it, and to move it over a bit on the wall. That was a perfectly fine location for it before we put that bookcase up but it's a bit obscured now because it's deeper than we expected...
The stitching is from a Janlynn kit from the early noughties, designed by Roger Reinardy, although I improvised the sky to get it to fit this frame. The original design has more of a sunset look.

And the celestial snake from a few years back, using a pattern by Harp Seal Crafts, but done with variegated thread and blending filament.

Tags!

Further rambling

Twa Thousand Corbies

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Going to start this post with an illustration, because of this blog layout, posts lacking images tend to look a bit pants. The art here is by G. Howell-Baker. A while back, I was joking about gathering together as many versions of Twa Corbies as possible, and finally, here we are. This is going to be a continually evolving list, so if you know of a version that needs to be included, or if you've recorded one of your own, then by all means, let me know. You can put a comment here or e-mail me at looksinnocuousnenoughchaps [at] gmail [dot] com. Part two, with versions 50-100 can be found here . Let's begin! 1.  Folly Bridge - My personal favourite, performed completely a capella with some beautiful, eerie harmonies. 2.  Hamish Imlach - A live version, and a very close second favourite. Hamish's distinctive voice works wonders here and we're treated to some elegant sitar as well. 3.  Ayreheart - This one features the lute and a passionate vocal performance, it's qui...
'Ave a gander 'ere

Some doodles from last night

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I went on a bit of a spree last night, trying out some different brushes in Rebelle 7, trying to work out what approach I might want to take for reviving Facts About the World, and here are some of the resulting doodles. First, a swoonicorn investigating Blarglflorp, the tiniest comet in the cosmos. Ara, done entirely using ink brushes with varying degrees of water. It's been a bit of running joke that their markings are different every time I draw them, and this time is no exception. (They were initially based on a striped dolphin but at this point, it's anyone's guess. Cynosure was a futuristic thing with cyborgs anyway, so what kind of dolphin Ara resembled wasn't exactly a pressing logical concern.) And one from the end of the night, which didn't end up being coloured because I'd been up since 3am again and needed to go to bed.
'Ave a gander 'ere

Fridayposting

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It is Friday, continuing the theme of the spooky video games, I'm currently revisiting Still Wakes the Deep and trying to finish up the blog post about that (it's a good job this isn't an audio effort because noone needs to hear yours truly going "Fuckin' 'ell, McLeary!!!" in an incredibly questionable Glaswegian accent whenever the mood so takes me.) Sod's law, I completely forgot to actually get the pictures off of Mariner... it was late at night. For now, it's time to return to the comfy slippers of The Callisto Protocol, not in chronological order and not really with a theme in mind either, just a bit of fun for today. Starting with these artfully arranged Crunchy Creatures, with a bit of an HR Giger kind of vibe. I also appreciate the elegantly flowing mist around here. Hmmm . (This one's off the PS4 version, I redid it on the PS5 but a big cloud of mist was obscuring one of the monsters and we can't have that.) This hexagonal effort...
'Ave a gander 'ere