mango's miscellanea

Evening/Morning, This one's run a little late, but here is my next Intober picture, "Husky." This one was a little more difficult to do, as I am aching like a mo'fo. And I didn't know what to do for this picture... If anyone is interested in why I'm aching, it's because I went to an American Football rookie day on Saturday, and did exercise. After having been out all night on the Friday... Rookie mistake 😂 Until Wednesday, mango

Evening, I'm going to put the picture here first – entitled "Build" – cos that's what you come here for, innit? (This one is dedicated to my ex-wife who gave me the initial idea 😅) So, on Monday I went to see Amanda Palmer play a gig at York Grand Opera House. I wholeheartedly recommend that if you've never seen her play live that you do so. I knew only the bare minimum of what to expect, having never listened to her music, but I was blown away by how talented she is. One thing stuck with me from that gig, though: the evening was a small deviation from her scripted show that she was due to put on, and so she recanted a tale of one month where she needed to put out a Patreon perk for the month (otherwise no phat stacks from Patreon), but due to it being a hella-busy month she had only 48 hours to do so. She put to her patrons that she would write, produce and release a song in that time, from scratch – and she did just that. She mused for a moment and e...

Evening, I've been feeling a bit emo today. This is something that hasn't happened since the early 2000s. Next thing I'll be told is that My Chemical Romance are getting back together or something... Anyway - it was cold today so this Inktober prompt is quite topical. The reason for being emo: it  would've  been a pretty important day for me today, but the fates decided that it would only be a day of feels - quite sad feels, given everything that's happening in my day-to-day life. Perhaps the lessons of the past will now stick with me; perhaps I'll be make the same mistakes again. Either way, tomorrow is a new day (as they say) and so with it a new outlook on everything. Or maybe a badly rehashed old outlook that I won't realise until it's too late... Until Wednesday, mango

Morning, Here's another one. This one is the third prompt, entitled 'Bait'. I'm not nearly as impressed with this one as with the previous two in terms of quality (though I give myself an 'A+' for effort!), but I'm trying to be less perfectionist given my beginner's skill-level, and not being too hard on myself. And, for me, that's the main take-away from this 'challenge' if you will: to stick to something new for more than the initial 2-week novelty period, and not get discouraged by what I think is perfect and such like. ADHD coping strategy much? 😅 Also, I know that October is nearly done, so technically  I shouldn't continue to do any Inktober drawings after this one (as I am endeavouring to post next on Sunday), but to hell with that arbitrary rule (in this case, anyway). I'm enjoying having one small point of structure and routine in my otherwise structureless day-to-day existence, even if I'm not very good at it...

Evening, I’ve made an effort to make another picture, as primacy is a great motivator (as long as one doesn’t burn out from it). This one is the second prompt from the Inktober 2019 prompts, entitled ‘Mindless’. I'm actually enjoying trying to draw things for these prompts - it's a nice distraction from the things that are currently happening. Not that it'd be difficult to distract me! I think I'm going to try and post a picture twice a week: on a Sunday, and on a Wednesday (when I should be doing my Japanese homework). Yesterday's post was the exception - I needed to actually  start this blog, so that I had something to continue (if that makes sense). This means that I'll probably be quiet over the next few days to recharge, or something. Until Wednesday, mango

Evening, There's been a thing happen every October since 2009 called  Inktober  - something to help focus artists or something. Looks pretty cool, especially given the pictures I've seen other artists that I know create. Now, I'm not an artist by any stretch of the imagination (my skills lie more in software development sphere), but I've been having a bit of a shit time recently, so I decided that I was going to have a crack at doing the drawing, with the image below being the fruit of my labours. My ex-wife suggested that this is my way of subconsciously dealing with the things that are going on around me - she's likely right, as she is wont to be - but I think it'll be good for my ADHD, too. I rarely manage to see a project through to completion, or even manage to keep a hobby going for more than a few weeks, so I'm hoping that this will help me: a) give me a reason to start a blog; and, b) give me a focus to keep it going for longer than two wee...