MaryElizabethThompson.netCreature Feature: Birds
I learned of a new bird yesterday and decided that I wanted to do this week’s creature feature about our flying feathered friends. I reserve the right to do a whole future blog about the equally fascinating birds that don’t fly (and, of course, future blogs about birds in general), but today is about the [...]
Friday Favorites: Movies
While I enjoy B-Horror movies and Mystery Science Theater 3000, I decided not to put any of those on this list. I may do a separate list of those in the future, but for now I wanted to share the ones of which I like aspects other than sheer laughs or entertainment. These are the [...]
HumpDay How-To: Pastel Trays
This isn’t going to be pretty. I built my pastel tray with no intent of ever displaying it to the world. I put function far above style. I basically needed something to hold all my oil pastels and I refused to pay the high prices for pastel trays that the art supply stores demand. Formcore [...]
My First Cameras
I wish I remembered exactly which model it was, but I don’t. All I remember is that it was a Xmas gift to me in 1976, when I was 13, and that it remains one of the top 10 presents I ever received in my life. It was a Polaroid, probably a Colorpack model. It [...]
Monday Madness: Misery as Muse
I recently read Pain, Suffering And Developing Creativity by Douglas Eby, published at Design Taxi. I began thinking about again about my own formerly turbulent inner life and its relationship to my creativity. I think of my life as having 3 distinct phases. There was ‘childhood.’ Then there was ‘married with children,’ which started when [...]
Creature Feature: Carnivorous Plants
For a while now, ever since I moved my tropical fish into a larger aquarium, I’ve wanted to build a terrarium in their old 10 gallon fish tank. I wanted to create a little mini ecosystem in which a couple of interesting plants and a couple of small animals – perhaps a little lizard of [...]
Friday Favorites: Websites
I spend a significant amount of time online, not only maintaining my own websites, but reading those of others and participating in forum discussions. I favor sites about art, nature, writing, and philosophy, which should be no surprise. Those are my passions. So I thought for this week’s Friday Favorites, I’d share a small sampling [...]
Review of Kullberg’s Colored Pencil Portraits Step by Step
Whether or not you believe in the 10000 hour rule, it’s indisputable that simply collecting shelves of books and reading about how to make art is no substitute for actually putting in the practice of applying medium to substrate over and over again until you learn your craft. On the other hand, we all need [...]
Ooooh, Shiny
One problem with having wide eclectic interests and an insatiable curiosity about everything in the world is that it can then be difficult to stick to any one creative project long enough to get it finished, especially if it is, by definition, a long-term commitment, like a book. There’s always the new [...]
Creature Feature: Frogs
I’ve been reading about these tiny frogs, a new species only 7.7 millimeters big (about 1/4 inch). You can read the details of their discovery here (where there’s a photo, too) and here (the original research). To put that tiny size in perspective, one of these frogs could sit on the top [...]