twenty-nine

wannabe artist

[29wordsforsnow]

Later one job day, perfectly adapted to 21st century monochrome office flooring, a blue band-winged grasshopper (Oedipoda caerulescens), my guess.

No overtime for this little buddy. Sent back to the great wide open after posing for an application photo.

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Today's good deed: saving this beast from a too deep pot of water it had entered - maybe a rhinoceros beetle (Oryctes nasicornis)

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(maybe) Norfolk damselfly (Coenagrion armatum), parking on lavender. This damselfly is said to be very rare around here, so lucky me!

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Azure damselfly (Coenagrion puella) resting in the afternoon sunlight, long enough for the camera to focus.

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What a rosey morning...

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Attic Find! Look at this truly original bootleg something. A one-sided single, but not really circular. Not sure in which back alley kitchen this was baked.

But still, Ozzy at his best!

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today: a cheap sheep sketch turned into something more vivid, and colorful.

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The Lady of the Loch [2022, color pencils]

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Slippery Red [Nov 2023, marking the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women] watercolor pencils, framed today

Facts and figures: Ending violence against women | UN Women – Headquarters

The availability of data on violence against women and girls has improved considerably in recent years and data on the prevalence of intimat

[29wordsforsnow]

Peacock Butterfly (Aglais io) taking a sunbath in August.

another one on winter vacation, and such a tourist, blocking the stairwell

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The first day of the season delivering snow, so why not remembering a better time when the garden provided all that colourful joy...

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good read: Before the coffee gets cold

Likely, the most unlikely time-travel story I've ever read: Before the coffee gets cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi.

In a little coffee shop you have the chance to go back in time - with a number of limitations, you have to stay on your seat and only got as much time as the coffee stays warm...

It's not about changing the course of the history or saving the earth, but a very lovely and intimate story about the chance to go back in time and meet the person you miss. So if you do like sci-fi off the mainstream, this might be your next good read.

[29wordsforsnow]

Silence is...?

silver tongues caught their biggest treasure, butterfly wings' roar, by pin's falling sound on the glass flooring trapped in division violence in refrains waits in the wings, the devil's advocate breaks another deal in the bellow of the beast

[written and drawn in the (down)fall of 2024]

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Seasons of Love: March On

the world, once glazed in calm and frost, one sidelong glance, arose at last on shoulders cold, we've lost to winter, now that's past heat, seeps down through crystals' core on fruitful ground, bespoken seed lie where pallid sheets before, awake and rise with need the bed of folds'n'furrows was made with questions we thought to get rid of lips share the present what if we dared to call it true...

Love's Seed [early 2020, Castle Art Supplies Watercolor Pencils on sketch paper]

...a fleeting thought: how nice it would be to have commas appearing and fading to sempiternally change the meaning of the lines...

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Some latebloomers anticipating the October sunrise

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How To Wow Too: Passepartout

So you've spent the last half of eternity on that beautiful drawing/painting of yours, or did you just raided your very own bank account to lay hands on a piece of your favorite artists, and, all alone on its own hanging on the wall, it simply doesn't want to stand out? A wallflower indeed.

But maybe all it lacks is the proper device to attract all eyes toward its beauty - not just a frame, but a passepartout. Which, in simple terms, is broad frame of usually white cardboard - a kind of visual palate cleaner - around the artwork to guide the audience's glance toward its center.

What do you need? Of course The Artwork, a big enough picture frame and some cardboard - to up our game, something bolder than just white; the dark blue is a nice complementary contrast to the butterfly's orange dominating the drawing [by @theweeowlart].

Tools you need: a sharp knife (preferably an artist's scalpel or a cutter knife), some smooth, clean, hard cutting surface (some leftover shelf board here), a cutting edge, measuring tool & window cleaner.

Measure & Mark

Usually, you let the passepartout overlap the artwork by some extent. So for the next step, you need three measures that you will mark on the cardboard's backside - we really don't want any pencil marks on the front, even erasing will leave some telltale signs:

size of the frame. If it doesn't tell you right away, measure the back-plate

size of the artwork, mark the corners for easy fitting later on

size of the cutout, size of artwork minus the margin you like

Mark the frame size first, then add center lines which will be the reference for the inner lines, corner markings and cutout lines. You should end up with something like this:

This is an example for a drawing shifted to the upper right section of the canvas. In order to center it in the cutout, shift the corner markings to the bottom and the right (since we mark on the backside).

Cut & Stick

See the dashes I used for the corner markings? They are a reminder which lines to cut, only the solid ones! Press both the cutting edge and the knife tightly when cutting, more than one slice or a slipping cut-guide can ruin all the work. Try to cut only from corner to corner, a pointed knife helps a lot.

Almost done! Erase any leftover marks, before placing the drawing on your cut frame within the corner markings and fix it with painter's tape - there are also types that won't hurt the artwork's paper if removed later on.

Final Polish

[Optional] You like it fully-fledged classy? Add some ink lines equidistant to the cutout (left). Or are you of the playful kind? Well, turn that cardboard frame into your own canvas (right).

Clean the glass pane from both sides - window cleaner/microfiber cloth help to get rid of any fingerprints and production residues - then assemble the frame.

Picture-perfect result, isn't it?

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Dawn, Day & Dusk - stained glass imitation [Faber-Castell Albrecht Dürer watercolor pencils] above a door frame inspired by Alphonse Mucha's The Times of the Day

The official site of the Mucha Foundation. A comprehensive resource for information on Alphonse Mucha (or Alfons Mucha) with details on his