HeroOfThy.me

My latest minor obsession is...

[heroofthy-me]

So many fungi, so little time to wander...

I have a whole trove of mushrooms spotted around predominantly Scotland, I'm thinking of taking some time and posting them and identifying ... for fun.

Edible ones will come with recipes.

Here's a sample of what's to come...

[heroofthy-me]

Artist @loish ran a session about stylizing portraits, and whilst watching it she mentioned the "bean" shape that arises from rounder, "squishier" aesthetics.

I've been trying to use the bean as a foundational construction base, and it's interesting what it does as a starting point, as an alternative to the usual construction methods... Mainly, it gives a systematic "girly"-coded aesthetic which... combines strangely with facial hair 😅

I gave it another go, looking to make it more angular around the eyebrows and slimmer on the cheeks and jawline. I also add a hard shadow to the face side, to de-emphasize the roundness, as a way to remove the hamster cheeks.

It's non-cute at this point, and it's not meant to maintain that quality - it's a departure that uses the bean as a foundation.

I tried to trace the original bean after the fact, but I think I overshot to the right...

But to illustrate the point, here's an overlay of the base bean (red) and the adjustments done within its structure (blue), followed by a quick fillbof features and then the shadow.

I know it stemmed more from an observation of Big-Mouse's style of construction, but I've taken to calling this the "Loish Bean Method" in my head 😅

Varying the bean proportions gives some variety....

I'll keep on trying this to see if there are further refinements that come about...

[heroofthy-me]

Self portraits are hard. The above from a selfie. I hadn't realized how prominent my cheekbone was.

I tried to do them from memory afterwards, and facing the other direction.

The final one, based vaguely of the sum of observations, and from memory, feels the most correct so far... I had to deliberately Asian-ize the eyes to undo the practice from cartoons from the past month, and accept that my nose is, in fact, actually on the bigger side...

Often, when the drawing looks oddly tall, it was a matter of... adding more hair to the back. I underestimate hair volume effect... Above, I re-added the construction lines to compare the starting point, as compared to final shape...

[heroofthy-me]

Decorating the front of my next sketch book

Mainly because I wanted to do colour-on-dark for a change and this is the only thing I had to hand. Not even finished the first sketch book because I've been using scrap paper in the meantime 🙈

I feared "doing it wrong" on this cover, with this once-only opportunity, but I think I've done it in line with my current abilities, which is a plus.... but it's not as vibrant a scene as perhaps I could have made it...

Photo from National Geographic book, "Through the Lens" (2003, 2009), p.177

[heroofthy-me]

Just trying my hand at faces.

I've been scouring YT and Tumblr for pointers towards stylized likenesses, and I think I might be starting to get somewhere - emphasis on starting ...

I did come across a recent post on this topic by Loish, and I have to say I found her rundown the most helpful. The "bean" does form part of her specific style... the nose and lip shorthands transpose very readily to other face construction techniques...

I also had a look at a character stylization tutorial by SamDoesArts, and one about fixing the upward-Frieren. I reckon I learned a good bit from following the fix as much as from the prior tutorial. Learn fundamentals from studying mistakes, understand a style from studying a good image?

I started applying what I am learning to studying how other artists do their face constructions. Here I'm having a look at Annie and Kat from Gunnerkrigg Court, und using what I have to replicate, but also how to apply them to the angles in pages 2895 and 2897.

What I am learning most though is that all the techniques can coexist, and mixing and matching them is worth the effort (some results are hilarious).

SDA's basic method with cranium and jaw basic shapes gives a straightish face, with just a few simple construction prinitives. I could have pushed the cheek out a bit more, though. Loish's basic "bean" shape makes for something a bit more cartoony and softer, and is definitely a fun and quick basic. I also tried to do a quick chibi-style face, which is based just on the circle and cheek bean, with bugger eyes, and it's not too bad.

I liked using the mouth and nose tips from Loish's stream, and her stong/subtle line distinction for guiding the eye (though I haven't applied here it very well... or at all)

Freehand is the jankiest of all. Using a construction method , any method, is better than none 😂

There isn't of course, the one way. There are many paths, and all may be explored ✏️🔭

[heroofthy-me]

Mushroom diary entries!

Last year I was still well into my wild mushroom phase, and lumbering into the doodling, so where those two interests met, these came about 😁

I don't actually have a mushroom diary, but it would be about time to start one...

[heroofthy-me]

My friend has waaaaaaaaay to many knives, so Kukuku the rogue has some helpful advice ☺️🗡👀

[heroofthy-me]

A bit of study, a bit of free-form, a bit of gesture... gotta start somewhere.

[heroofthy-me]

I made seitan.

I've had this bag of wheat gluten in the pantry since forever when I first learned of the existence of seitan. Finally today, I went and looked up a recipe and got on with it.

I can distill the steps down to:

Mix gluten flour with seasonings

Add your hydration - if using a stock, make it weak! The entire flavour strength and saltiness remains in the final nuggets!

Knead the dough - it'll remain stodgy like a lab experiment gone sideways - at least in comparison to making bread dough, not the same experience at all!

Rest it for 15min

Chop into nugget sized chunks

Simmer it for 30 min - don't oversalt here either, I suspect seitan absorbs a lot of the liquid directly

Cool it

Chop it up and use it in stir fry, soup, etc

Mine came out overly salty because I used the broth in the hydration stage - and it was at "pasta cooking" levels of saltiness... 🤮

I've got plenty more gluten flour left so I'm sure I can figure imthe flavour balance out.

Texture wise, it's a bit wibbly. Like some cross between a grainy potato dumpling and an oversoaked mushroom...

Totally selling it I know.

[heroofthy-me]

"It was made out of spite."

An old idea I couldn't really do anything with for lack of doodling confidence until now...

I can't remember if it was my idea or my friend's... this was like 10 years ago...!

[heroofthy-me]

New doodle diary. A generic item I have two of for now, so I reckoned making the cover individualised would be nice. There was a tree in front of me. Done.

I really like how the watercolour pencils came out on the dark background - light upon dark colouring is rather good fun!

[heroofthy-me]

Just a simple office lunch.

I have a mini rice cooker in my office, no frills, no bells or whistles (literally, I have to actively check to see if the little tab has gone "click")

But the rest of my ingredients don't need cooking, just a bit of chopping. I have a kitchen knife stored in that bamboo mat, and a chopping board in the kitchinette. But I guess I could do the chopping at home in the morning...

On top of fresh rly steamed rice I add:

Chopped spring onion

Knife-sredded cabbage

Flaked smoked fish from the shop (that stuff keeps for ages!)

(Smoked salmon could work too)

Gari ginger

Chili powder

Soy sauce

Sesame oil

Wasabi paste

Sometimes I leave it like that as a pokē bowl-like dish

Sometimes I top it with green tea and wakame for an ochazuke.

🍚🥗🍵👌

[heroofthy-me]

And so...

Wild garlic (Allium ursinum) . Scotland, March 2026

We're well into the season and the buds are coming up. We grabbed some leaves, and a whole bunch of flower buds, looking under all the leaves to hunt them down 🌱😁

The big warning for wild garlic is to not get them confused with lily of the valley, whose leaves look similar, and is toxic. Last year I did come across some lily, on the edge of the woods meeting with gardens, and I was able to handle the leaves - they are much firmer than the more flimsy-feeling wild garlic, and if you thought the "distinct garlicky smell" of wild garlic was a bit faint, you will be able to distinguish lookalikes that smell distinctly of "green stuff" instead of the more pleasant garlic smell.

The other ID signs of course apply, with lily having two leaves growing from the same base where wild garlic pushes only one leaf out per foot.

Things to do with the stuff?

Well we're planning to pickle the flower buds for wild capers, and turn the leaves to pesto.

We're also thinking of making a wild sushi roll using a whole leaf in lieu of/along with a nori sheet.

And of course chopping it into a salad, blitzing it into a pesto, incorporating it as greens to soup, inviegling it into a saag, all are options we need to explore.

How about, as a tidy wrap for gambas al ajillo ? Make finger food less messy! (I know many people love the greasy messiness of finger food, I loathe it)

Make the best of the season 🌱🧄

[heroofthy-me]

Fly agaric (Amanita muscaria)

East Scotland, August-September 2024 and 2025

The esteemed International Mushroom Representative herself 😁

Among the popular anecdotes we have, it seems that every one of them is disputed - of which, there's the one about Viking berserkers (more likely to have involved stinking nightshade rather than A. muscaria), the idea that early Christianity was based in people getting high off of the fungus (doesn't even grow in the Crescent!), and the one about Siberian shamans eating the mushroom and their devotees then drinking their pee (what to do when bored in the midwinter of an icy desert... 😬)

What's true is that it is mildly hallucinogenic and was traditionally used to attract and kill flies. YMMV.

My own conjecture is that Super Mario's trips to the Mushroom Kingdom through the pipes under the sink has a very clear explanation 😏🍄

Another observation from the foraging perspective is that it seems anecdotally that where there are fly agarics, there is often a chance of ceps/penny-buns (Boluletus edulis) nearby. I have observed this too in my favoured spot!

No recipe this time. Even if some insist on being able to eat them, I am not risking it. ✋️

[heroofthy-me]

This happened to me this evening.

When I opened the door, I was greeted by many big smiles.

It might have been Customer Service.

It felt like Psychosis.

[heroofthy-me]

Common puffball (Lycoperdon perlatum)

Scotland, September 2025 and September 2024

If you get the wee white ones that have the little spikes on them they should be absolutely unmistakable. HOWEVER. I have a tale for you. In a moment.

My girlfriend first introduced me to these when I knew nothing about mushrooms. In her woods by her home, she and her cousins would happily stomp on them! and cause they grey-brown spore mass to puff out and disperse on the wind 😊 I was aghast, at first, how destructive! But it turns out, this is in fact exactly what they need - once they mature, their spongey inside becomes a sack of spore dust; the top of the cap opens a pinprick hole and when raindrops or hooves or feet descend upon them, POOF! the spores shoot into the breeze. Yay! So check that they're mature before stomping on them because... if they're still young, they can be eaten for a lovely chewy texture a bit like firm marshmallow 😀

I did say "however" didn't I ?

Well. See the third pic? Those ones are smooth. Very young puffballs. We found them in the grass of a parking lot and there wasn't a tree for hundreds of yards. Which helpfully suggests we were safe.

But! But!

I told my gf that the insides need to be pristine white otherwise they'd be no good, and I was obsessing over this so much that I forgot to tell her the other thing to look out for: some very young Amanita species can look like puffballs if not paying attention, including some of the dealiest ones ☠️

Well, that caused a panic when I remembered, midway through the pasta and wild mushroom sauce we were having for dinner. Went to the hospital and all, kept under surveillance all night.

Turns out we were ok, they were, indeed, just puffballs. The telling features we should have kept in mind are the faint shape of a developing mushroom appearing, instead of a plain white mass; and that Amanita need to associate with trees.

Always remember all the identifying features when picking and when prepping. Don't rush on account of "hungry." Take your time.

🍽 Totally safe creamy puffball pasta sauce recipe:

Chop puffballs in half and check they are all-white and not showing a mini mushroom shape inside

Then toss them into a pan with some onions and a touch of olive oil and fry a bit

Add some double cream or sour cream, mix in, and add thyme/rosemary/oregano and a knob of butter, melt it all through

Season to taste

Over pasta

🍲 Alternatively, instead of creaming, add the sautéed mushrooms to a miso soup (maybe chop them smaller):

Chop spring onions, including the greens

In a mug add a teaspoon of miso paste and add just a bit of boiled water

Dissolve the miso in the modest quantity of water first, then add remaining boiling water

Throw in the spring onions, and mushroom; add some wakame seaweed if you have any to hand

Add a dash of sesame oil and some soy sauce

It's always about the soups with me isn't it?

Soup is life. With proper ID. 🍄

[heroofthy-me]

Sea urchin tests !

North West Scotland, March 2026

The "common" sea urchin is on the IUCN near-threatened list so don't go bothering live ones! These empty ones were found washed into the shores of a sea loch, apparently by the hundreds due to some recent strong easterlies 😲

I was going to call them "skeletons" but the proper name for this structure is a "test." It's veeery brittle so needs handling gently, and a lot of them were found at various levels of smashedness...

In our specimens, which I do presume to be "common sea urchin" also named "edible sea urchin" (Echinus esculentus), a lot of them exhibit some beautiful violet patterning lines, though most are simply green, presumably due to algae activity... wikipedia notes that even if this species is explicitly given the denomination "edible", it's other species, with orange instead of white gonads (reproductive organs) that are preferred, and eaten 🫢

Very cool finds, even if a rather frail collectible ☺️