Bear with a beer

I wanted the birds to look like they were actually in the space so first thing after doing the draft was to do a lighting study

after that I covered the walls in letters in lieu of a projector/vr headset bc i have neither of those :) Then i take a picture of the section of wall and superimpose the lineart over top of it so I can pencil in the lines

et voila

GIVE IT UP FOR BIRD NUMBUH 5, THE CANADIAN GOOSE, Branta canadensis!!!!

bird 5/14, Bluejay, Cyanocitta cristata

birds 6 and 7: American Goldfinch, Spinus tristis, male and female

BIRD NUMBER 8, (yellow shafted) NORTHERN FLICKERRRRR, Colaptes auratus

genuinely made me start questioning my sanity around day 3, it's half the size the of the goose, WHY did it take me 4 days to finish??

Bird number 9: Red-tailed hawk, Buteo jamaicensis

my chains are broken i am FREE. although i did have a great deal of fun with this, the barring on the wings itself took me like four days and i am READY to move on

this was a week and a half of continuous work so please excuse me for getting a little emotional in the bg 🙏

BIRD NUMBER 10!!! The Male Mallard Duck, Anas platyrhynchos

the male and female ones are gonna be posted separately bc they're taking a lot longer lol but yea! super happy i was able to capture the iridescent green of the head, i found metallic green and blue paint at a craft store that really made his head POP. it looks better in person i promise

ALSO!! As this is the 10th one, BIG announcement. The end is in sight!!!!! I plan to finish within the next 3 weeks and there will be a small dedication ceremony/ unveiling happening at the library to commemorate its completion on the 16th of May. If you live in the Western New York region and want to check it out for yourself shoot me a dm!

aaaand another one bites the duck,

we're movin right along with bird numero 11!! The lady Mallard!! Anas platyrhyncos

power couple that they are, here's bird number 12 and 13,

the Northern Cardinals, Cardinalis cardinalis

and NOW that they are complete, ITS GO TIME, in the next five days (library's closed for mother's day 😭😭) i need to have the GBH fully rendered, the names of the birds vectored, weeded, masked, applied to the wall, and then painted, plus additional cattails throughout. I may be able to get away with just getting the GBH done in time for the unveiling and then just have the names and cattails added later, but i'm gonna really try to get it all done in time. BUT, i have a plan. Part of why i take so long on these is because i really am just figuring it out as I do it lmao. there have been many a time where i am sitting on top of the ladder googling "how to paint birds" but I think if i take the time tomorro to do all that figuring out how to approach it beforehand, this will go a lot faster. I may also recruit some of my artist friends to help with the placing of the names... hrmm we'll see.

Anyways, shout out to the librarian who tracked down exactly the thing i needed so i could figure out where to place the highlights in my birds eyes, ur the real mvp

Bird number 14 out of 14,

The Great blue heron, Ardea herodius

thank you to everyone who reached out or got excited about this project, it genuinely gave me the fuel i needed to keep going. In total, the 480+ total hrs it took me to cover this wall pales in comparison to how long its expected to spend on there, hopefully imparting a sense of beauty and love for the natural world to the next generation and here's hoping i'm only getting started with these.

"[...] we have to admit to the truth that we sometimes wish our own fathers, sons, brothers, lovers were not there. But, this truth exists alongside another truth: the truth that this wish causes us anguish."

"[...] many women simply felt that feminism gave them permission to be indifferent to men, to turn away from male needs."

"Feminist thinkers, like myself, who wanted to include men in the discussion were usually labeled male-identified and dismissed. We were "sleeping with the enemy."

"Many women cannot hear male pain about love because it sounds like an indictment of female failure. Since sexist norms have taught us that loving is our task whether in our role as mothers or lovers or friends, if men say they are not loved, then we are at fault; we are to blame."

"Even the women who are pissed off at men, women most of whom are not and maybe never will be feminist, use their anger to avoid being truly committed to helping create a world where males of all ages can know love."

"[...] no one talks about the role patriarchal notions of manhood play in teaching boys that it is their nature to kill, then teaching them that they can do nothing to change this nature -- nothing, that is, that will leave their masculinity intact."

"Men do oppress women. People are hurt by rigid sexist role patterns. These two realities co-exist. Male oppression of women cannot be excused by the recognition that there are ways men are hurt by rigid sexist roles."

"Patriarchy as a system has denied males access to full emotional well-being, which is not the same as feeling rewarded, successful, or powerful because of one's capacity to assert control over others."

SHE NEVER QUITS!!!!

> Elisabeth Bik is on patreon <

i find sherlock's relationship with touch incredibly interesting, especially when its related to watson.

throughout the show, sherlock is seen declaring his undying love and devotion for watson in the most matter of fact way possible. bouncing on his feet, eyes darting everywhere. standing firmly on the ground, gaze fixed on her. frenzied, relaxed. he has told her how much she means to him time and time again, in all ways possible. and yet, when it comes to touch, he shies away. those screenshots are from s5? s6? yeah so by that time he has made FAR more intimate declarations, so it stands to no reason why he should fuckin. poke her to wake her up😭😭

it is no secret that sherlock is, at least to some extent, touch averse. yes he has sex, but casual touch is Not his thing. whenever people get too chummy with him (physically) his look of disgust/unease is very apparent. to him, touch is usually seen as a means to an end. he seems to give touch easily when it's related to sex, something that gives him pleasure (which is also something he seems to view quite clinically. it's less about intimacy and more about endorphins and such. #asexualsherlock). he does not, however, touch people just cause. he doesn't give casual touches easily. so it's easy to say that even if he Does love joan a lot, he doesn't exactly like physical touch in the manner of hugs, arms on shoulders, etc. and its totally valid, because not being comfortable with physical affection doesn't mean you love someone any less.

but! it doesn't end here. sherlock's feelings about touch w.r.t joan evolves throughout the show, just as their relationship does.

in season 2, joan gets kidnapped. sherlock is beside himself, and mycroft tells him that joan is "the person you love the most in the world". very early on its established just how much she means to him.

this scene was so impactful. maybe more so than it would've been if sherlock hugged her or frantically checked her for injuries. the first time I watched it, I was struck by the sheer weight of his gaze as he stood in front of her and just. stared. how he crossed the distance between them and stood so close, and yet didn't touch. silent, but breathing hard. not a single movement made and yet, i could see him almost vibrating out of his skin. the noise in his head finally just. stops. she was here. watson was here. and he didn't need to touch to make sure, no—it was her. he could never mistake her. not her, never her.

and watson must've known it too, known his desperation. after all, she is the one who knows him best. that's why right after she sees him she says "it's okay. it's alright." when he comes close, she doesn't move. doesn't step back to put any distance between them. looks back at him steadily, sees the noise in his head, the trapped chaos in him. softly, softly, she says: "im alright."

this scene from s4 is the first time joan hugs sherlock. he doesn't seem to be expecting it, so he just. freezes. you can see him realising what happened only seconds after the hug got over.

this is so lovely because watson doesn't linger. she doesn't ask him why he isn't hugging her back, because she knows. she knows he isn't really comfortable with physical affection, and that's why throughout the series we see her keep any physical touch limited when it comes to sherlock. but sometimes it just bursts out of her, all that love and relief and just the sheer magnitude of it. so she hugs him, and doesn't wait for him to hug her back. sherlock has always been better with words and actions. she knows without a doubt that he loves her, so this does not bother her at all. but she needs to show it, you know. she can't bare her heart to him through words as often as he does to her. this is how she loves, and she's aware that this is not how sherlock loves, too. and she's okay with that.

what strikes me the most is the surprise in sherlock's face. the momentary glitch in his brain that is always in overdrive. he always does that whenever watson expresses her love for him, when she shows that she loves him as much as he loves her in her own way. it's baffling. he lies and he is rude and he is a lost cause. and yet, she loves him. his dear watson.

scene from s6 that kills me. my god. the way she's hugging him. the way she holds him closer even after he says "my personality has not changed, watson." what sets this hug different from the previous one is the ease of his shoulders. he didn't expect the hug, sure, but he doesn't look like his fight or flight response has been triggered, either. AND YOU KNOW WHAT'S SO SO IMPORTANT ABOUT THIS SCENE??? THE WAY HE DOESN'T TRY TO SHRUG HER OFF. he doesn't hug her back, sure, but look at the placement of his hands. after he gets the text he is holding his other hand in a way that makes sure he isn't jostling her too much. steadying their hug. he isn't the one who says "that's enough now, we have to go." WATSON is the one who pulls back after she's done. he is keeping her steady. HE IS KEEPING HER STEADY. HE DOESN'T WANT HER TO LET GO. WHATEVER!!

s6 again. here, he invites her for a hug, more or less. he is expecting it this time. arms open, grin blinding. he knows she'll come to her. he's home. he's back by her side.

the most interesting part about it is that he still doesn't hug her back. and it's not that he doesn't want to hug watson, no, but it's that it's too much.

it is established very early on that sherlock experiences everything—be it emotions or senses—a lot more intensely than the average person. throughout the series, there are many many scenes where he has declared his love for her and almost every time, he seems stricken. shaken by the intensity of the love he feels for her. it seems to hurt him sometimes, and often overwhelms him. he doesn't have anything against hugs, you see. he hugs marcus back in the beginning of s7, smiling. but never once has he hugged back joan (till that point) when she has hugged him. and i submit that it's not because he loves her less that he doesn't hug her back—it's because he loves her in ways he can't really express. it's bigger than him, you see. this kind of love is unfamiliar to him. what he had with moriarty was different. but this? he is utterly unprepared for this.

and then, crescendo .

no longer will he try to hold himself back. he almost lost her because he wanted to hold himself back, because he told himself that he is too much, too rotten, burning, burning and he thought he will take her down with him because his watson, his dearest watson, is good. she will follow him willingly. he thought he was sparing them both the hurt, and he almost lost her because of his stupidity. so it doesn't matter if his skin feels like it's on fire when he holds her. it doesn't matter if all the love he has labelled and put in neat boxes spill out, messy, never ending. it doesn't matter if she thrashes against his hold and tells him she's fine. it doesn't matter if she fights his love. he's staying. of course he's staying.

I can't delete any of the ones of Smooch or Sid or Raleigh or the Jeebers or any of the ones we helped last year. Hundreds of really bad pics just taking up space because they should get to take up space, still. I should have to make room for them, still. It is never enough, and never will be, and never should be.