Idle Musing

problem solving steps

"Pushing Your Luck"

painted with acrylic gouache and every shade of green paint marker i got lying around :^) painted on the mat frame too and it came out better than i thought!

congrats! Now you have a motif! A recurring theme! A focus for your art! Something to haunt you!

Seventeen still lives of dandelions? Three hundred poems about grief? A sketchbook dedicated to your grandmother’s house? Two books trying to unravel the complexities of familial relationships?

An early exploration of the themes Hokusai would keep coming back to is Spring in Enoshima, done in 1793 when he was 33. The wave is small and there are no boats, but Mt Fuji is clear in the background, and Enoshima is in Kanagawa, so we are clearly beginning to work towards something here.

A second pass, eleven years later in 1803 when he was 44. The title of this one begins to get more familiar: The View of Honmoku Off Kanazawa. It has a towering wave over a smaller boat, but Mt Fuji is not present, and the boat is considerably larger and has a sail. But the feeling of danger in the wave and the smallness of the boat are here, and of course the general composition is definitely recognizable.

This is A View Of Express Delivery Boats, done in 1805, merely two years later at age 46. Here we find the wave and the boats almost exactly as we'll find them in The Great Wave Off Kanagawa, though Mt Fuji isn't present, and the location is uncertain. And it's a good picture! The wave is threatening, the boats are small -- but the feeling of "ocean" isn't really there yet, is it? It's unlikely this picture would have become a classic for the ages. But that's okay, there's still time.

And here we have it, a full 26 years later, done by Hokusai in 1831 at the age of 72. The Great Wave Off Kanagawa, one of the most recognizable pieces of art in the world. The boats are there, the mountain is there, the wave is there, and the FEELING is there. He did it! He reached the apex of his ongoing motif and theme!

Or did he? Because the whole point of a motif is not that you're striving to get to the perfect version of it, the one idealized image you carried in your head all along, and when it is done, you are also done. Hokusai is on record at the age of 73 saying he'd only just begun to feel like he was learning how to draw things properly, and that "if I keep up my efforts, I will have even a better understanding when I was 80 and by 90 will have penetrated to the heart of things. At 100, I may reach a level of divine understanding, and if I live decades beyond that, everything I paint — dot and line — will be alive." He had drawn The Great Wave, but he didn't believe he was finished -- he thought that he was still just beginning to get started.

And he wasn't finished with his ocean motif, either. Please check out his Mt Fuji At Sea, done in 1834 at the age of 75.

Intimacy isn't always just the spicy stuff! Here's a few ways to show it through your characters in a few, simple ways...

Kissing their S/O's hand, knuckles, wrist...bonus points for eye contact!

Speaking of which...eyes. Glances across the room, prolonged eye contact, staring at each other

Tending to the other's wounds/ injuries

Knowing the other's tiny habits

Reaching out to the other when in pain, trouble, ect

Whispering jokes to each other

Carefully wiping off a stain from their clothes or face

Taking care of each other when sick or hurt

Hand over the heart/ ear over the heart just to hear it beat

Pressing their thumb over the pulse point for the same thing

Tracing scars, tattoos, birth marks, freckles

Giving the other something tiny that means a lot, a picture, a shiny rock, a flower

In fantasy settings, helping the other put on/ take off armor...trusting the other to know where daggers, knives, poisons are hidden

Telling each other secrets/ thoughts they've told nobody before

Tucking back the other's hair

Putting a piece of jewelry on the other or letting them borrow clothes

Keeping each other warm in the cold

In cases with chronic illness, letting the other care for/ know symptoms

Brushing, braiding hair, applying skincare, etc.

Nightmare comfort

Wiping away tears

Proximity- sitting near each other, sticking close, standing beside each other while doing a task such as cooking, laundry, painting...

⟡ Rain = grief, release, cleansing

⟡ Storm = conflict, chaos, change coming

⟡ Fog = confusion, the unknown, losing direction

⟡ Snow = silence, isolation, being frozen in time

⟡ Ice = emotional distance, coldness, numbness

⟡ Wind = restlessness, change, things out of control

⟡ Sunshine after rain = hope, relief, moving on

⟡ Drought = emptiness, longing, being depleted

⟡ Thunder = anger, power, something about to break

⟡ Lightning = sudden realization, shock, impact

⟡ Overcast sky = dread, heaviness, waiting

⟡ Dawn = new beginning, hope, surviving the night

⟡ Dusk = endings, nostalgia, running out of time

⟡ Heatwave = tension, pressure building, suffocation

⟡ Blizzard = being overwhelmed, stuck, buried

⟡ Clearing sky = resolution, clarity, finally

⟡ Flood = losing control, being consumed by emotion

⟡ Calm before the storm = dread, false peace

⟡ Seasons changing = time passing, growth, loss

⟡ Autumn = letting go, things dying beautifully

⟡ Winter = depression, dormancy, waiting to feel again

⟡ Spring = recovery, new growth, returning to self

⟡ Summer = intensity, aliveness, things at their peak

⟡ Midnight = rock bottom, the hardest hour

⟡ Moonlight = loneliness, romance, the hidden self

⟡ Stars = distance, permanence, something to hold onto

⟡ Eclipse = something blocking the light

⟡ Rainbow = promise after pain, rare beauty

⟡ Mist = memory, the past, things half-remembered

protective → reacting with excessive violence to small provocations and retaliating disproportionately

curious → disregard for safety and boundaries

determined → dooming self and even others when refusing to let a lost cause be lost

vigilant → paranoid control and distrust

independent → isolated and unable to ask for or accept help

decisive → coldblooded, reckless, and taking extreme measures without considering less lethal methods

forgiving → inability to hold people accountable and never learning from past mistakes

easygoing → unserious and not taken seriously by others even when warranted

optimistic → denial of real danger and damage

disciplined → rigid expectations of perfectionism from self and others

heroic → meddles even when told not to and ignoring people’s autonomy

generous and helpful → inability to say ‘no’ and stretching self thin trying to help everyone

This is a close up? A CLOSE UP YA JERK! A CLOSEUP!

Is Daffy in hell?

To have no say and be forced to suffer and be met with constant opposition??