#highly experimental

Been learning and fiddling with Krita's UI during any micro moments I've had of free time. I found a couple of default brushes that I actually like, but all the textured shading brushes are too soft and blendy. I only like painting when it's traditional.

While this was done on the Android version of krita, I'm mainly learning Krita because I'm doing a lot of testing and experimentation with drawing tablets on Linux, and since Krita is the best thing natively on Linux, it's going to be the go-to software for confirming pen pressure and pen tilt work on Linux. WINE/Bottles and Waydroid can run Windows and Android programs, pen functionality was actually wonky with some tablets.

there may one day be a wave of digital artists leaving windows for linux and i want to help give advice for the transition.

i also want to one day make a video for youtube on how to migrate your workflow from windows to linux and knowing how and where to change krita settings to be as accessible to your normal drawing habits as possible is super important. most videos on transitioning just talk about what Linux is, how to use it, and then they end with "just use krita, i love it"

and man did i hate krita for a long time.

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An old wise woman was gathering cattails by the river when she noticed two men and a woman by the riverbank, engaged in a heated discussion. They had a massive sack of grain with them, and a piddling little rowboat that barely looked like it could fit two people. One of the men noticed her and waved and jogged over.

“Excuse me,” he said, “I don’t suppose you could help us out? We’re trying to get across the river, but we can’t quite work out how, and I think another point of view could be just what we need.”

“I’m glad to lend a hand,” the wise woman said. “What’s the problem?”

“Well, that’s my brother and his wife over there, they’re newly-wed. Me and my brother, we traveled to her village for the wedding and now we’re taking her back home, but we had to go a different route and now we’re stuck at this river. That sack of grain’s her dowry - we’re miller’s sons, you see.”

The wise woman nodded patiently.

“The problem is, that boat can only carry two of us at a time - we’ve tried it out, the sack’s practically the size of a man. And I’m the only one who actually knows how to row. But my brother’s wife, she has this - I know it’s strange, but she has this compulsion to eat grain. Just can’t help herself. You can’t leave her alone with grain - she’ll just start cramming it in her mouth the moment no one’s there to stop her.

“My brother says they’ll make it work, she’ll just never go by the mill and that’ll be that. All right, then. But right now I can’t leave her alone anywhere with the grain sack, and my brother’s too softhearted over his blushing new bride to refuse her anything - HEY!” he yelled suddenly, looking over his shoulder. The young woman guiltily hid her hands behind her back. “For God’s sake, Miriam, please, stop trying to eat the grain, all right? This nice woman’s trying to help us out, just settle down for a minute. And Tom! I’ve been telling you: If we can get the grain back home safely and grind it to flour in the mill, then we can sell the flour, and you can use the money to buy her more grain! You see how it works?”

The other man mumbled something like, ‘but she wants it so badly now!’

“So you see how it is,” he said, running his fingers through his hair as he turned back to the wise woman. “And that’d all be simple except here’s the thing -” He leaned in even closer and dropped his voice to a whisper. “I - um, oh God ... I’m in love with my brother’s wife.”

The wise woman’s eyes widened. “Ah!”

“I know, I know, it’s wrong, but I can’t help it! The moment we laid eyes on each other there was this instant animal attraction between us - and she’s told me she feels the same way. And if - if we can just get back to our village and she goes to live in my brother’s house and never comes by the mill, then we can live like that, we’ll go about our separate lives and not do any harm to anyone. But right now - oh!” He hid his face in his hands. “I can’t trust myself to be alone with her! The solution seems so simple to Tom, but we have to keep making up all these stupid excuses to convince him why it won’t work out!”

He looked up at the wise woman miserably. “We’ve been arguing in circles - I ferry the grain across first and then row back, then I ferry my brother across - but then I’ll have to go back and be all alone with Miriam on this side of the river, and I can’t, but we can’t tell him why! It seems impossible! How can we work this out?”

The wise woman considered the problem for a moment.

Trying digital art properly for the first time, and I’ve been listening to the Rivers of London series recently so have a strangely formatted tarot card! 

Tarantism - The urge to overcome melancholy by dancing. 

Even when you are well-adjusted and living the best version of your life that you’ve had so far, some days are still strange days. Some days, you are attending your ex-boyfriend’s wedding where your other (now married) ex-boyfriend is standing up as one of the groomsmen.

Sure, there isn’t any bad blood, and your role at the wedding is to make music, not bear witness, but still, it’s hard not to feel just a little melancholy.

Thank goodness, then, for dancing.

Lots of dancing, including a tarantella that leaves all of you gasping and laughing and nearly in a pile of lace and tangled heels when your former roommate’s husband accidentally gets dragged the wrong way and missteps and nearly brings the whole wedding party crashing down. But the bride laughs, the groom gives a pithy one-liner after gently helping her to her feet, and nothing is ruined, so the party continues. Even those of your friends who are usually sticklers for propriety just laugh and pick themselves off the ground. Even Nathaniel.

You’ve been talking, the two of you. Not obsessively, or anything, but exchanging likes and comments across social media, messaging privately with good news from time to time, to offer updates on your lives and to share funny stories. If you’re honest with yourself, which you are better about these days, even when it really takes effort, one of the reasons your melancholy is not worse than it could be is because you knew you were going to see him and talk to him in the flesh, not through some electronic filter that gives you more contact than you would have had, like, a century ago but still takes out some of the nuance that only a face-to-face conversation can give.

It also kind of (definitely) helps that he’s also flying solo, which means you aren’t the only person in your immediate friend group without a date.

No other reason.

new page of Highly ExperiMental.

Sorry I'm not participating in Artfight this year. I have WAY too much going on this month. I love to see my mutuals slaying with their attacks, though, so I'm still spectating!