I lived in San Diego for 30 years, and attended Comic-Con maybe five times. And that was more than enough for me.

I realized I really really don’t like cons. I won’t bore you with the reasons.

So when I started as an artist, my SDCC experiences influenced my choices: “What can I make digitally that probably wouldn’t fit here?” I didn’t want to do the kind of art I’d seen there.

As a consequence, it has been kinda challenging to find example digital artists who don’t do anime, manga, chibi, comic art, TTRPG art, concept art, fan art, or pixel art. Digital art is so ingrained in commercial illustration and fandom art now, it’s hard to see outside that box.

From my perspective, it seemed that for digital artists, vending at cons was almost a given—an apparent “traditional necessity" in some ways. It was all I knew, all I saw on the internet.

But knowing I wasn’t going to attempt to go down that path was honestly quite freeing. It opened my eyes to a much much wider range of creative options and possibilities for me, personally. I started looking at traditional artists for inspiration. And it was helpful.

Nowadays I’m sure I’ll never become a vendor at the larger, more popular conventions. I’m okay with that—I’m not applying! Ha! For me and for my needs, I can do without. And I’ve only ever done one piece of fan art (which, not surprisingly, doesn’t look anything like a traditional piece of fan art). So I’m good.

#artistlife #artlife #art #illustration

"Maryland can't have flood relief because Republicans demand concentration camps.

While the Trump administration is denying emergency funds for weather-rated disasters, they're simultaneously taking $608M from FEMA to divvy out via state grants for the construction of internment camps."

US states to get $608 million from FEMA to build migrant detention centers | Reuters

https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/us-states-get-608-million-fema-build-migrant-detention-centers-2025-07-25/

#usa #resist #europe #EuropeanUnion

The president of the United States demands the prosecution of four individuals:
•Beyoncé
•Oprah Winfrey
•Al Sharpton
•Kamala Harris

“Thank you for your attention to this matter.”

Cab Calloway Stars in “Minnie the Moocher,” a Trippy Betty Boop Cartoon That’s Ranked as the 20th Greatest Cartoon of All Time (1932)

https://www.openculture.com/2017/06/cab-calloway-in-minnie-the-moocher-the-trippy-betty-boop-cartoon.html

It’s been known since at least 1998 that if you obscure someone’s arm from them visually, show them a rubber replica, and gently stroke their real arm and the replica in synch, they will identify the replica as part of their body, and react defensively to apparent harm to it.

This has been reproduced in other mammals — but now it turns out that octopuses will also react the same way:

https://www.science.org/content/article/octopuses-fall-rubber-arm-illusion-just-us

I keep saying that the world is collapsing right under our feet in a metaphorical way. I keep forgetting that it’s also literally true.

I guess the better question is, how are we NOT fucked?

https://www.propublica.org/article/water-aquifers-groundwater-rising-ocean-levels