Alistair
@funkyalchemist.bsky.social
Drawer, makerspace overlord and inveterate tinkerer. Regular forays into baking and cooking
The evening set of #drawingisfree portraits done in Neocolour ii water soluble crayons - that completes 1 year of regular online quick portrait drawings. I’ve learned a lot (mainly that I have a lot to learn)
November 24, 2025 at 10:39 PM
The evening set of #drawingisfree portraits done in Neocolour ii water soluble crayons - that completes 1 year of regular online quick portrait drawings. I’ve learned a lot (mainly that I have a lot to learn)
Charcoal on old book for this morning’s #drawingisfree Zoom portrait session. One pose per song
November 24, 2025 at 12:31 PM
Charcoal on old book for this morning’s #drawingisfree Zoom portrait session. One pose per song
Reposted by Alistair
The remants of a 249-million-year-old ocean ecosystem have been found - partway up a mountain in Svalbard!
It contains over 30,000 fossils from all kinds of fish and marine reptiles - as well as some more unexpected animals!
Discover what it reveals 👇
www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/new...
It contains over 30,000 fossils from all kinds of fish and marine reptiles - as well as some more unexpected animals!
Discover what it reveals 👇
www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/new...
Fossils of ancient marine predators have been discovered on an Arctic mountain | Natural History Museum
Life may have bounced back more quickly than expected after the worst mass extinction in history.
www.nhm.ac.uk
November 17, 2025 at 11:26 AM
The remants of a 249-million-year-old ocean ecosystem have been found - partway up a mountain in Svalbard!
It contains over 30,000 fossils from all kinds of fish and marine reptiles - as well as some more unexpected animals!
Discover what it reveals 👇
www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/new...
It contains over 30,000 fossils from all kinds of fish and marine reptiles - as well as some more unexpected animals!
Discover what it reveals 👇
www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/new...
A drawing of WW2 armed trawler HMT Isle of Arran, rough in places as I’m trying to figure out the particular layout of this ship from fairly poor photos
November 17, 2025 at 7:32 AM
A drawing of WW2 armed trawler HMT Isle of Arran, rough in places as I’m trying to figure out the particular layout of this ship from fairly poor photos
Reposted by Alistair
'Road to the Farm.' (1944) I find it difficult to think of any British landscape painter of Rowland Hilder's generation (he was born in 1905) whose work is as widely known but whose name is not. His work touched a strain of nostalgia for an unchanged and unchanging landscape.
November 15, 2025 at 1:08 PM
'Road to the Farm.' (1944) I find it difficult to think of any British landscape painter of Rowland Hilder's generation (he was born in 1905) whose work is as widely known but whose name is not. His work touched a strain of nostalgia for an unchanged and unchanging landscape.
Having a rest today and it is chucking it down outside so I built my friend’s Finnieston crane kit design (Clyde Model Dockyard) www.clydemodeldockyard.com/shop/p/finni...
November 11, 2025 at 4:01 PM
Having a rest today and it is chucking it down outside so I built my friend’s Finnieston crane kit design (Clyde Model Dockyard) www.clydemodeldockyard.com/shop/p/finni...
Reposted by Alistair
SUPERB and angrily unvarnished response, by former BBC chairman, Lord Patten.
"I don't think that we should allow ourselves to be bullied into thinking that the BBC is only any good, if it reflects the prejudice of the last person who shouted at it." ~AA
"I don't think that we should allow ourselves to be bullied into thinking that the BBC is only any good, if it reflects the prejudice of the last person who shouted at it." ~AA
November 10, 2025 at 6:40 PM
SUPERB and angrily unvarnished response, by former BBC chairman, Lord Patten.
"I don't think that we should allow ourselves to be bullied into thinking that the BBC is only any good, if it reflects the prejudice of the last person who shouted at it." ~AA
"I don't think that we should allow ourselves to be bullied into thinking that the BBC is only any good, if it reflects the prejudice of the last person who shouted at it." ~AA
Reposted by Alistair
The truly maddening thing is that, unlike when I was a young man in science and the materials and engineering just weren’t there yet, the future is *right there.* The problem is *solved*. What’s holding us back is not just greed, but this bizarre nostalgia, an obsession with petro- masculinity.
Australia has so much electricity from solar power that it is going to start offering free electricity to everyone for at least three hours during the day as the wholesale price of power goes negative
electrek.co/2025/11/04/a...
electrek.co/2025/11/04/a...
Australia has so much solar that it's offering everyone free electricity
Australia's extensive solar power penetration makes so much energy that the government wants to offer free electricity at peak hours.
electrek.co
November 6, 2025 at 2:08 PM
The truly maddening thing is that, unlike when I was a young man in science and the materials and engineering just weren’t there yet, the future is *right there.* The problem is *solved*. What’s holding us back is not just greed, but this bizarre nostalgia, an obsession with petro- masculinity.
Reposted by Alistair
If you are in the US or Canada, Goodreads are running a giveaway for my new novel, The Survivor, where there are 25 print copies up for grabs. It's the last giveaway we have scheduled, afaik, so if you are interested, here's the link:
www.goodreads.com/giveaway/sho...
www.goodreads.com/giveaway/sho...
Book giveaway for The Survivor by Andrew Reid Nov 01-Nov 21, 2025
Enter to win one of 25 free copies available. Giveaway dates from Nov 01-Nov 21, 2025. A hijacked New York subway train, an anonymous killer, and a young...
www.goodreads.com
November 5, 2025 at 9:05 PM
If you are in the US or Canada, Goodreads are running a giveaway for my new novel, The Survivor, where there are 25 print copies up for grabs. It's the last giveaway we have scheduled, afaik, so if you are interested, here's the link:
www.goodreads.com/giveaway/sho...
www.goodreads.com/giveaway/sho...
Playing with overlapping portraits and then separating using improvised filters (coloured plastic document folders) for Drawing is Free Zoom free session this morning
November 3, 2025 at 10:00 AM
Playing with overlapping portraits and then separating using improvised filters (coloured plastic document folders) for Drawing is Free Zoom free session this morning
Today’s scrawl - based on a frieze of medieval masons, Royal Bank Place in Glasgow
November 2, 2025 at 9:52 PM
Today’s scrawl - based on a frieze of medieval masons, Royal Bank Place in Glasgow
Every Monday for the last year or so I’ve joined free online portrait sessions called Drawing is Free - I had the privilege of having a conversation as part of Chloe’s series “what it is to draw a face” www.patreon.com/posts/21-wha...
#21 'What it is to Draw a Face' conversation with Alistair Reid | Chloe Briggs
Get more from Chloe Briggs on Patreon
www.patreon.com
November 1, 2025 at 11:33 AM
Every Monday for the last year or so I’ve joined free online portrait sessions called Drawing is Free - I had the privilege of having a conversation as part of Chloe’s series “what it is to draw a face” www.patreon.com/posts/21-wha...
Today’s other drawings - hotel room self portrait in charcoal pencil & pencil sketches of False Killer Whale and Plesiosaur skeletons at the Hunterian Museum in Glasgow
October 31, 2025 at 6:59 PM
Today’s other drawings - hotel room self portrait in charcoal pencil & pencil sketches of False Killer Whale and Plesiosaur skeletons at the Hunterian Museum in Glasgow
I was feeling really uninspired by today’s “award” prompt for inktober but it occurred to me that I could give myself a participation prize for completing a 2nd year #inktober #inktober2025
October 31, 2025 at 4:48 PM
I was feeling really uninspired by today’s “award” prompt for inktober but it occurred to me that I could give myself a participation prize for completing a 2nd year #inktober #inktober2025
Day 30 of inktober - “Vacant” #inktober #inktober2025 0.2mm unipin fineliner, graphite and coloured pencil
October 30, 2025 at 1:05 PM
Day 30 of inktober - “Vacant” #inktober #inktober2025 0.2mm unipin fineliner, graphite and coloured pencil
A very quick scribble today to keep up with inktober “lesson” #inktober #inktober2025
October 29, 2025 at 2:56 PM
A very quick scribble today to keep up with inktober “lesson” #inktober #inktober2025
Not that I’ve been influenced by Autumnal leaves or anything but… inktober prompt of the day “skeletal” - I thought of a leaf skeleton shining with an aura #inktober #inktober2025
October 28, 2025 at 4:46 PM
Not that I’ve been influenced by Autumnal leaves or anything but… inktober prompt of the day “skeletal” - I thought of a leaf skeleton shining with an aura #inktober #inktober2025
I needed to be packed up and out sharpish after drawingisfree_org so minimalist materials of biro on brown packaging card for today’s portraits
October 27, 2025 at 1:41 PM
I needed to be packed up and out sharpish after drawingisfree_org so minimalist materials of biro on brown packaging card for today’s portraits
27th of inktober “onion” - y’all were the kind of kids that had microscopes and would look at onion skin to see the cells, right? #inktober #inktober2025 0.1mm Unipin pen
October 27, 2025 at 7:07 AM
27th of inktober “onion” - y’all were the kind of kids that had microscopes and would look at onion skin to see the cells, right? #inktober #inktober2025 0.1mm Unipin pen
inktober day 26 “puzzling” - a quick crossword. All answers are summaries of the answers to: Across 1. Quantum Gravity 2. Fermi Paradox 3. Mechanism of general anaesthesia 4. Baryon asymmetry 5. Nature of consciousness,… #inktober #inktober2025
October 26, 2025 at 10:12 AM
inktober day 26 “puzzling” - a quick crossword. All answers are summaries of the answers to: Across 1. Quantum Gravity 2. Fermi Paradox 3. Mechanism of general anaesthesia 4. Baryon asymmetry 5. Nature of consciousness,… #inktober #inktober2025
Oh, satire. inktober day 25 prompt is “inferno” during which Dante & Virgil find a freshly constructed circle #inktober #inktober2025
October 25, 2025 at 8:45 AM
Oh, satire. inktober day 25 prompt is “inferno” during which Dante & Virgil find a freshly constructed circle #inktober #inktober2025
Just killing time with Catriona, graphite & coloured pencil
October 25, 2025 at 7:20 AM
Just killing time with Catriona, graphite & coloured pencil
Fellow commuters - missed the ferry leaving and trying to swim to catch it
October 24, 2025 at 10:33 AM
Fellow commuters - missed the ferry leaving and trying to swim to catch it
Rush hour in Lamlash is something else - absolute bedlam
October 24, 2025 at 8:20 AM
Rush hour in Lamlash is something else - absolute bedlam
23rd of inktober “Firefly” - a Fairey Firefly target tug aircraft based on the photo blackskyphoto.com/wp-content/u... #inktober #inktober2025 black & yellow Indian inks
October 23, 2025 at 12:42 PM
23rd of inktober “Firefly” - a Fairey Firefly target tug aircraft based on the photo blackskyphoto.com/wp-content/u... #inktober #inktober2025 black & yellow Indian inks