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msteph.bsky.social
Sterf, perhaps
@msteph.bsky.social
190 followers 660 following 850 posts
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tommchenry.bsky.social
Posting GARY PANTER'S SKETCHBOOK TIPS to save a life -- the site that used to host these took em down years ago, and they are as useful a list about this kind of thing as you will ever find.

They are like a favorite dogeared paperback to me.
INTRODUCTION Get a book-size (or paperback-size)d sketchbook. Write your name and date on an early page and maybe think of a name for it — and if you want, write the book’s name there at the front. Make it into your little painful pal. The pain goes away slowly page by page. Fill it up and do another one. It can be hard to get started. Don’t flunk yourself before you get the ball rolling. You might want to draw more realistically or in perspective or so it looks slick — that’s is possible and there are tricks and procedures for drawing with more realism if you desire it. But drawing very realistically with great finesse can sometimes produce dead uninteresting drawings — relative, that is, to a drawing with heart and charm and effort but no great finesse. You can make all kinds of rules for your art making, but for starting in a sketchbook, you need to jump in and get over the intimidation part — by messing up a few pages, ripping them out if need be. Waste all the pages you want by drawing a tic-tac-toe schematic or something, painting them black, just doodle. Every drawing will make you a little better. Every little attempt is a step in the direction of drawing becoming a part of your life. TIPS 1. Quickly subdivide a page into a bunch of boxes by drawing a set of generally equidistant vertical lines, then a set of horizontal lines so that you have between 6 and 12 boxes or so on the page. In each box, in turn, in the simplest way possible, name every object you can think of and draw each thing in a box, not repeating. If it is fun, keep doing this on following pages until you get tired or can’t think of more nouns. Now you see that you have some kind of ability to typify the objects in your world and that in some sense you can draw anything. 2. Choose one of the objects that came to mind that you drew and devote one page to drawing that object with your eyes closed, starting at the “nose” of the object (in outline or silhouette might be good) and following the contour you see in your mind’s eye, describing to yourself in minute detail what you know about the object. You can use your free hand to keep track of the edge of the paper and ideally your starting point so that you can work your way back to the designated nose. Don’t worry about proportion or good drawing this is all about memory and moving your hand to find the shapes you are remembering. The drawing will be a mess, but if you take your time, you will see that you know a lot more about the object than you thought. 3. Trace some drawings you like to see better what the artist’s pencil or pen is doing. Tracing helps you observe closer. Copy art you like — it can’t hurt. 4. Most people (even your favorite artists) don’t like their drawings as much as they want to. Why? Because it is easy to imagine something better. This is only ambition, which is not a bad thing — but if you can accept what you are doing, of course you will progress quicker to a more satisfying level and also accidentally make perfectly charming drawings even if they embarrass you. 4. Most people (even your favorite artists) don’t like their drawings as much as they want to. Why? Because it is easy to imagine something better. This is only ambition, which is not a bad thing — but if you can accept what you are doing, of course you will progress quicker to a more satisfying level and also accidentally make perfectly charming drawings even if they embarrass you. 5. Draw a bunch more boxes and walk down a sidewalk or two documenting where the cracks and gum and splotches and leaves and mowed grass bits are on the square. Do a bunch of those. That is how nature arranges and composes stuff. Remember these ideas — they are in your sketchbook. 6. Sit somewhere and draw fast little drawings of people who are far away enough that you can only see the big simple shapes of their coats and bags and arms and hats and feet. Draw a lot of them. People are alike yet not — reduce them to simple and achievable shapes. 7. To get better with figure drawing, get someone to pose — or use photos — and do slow drawing of hands, feet, elbows, knees, and ankles. Drawing all the bones in a skeleton is also good, because it will help you see how the bones in the arms and legs cross each other and affect the arms’ and legs’ exterior shapes. When you draw a head from the side make sure you indicate enough room behind the ears for the brain case. 8. Do line drawings looking for the big shapes, and tonal drawing observing the light situation of your subject — that is, where the light is coming from and where it makes shapes in shade on the form, and where light reflects back onto the dark areas sometimes. 9. To draw the scene in front of you, choose the middle thing in your drawing and put it in the middle of your page — then add on to the drawing from the center of the page out. 10. Don’t worry about a style. It will creep up on you and eventually you will have to undo it in order to go further. Be like a river and accept everything.
March 19, 2025 at 4:29 AM
msteph.bsky.social
god damn this sounds amazing
tressiemcphd.bsky.social Tressie McMillan Cottom @tressiemcphd.bsky.social · 3d
Read this as an American woman and then go break something.
December 8, 2025 at 8:50 PM
Reposted by Sterf, perhaps
angryblacklady.blacksky.app
If they hadn’t burned all the witches and midwives back in the day, we’d probably know more about perimenopause and menopause right now. We know fuck all about a condition that half the population goes through because men are a bunch of plonkers*

*not all men**

**but most of them
December 8, 2025 at 3:59 PM
Reposted by Sterf, perhaps
carrieamcdphd.bsky.social
Seen on CMU campus ❤️
December 6, 2025 at 11:59 PM
msteph.bsky.social
I like this bird. Doesn't that look like a pretty good bird
December 6, 2025 at 10:51 PM
msteph.bsky.social
noticing an uptick in migraine activity in the timeline (including my own) and is there something in the (actively oppressive) air?
December 5, 2025 at 12:58 AM
Reposted by Sterf, perhaps
anildash.com
It's very hard to understand that everyone should just be accommodated. There's enough to go around, truly. You've been sold a story that we're all scrabbling for some finite resource, and They are taking it from you, and the answer to that taking is systemic punishment, backed by systemic violence.
December 4, 2025 at 2:20 AM
msteph.bsky.social
lookit this perfect bouquet. that's a heck of a bouquet
peterpaulrubens.bsky.social Dr. Peter Paul Rubens @peterpaulrubens.bsky.social · 8d
Insanely perfect: fantastic little bouquet of flowers in a glass vase by Daniel Seghers of Antwerp, painter & Jesuit priest, whose day is today.
December 3, 2025 at 9:33 PM
Reposted by Sterf, perhaps
anamariecox.bsky.social
More than anything, the panic about "OHNOES TOO MUCH ACCOMMODATIONS" is akin (not the same, but parallel) to worrying about "boys in girls' sports," using a handful of accusations about "cheating" to justify bigotry and creating suspicion around a whole class of marginalized people.
December 3, 2025 at 3:26 PM
msteph.bsky.social
The accommodations conversation is especially maddening during a stretch where I'm supporting a bunch of students who didn't know how to ask for help in advance and all they're ever asking for is some time and consideration that they are people and not studenting machines
December 3, 2025 at 12:43 AM
msteph.bsky.social
I need a megaphone to yell "ACCOMMODATIONS DO NOT DIMINISH RIGOR"
christinemmoe.bsky.social Christine M. Moeller, PhD @christinemmoe.bsky.social · 9d
I need a sign to tap that says something along the lines of "Accommodations do not diminish rigor."

*tapping the sign while muttering something about pedagogy*
disabilitystor1.bsky.social Aparna Nair @disabilitystor1.bsky.social · 9d
We need to be able to see that the line "accommodations have gone too far" is an expression of the ableist notion that disabled students do not belong in higher ed. Its fundamentally an anxiety about the fact that disabled students get an "advantage" over abled students.
December 3, 2025 at 12:40 AM
msteph.bsky.social
guys, I'm mad at everybody.
December 2, 2025 at 9:21 PM
Reposted by Sterf, perhaps
disabilitystor1.bsky.social
We need to be able to see that the line "accommodations have gone too far" is an expression of the ableist notion that disabled students do not belong in higher ed. Its fundamentally an anxiety about the fact that disabled students get an "advantage" over abled students.
December 2, 2025 at 6:05 PM
msteph.bsky.social
the younger kid has begun using "jeeze louise" as a statement of earnest exasperation and it's the funniest thing and it makes her so mad when I can't take it seriously
December 2, 2025 at 2:45 AM
msteph.bsky.social
Only four books last month, and that includes two novellas and a story collection. I had to take a break after starting Your Name Here because my brain was not working on its level, but reading Wool as a warm-up worked nicely. Also, I'm gonna re-read some Temeraire soon
Storygraph Month Summary @mstephm's November 2025 Reads Bitter Waters by Vivian Shaw Hide Me Among the Graves by Tim Powers The English Understand Wool by Helen DeWitt Your Name Here by Helen DeWitt and Ilya Gridneff Buried Deep and Other Stories by Naomi Novik
December 1, 2025 at 7:59 PM
msteph.bsky.social
I just rescheduled the things that were going to make my tomorrow hectic and annoying and it feels so good that I grant you all that absolution as well
December 1, 2025 at 2:33 AM
msteph.bsky.social
lookit this cat. that's a heck of a cat
hollyqueenofspayeds.com Holly Brockwell @hollyqueenofspayeds.com · 11d
And now for some of my very favourite Smol Paul moments in no particular order, starting with the first ever yeet
November 30, 2025 at 9:23 PM
Reposted by Sterf, perhaps
douglasmack.bsky.social
just brainstorming but i think a good political slogan would be "genuinely, we should have a taco truck on every corner."
November 30, 2025 at 7:34 PM
msteph.bsky.social
am I still playing with my art supplies trying to make myself make something? yes, but if I keep finding teeth, things are going to take a turn
November 29, 2025 at 11:55 PM
msteph.bsky.social
did some tidying and found ANOTHER baggie of baby teeth in with my art supplies? I feel like I now have more teeth than can be accounted for
November 29, 2025 at 11:46 PM
msteph.bsky.social
Gearing up for Don'tcember, where every time I think I need to do something, I don't
November 29, 2025 at 7:28 PM
msteph.bsky.social
I want, and want to give, all of these things
dansinker.com dan sinker @dansinker.com · 12d
Tis the seasona and all that, so I put together a little gift guide of cool artists, makers, authors and other good stuff I like a lot. All rad, no bad. dansinker.com/posts/2025-1...
All Rad, No Bad | dansinker.com
dansinker.com
November 29, 2025 at 6:25 PM
msteph.bsky.social
my new craft blade kit immediately took a blood sacrifice, so maybe this means I can start making stuff again soon
November 29, 2025 at 4:12 AM