Still Working on Life, Ten Years Later
Over ten years of blogging, I’ve changed names, designs, subjects, and selves. Looking through the old evidence reminded me why I keep returning: I’m still working on life, one realm at a time.
When Watercolor Textures Turn Into Tiny Storytellers
A simple watercolor texture exercise unexpectedly turned into a series of tiny storyteller artworks. These pocket-sized ACEOs grew from painted experiments, old ideas, and the hope that someone might take home a small piece of Jonesborough’s storytelling spirit.
The July Realmscapes Newsletter Is Up, and This Month It’s a Zine
The July Realmscapes newsletter is up on Substack, and this month it’s a downloadable zine: a small creative dispatch with art, writing updates, studio notes, and assorted oddments.
A New Little Side Door Has Appeared
Realmscapes now has a Patreon. It’s not replacing the website, just offering another free companion space for creative updates, news-zines, and behind-the-scenes notes.
De Stijl Inspiration for a Landscape Painting Experiment
A limited-palette watercolor experiment using only cobalt blue, red, yellow, and black, with no mixing allowed. What started as a De Stijl-inspired color exercise became a lesson in design.
Running uphill towards pizza
Training for the Pioneer Pride 5K, painting tiny watercolors, dreaming up LitRPG chaos, and migrating ten years of blog posts. Anyway, onward.
A Bridge Back to the Painting Table
Hello friends,I wrote briefly in my last post about being in a creative slump, and to be honest, I don’t want to talk about that very much right now. What matters is that I feel like I’m coming out of it, and that recovery is partly due to committing to an online monthly nature journaling […]
Inside my winter sticker sketchbook
A quiet return to drawing this week, working on winter animals and bluegrass charm in a behind-the-scenes peek at how this year’s sticker collection begins.
In Praise of the Story-seeker’s Gremlin
A playful ode to creative chaos, mysterious glitches, and the mischievous gremlin who shows up just when you think everything’s under control.
The Return of the Studio
Studio Second Street is back — and this time, it belongs. A story about creative integration, purpose, and how one milk glass chicken still holds magic.
Sometimes It’s Just a Good Week (and That’s Enough)
A quiet week of porch-sitting, birdsong, and unexpected studio satisfaction. Zines are blooming, pastels are cooperating, and the dust layer has been vanquished (with a dish rag from the 1980s, no less). Sometimes, it’s good to pause and celebrate the small, quiet victories.
June Studio Dispatch
A June update from the Realmscapes studio: a new zine, a new Realm, and a glimpse behind the scenes as sticker kits and tiny books come to life.
The Birth of a Zine Habit
A behind-the-scenes look at creating my first illustrated Substack zine — why I made it, what I learned, and why this might be the start of a new creative habit.
The First Day Fib
This is a story I wrote based on my own experience. Like most stories we told for the radio show, it started out with a bit of truth, but turned into a story about an embarrassing first day of school. SFX School bell buzzing NARRATOR It was the first day of fifth grade at Central […]
The Unforgettable Delivery
Bobby Loudy’s story about joining the US Air Force.
The Tick Terminators
A story about a couple of local superheroes, their dog, and a day at the park.
Very Basic Training
Performed on April 23, 2023 for the Storytown Radio Show. It was an interpretation of my experience at the USAF Boot Camp.
Art Adventures!
Do you like limited supply challenges? Me too! They help me practice while making me stretch as an artist. This week I’m excited to announce the first of a new series of posts called Art Adventures. Each week I’ll post a new adventure called a Mission. Each Mission’s goal will be to apply a specified […]
Camp Nanowrimo and the 100 Day Project
Today I’m going to steer away from the serious art thinking that I’ve been discussing in the last few posts and switch to some fun things. We all can use some fun in our lives, right? April is almost here, which means Camp NaNoWriMo will be starting soon, as well as the 100 Day Project, […]
What to Do After NaNoWriMo
After finishing NaNoWriMo with more than 51,000 words, I found myself wondering what comes next: rest, reflection, prompts, and the strange emptiness after a creative sprint.
Owl ATC Studies in Graphite and Charcoal
A small series of owl artist trading cards made with graphite and pressed charcoal, exploring texture, contrast, and character in a tiny format.
Choosing a New Studio Name
What’s in a name? A lot, actually. Or not enough. Or maybe, if you’re lucky, nothing much. That’s when you know you’ve got a good imagination. I can hear you asking: Anni, what the heck are you talking about? I’m talking about pen names. Store names. Art studio names. Blog names. If you’ve ever had […]
Texture Studies
This month I’m focusing on developing my graphite technique. I began with a drawing of a rose but am not happy with the blending result. To gain additional practice with blending, I decided not to use any tissue or tortillon aids and create the drawing using only pencils and erasers. I used the same technique […]
A Portrait Prep Challenge
In art, as with most hobbies or sports, or really just about anything, I believe it’s important to have challenges. I’m not referring to competition; I’m referring to the kind of challenge that tests the perception we have about our personal ability to do something. The kind of challenge that makes us prove to ourselves […]
Why Art Matters
This week was full of breakthroughs and visions. I’ll have to take you through them the long way, though. If I just set it out plainly it probably won’t make much sense and might even sound a bit ludicrous. So here we go. CommunityI signed up for a workshop called “Sketchbook Revival”. It’s hosted by […]
Artsy Hobbies
I want to share my latest hobby. Artist Trading Cards! I don’t remember how I discovered this wicked addiction, but last month I signed up at ATCs For All (www.atcforall.com) and began participating in swaps this month. The concept is that you create a card and exchange it with another artist for their card. The […]
New Goals and Objectives
Hello again! My last post explained some of my thoughts about the new objective of this blog. This post is about planning the road map. I’m not going to go into a lengthy discussion about why planning is necessary. I’m not going to cover the topic of planning at all, really. Instead, I’m going to […]
Planning the New Blog
Hello! Confession: I am not the kind of person who feels compelled to blog regularly. I like using the web site as a journal, and I’m eager to explore different ways to use the medium creatively, but I have no motivation to update it regularly. I’ve used the past couple of months to explore various […]
Easy Peasy September Apple Butter
September is one of my favorite months of the year. I love when fall decorations appear on porches and Main Street is decked out in corn stalks and pumpkins. It’s the month that’s still warm enough for wearing shorts but cool enough for the apples to be harvested. Yay! It’s time for yummy apple treats! […]
Jan 11 Yarn Along and Disappearing Cake
This week’s Yarn Along project is the same one I’ve been working on for over a week. It’s socks for Shujin’s birthday. The Big Day is next week, and at this rate I’m not going to finish his present. One of the problems I’m having is with lighting. This winter weather means we are experiencing […]
Knitted Gifts for the Family Christmas
Do you make handmade knitted gifts for your family? It’s been years since I’ve thought of anything hand knitted as being special. But this year marks the first when both of my sons were in college. It’s harder to think of Christmas gifts for them now that they no longer have infinite toy wish lists. […]