Welcome to the new site!
I have a new website! Dismal.ink is dead, long live dismal.ink! My impetus for starting this website back in 2021 was to showcase my work, which has been primarily artistic in nature. In its first incarnation, it was a WordPress site hosted on the cheap at Dreamhost's shared starter plan. That was my first time using a modern content management system, and it...
Dangerous invitation
This is my second fully original painting. I pushed myself into some challenging territory for it. I set out to make a painting that features Aftyn‘s Dangerous Succubus on a bed in a space filled with flames, beckoning us to come to her. I started with a rough pose idea from a drawing by Alex...
Let me hold your place
A few weeks ago I joined the budding art-focused social media site called Cara. I’ve enjoyed building up my presence there and finding some community among those fearsomely talented folks. Last weekend Magdalena Baltes proposed a friendly art exchange, paint her pet in exchange for one of her paintings of yours. Looking at her work...
Feeling crabby
This is just a crab, a sea crab of some sort. I bumped into her looking at references from the Love Life Drawing community monthly animal drawing challenges and got excited about the challenging colors on display. A crab has a fascinating combination of hard edges and organic forms. I think she turned out pretty...
Bumblebee
I tried to take the lessons of that last painting and apply them to a different kind of subject. Flowers require either going all in on detail or finding some balance between detail and suggestion that, frankly, I still haven’t found. I don’t think this painting is very successful. Let’s put on the critical analysis...
Sleepy kitten
Hell yeah! This is a painting of Aftyn Rose, based on one of the most artistic of her Instagram photos. I have long wanted to do it, but hesitated due to confidence issues around the complicated lighting and shadows. But when I set out to work through my issues with painting brushes, a reference with distinct shadows...
Make some noise for soft tummies
Welcome back to the amazing rosie_rosie_rosie in the pose (and sentiment) that brought her to my attention in the first place. To be clear, the title of this post came from her. What can I say about this wonderful figure? She’s obviously a gorgeous lady. But even more than that, my eye was drawn to...
Denim dreams
Please welcome Reddit user rosie_rosie_rosie to the site! She is a beautiful young woman who was happy to aid my journey of learning by agreeing to be a subject here. This first work is a study in revelation, showing off her gorgeous figure behind a shroud of denim. I’d like to do more work with...
Bookmarklet
I’ve been pretty busy lately and haven’t had much time to create or post anything. I’m hip deep in a branch of the Chimera-md code making a rudimentary user authentication layer. More on that down the road. I have also signed up for a new painting featuring a sexy, new model, so you can look...
Server timing in an Axum web app
Coming from the C++ world, the process of building Chimera-md has been remarkably smooth. Despite not being an expert at Rust or web development, the breadth of well-considered libraries made available by the Cargo package manager made everything a breeze. The only part that’s at all clever, and therefore worth documenting, is my use of...
Chimera-md updates
In the last week, I’ve spent a big chunk of time refining the Chimera-md server software and my own installation of it. I’m making progress! The most notable item is that I started working on a logo for the server, which you can see above. It needs a lot of work, but you can see...
Installing Chimera-md
Recently I published the source code for my project, Chimera-md. I think it’s now ready to unveil to more folks. A key challenge there was making it easier to install. Now there’s a Docker image for running on 64-bit Linux servers. (Potentially other platforms would be valuable? But I think this is the current expectation.)...
Presenting Chimera-md
Over the last few weeks I have been building my first Rust-based web application. There’s still some work to be done, but it is ready enough for a public debut. I am proud to present Chimera-md, a Markdown-aware web server. My intention is to build it as a Docker image to run on my NAS...
Setting up my homelab
A few years ago, I got a nice little year-end bonus from work, and decided to give myself a treat. I bought a cheap Synology NAS device with a pair of fast SSD drives. I didn’t have any special purpose in mind for it at the time. But I was juggling multiple laptops, and sharing...
Hampton, part 3
My figure drawing work continues. This week’s work spans two segments of the book, so I apologize for the big swing. In these first couple, we’re rounding up the gesture section. Gesture drawings are about curve, animation, capturing the spirit of a movement. These drawings should be fast, and should never look stiff. Mine still...
Hampton, part 2
Learning from Michael Hampton's Figure Drawing: Design and Invention continues with a further 6 pages with of sketches. The book isn't giving work assignments (at least so far), so I'm just following along with his drawings, trying to get a feel for the rhythms and lines. I'm trying to get into the headspace. I feel...
