thefishingwish

[thefishingwish]

Did you know, that if you leave mushrooms in the fridge too long the white stuff that grows on them is actually tiny little sheep? It’s science. I read it on the internet.

[thefishingwish]

Little magic mushrooms. What do you think they sound like?

[thefishingwish]

물을 드세요!

Drink water, or else! Thank you little, water goblin.

Trying out a slightly different style here, while also practicing Korean. The stylization worked out..ok. The Korean definitely needs work lol.

[thefishingwish]

Oh my goodness gracious. It’s been a couple months since I drew this up, and it is as cute today as when it was written. I’m working on a little concept/story/comic? About a Leshy (forest spirit) and her goblin and sprite friend. We’ll see if it goes anywhere, but for right now, enjoy these cuties having tea.

[thefishingwish]

New avatar, who dis? The last avatar I made was, at this point, like 5-6 years old? A LOT has changed in that time. For instance, I now less hair. And it is a distinctly different colour (not by choice, of course) this self portrait was a fun little experiment on procreate and I am still messing around with this style, I think it’s great!! So cute. So sketchy.

[thefishingwish]

Where the writing down of things all began…

2021 was really the first time I ever tried writing down my thoughts about reading. And since this blog wasn’t here in 2021, I thought I’d share those thoughts with you now. Here’s a little tasty-taste of what you’re in for with my nonsense. Please enjoy.

“A thing I did this year that I’d like to share: I read! I read a bunch of books!This is new and exciting. I wasn’t a big reader until about 2 years ago when I put in a concerted effort to read more. 2019 I read 10 books in the last quarter, so I decided that in 2020 I would try to read 40! It did not work out. My math was off. But! I did read 28, which is pretty impressive for me, I’d say.I mostly read fantasy, poetry and kids books. And from that group here are some of my best and least-best choices.

Best of the best, MVP, now-in-my-top 3 favorite books of all time:

Unnatural Magic by C.M. Waggoner.

This is a stand alone murder mystery fantasy novel. It’s got a wholly unique setting, complete with fashions that I NEED the author to publish some art of, please. It’s got a strong female protagonist with her own personality (wow!), female friendships, age appropriate relationships, the subversion and re-imagining of gender roles, and some gayness, too! The magic system is very similar to physics and I love how it’s presented. I love this book so much 10/10 highly recommend.

Best Poetry:

When the World Didn’t End, by Caroline Kaufman.

Generally pleasant and well written thoughts and poems about the (cis)woman’s experience. I have read a lot of poetry about women healing from bad breakups and abusive relationships, and although the author was pretty young when she wrote these, they felt more mature than a lot of other poetry on the subject. Very nice read if you’re doing some healing of your own.

Weirdest:

Lanny by Max Porter

I thought this was a kids book. THIS IS NOT A KIDS BOOK. I REPEAT:DO NOT GIVE THIS BOOK TO CHILDREN. It’s the story of a British family moving out to a small village and the adventures that Lanny has now that he’s closer to nature. It is told from the perspectives of the adults in his life. There is a magical/fairy tale aspect to the book so I think it’s considered Magical Realism (?)CW: there is discussion of child abuse. The child in the book is not actually abused, but the topic does come up.It’s a very compelling read, and I still think about it a lot.

Least Best:

The Winter of the Witch, by Katherine Arden.

The third in a trilogy. Set in medieval Russia, it’s got the vibe of a folklore fairy tale. However, the main character is very much a Mary-Sue, which was mostly forgivable in the first two books because of the amount of world building and lore that was presented. This last book was more character driven, so it fell flat (much like her personality!). I got so frustrated and bored I put it down multiple times and picked up other books and finished them in it’s place. I only finished it because it was my last book of 2020 and I wanted to finish it, damn it!If you’re into, like, horses or whatever you might like reading this one, but also, don’t.

Overall I managed to read some pretty cool books last year. Here’s to more good ones this year!Honorable mentions:

Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik

Second favorite book of the year. KNITTERS: There is knitting magic in this book and it is fabulous.  Truly could not put this book down. It explained how math looks like witchcraft! Cannot recommend enough.”

And there you have it, some pretty spoiler free reviews of some things I read an eternity ago. What a time to be alive.

In conclusion, it probably doesn’t get any better than this, but it might! who knows, I don’t! stick around to find out.

[thefishingwish]

This is the whole group of goblin Guys together. God I just love them so much.

[thefishingwish]

Hey Kammy! Hey Zack! And everyone else who has stopped by!

I think it was back in 2012 when I started my journey towards learning how to read. It feels like just yesterday....that's not true. It feels like 20 lifetimes ago. Anyway. To be clear, I was (and still am) completely literate. I just couldn't bring myself to sit and read.

I loved books! I wanted to illustrate books! Become a comic book artist! But sitting down to read felt like pulling my teeth out. I would honestly rather go to the dentist, past Katie would say.

In 2010 I found out that my childhood full of stomping of feet and gnashing of teeth anytime it came to assigned reading was due, in part, to an undiagnosed learning and reading disability. Turns out, I'm hella ADHD. On top of other things. So for me, that looked like enjoying stories, enjoying the tactile sensation of books, but never actually reading them. Not really.

So like I said, in 2012 I decided I would start training to read books. Kind of. I started with comics and audiobooks, and wouldn't you know it, it worked! I read more books! Ingested more literature! Practiced tracking my eyes across a page and paying attention for extended periods of time! And I got better at it.

Over time I was able to sit with actual novels, and enjoy them. It took time. A lot of time. I am NOT a fast reader, you guys. But I did it.

Eventually I started making new years resolutions not just to read more, but to read a specific number of more. And the craziest thing happened; I read the specific number of more!

I've done this for about 5 years in a row now, with varying levels of difficulty, so I thought this year I would add a little spice to the mix; a reading journal-blog-thing!

Come along with me and find out what I'm reading this year and whether it's worth your time to maybe read along, too!

And hey, if you're ADHD and wish you could care to read more, maybe I can help. If you're ADHD and wish you would read less and go to bed at a reasonable hour, I could offer suggestions, but I doubt it will help. We can just talk about books in the wee hours of the morning together, that's cool too.

I hope you stick around to see how badly I review books,

Hugs and kisses,

your pal,

Katie.

[thefishingwish]

Just to ring in this new found motivation; this lol guy was my first attempt at an animation on procreate last year! I made a group of little pin designs(?) And I thought this one could dance a little bit. Ain't it cute? I love it.

[thefishingwish]

Gingerbread Lighthouse

A fisherman seeking shelter from the storm inside a lighthouse haunted by the ghost of its first and only lighthouse keeper.

This is my 5th year baking a gingerbread house and it’s inspired by the architecture from the movie The Lighthouse (2019).

The cone shape was baked using a custom made truncated cone mold made out of a sheet of steel, the rowboat was baked using 2 curved steel molds. The fisherman and ghost are made by rolling gum paste onto wire armatures. The windows were made by crushing hard candy into dust and baking the pieces again.

How-To Video:

[thefishingwish]

#throwbackthursday!! Back in 2017 I was doing these cute watercolour landscapes. They were so much fun. I think I may do more in the future when I need to get out of art ruts because they're really just playing with colour.

✨What do you do to get out of art ruts?

[thefishingwish]

Still asleep 😴 can the week start tomorrow?

[thefishingwish]

#sketchbookSunday! Boy oh boy am I glad the weather has calmed down a bit today. It means I can have windows open and with windows open I can use my oil paints! What are your sunday plans?

[thefishingwish]

Root veggies Galore!

[thefishingwish]

First week of summer vacation down! Only 8 more to go. Managed to get some art done while also doing summer with the kids. I'm pretty happy with how it's going so far :)

[thefishingwish]

And the #work continues to #progress! I'm not sure if the varnish will work on this little guy when she's done because it's on a piece of carboard :s Any advice, seasoned painters?? 😍

[thefishingwish]

#wipwednesday !!! 😊 so far I'm pretty proud of this piece, not necessarily because of it's quality, but because I woke up bright and screaming early on the weekend to paint and had it started and finished before 10:30am. Productivity, motivation, inspiration win!

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#wip #workinprogress #oilpaintings #oilpaint #illio #illustration #illustrationartists #illustragram #kidsillustration #kidlitart #art #wildmother #portraitpainting #tinybrushes #sketch