Heating oil prices are sky-rocketing around the world. The Nordics have understood the risks of using fossil fuels for heating early on and transitioned away from heating oil almost entirely whilst phasing in heat pumps.

see? here's the thing. A lot of people are like, the earth is fucked, it's beyond salvation, it's hit the tipping point, but time and time again we see that if we just fucking fixed the problem, it rebounds so incredibly fast. Imagine what could be done if people actually cared

Creating stories for people who are hungry is what it's all about

(it is only a five page preview...!)

So AI might be intentionally deskilling us so it can rent cognitive ability back at their chosen rates. That's the bad news. Here's the good news. 1/3

This house will become a shrine, and punks and skins and rastas will all gather round and hold their hands in sorrow for their fallen leader. And all the grown-ups will say, "But why are the kids crying?" And the kids will say, "Haven't you heard? Rick is dead! The People's Poet is dead!"

Artists- life is so much calmer if you stop comparing your work to others. Same goes with careers and wee internet art groups, the whole thing. Fuckit. Do stuff for you. Never show anyone most of it. You’ll improve your mental art health a lot. Even just for a bit.

I think the biggest damage to the art community was the obsolescence of gallery sites (y!, deviantart, etc) and the rise of scroll-by social media, like twitter and even tumblr. Art is not ''content'', you shouldnt need to post art every day (or every month!) to be relevant. This mindset sucks.

Casper in the sunshine from 6 years ago today.

imagine even thinking about using ai when a living breathing master of the craft is putting his knowledge on youtube for free

trying out a new feature, lmk if it works

"If I was to use ChatGPT for my designs rather than our designer Sean, that's taking money out of the local area into the hands of a multibillionaire ... removing value from the local community and local artists [and] into the hands of some of the richest people in the world." #AIslop #refuseresist

Writers: “How can I be promoting my books while The Horrors escalate daily?” Everyone one Bluesky: “These are my emotional support books. They are the only thing that makes life in this hell forsaken timeline bearable.”

Long live 2D animation (& practical effects).

For @hal-monitor.bsky.social's recent Draw This in Your Style:

Mood

Very good advice for when you really wanna do a thing, but are afraid. <3

Consider the third mode:

We don’t need AI training sponsored by the tech firms selling it. We need AI education to help people understand what it can’t do, and what dangers lie ahead if you entrust your life to it

If you're a writer, wondering why you should bother writing with the world on fire. It feels like it's not important, I need you to understand that it is. Even if it is just because it keeps you moving forward? Even if it only brings YOU joy, that gives you energy to fight & survive.

Mood.

warm again

All righty -- this year's writerly resolution is live, should you care to read it. The tl;dr is it's actually quite an optimistic read, so hopefully it'll give you some juice to kick open the new year and put words to stories that need to be told.

Some of you have forgotten that only three years ago you were perfectly capable of writing a text, writing an email, telling a bedtime story to a child, and it should worry you that powerful companies have convinced us we can’t do things we’ve been doing since the dawn of time.

Unsolicited writing advice, no. 71616: If you're struggling to stay creative during the dark part of the year, go back to what you love. Re-read, re-watch, rediscover old favourites. Remind yourself why you're doing this. Find your joy.

Hey. Make that story weirder.

Using genAI for concept art is so fucking stupid because like... that's where you get the cool shit. Thats the blue sky phase where artists make pieces of art that will be seen by a teenager later and change their life forever. Why would you want to start from mediocre. Why would you do that.

Just really sucks that so many of us are barely getting by (if that), and the people who stole from us are rewarded with billions. It's hard to put into words how demoralising that is.

I keep thinking about all of the people who were NOT hired as part of this exercise. All the real world production crew. The actors. The caterers supporting real world shoots. So many people with real skills not being paid. So. Many. Creative. People. Not. Being. Paid.

I said it before, will say it again -- generative AI fetishizes "ideas" while sneering at effort, execution, and education. That, despite Gen-AI being built on and out of other people's effort, execution and education.

Today, I went full Captain Kirk, mentally slapping myself silly for “not doing enough”… after managing 1,700 words in a chaotic week. So I wrote a newsletter about it – and about why we need to stop self-destructing & start taking the win. Have a read: www.cavletter.com/stop-beating... #writing

'you can cradle to grave away every warm human word you could ever have said' 💔

Comments fuel artists and creators. They help fledgling projects grow because other people see them and spread the word or interact. We definitely cherish every single comment we’ve gotten on the comic on any of our platforms - especially the website. Keep them coming. 🥰

What I'm saying is if you're making comics or practicing whatever art you do, you're already winning. The arts expects you to be great in your chosen field, also be able to do promo in a vacuum, all your own admin and somehow always have money. It's not realistic. Making anything is the victory.

RIP Drew Struzan - a man whose talent and imagination etched onto so many minds throughout the last 40+ years. His art & posters are some of the first visuals I think of when I think about cinema - an invitation to watch these stories and worlds. A massive loss 💔

Be safe, and don't you dare go hollow.

This whole section really.

Since many of us are cancelling streaming services, now might also be a good time to support writers and artists. Times are extremely tough for creatives, so why not buy a book, commission an art piece, sign up for a Patreon, tip your favorite creators. Everything helps.

Imagine robbing yourself of all the weird choices and decisions to make the thing you want to make, ways to make every little nook and cranny of the thing you’re making more interesting to you and maybe you alone because you’d rather ask an ai to do it.

If someone says you should do less of the art you love doing, they are not looking out for you. I love the below analogy because the people who love your art aren't going "I wish you'd do less, BE less." Especially if you're taking risks & developing your craft. There's always more to the journey.

One of the most infuriating things as an artist is capturing something just right in your quick rough sketch, and never being able to replicate it in your final drawing. Even if you trace it. It’s forever stuck in that rough.

Sometimes we’re unsatisfied with a thing we made because when it only existed in our head, we saw all the things it could have been and when it’s done we know all the things that it isn’t, but we can’t see the way it expands into a million new things when someone else unpacks it in their head. 🖊️🦑

you're the main reason to keep on going

The answers to your art questions are in the act of drawing. Skip the drawing part and you'll end up overthinking until drawing no longer sounds fun.

Generative art tools

I think people think that art taking a long time to learn means like a month or maybe a year and not an ever expanding process that progresses with you the entirety of your time drawing. You don't "finish" getting good at art because that's not the freaking point.

Just make it exist first. You can make it worse with each new pass while getting increasingly frustrated later.