if you are struggling with choosing which fundraisers to support, please consider donating to the following places providing medical aid, food, and other supplies to palestine at this time:

if you are looking for individual fundraisers to donate to but are struggling to choose, gazafunds gives a spotlight to fundraisers that are not close to their goal.

instead of watching and supporting eurovision tonight, please instead boost this post & donate if you can. keep your eyes on rafah.

Magpie Foraging, 2024. Oil on wood panel. 10 x 8 in. $150 (plus shipping).

Here's a website where Palestine GoFundMes are vetted and shared that you can send out to people. The url is gazafunds.com

Easy to use and simple. Just share the site whenever someone asks for GFMs for Palestine.

the japanese “-ne?” particle and the british slang term “innit” serve the same function

Standard English: It’s cold, isn’t it?

Japanese: Samui desu ne?

British: It’s fuckin’ freezin’, innit?

i have to do everything around here

i hate this cause i did japanese for like a year and this explains the use of the -ne particle WAYYYY better than my teachers ever did. it took me ages to comprehend what this post makes abundantly clear.

my teachers: its like a, a little rise at the end of a sentence, to show that you are seeking a response, while not warranting the -ka particle which would make it a proper question.

me: ok. i guess i get that??

this post: its like saying “innit?” 

me: oh. oh no.

fun fact: afaik, "-ne" was inherited from the Portuguese settlers/priests that stayed in Japan in the 16th century. It comes from "né?", which the contraction of "não é?", "isn't it?".

It's LITERALLY "innit".

oh so like "eh" in canadian

*un-Babels your Tower*

Minute seed weevils, Hadroplontus sp., Ceutorhynchinae, Curculionidae

Photos 1-3 by esant, 4 by xespok, 5-6 by bazwal, and 7 (for scale) by tomegatherion

Grecian proto-Corinthian aryballoi (perfume flasks), c. 7th century BC

finally able to share a big project from the end of last year, just released this month - my gold foil hardcover designs for the @owlcrate edition of Laura R. Samotin's dark Jewish fantasy The Sins on Their Bones

this was done entirely in Illustrator & i'm absolutely thrilled with how it came out in print! of course i'm only sharing my own contribution to the book here, but many other incredible artists worked on this special release - the (double-sided) dustjacket & interior art are fantastic so make sure to check them out too.

stay tuned for the other collaborations that grew out of this one - i've got a dustjacket cover coming out for OwlCrate's June adult fantasy box & am doing some secret work with Laura related to another upcoming book!

hear me out

Recently, while staring far too long at a potato chip, it occurred to me that the ridges could possibly be used to create a lenticular effect. So I got out some chip dip (and the smallest paint brush I have) to test it out. I started with a simple 2-frame illustration of a football and a basketball, then I painted a little sour cream and onion dip bird. 🥔🕊️ - via my new @brockdavisart instagram

ants were farming other animals long before humans figured it out! here is a Cautolasius herdswoman with her livestock

many subterranean Lasius species cultivate flocks of plump root aphids, guarding them against predators and moving them to safe locations and fresh pastures. they “milk” the aphids for honeydew, a sugary waste product of the aphids’ digestion. I’ve read the ants will only kill and eat their livestock in times of famine.

when I flipped their rock, this ant grabbed the nearest aphid and ran it to safety. she’s another species of Lasius, this one in the subgenus Chthonolasius; I can’t tell if her colony’s aphids are different from the Cautolasius’ though.

Frog-legged Beetle (Sagra buqueti), family Chrysomelidae, SE Asia

photograph by @tania0378

SHREWBLIN REAL

Sailor's Slops

1600s-1700s

The Museum of London (ID: 53.101/1b)

I'm always seeing this sentiment of "I have got to make my art weirder" or people begging for weirder art but here's the thing, Weird is not a brand. You cannot rack your brains trying to figure out the "Weird" formula. You don't get weird art by artificially forcing whatever you think is "weird." You get weird art (and I think "weird" is sometimes people groping for a way of saying non-corporatized) by figuring out what you like, deep down, even (especially) if you think it's embarrassing and wallowing in it like a pig

Draw your characters/otp

How could I not

data needs some personal matinence sometimes. or something

Brother Gregor never spoke and often spooked the neophytes with his appearance, but he was a gentle soul and a phenomenal cook and knew more ways to prepare a fish than the abbot knew hymns