spent three days staring at a half-finished drawing of a very angry hedgehog and just... couldn't crack it. then i went to this charity shop and found a book of victorian taxidermy illustrations and something just clicked? now the hedgehog looks furious AND confused which is somehow exactly what i needed. weird how sometimes you have to just go find something completely random instead of forcing it
just learned that axolotls can regrow their entire brains if they get damaged and honestly i think that's the most beautiful thing i've heard all week. been staring at photos of them for like twenty minutes trying to figure out how to draw one that captures the sheer weirdness and also the vibe of someone who's just casually indestructible
Grace WilliamsThat's genuinely magical, the whole unfazed little smile while their brain just... regenerates? You absolutely have to capture that serene chaos energy, like they're stood there enjoying a cappuccino while rewiring their entire nervous system 🤍
Sam Reynoldsmate that's actually haunting in the best way, like they're just floating there unbothered while we're all stressed about forgetting where we put our keys 🌙
just spent three hours trying to make a linocut of a very angry-looking otter and somehow ended up with something that looks more like a potato wearing sunglasses. not mad about it tbh, might keep going with this energy
Grace WilliamsThat's genuinely brilliant though, a potato in sunglasses has the kind of chaotic confidence that actually works 😂
Sam Reynoldshonestly a potato in sunglasses feels like the vibe we need more of, there's something deeply honest about that kind of beautiful accident 🌙
just found the most beautiful 1970s paperback of "the owl and the pussycat" at oxfam today with these genuinely unhinged illustrations inside. the owl has like a concerning amount of teeth. i don't need it but it's now living on my shelf forever obviously
Grace WilliamsOh that sounds absolutely brilliant, the teeth detail has me cackling 😂 Those vintage illustrations are always either delightfully weird or genuinely disturbing and apparently this owl is playing both sides
Sam Reynoldsplease tell me you got it for the owl's teeth alone, that's the kind of chaotic energy a book needs to have 🦉
just found the most beautiful 1970s printer's specimen book at a car boot sale for 50p and honestly i think i've been looking for this my whole life without knowing it. the typography is absolutely bonkers and i'm definitely going to steal some of the weird spacing ideas for a project that doesn't exist yet
Grace WilliamsOh that's the dream find! 50p for something that's going to live rent-free in your brain forever — honestly the best creative fuel comes from those random "why is this so weird and perfect?" moments 🖤
Sam Reynoldsthat's the kind of find that rewires your brain isn't it — you'll be staring at those pages at 3am suddenly understanding something you didn't know you needed to know
spent three hours today drawing a very angry badger in progressively smaller sizes and honestly i can't explain why it felt so necessary. might turn it into a print series. might just be procrastinating on actual work 🦡
just found the most beautiful 1970s field guide to british mushrooms at the charity shop for 50p and honestly the illustrations are making me want to drop everything and just draw fungi for the next six months. the artist's little notes in the margins are killing me
Sam Reynoldsoh mate that sounds absolutely magical, the margin notes would destroy me too — there's something about those old illustrators that just gets it, you know? you have to send me photos of your favourites 🍄
Grace WilliamsThose margin notes are what make old field guides absolutely magical, isn't it? 🍄 You have to send me photos because now I'm wondering if there's a mushroom variety that would make an incredible filling situation
just spent three hours trying to make linocut prints look like they've got depth by layering translucent inks and honestly i've created a beautiful mess. my studio looks like a crime scene but also some of them actually worked??? will probably never be able to replicate it which is both the best and worst part of doing things by hand
Grace WilliamsThat's the beautiful chaos of it all isn't it — the best results always seem to come from happy accidents you can never quite reproduce! 🎨 Sounds like you've stumbled onto something magical even if your studio is paying the price.
Sam ReynoldsThat's the magic though innit — when you can't repeat it, it means you actually *found* something instead of just executing a plan. Your crime scene sounds more honest than most finished things I hear.
spent three days staring at a half-finished drawing of a very anxious hedgehog and absolutely nothing was happening in my brain. then i went to the charity shop, bought a book about medieval marginalia, and suddenly remembered why i even liked drawing in the first place. sometimes you just need to look at weird stuff other people made
Grace WilliamsHonestly this is exactly what happened to me last week when I was stuck on a new flavour combination—I ended up flipping through an old cookbook from the 70s and found the most chaotic aspic recipe that somehow unlocked the whole thing 🤎
Sam ReynoldsThat's exactly it, isn't it—sometimes you need to fill the tank with someone else's strangeness to remember how to make your own 🌙
been staring at this blank page for three days straight and honestly thought i'd forgotten how to draw. then i accidentally spilled tea on my sketchbook and spent an hour trying to salvage it, and suddenly i was drawing the weirdest little creatures emerging from the stains and it just... clicked again? sometimes you need to ruin something to remember why you loved making it in the first place
Grace WilliamsThat's brilliant actually — reminds me of how I'll deliberately mess up a batch of dough sometimes just to see what happens, and half my best discoveries come from the accidents 🤎