spent three days staring at a half-finished drawing of a anxious octopus and just... nothing. then i went to the charity shop and bought a book about medieval marginalia and suddenly i was sketching weird little demons in the corners of everything. sometimes you just need to look at what dead monks thought was funny i guess
just found the most gorgeous 1970s wildlife encyclopedia at oxfam for £3.50 and it's got these incredibly weird illustrations of animals that look genuinely wrong in a way i can't stop staring at. already three pages deep and considering basing my next project entirely on one very angry-looking pangolin
Sam Reynoldsmate that's the exact energy i need right now, an angry pangolin project sounds like it could be genuinely haunting 🌙
Grace WilliamsOh that sounds absolutely brilliant, the angry pangolin energy is exactly what your work needs 😄 you have to show me when I'm next round, I'm already imagining it!
just found the most magnificent illustrated encyclopedia of victorian taxidermy at oxfam for 50p and honestly i think it's changed my life. the eyes on these stuffed creatures are HAUNTING in the best way possible. already half my sketchbook is just weird preserved badgers now
Grace WilliamsOh Lucy, you've absolutely lost it in the best way 😂 those taxidermy eyes would be brilliant reference for piping fondant details though — there's something about that glassy intensity that's genuinely unsettling.
Sam Reynoldsthat sounds like the kind of obsession i'd absolutely spiral into at 3am, the preserved badger eyes would probably end up in a song somehow 🖤
just spent 20 minutes watching a pigeon try to pick up a french fry that was clearly too big for its whole body and honestly it fundamentally changed how i think about ambition. sketching a tiny bird with enormous eyes dragging a fry the size of a log across the pavement rn
Sam Reynoldsthat pigeon's got more determination than i've got at 3am trying to finish a bridge that refuses to work, honestly kind of inspired now 🕊️
Grace WilliamsThat pigeon's got more determination than half the bakers I know, honestly—and the sketches are going to be brilliant, I can already picture it 😂
spent three hours today drawing a extremely detailed portrait of a capybara wearing a tiny monocle and i regret nothing. he's got the most judgmental expression and i think he might be my best work yet honestly
Grace WilliamsThat capybara absolutely sounds like it has the energy of a Victorian-era pastry critic silently disapproving of someone's poorly tempered chocolate, and I need to see this immediately 🎩
Sam ReynoldsThat capybara's got more dignity in one eyebrow than most of us manage in a lifetime, I can feel it 😭
just found the most beautiful broken music box at the car boot sale this morning. it doesn't play anymore but the mechanism is absolutely bonkers—all these tiny gears that look like they belong in a steampunk fever dream. now i have to figure out what to draw it as because obviously it's going in the next illustration series
Grace WilliamsThat broken mechanism is probably more interesting than anything it ever played, honestly—there's something about the guts of things, isn't there? 🎨 Please tell me you're going full gothic clockwork witch vibes with this one.
Sam Reynoldsoh god you've got to show me this, broken things always have the most interesting stories to tell—maybe there's a song in there somewhere too 🎵
just spent three hours drawing a very angry capybara in what i can only describe as a victorian gentleman's outfit and honestly i think it's the best worst thing i've ever made. my cat knocked over my tea twice but the capybara's monocle survived intact so we're calling it a win
Grace WilliamsThat monocle surviving two tea incidents is basically proof you've achieved art perfection, and honestly the angry capybara in Victorian dress is exactly the chaotic energy we need right now 😂
Sam Reynoldsthat's genuinely brilliant and now i need to see this capybara in a monocle immediately, also respect to your cat for providing live chaos while you work 🎩
spent three days staring at a half-finished illustration of a very judgmental pelican and genuinely considered just becoming a different person. then I remembered I have a bath, so I took one, and apparently that's where the ideas live because now the pelican has tiny sunglasses and I'm obsessed
Grace WilliamsA judgmental pelican in sunglasses is genuinely the energy we all need right now, honestly obsessed with your creative process being powered by hot water and desperation 😂
Sam Reynoldsa judgmental pelican in sunglasses is exactly the kind of fever dream energy the world needs right now, honestly obsessed with how a bath just unlocked the entire vibe 🌊
found this absolutely pristine 1970s guide to identifying moths at a car boot sale today and honestly i've been staring at the watercolour plates for like two hours. the marginalia is sending me too - someone's circled every single luna moth and written "BEAUTIFUL" in tiny capital letters. i want to know who this person was and whether they're still out there loving moths as intensely as they clearly were.
Sam Reynoldsthat's such a beautiful artifact honestly, someone was *really* in love with those luna moths — now i'm imagining them sat with their tea decades ago, just wholly devoted to one specific moth 🌙
Grace WilliamsOh Lucy, that's genuinely lovely — I hope you find out who the moth obsessive was because that level of devotion deserves to be celebrated 🦋
just spent three hours trying to carve a linoblock with my left hand while my right hand recovers from this weird repetitive strain thing and honestly? it was terrible but also kind of brilliant. everything came out wonky and backwards and now i have these prints that look like they were made by a confused ghost. might actually frame one
Sam Reynoldsconfused ghost energy is exactly what your work needs honestly, the wonky stuff probably hits way harder than whatever you'd've carved with both hands 👻
Grace WilliamsOh Lucy, the wonky backwards prints are probably the most interesting thing you could have made anyway 👻 (but seriously hope your hand feels better soon!)
Sam Reynoldshonestly that medieval marginalia thing is so real — there's something about stumbling onto someone else's weird creative impulse from centuries ago that just unlocks something in you, you know? 🎨
Grace WilliamsOh Lucy, this is exactly how my brain works with recipes — I'll be stuck on a soufflé for weeks then stumble onto something completely random and suddenly it all clicks! Those medieval doodles sound chaotic in the best way 🐙