Today, August 4, 2026, is the actual date of the setting of Ray Bradbury’s short story “There Will Come Soft Rains.” Take a read. It’s only 5 pages long and very haunting: www.btboces.org/Downloads/7_...
btboces.org
Heather Franzen
@heatherfranzen.bsky.social
Artist drawing/painting critters 🦉 ✻ Acryla Gouache ✻ Oil ✻ Ink See my art only: #art (tap and hold on mobile) I also like books, anime, tea, personal websites, zines Blog+Shop: heatherfranzen.com Funsite: yogomagpie.neocities.org
I haven’t updated anything in a while because I’m deep into remaking my website. I’ve grown to dislike squarespace’s limited customizability. I’ve learned coding through my neocities site, and not being able to implement the Cool Stuff into my SS site is so frustrating.
Thought of another fun exercise everyone can try: turn Bouba and Kiki (of the Bouba/Kiki Effect) into characters that fit your own tastes and interests
Most music of the last 20 years is just trying to chase the high of the Katamari Damacy soundtrack
Free to download, and printable on standard Avery 5164 shipping label stickers. Enjoy!
My passenger pigeon painting, “Only Forever,” painted for this year’s Midwestern Invitational exhibition at the @rourkearts.bsky.social in Moorhead, MN. #sciart #birdart 🪶 #acrylagouache
Here is an animal reference resource available specifically to artists.
Animal Photo Reference Repository@animalphotorefs.bsky.social · 2y agoGenAI has polluted image search results, especially for animal pics. It’s now basically impossible to find accurate art references. Enter this: a repository of open-access, AI-free images of wild & exotic taxa. Artists creating *without AI* have blanket permission for derivative/transformative use.
LRT i get very nervous when i see artists using pretty photos they find on the internet as reference, without confirming if the image is restricted/copyrighted or public domain. My philosophy is sure, sketch/study these incredible photos to learn, but don’t use it in your final work/share publicly.
Please be careful about using Joel’s photographs as reference. It is my understanding that his work is (rightfully) copyrighted and thus not free to use, copy, transform, etc. www.joelsartore.com/terms-and-co...
Terms and Conditions - Joel Sartore
Image & Video Use Guidelines The images and videos on this site are the result of thousands of hours of work, and are primarily self-funded. Unfortunately, we can’t make these images & videos availabl...
joelsartore.com
Ricardo Juchem@ricardojuchem.com · 12mo agoOn these days where image search results are dominated by AI, it is a joy to find a heaven with high-quality real-life photo references. Joel Sartore's Photo Ark is a project documenting 17000+ animal species, with more than 60000+ photos taken during 25 years. www.joelsartore.com/photo-ark/
THE TEAMS HAVE BEEN REVEALED!! Which one is your favourite; what will you choose this year? Something very special for our website's 10th anniversary! ✨❤️ #ThemeReveal2026
THREE teams⁉️ omg i really cant wait for art fight! #ThemeReveal2026
I finished Spiritfarer last night. LOVED the first half, felt VERY meh about all of the grinding and crafting in the second half. I lost a lot of interest in characters after a while, but the final 2-3 spirits got me all emotional again. Cried when the credits rolled. The game was a roller coaster.
Early this morning, we received an email from @namecheap.com that the domain neocities.org was being suspended because of a court order from New Delhi, India (a jurisdiction we don't operate in), which was for an unrelated court order about a sports streaming site on a different domain.
Breaking News: Marjane Satrapi, the Iranian-French author whose graphic novel series “Persepolis” illuminated the struggles of Iranians during the Islamic Revolution, died at 56.
Marjane Satrapi, Author of ‘Persepolis,’ Dies at 56
Her graphic novel series, published in English in 2003, followed an Iranian girl through the Islamic revolution and the Iran-Iraq War. The work helped millions relate to Iranians.
nyti.ms
Huge win today - RI state legislation to ban anticoagulant rodenticides passed today in the House! I'm heartened and am so honored to be part of this advocacy effort by illustrating this poster with Congress of the Birds congressofthebirds.org. Thank you everyone who fought hard to pass this bill <3
I have a new blog post about these sketchbooks I designed and made last month! They each feature a lino stamp of an animal that can be found in the Philippines: a purple heron, a visayan leopard cat, and a whale shark. www.heatherfranzen.com/blog/2026/6/... 🪶🐡
Coptic Stitch Sketchbooks — Heather Franzen
When I was invited to be a vendor at the Asian Night Market in Fargo, North Dakota , I thought I’d tap into what I learned in the Artists Book class I took in college to add sketchbooks to my lineup....
heatherfranzen.com
Animal Awareness Days for June and 2026! 🏳️🌈🦖😎 🌈Happy Pride Month! As always, Mark your calendars! Plan accordingly. 📑Google Sheets Link: tinyurl.com/52svzknm 📅Google Calendar Add on Link: tinyurl.com/bdzhycfn #AnimalCal
Making an animated series is arduous work, often times it’s a miserable experience but the one thing that makes it all worth it is knowing I’m making a crew of actual, talented humans suffer and sometimes die by screaming orders at them. Take that away and what’s even the point??
Re: LRT a few years ago I started doing bodyweight strength training after seeing an artist flex her guns and do a few push ups, and I too don’t get much back/shoulder/wrist pain anymore. You don’t need to buy anything at all to do strength training.
Here's some real advice for artists: I haven't had back pain, and had so much less shoulder pain since I started lifting weights. Start small!! As a(n afab) person who is over 35, I have less body pain than I did in my late 20s by a large margin.
ok i got a lot of replies to this on tumblr but this is the best one ^^
![halfhumanhalfasleep
[a photo of colorful handprints on a cave wall]
#put your hand on the wall
#nobody is going to the handprints going "look at the technical proficiency of this hand stencil technique"
#the awe isnt in some prowess but that it is there. there amongst the others.
#thousands of years and the message is clear: i am here i was here
#you just have to be here
#and maybe people will look and go wow they were there
#and just maybe someone will put their hand on the wall through time and space and know that they are not alone
#you dont have to have the prettiest hands
#or the brightest colors
#you just have to put your hand on the wall
#god im tearing up looking at this actually](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:heywqe33owbmlmdzhgs5qmnc/bafkreifqrcgxiguqah33esrmlgp4p6syh2ycbfqe5ahvjgav2bwzyjr2di)
Kall@highlandkall.bsky.social · 3mo agoas much as i get the sentiment behind "make more bad art" there's gotta be a better way of communicating "you don't have to be technically proficient or hold yourself to a specific standard of practice" that doesn't sound as backhanded lol
I just had a big brain moment realizing I could and should use glazing mediums with acryla gouache because, well, it’s acrylic paint
I’m thinking about learning 11ty to build my websites 👀 I’m really intrigued by being able to build a blog with it. Kinda feeling meh about how restrictive and boring squarespace is, even after wrestling my own custom css into it.