u/disqersive

I love working with charcoal. Does anyone here who uses charcoal in your sketchbook (I use one with mixed media paper) have a way of not getting it everywhere?

Right now I’m using pieces of paper between the charcoal page and the next page but I imagine there must be some treatment or sealant I can use? Something that isn’t too harsh would be preferable.

photo of one of my charcoal sketchbook pages and the Ashokan reservoir handout I use to protect it 🤪

I miss her and love seeing a random snapshot of her sense of humor.

I’ve had other folks with long Covid say they had major skin changes too. I’m 38 and I know they say the 30’s can be a huge shift but the quality of my skin changed seemingly overnight, not so much wrinkles and things. it’s like I lost a ton of plumpness/collagen/elasticity really fast!

I’ve always been a bit of a baby face and been told I had gorgeous skin; very soft and no real issues with acne.

Whats less obvious to most people is the issues with eczema, dryness and hives that plague me during the winter and randomly.

And since my long Covid started, I’ve had these skin changes (gauntness under eyes, loose crepey skin) alongside much more sensitive and allergy prone skin.

I‘ve started a basic routine finally, which works well enough.

-cold water/vitamin c moisturizer/sunscreen in the am

-la roche posay gentle foaming oil cleanser/ vanicream at night. thinking of adding Squalane.

Anything you think to add?

I’m trying to drink a shit ton more water too!

I’m wondering if other folks here have experienced a similar collagen shift with their long Covid or autoimmune disease (I have a probable scleroderma/myositis overlap thing going on). I’m also being assessed for Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome so it’s possible my connective tissue is going through a shitty time.

I forgot to add! I’m on hydroxychloroquin, which has made me UV sensitive and given me some slight hyperpigmentation.

and a bonus shot of how it started.

I haven’t glued most of it down yet. I’m contemplating removing the stone henge guardian at the bottom left of the blue stairs. I’m open to feedback about balance.

gotta let her sit out for awhile before baking

I’m being commissioned to do a series of collage pieces by my sister. She has this great sense of theme in her requests so it’s been a pleasure to rip through my books and find my way to the idea.

I’ve started doing quick sketch collages on my work table as a way of building/moving/dismantling these ideas. How do you work with all the pieces in this beginning phase? I’m curious how everyone dances towards their final composition. As I practice collage more steadily, I’m finding an intuitional style and the pieces story unfolding once I have a bunch of material on the drawing board, so to speak. All of it is making me very inspired and ecstatic; assemblage is my favorite form.

I’m dealing with a debilitating chronic illness so I can’t walk far. Not as far as I wish. Thank God, the world is so detailed and there is much to look at, so much to take in on one small block. This song makes it all feel ecstatic.

Other times I put it on: when my cat wakes me up in the early morning, and I want to wind back down to sleep.

In the late evening between 7 and 9 PM when the sun is sitting behind the locust tree across the street and I get bright dappled light on my porch. I’ll sit in whatever rocking chair has the most warmth and watch people at the four-way intersection (will they stop at the stop sign? most just go for a slow roll).

i played birdman for the first time the other night and didn’t know what I was doing and thought I was taking selfies with the photo option and then it was just photos of my point of view of the strange empty land below.

just wandering around looking for my rheumatologist…