don pizarro – Carrie Cuinn

Weeknotes 2.1 (February 2020)

Posted on March 4, 2020March 25, 2020 by Carrie Cuinn

Anatomy studies after Bridgman, Feb 16, 2020

In February I started anatomy practice, shoring up the part of illustration I think I’m the worst at: drawing people. I’m doing studies from a couple of different books (first up, George B. Bridgman’s Constructive Anatomy) and then practicing my line work by finishing my sketches in ink pen (mostly Pigma Microns). This is my favorite page of bones I’ve drawn so far.

February was an entire month, huh? A for real, at least 4 weeks long month? For me, it was mostly a blur of being asleep, coughing myself awake, and trying to get back to sleep again. I caught the flu some time around the start of the second week and here I am three+ weeks later, mostly better but still can’t shake this deep-in-my-chest cough. Doc says I’m not contagious, and my son – who also got sick but recovered quicker – is back to school, so I’m doing my best to get back to work. Part of that is this: regular blog updates. This one covers a whole month, but don’t worry. Like a February you mostly slept through, it’s shorter than you expect.

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Recipe: Don’s Egg Cups

Posted on January 24, 2020January 24, 2020 by Carrie Cuinn

You’ve all heard breakfast is probably the most important meal of the day, but knowing that doesn’t mean you have the time or energy to make yourself a hot delicious breakfast every single day. (I mean, honestly. That’s a lot of days.) Don used to cook a breakfast casserole on the weekend that he’d portion out for his work week, but it was only okay. He didn’t love it, didn’t make it that often. But he wanted to!

Also there’s a Law & Order reference in here, which we’ll get to in a minute.

At his request, I took over the casserole cooking and made a few changes. Don used to put frozen hashbrowns directly into the dish before cooking; I add them to the saute stage so they’re heated up and absorbing flavors earlier on. He cooked this in a 9″x13″ pan; I use a 6-cup jumbo muffin pan. (That way every portion has the yummy crispy edges.) I changed it from mild cheddar to sharp, added peppers and onions. Now he loves it, and I make it almost every week.

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Weeknotes 1.3 (Jan 22, 2020)

Posted on January 22, 2020March 22, 2020 by Carrie Cuinn

Without any warning or reason, my insomnia faded away. I’ve been sleeping at least 7 hours a night, all at once instead of broken up into separate naps, for the last week. By itself that’s wonderful and I’m glad. But I’m also dreaming a lot more — not just more than I did when I wasn’t sleeping, but more than I usually do when I sleep okay — as if my brain is trying to shove in an extra two months worth of dreams on top of my usual slate, to make up for what I missed. Maybe this will recharge my brain, get my creative writing back on track? Or maybe it’s only pretty pretty lights playing merry hob with my brain, and in a few weeks it’ll fade away.

When I’ve gotten some sleep, I can decide to draw something specific, and then actually do it. Amazing!

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Weeknotes 1.1 (Jan 8, 2020)

Posted on January 8, 2020March 22, 2020 by Carrie Cuinn

The idea is to do a quick update, once a week, about the week that came before. The idea isn’t mine; it’s been a thing for more than a decade. I’m not even the only person I know to do it: Don started something similar last year and I’ve seen it help him get back into regular blog updates, something I need to do for myself.

I got into the habit of using social media, particularly Twitter and IG because while they both suck for passively allowing Nazis, incels, and President Tr*mp to say whatever to whoever, Facebook can outright go fuck itself for actively adding to the world’s problems. In the process, for reasons I’ll get into another time, I mostly stopped using my personal website. But this space, in as much as anything digital can be owned, is definitely mine, while Twitter and IG and Fuck-Facebook and all the rest are, depending on the day, very likely not mine at all.

I mean, I’ll still use them in a limited way to keep in touch with people I care about. I’m not a monster.

But this is meant to take some of what’s been in my head for the last week and put it into words that you, people reading this post for your own reasons (hey, I don’t judge – you do you) can put into your own heads.

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