“It [The Lord of the Rings] is finished, if still partly unrevised, and is, I suppose, in a condition which a reader could read, if he did not wilt at the sight of it…now I look at it, the magnitude of the disaster is apparent to me. My work has escaped from my control, and I have produced a monster: an immensely long, complex, rather bitter, and very terrifying romance, quite unfit for children (if fit for anybody); and it is not really a sequel to The Hobbit, but to The Silmarillion.”

— J.R.R. Tolkien to Sir Stanley Unwin, 24 February 1950. Reprinted in The Fall of Gondolin
(via thebookwormunderground)

What writer hasn’t finished their first draft and thought, “the magnitude of the disaster is apparent to me”? 

For what it's worth, I watched Citizen Kane a few years ago, and I found it... interesting from a movie history perspective, but I really disliked the story as a whole. Was not for me! I haven't seen The Godfather, and although it has a different vibe, I suspect I'd feel similarly.

Anyway, I don't know about movie buffs, but I think it's cool to have your own opinions on things, very sexy to not police people's unique perspectives 🥰 art is not objective!

hahah yes, obvs I'm mostly joking, but the kernel of truth to that joke is: even if art is subjective and nothing is for everyone, I feel pressure to have a damn good reason not to like something if it's considered high art! Like, "shrug, wasn't for me," is not sufficient.

Idk, I also have this problem in my book club- if I like the thing that has largely mixed/negative opinions it's fun, I get to point out the good I see in the story that others missed! If I don't like the thing everyone else liked I don't know what I should say. Did I miss something, was I too stupid to get what others got out of this work? I have the polar opposite problem as those internet media critics who feel smart when they pick out all the flaws in something. Definitely something to work on, thank you for your encouragement!

Very good points. I definitely feel that too re the self-consciousness of not enjoying something others say is good. I’ve watched quite a few ‘artsy’ movies over the years (CK included) where I’ve just really not enjoyed it and felt like I was at odds or maybe missing something that the people who rave about it were able to find.

I often find myself stuck between the questions of 'am I just too dumb/basic/unobservant to get it’ versus 'is this an emperor’s new clothes situation where people all blindly agree that the thing is great because they’ve been told it’s great?’

With classics, I think sometimes there’s a bit of both involved, and that maybe we get a little bit caught up in how historically important it is versus whether it actually impresses by modern standards, or even if we would personally enjoy it without the wider cultural context. I haven’t really figured that part out yet, but my gut feeling is that it’s okay to not be one of the people moved by any particular piece of art, even if it puts you in the minority.

I watched a couple of movies recently that got me thinking about the same thing: Wayne’s World, and The Big Lebowski. I enjoyed both, but in different ways, and to different degrees. I found Wayne’s World less interesting, even though I 'got’ it more, and I liked The Big Lebowski more even though I didn’t really understand most of it. But both of them felt like things that weren’t made for me, and ultimately they mostly made me think of a movie (series) I actually really love that seems to share some of the same DNA, Bill & Ted. I guess I just have to accept that my tastes differ from a lot of what’s popular and agreed to be good.

For what it’s worth, I watched Citizen Kane a few years ago, and I found it… interesting from a movie history perspective, but I really disliked the story as a whole. Was not for me! I haven’t seen The Godfather, and although it has a different vibe, I suspect I’d feel similarly.

Anyway, I don’t know about movie buffs, but I think it’s cool to have your own opinions on things, very sexy to not police people’s unique perspectives 🥰 art is not objective!

Thanks for the rec! I watched it this afternoon and had a really good time with it. One of those movies I’ve heard about forever, and it turns out, yeah, it’s actually great.

There's nothing like grief and chaos to break a 24-month streak of having new art every month. Sigh.

2025 was not kind to me. I lost my dad in April and went through remodeling/mold remediation hell in August-October. The low quantity of my art output reflects that.

I cheated a little to make this review slightly less sparse. First, I included all my 2025 art, even if it was more than one image per month. Second, unlike previous years, I included two that are technically very old pieces that I redid in a paint program (the left one for February, and the one for April.) And, last but not least, I included the best piece of fanart I've ever gotten as the picture for July, because even though @thebirchwood drew it, they're my characters, and I grin like a loon every time I see it.

I did draw a handful of other pictures (just portraits, nothing major) in the second half of the year, but none of them have been colored or scanned, so they're not included.

Here's hoping 2026 is kinder to me and my muse.

I also grinned like a loon to see my silly fanart included here, and at the reminder it existed! I had such fun drawing it (first on paper, then figuring out Inkscape for the digital version).

Honoured to be part of your artistic catalogue, even by proxy, and most especially for the chance to make you smile during such a difficult year. Here’s to a better 2026 for us all.

Urbanization contributed to Deforestation.

#that may legitimately be the worst pun i've ever read with my own two eyes

I hate this joke and love it all at once.

Met Urbanisation at comic con and asked him to go “full Bones” for the picture. This is how he chose to embody Defirestation, for your art considerations.

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The horse thinks as it scratches an itch