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This blog post leans in to the True Neutral, battling-for-rank nature of Druids in 1e D&D and the possibility of Druids as major antagonists or villains rather than Radaghast figures.  Its take is one take!

https://goblinpunch.blogspot.com/2014/09/7-myths-everyone-believes-about-druids.html
https://www.xenograg.com/1158/role-playing/jealous-hoarding-of-magic-spells

Over on the fediverse @cassey@urbanists.social asked:

Anyone have resource recommendations for designing better printed/physical #zines? I am familiar with 101 level stuff about zines and have made some before, but want to get better at making something that looks nice- really general design principles. Less "how to use [software] to make zines" and more "how to decide what to do with [software] to make zines"

That seemed like an Exilian kind of question?

Oh yeah, that sounds familiar!  I had a memory that some cartoonists hung out there along with the photographers and the digital painters.

I think the people with sexy comics have a service called slipshine.  David M. Willis of Dumbing of Age sometimes links there.

Is DeviantArt still a thing?

Freefall http://freefall.purrsia.com/ and The Whiteboard http://www.the-whiteboard.com/index.html do not have the traditional half dozen links to other webcomics

Remember the classic animated Tintin from the 1990s?

Another friend finds that egg yolk dries very fast in the last hot dry environment he painted in (Arizona).  And because its made of the same things as the hair or celulose brushes, once it dries it can't be gotten out. 

So something with a slower drying time would have advantages in Egypt.

It might just be a just-so story! 

Gum arabic is pretty easy to collect, it drips off bushes growing in the desert when their bark is damaged.  You do have to find the trees which live in rough conditions (and learn how much to damage them for optimal gum production without killing them or stunting them). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Gum_Arabic_exuding.jpg

To make hide glue you just cook down bits of skin, fish bladder, and connective tissue into a jelly.  So you need a fire and water and a pot.

I have heard that beehives with replaceable battens are recent, and that getting the honey or wax out of traditional basketry or coiled rope hives does a lot of damage to the nest.

Vi Corva is looking for people who can't afford to sign up to enter a draw for free copies at https://scholar.social/@vicorva@mastodon.art/110140809636655046 (closing 1 am 6 April)

I geeked out with someone locally who has done some tempera painting.  She agrees that the binder does not matter too much once you have two or three options that work well on different surfaces.

Painting with egg white or yolk binder is characteristic of the middle ages, but ancient painters seem to have preferred gum arabic, hide glue, and wax.  One friend wondered if that is because eggs are good to eat, so painting with egg requires a certain margin between standard of living and survival. 

Sandra Tayler of the Tayler family of webcartoonists is teaching two online classes in May.

Running a Successful Crowdfunded Project on Wednesday May 17, 6-8pm MDT.

Whether your planned project is small or dramatic in scope, you can plan for it and set it up in ways that, yes optimize for bringing in the funds you need, but also help you build a good working relationship with your backers, create a sustainable workflow for fulfillment, and establish a long-term strategy for creative success. Join Sandra Tayler for 90 minutes of lecture and 30 minutes of group discussion on the stages of running a crowdfunded project, best practices for each stage and ways you can set yourself up for physical, emotional, and creative sustainability with the project you have planned. Succeeding at crowdfunding is not just measured in dollars.

Building Creative Community on Wednesday May 31, 6-8pm MDT

Creative people who have communities thrive better, but how do you go about finding or building one? Whether you want to form a knitting circle at your local cafe, a writer's group in your home, or an online interdisciplinary Discord community, there are some principles and practices that will help your community to thrive. Come learn how you can set up a brand new community, join one that exists, rescue one that is faltering, or even repair one that has been broken. This class will have an emphasis on small-scale community building for creative people who want support with their own work and to support the work of others.

Webcomic Lackadaisy released a one-episode animated version https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rtnQ5cIHGHE (have you noticed that webcomics often don't have links to other comics on other sites any more?)

If I get some areas of my life under control (like a job that pays a living wage, or a love life, or a social life) I might have energy to learn some forum-software-management skills.

After three geeky communities that I thought might have space for me went in directions I could not follow, I have some wounds around putting work and heart into communities.  After what happened to the Internet after smartphones, I have very deep wounds around putting work and heart into online communities!

A BC Liberal MLA expelled from caucus for being a climate-change denier is now head of the very small Conservative Party of British Columbia

Rustad, who says he's pro-freedom, pro-trucker and is fighting to end vaccine mandates, says he expects the Conservatives under his leadership to challenge the NDP and Liberals.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/john-rustad-leader-bc-conservative-party-1.6797879

And the Public Health Officer has switched from encouraging infection control measures to telling that this spring should be a time of renewal and hope and that "People need to get back to doing those things that are important to us and being with others."  That is a choice I guess.

Ontario cryptocurrency swindler Aiden Pleterski was allegedly kidnapped and beaten by people who wanted some of the money he had collected https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/crypto-king-pleterski-kidnapped-1.6790615

Bump

Right now I follow two or three corporate social media services and some forums, cross-post to one and a Fediverse service, and I am re-thinking how I engage with the Net and with social media  to avoid putting in too much time and energy.

Tempera painting involves a lot of mixing colours (especially lightening and darkening colours with white or black) but many pigments before industrial chemistry are reactive.  Sometimes that means that specific combinations don't mix well, other times that they are not lightfast (eg. indigo / woad, brazilwood / sappanwoood) or airfast.  Many of those are the toxic pigments like orpiment (As₂S₃), lead white (2PbCO₃·Pb(OH)₂), and verdigris which I am not using (I may try verdigris-and-saffron ink).

Because aqueous media dry quickly, there was usually an emphasis on flat colours or layering highlights and shadows over a base colour (whereas industrial oil paints or watercolours lend themselves to blending colours while they are still wet).

Talk with some photos and sources here

Not a lot of words in me, this post took two hours

How big are the tensions inside the Labour party between Corbyn's kind of old-school, socialist-tinged leftism and the beige party-of-vaguely-reformist-power?  And how does Keir Starmer's version of that compare to Tony Blair's? 

Have they given any more hints of what they would do if they get a strong majority government at the next election?