art - Bagaag

Drawing the Sable cover

matt — Fri, 24 Oct 2025 22:23:39 +0000

Thinking about drawing, I realized that I was trying something once and then moving on. With music, there is a lot of repetition and practice of the same piece. So why not the same for drawing?

I made six attempts at the Sable cover, after trying it once a few days ago. I started small and focused on positioning the various elements within the space. Then larger versions to get a bit more detail and add some color. I’m not sure this type of repetition is quite as enjoyable as it is in music, at least for me, but it did seem helpful. I like the second to last one best (smaller with color).

This was the first attempt from a couple days ago.

And this was the source material.

88x31 button in Aseprite

matt — Thu, 16 Oct 2025 03:21:33 +0000

I discovered Aseprite back in June but haven’t played with it much since then. I finally spent another evening with it and produced this tacky 88x31 button. This is such a fun app to use, and a steal for $20.

It’s a pixel editor, so you’re working very much zoomed in. The image this exported is tiny by comparison. I’ve got the UI zoomed in too because my eyes stink. You create frames to animate and can use layers for keeping elements separate. It’s got all the basic paint tools you’d expect, and goes pretty deep on features in some areas.

88x31 buttons were popular back in the days of Geocities.

Here is the .asperite file, and below is the final product rendered to GIF. You can see in the screen shot above, there’s a faded sunburst that throbs in and out with the animation, but its so small you can’t really see it.

I’d like to try some art with it next. Maybe reproduce some album cover art in pixel form…

Zentangle Oct 2025

matt — Mon, 13 Oct 2025 13:38:02 +0000

Trying to get back into drawing, so I decided to fill this page with 9 zentangles. I used a Pilot Precise V5 RT pen for this, which is great for writing but isn’t the best for drawing. I enjoyed it, though. I’m going to try some album covers next.

PEM

matt — Sun, 14 Sep 2025 01:49:11 +0000

Went to the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem with a friend today to see an exhibit titled Making History: 200 Years of American Art from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. It was a really interesting hodgepodge of American art. Here are some of my favorites.

William Trost Richards — February (1887)

Cecilia Beaux — A Little Girl (1887)

Barkley L. Hendricks — J. S. B. III (1968)

Charles Courtney Curran — A Breezy Day (1887)

While we were there, we checked out the Andre Gn exhibit. I don’t know much about fashion, but I really enjoyed it.

Andrew Gn — Fall 2012 Ready-to-Wear collection

Andrew Gn — Dress (2021)

Andrew Gn — Cherry Blossoms

This room had a single installation.

Anila Quayyum Agha — All the Flowers Are for Me (2015)

And this is a self portrait from the Gateway Bombay exhibition.

Atul Dodiya — The Bombay Buccaneer (1994)

matt — Sat, 28 Jun 2025 04:00:47 +0000

I was cruising around this lovely personal website — another pixel artist — and was curious what tool she uses to create her art. It’s https://www.piskelapp.com/ — a fun and free web-based alternative to Aseprite that can save files in browser storage.