A little less than a year after I took up the hobby of board gaming, I learned about Twilight Imperium and set my sights on it. Another year and a half later and I finally got to play it. Super fun! It took 7.5 hours.

I still need to base this, and in retrospect, while I should have aded some cammo striping for a bit of color, overall I’m happy with this. The color scheme is simple, but I think I executed it fairly well.

Painting faces is much harder than painting fruit. I can’t quite seem to get the contrast right.

Adding some complexity.

More gradient practice.

Did this after a few unsatisfying attempts at more complex subjects (birds). The goal was to practice painting gradients.

I had this thought after drinking a bit too much.

I like cigars. I like the smell. I like the flavor combination of cigar smoke and red wine. I like that they force me to be outside, sitting calmly, for two hours. I like the nicotine high. Smoking cigars feels like a rejection of the…

Two years ago, on my 40th birthday, I stood with Heather atop the ancient ruins of Machu Picchu in Peru, feeling as if I had reached a pinnacle not just geographically but also in life. Yet, as I mark my 42nd year, it strikes me…

This past weekend, Heather and I ventured to Piggott, Arkansas, to witness our second total solar eclipse. Although we were anxious about the potential for cloudy weather, as forecasts had predicted such conditions, the allure of the eclipse prompted us to take the chance. The…