Paralysis: A Horror Poem (and more)

I have a painting to share! I've been in a drawing phase recently, with little time to paint, but I did complete one a little while ago that I was unable to share - but now can!

At the end I also have a couple little bonus updates.

Horror Poem Art

Amanda Ruzsa is a horror author and poet, who will be releasing IT’S DARK IN HERE: a collection of horror poetry and art. I contributed a painting for a horror poem called Paralysis.

It releases on 31 July but if you want to read before then you might be able to be an ARC reader!

When I first read Paralysis, I felt a sense of loss. Then I felt what the title relates to – being stuck and not progressing. I imagined a loved one not understanding that I’m trying so hard, even if on the outside it looks like nothing is happening. I also felt like this poem was floaty, so the first visual piece I had was my arms floating into the air – the “reaching for the sky” being lethargic.  

You can pre-order the book on her website or on Amazon.

What you can't see in the painting (and won't see in the book), is the under-layers. I actually wrote the poem under there. To be honest, I wasn't intending to FULLY cover it as much as I did but it's kind of cool that it's hidden.

You can check out Amanda's instagram here.

JuneBug

I did another daily drawing challenge! This was a quicker and easier one for me, as I just had to draw the bugs (wasn't pushing myself to think of concepts or anything). It was fun! I definitely want to add some of these bugs to paintings now.

Goober, who created it, was incredibly supportive and engaged with the artists, and you can check their instagram here.

Sweet As Hot Chocolate

As someone who doesn't drink tea or coffee, and thinks Wellington On A Plate is a bit expensive, a Hot Chocolate challenge is right up my alley. This has nothing to do with horror or my art, but I thought I'd shout out the ones I got to try:

• Muffin Break, Hot Chocolate Eclair - Was a nice hot chocolate, very sweet (the type of sweet I'm sure others would say was too sweet). The eclair on the side was very nice.

• Neko Ngeru, Sesame - Did exactly what it said it would. It tasted like a hot chocolate, and tasted strongly of sesame. I liked it, but I wouldn't count it as a favourite flavour for me. I give major points though for having an interesting and different flavour that I can actually taste.

• Fix Federation, Salted Caramel - My favourite so far. As much as I like going out and tasting the weird flavours, my favourite ones are still things like caramel or gingerbread. The drink was good, the cookie was good, it was a good hot chocolate.

• Buzz, Mellow Yellow - This was a pineapple marshmellow one and I love the weird flavours so I was most excited for this. I did really like it, however, it mostly tasted of marshmellow, barely any pineapple flavour, so that was disappointing.

• The Crooked Elm, Salted - They weren't very prepared to do a takeaway version of this, so I don't feel like I got the full experience (e.g. they salt the rim of the glass when you dine-in, but had to just sprinkle a bit of salt to take away). I think I had literally one bit of salt - that one sip was nice but I didn't get to experience the rest. They give you a chocolate to drop in and I ended up with a white chocolate one while my fiance had a hazelnut one. The chocolate does a lot of heavy lifting for sweetness and flavour, which feels like cheating a bit. In saying that, the drink was very nice and is probably my second favourite (in terms of nice-ness, if I were going to rank them I'd still give more points to weirder flavours).

There were some others I REALLY wanted to try (Gingerbread?! Peppermint?! Snickers?!) but just didn't get the opportunity to. If you have recommendations for flavoured hot chocolates, I'd love to hear them!