For the Fun of It - some links instead of endlessly scrolling
a round up of inspiration
A short little list for this week, as I’m between trips this weekend!
Kottke is a long-running (26 years!) blog with tons of articles about art, life, and humanity. It’s a curated alternative to scrolling Twitter hoping to learn something.
Another favorite blog/newsletter is The Marginalian, a beautiful weekly selection of literature and poems and art. Something good to read instead of opening up reddit and clicking on random links.
If you want to get into painting, or even if you don’t but you just want to learn about watercolors and their properties, Handprint is a feast of technical info and history. A good thing to browse instead of scrolling your instagram discover page.
Last year, I got into the habit of doing a penmanship sheet every day. It’s a nice, meditative exercise. Loops and Tails is a great free resource!
If you’re looking for a plein air exercise that once again means you don’t have to leave your home, check out Mapcrunch! It drops you somewhere in the world, and you can look around.
If you want an even more gamefied version, check out the ever popular Geoguessr.
I love
‘s “At the Kid Table”, a kid lit resource of art, interviews and deep dives. Worth a subscribe if you’re a book person, or not!
Earlier this week, I got this ship notification for a Kickstarter I funded a couple months back. I wanted to support Open Press Project, and get one of their eensy-teensy xs versions of their press. This org is amazing- offering free 3D printing files and resources to build your own press.
As I’ve been exploring prints and ways of printing, it’s nice to know you don’t have to buy a huge metal press to enjoy printing experiments in your own home. It’s a nice accompaniment to my pasta machine press (an article for another week).
ok love u bye.
Oh wow, thank you Ashlyn! This made my whole week -- how kind of you to feature my newsletter. It means a lot, especially because I'm a huge fan of your work. Your character expressions get me every time (like hedgehog's unibrow? OMG). Anyway, I'm enjoying your newsletter and really hope you make the church camp story into a graphic novel.
I love the Marginallian, I spend alot of time there. I'm so glad that some of the OG blogs from back in my college years are still alive and kicking. I miss Drawn.ca!