Update: Life and Books (June 2023) + Vampire Art

 
 

Making art for Mermay got me back into an art mood, so I set to work on one of the numerous started-and-paused drawings I have. I struggled with it a lot and am not entirely happy with how the drawing came out, but I do like the coloring. It had been a long time since I’d done a portrait with semi-realistic coloring (as in, not cel shading or watercolor splotches). Anyway, it’s Jacobin and Levine! At least a couple of you must remember my Sims 3 supernatural characters. And if you have no idea what I’m talking about, that’s ok, it’s just sexy vampire art.

Digital art of a pale dark-haired vampire biting a tan blond man on the neck. The blond man's teeth are bared and eyes are scrunched in pain/pleasure, his hand is around the vampire's neck pulling him closer. The vampire has one hand around the man's neck, the other hand resting on his chest.

Then one night I felt like doing something fun and easy, so I traced an old Halloween selfie, which let me quickly get the basic face shape and placement of things for the angle (and quite frankly I did not want to figure out teeth again after the last art), and then I changed things and added things and turned it into this! I like it, messiness aside.

Messy digital art of a vampire with brown skin, freckles, fully black eyes with wicked little twinkles in them, long pink hair, pink brows, and a neat pink mustache and beard. His mouth is open, showing his fangs. Someone reaches from off screen, using their thumb to pull down the vampire's lower lip, other fingers under his chin.

I watched another really great movie on Netflix, called The Boys in the Band. It’s about a group of gay men in, I think, the 60s getting together for a birthday party, but it’s better than that description sounds lol. I honestly wasn’t expecting it to be as good as it was. But I was so into it, on the edge of my seat with tension wanting to know how all their drama would play out.

I watched Jury Duty S1 on Amazon, free with ads. It was hilarious! I laughed out loud so much. Everyone is actors except this one guy who doesn’t know everyone is actors. He thinks he’s just doing jury duty and part of a documentary, and all this wild shit keeps happening around him. From listening to a podcast with one of the actors and from watching the show, it’s clear they made sure it wasn’t, “Look at this fool who fell for it!” So much of the humor comes from the actors just being ridiculous and imagining how it would feel if you didn’t know they were actors. So funny.

I also found a new (to me) song and then a new artist I am loving! I listened to “golden hour” by JVKE on repeat all day, then I listened to “this is what losing someone feels like” and was so moved by the emotion in it, then I listened to some more songs, and there are just so many great ones!


Blog/Bookish Updates:

Nothing.

 

Books I Received for Review:

The Lighthouse Keeper by Liv Rancourt, from NetGalley. The audiobook for The Archive Undying by Emma Mieko Candon, from NetGalley. Confetti Realms by Nadia Shammas & Karnessa.

 

Books I Finished:

The Kingdoms by Natasha PulleyThe Lighthouse Keeper by Liv RancourtThe Archive Undying by Emma Mieko Candon

If you’re considering buying one of the books below from Amazon, I’d really appreciate if you’d use my affiliate link!

I wasn’t really in the mood for books for a while this month, they were a little too hard to focus on, so I didn’t listen to many. But the few I did were good ones!

✨ The Kingdoms by Natasha Pulley – I rarely go into a book without knowing what it’s about, but I didn’t even read the description this time, just was in the mood for bittersweet and saw this recommended and knew it was m/m SFF. It was so unique! And I was intrigued throughout.

Open Throat by Henry Hoke – This was only 2 hours in audio, but it was good. Not exactly SFF, but an animal POV. I felt so bad for the hungry, scared, lonely mountain lion.

The Lighthouse Keeper by Liv Rancourt – This was a nice m/m romance with an atmospheric setting and cool magic.

The Archive Undying by Emma Mieko Candon – This was super unique with a fascinating world of AI gods and people interfacing with them, and complicated / messed-up queer characters and relationships, and a wild story!

 
 
 
 

Talk to me!

How was your June?
Did you find any good books, movies, songs, etc.?

 
 
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Your Thoughts

 

14 thoughts on “Update: Life and Books (June 2023) + Vampire Art

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  1. Greg

    Ooh I think I do remember Jacobin and Levine. Those updates were fun! I think we need more game updates on blogs. Remembr blog parties or link ups, where everyone would participate in a common theme? I don’t know if we really had those for games, though, but it’d be fun. anywho…

    I love the sound of an animal POV!

    1. Kit (Metaphors and Moonlight)

      I had fun doing those sims posts lol. I’ve never seen any link ups like that for games. It would be cool, though I think that’d be a separate sphere of the internet because it doesn’t seem like a lot of book bloggers talk about games.

  2. Roberta R.

    Glad your books were few, but good! Of course I’ve already commented on your art on Twitter, but again – you really nailed the hair in the first piece.

  3. Jessica

    I’m still watching animated movies. This Friday I’m watching Treasure Planet. I’m reading a really good sequel called Weapons of Old by Kent Wayne. The first book was called A Door to Evermoor. It’s a sci-fi adventure book series. I’m still watching The Servant (now will be on Season 3 on Sunday), The Blacklist (season 10), American Born Chinese, You (part 1 of latest season), and A Million Little Things. I did watch a sad documentary on Netflix called Taking Care of Maya. I had been working on a lighthouse paint by number. I just got framed it today. I’m going to work on a diamond painting for my boyfriend next.

    1. Kit (Metaphors and Moonlight)

      I watched Treasure Planet some years ago and don’t really remember it, but I think I enjoyed it. How was it? I haven’t seen the other things you mention, hopefully they’re good. The paint by number sounds fun! Lighthouses are pretty, though now I’m curious what the diamond one is like.