leecetheartist

MerMay The Eleventh - Mermaid Blues.

2026-05-11T07:45:59Z

MerMay The Eleventh - Mermaid Blues.

I enjoyed getting the Akkerman bottle out again and using it with the Kakimori nib. Something has profoundly upset this mermaid. Poor thing. She was fun to draw though. She'll pull through, don't worry, the ocean is on her side.

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MerMay The Tenth - a little late.

2026-05-11T04:20:55Z

Happy Merther's Day.

Mermay the Tenth - Yesterday in Australia it was Mother's Day, so I'm catching up after a lovely day out with my Mum.

So there'll be another drawing later today so I can catch up.

This mermum and merbaby were drawn with Van Diemen's Ink Rainbow Scarab. I am not sure if the shimmer has come up in these photos but the sheen certainly has!

Gotta say this Life Noble Note book has really come to the sheen party.

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MerMay The Ninth

2026-05-09T15:32:56Z

I dragged myself away from games at the club for a bit to draw this playful mermaid. I used VanDiemen's ink Great Ice Lake, I think it is, which has a silver shimmer. The darker blue is Azure Kingfisher. And a little black for the fish. I used one of rdm 's 3d printed pens with a Schmidt nib with the Lake, and then the Lamy Demo with the Azure Kingfisher, and the Rotring Art Pen with whatever black it was I put in it ages ago.

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MerMay The Eighth

2026-05-08T14:57:29Z

After a busy day, and incidentally GMing a game where the PC's are all merfolk except for one water elemental, I had a little time to bring out the Kakimori dip pen once more and do a quick brush like sketch of this mermaid touching the surface and causing ripples.

I don't know if it's the ink - Van Diemen's Ink 9 Lives, but it didn't seem to flow as smoothly as previous inks. Or maybe the Kakimori is needing a bit of a scrub.

Anyway, I think she looks elegant for just a sketch.

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MerMay The Seventh

2026-05-07T13:54:44Z

This merperson's name is Speedy.

I've had a day not conducive to drawing but fired this off this evening.
It's drawn with a Lamy Demonstrator gleefully full of Van Diemen's ink of Azure Kingfisher,
one of my favourite with its sparkle and sheen.

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MerMay The Sixth

2026-05-06T10:02:04Z

Mermay The Sixth

I had a good 3 hours to draw this one, so the more relaxed pace shows I think. Back to the Kakimori nib, because, guess what, @rdm bought some ink from Van Diemen's Ink moving sale, which I told him not to do, but he did anyway. Naughty fellow isn't he?

It arrived today and this was the one he wanted me to try out.

This is Anna's Hummingbird Ink.

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MerMay The 5th

2026-05-05T13:44:37Z

From the deep, deep sea she rises. Her distant brethren in the shallows may sport long hair, beauty and mirrors, but she knows they'd never survive alone in the depths. But they're always very polite to her when she visits. Maybe they're just that nice, or maybe they realise that the depths are the last sanctuary, and they may some day need a friend.

Drawn with a Diplomat Magnum filled with Diamine's Sleigh Ride.

Click the images to view larger.

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MerMay The Fourth

2026-05-04T14:03:26Z

Mermay the fourth for 2026.

This was drawn in various cafes and bars today, between bus trips. I had one pen with me, a Kaweco sport that I thought was loaded with some standard black ink. But it's very shiny and might have some chameleonic properties. So maybe it's one of the Diamines, and if I look at last year's mermay or artober I might be able to work out what it is.

The pen was a bit clogged and it's been poor light all the way, and I had the wrong glasses. But it turned out okay, I think.

Drawing without a net means I'm drawing without pencil, freehand straight ink to paper.

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MerMay The Third

2026-05-03T13:04:34Z

This Merperson likes playing with bubbles! Just a quick drawing as I've had a busy day. You might like to colour it, I'd be interested to see how you get on.

The ink is Parker's Quink. It's a decades old bottle, with just a black coloured label, no name except Parker Quink, but it's nice to use on occasion - with so many tempting other fancy inks around I don't often.

I'm still using the Kakimori steel nib dipper.

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MerMay The Second

2026-05-02T08:58:18Z

I asked one of the folks on the Aussie #FountainPen Discord which ink they'd like me to use today and they chose Diamine's Bittersweet.

Of course that got Bittersweet Symphony by the Verve stuck in my head, oh yes, there was no shifting it. Go and look at the clip on Youtube and see if I got the sense of it with this mer version of Richard Ashcroft rudely swimming through a bunch of sea creatures.

This is #MerMay No.2 for MerMay2026 and you can click the image to view it larger.

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MerMay The First

2026-05-01T09:33:43Z

~~I promise I'll post it properly here later~~,

Done! You might like to click on the images to view them closer. Friday I got MerMay on my mind! mariibyrd over on Mastodon reminded me yesterday - you should check out their art too, it's very cool.

I drew most of this today with my new Kakimori dip nib, and I used Diamine's UltraSheen Laurel. As you can see, it really sheens. The paper is the very first page in my smaller Life Noble Note I got with my birthday money. Happy MerMay everybody!

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Stars, Captain!

2026-04-27T12:44:26Z

Just a 10 minute shot of the Great Carina Nebula with some Snapseed editing.

Click the image below for a closer look.

I took it a little while back. The sky now is more friendly to the garden, there's cloud for hundreds of kilometres all around, and there's a constant dripping from it. It's lovely. So this gives us astrophotographers time to edit our photos and do a little posting.

We took a drive down to Mandjoogoordap yesterday, (after I gave a friend a lift after some mid morning car trouble) our geocache there needed checking. We checked it, it was there, just difficult for people to find sometimes. We had gf battered fish and some hot chips at Jettys chippery and rdm got some great photos of some female Splendid Fairy-Wrens and a lovely Galah portrait. Perhaps he'll share!

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Ok Perth folks it's nearly time for some citizen science

2026-04-23T05:26:52Z

About ten hour from now a bioblitz begins. They're after observations at I naturalist, and it's all pretty easy.

https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/city-nature-challenge-2026-metropolis-perth

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A rambling week

2026-04-21T01:38:46Z

So the past week has been a rolling wave of pleasantness really, even if I had been sleeping not so well and plagued by the odd nightmare.

One of our local friendly bookstores has decided to carry rdm 's book in its physical incarnation so if you're every in Oxford Street in Leederville in Perth, Western Australia, drop in - it's a lovely place (even if it hadn't decided that Rob's book is for them) and has a great vibe.

Swancon50 had its last movie fundraiser before the actual convention, it was Moon and while it's not a movie that I would normally want to see, seeing it in a group of fundraising SF fans was good - fundraising, like minds, and upbeat folks. Moon is not an upbeat movie and has a continuing tension throughout. What with sudden cardiac arrests from my husband and global grumpiness from the rest of the world, I'm looking for upbeat at the moment. Most moments really. But those who have seen Moon might be interested to know that there is an 'in the back ground news story" in the movie Mute that depicts some of the consequences of the events in Moon.

On the 19th of April me, rdm, my mum and various friends, workmates and relatives met on The Hill at Scarborough and watched the sun go down over the sea, shared cakes we and Mum had baked and later had various burritos and fish and chips, picnics and other offerings from the nearby Scarborough strip. We didn't take many photos, none of people, just the stars and sea.

My sister couldn't make it - she's in Kalgoorlie at the moment, but sent some photos from the happy day of my and rdm's mawwiage, that dweam wiffin a dweam... from 30 years ago. No digital photos of the event, of course, it was in the Olden Days.

We brought out the smart telescopes and oohed and ahhs ensued as the Large Magellanic Cloud and the Orion Nebula were observed by both young, old and in between.

So that was lovely. For our anniversary we bought each other this ingenious item from the Australian Marine Conservation Society. The ocean is integrally important to both of us - and we'd like to see it better looked after, and the convenience of a thermal cup that converts to a water bottle is kind of funky and useful to us in our gadding about, wherever we might be. Australian made too, amazing. So I recommend it if you're looking for that sort of thing or know someone who'd like it as a gift.

I've recently finished a drawing that I'm putting in the Swancon Art Show, it has taken quite a few hours and is in my current favourite ink, Rainbow Scarab from Van Diemen's Ink, so look out for it at Swancon50.

I slept much better last night than I have for the past few nights, woo!

Here's a link to photos of the river near Como where we saw the movie, and the sunset at Scarborough, and the stars I took.

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Important Date

2026-04-19T02:24:32Z

Well today rdm 's first book of short stories Short Stories From A Distracted Mind is now available on all the usual electronic formats as well as in paper form at Boundless Books in Oxford Street, Leederville. He, and I'd be thrilled if you checked it out! Will you be the first to review?

https://www.google.com/search?udm=14&q=%22short+stories+from+a+distracted+mind%22

It's a bunch of microfiction - flash fiction - with #ScienceFiction #Fantasy and even a little horror. He's also called me an editor, gosh.

So now Perth Western Australia has one more writer. If you are going to Swancon50 in just a few short weeks you could get a physical copy signed at the book launch.

Oh yeah, and it's also our 30th Wedding Anniversary. Love you sweety!

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Looking up

2026-04-14T03:47:59Z

I've had the telescope out for the last few days before the cloud has come in. This month's target from AstronomyGroupOfWesternAustralia is The Statue of Liberty nebula.

I went a different path with the editing because I was struck with the sheer volume of stars in the area and didn't want dampen them down. So I left most of them in and upped the colour because I thought it looked cool.

Click the image to view it larger.

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SF local and National Awards season in Australia

2026-04-04T07:12:24Z

If folks would like to consider nominating/voting for Rob and my's collaboration "Please Rearrange" Interactive Sculpture for a Tin Duck and/or a Ditmar that would be cool.

My pen and ink work "After The Telescope" has been nominated for a Tin Duck so if you like it better than the other works, please vote for it when the time comes!

https://photos.app.goo.gl/FWAmiADktfTQqQFn8 for a look at "After The Telescope"

https://photos.app.goo.gl/wSZ1ZudQ2HCmXQyd6 for "Please Rearrange"

https://tinducks.sf.org.au/ for Tin Duck info, you have to be a supporting or full member of Swancon 50.

https://form.jotform.com/260567334914865 for the Ditmar - the national award- form, you just need to be active in fandom.

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Oh yeah, sandgropers should go see this

2026-03-26T03:45:43Z

But maybe have lunch first
Some really interesting history and nostalgia.

https://slwa.wa.gov.au/whats-on/recipe-life

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I work for International Rescue

2026-03-26T01:51:44Z

I got an email today from one of the citizen science projects.

"The project data is currently being used by the UN Logistics Cluster in planning meetings, when organising humanitarian aid routes. Understanding where the wadis are located helps those on the ground to plan the most effective routes, and anticipate locations of flooding for the rainy season, beginning in June. This data is extremely helpful to gain an understanding of the most effective route for these long journeys, thus saving time and costly fuel.

For now, this project has ended. However, we are working in the background to prepare future Planetary Response Network projects and will make sure to keep you updated!

If you are in distress and need or want support, here is a list of international crisis support hotlines so you can get support wherever you are in the world.

Thanks,

Alice and the Planetary Response Network team"

Profound sort of feeling.

In news of rdm, he was able to lie flat for a bit for the first time in two weeks, which was a great feeling for him.

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Looking up.

2026-03-22T01:26:18Z

I've often thought about joining The Cloud Appreciation Society. I'm in #Perth , WesternAustralia and we never seem to have enough water from the sky, and it's hot more often than not. So clouds are great.

Right now I'd APPRECIATE it if the clouds would go somewhere else and let me do some more frames of The Unicorn Nostril.

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Good news from rdm

2026-03-21T09:20:45Z

https://rdm.dreamwidth.org/115260.html

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A rip snorter of a Nebula!

2026-03-21T09:19:21Z

So the challenge from my Astronomy club for us this month is The Rosette Nebula, Caldwell 49 or NGC 2237.

This is a bit of a rough cut - I've not seen it done with an OIII SII filter before, and I'd like to add some more frames. Thanks to @rdm for lending me the filter!

I haven't forgotten about my Dwarf 2, so Rob lent me his SVBONY CLS filter and I've had a bunch of sessions with it.

So here's the result, and I'm loving the rosiness of the Rosette 🙂

Of course I should call it my preferred moniker - the Unicorn Nostril. Well, look at it, it's right there at Monoceros's snout in the right place!

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A little outing after the hospital stay.

2026-03-17T09:58:19Z

For those not in the know, my husband rdm survived a heart attack and cardiac arrest last Wednesday due to him recognizing the signs of the heart attack and calling the ambulance right away. He's now out of hospital and in the beginning gentle exercise part of his rehabilitation.

So today we visited Jaycar to pursue a bigger footprint for our dedicated smart telescope network so we don't have to move the router around from front yard to backyard depending on where we're shooting.

A happy wander around Jaycar and then Red Dot and ToyMate took care of the retail therapy side of the healing process and now he's napping, the pain from the CPR bruising disturbing his night. Tonight he wants to walk along the beach. Ah, It could have been so much worse.

( leece tries to unpack the trauma of the past few days with Rob's emergency visit to hospital. Access list may have seen much of the material already. A bit garbled and rambly, feel free to skip. )I am just so very very glad my sweety is still with us.

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Tried out the time lapse for the eclipse last night.

2026-03-04T02:22:03Z

Link to total lunar eclipse time lapse last night in Perth/Boorloo.

https://mediacdn.aus.social/media_attachments/files/116/167/965/163/700/955/original/e5056d4b2d29f1ee.mp4

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The Turtle Moves

2026-02-28T01:35:26Z

Well, I put the telescope out last night and targeted the Keyhole Nebula. Now, I don't know about you but this looks like Great A'Tuin, Sir Terry's marvelous astrochelonian, is checking on a star cluster nest of eggs. A very bright cloud of gas is almost obscuring the dark Keyhole Nebula, forming in my fanciful mind the head of a great star turtle checking its eggs, a small pretty blue cluster of stars. Part of the Carina Nebula forms the shell and Discworld to the right.

May Sir Terry rest in peace and know that he's loved. I met him a few times, a wonderful soul he lit up a room like a gentle nebula himself!

Click to embiggen.

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