iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Dan @danielholmes.art · 21/09/2026

Made a small plein air kit to take hiking. Forgot it cleaning jar this morning, but went ahead anyway. Did the fall colors first before phthalo blue infected everything!

Small oil painting in an altoids tin of some fall colored trees.

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Dan @danielholmes.art · 15/08/2026

Helping my friend Gary Michael sell paintings from storage — he's a Denver, CO based plein air oil painter who taught at the Plein Air Convention in Monterey. New pieces added monthly. Know Gary? DM me for a deal. www.dailypaintworks.com/Artists/gary...

dailypaintworks.com

The Gary Michael Gallery

A Fine Art Gallery powered by Daily Paintworks

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Dan @danielholmes.art · 25/12/2025

Last #ArtAdventCalendar for 2025. Makapuu Beach, Oahu Hawaii. While I was painting this, a group of women were posing in front of me on the beach. After I was done, they came over and were horribly disappointed that I didn’t include them. Their thongs clashed with the color scheme.

Oil painting of waves crashing on rocks on a beach in Hawaii.

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Dan @danielholmes.art · 23/12/2025

On #ArtAdventCalendar day 23, I give you The Burger King. Resin Jimmy Flintstone figure, painted with Golden’s SoFlat acrylics.

Resin figure about 3.5” tall of Elvis holding a cheeseburger in an “Elvis-Like” pose, wearing a cooking apron.

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Dan @danielholmes.art · 22/12/2025

Day 22 of #ArtAdventCalendar back in April I participated with a few friends in Plein Airpril. I knew going in I wouldn’t complete the whole challenge, but I got a couple decent studies out of it. I bought some watercolor pencils long ago, but I’d never really had much chance to use them. Until now.

Watercolor pencils and gouache on 6x8 paper. Blaze Maple tree that has lost most of its leaves and a blue park bench in front of it.

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Dan @danielholmes.art · 21/12/2025

Day 21 of #ArtAdventCalendar. The Crab Nebula. Acrylics, 9x12

Acrylic interpretation of the Crab Nebula as seen through our eyes if we were closer.

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Dan @danielholmes.art · 21/12/2025

Day 20 of #ArtAdventCalendar. Rho Ophiuchi gas cloud. 9x12 acrylic, one of a series I’m calling Plein Airless.

Acrylic painting of Rho Ophiuchi. My interpretation of what the gas clouds would look like if we could see it with our naked eye.

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Dan @danielholmes.art · 19/12/2025

#ArtAdventCalendar day 19. Cloud study. The mountains were just an afterthought I quickly added in to give some grounding. Clouds were moving real quick,so captured the general shapes and tried to get some movement.

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Dan @danielholmes.art · 18/12/2025

Day 18 of #ArtAdventCalendar getting close to the end, which is good, I’m running out of semi-publishable pieces. Today is a tower I did a quick sketch of a while ago.

Quick graphite sketch of the top of a tower. Shading on some of the glass and other areas.

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Dan @danielholmes.art · 17/12/2025

#ArtAdventCalendar day 17. Early pastel of some trees in Millenium Park, Chicago. I’d used them once before.

Soft Pastel drawing of some straight trees in Chicago’s Millennium Park.

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Dan @danielholmes.art · 17/12/2025

#ArtAdventCalendar day 16. A Gorn bust. It was tricky to replicate the crappy hand painted look of the original tunic.

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Dan @danielholmes.art · 15/12/2025

Some rocks at Daniel’s Park. Sun was literally straight overhead, and no shadows. I’d never seen that before. #ArtAdventCalendar.

Oil painting of some rocks that had absolutely no shading of any kind on them. They were arranged so there were no overhangs. Weird, and makes a strange painting.

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Dan @danielholmes.art · 14/12/2025

Day 14 of #ArtAdventCalendar. Quick still life of an old jug. I was trying out charcoal pencils. I’m not a fan.

Charcoal drawing of a metal milk jug with a few dried stems in it. Showing reflections and highlights in white charcoal.

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Dan @danielholmes.art · 13/12/2025

Day 13 #ArtAdventCalendar. A friend and I painting at Red Rocks State Park in Nevada. We were at an International Association of Astronomical Artists workshop in Las Vegas. Can’t wait for the next one!

Myself and a friend studying red sandstone rocks to paint an alien landscape.

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Dan @danielholmes.art · 12/12/2025

Halfway through #ArtAdventCalendar. Some quick sketches at a life drawing event. I’ve never been good at nose placement, so was just working on that.

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Dan @danielholmes.art · 11/12/2025

Day 11 of #ArtAdventCalendar is a white oak drawing from February. I was just deciding that I liked sketching trees at this point and still learning how graphite works.

Graphite sketch of a white oak tree showing the bare branches from February showing shading on the bark.

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Dan @danielholmes.art · 10/12/2025

Day 10 already? Sheesh! Almost half over with #ArtAdventCalendar. I traveled to Salt Lake City last spring, and while waiting for my friend to get ready I quickly sketched out a couple trees. Not completely done due to my friend arriving, but I like the spontaneity of it.

Watercolor and graphite sketch of two trees, green leafed on the left (may have been a cottonwood), and a red small leafed one on the right. Can’t remember what it was, but it’s very popular in the Salt Lake City area.

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Dan @danielholmes.art · 10/12/2025

Pearls before swine, Dec 10, 2023.

Pearls before swine comic strip. A man comes across people enjoying themselves in a pool, and can’t believe it. He’s been hanging out in the Twitter pool and nobody’s happy there. The lesson is life is all about the pool you play in.

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Dan @danielholmes.art · 09/12/2025

Day 8 of #ArtAdventCalendar. Waiting on my son for his piano lessons, I started drawing in my sketchbook. An elm tree in graphite.

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Dan @danielholmes.art · 07/12/2025

Day 7, #ArtAdventCalendar an in process shot, blocking in the major shapes. Turns out I don’t have a picture of the finished piece, and I can’t seem to find it in the pile—my guess is I set it aside to dry and now something is on top of it. Time to clean the studio.

In process shot of an Plein air painting of some rocks in an area called Red Mountain near Ft Collins, CO. Shows my panel holder and palette.

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Dan @danielholmes.art · 06/12/2025

Day 6 #ArtAdventCalendar is quick 10 minute sketch of some sort of bird. Hangs around in my yard over the summer.

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Dan @danielholmes.art · 06/12/2025

Almost forgot day 5 of #ArtAdventCalendar Trying to create form with color temperature vs value. Not completely successful, but I still like the feel of this.

Oil painting of a woman walking away from the camera along a beach.

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Dan @danielholmes.art · 04/12/2025

Day 4 of #ArtAdventCalendar is an old miniature from Deadlands, a Hangin’ Judge. One of the first minis I painted about 25 years ago. I’m only slightly better now. Deadlands is one of my favorite game settings, and with middle school RPG club I’ve been able to play in it again.

A metal miniature of a Hangin’ Judge from an old RPG called Deadlands.

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Dan @danielholmes.art · 03/12/2025

Day 3 of #ArtAdventCalendar. I bought a large graphite stick, and am trying to learn control with it. I’ve always had a very heavy hand. I think that comes from years of not having any depth perception. But now that contacts have corrected that, I’m trying to relearn a lot.

Graphite drawing of a mountain range. Trying to use a large stick to relearn pressure control.

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Dan @danielholmes.art · 02/12/2025

#ArtAdventCalendar day 2. Some lilypads in a small pond close by. 11”x14” oil on panel.

Oil painting of some triangular lilypads and a stick underwater.

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Dan @danielholmes.art · 02/12/2025

Day 1 of #ArtAdventCalendar is a quick sketch I did of a tree a few weeks ago.

Pencil sketch of a bare winter tree on a gentle upslope.

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Reposted by Dan

Ron Hogan @ronhogan.bsky.social · 18/10/2025

A bunch of government accounts joined Bluesky today, and it seems very likely they intend to trawl the timeline for statements they can spin as inflammatory or insidious. I’m denying them access to my posts, and I suggest you do the same. Here’s how to do it in one click.

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Dan @danielholmes.art · 22/09/2025

Saw @scalzi.com today. As we were driving to the book signing, I told my son about his “Wil Wheaton, Croc Hunter” short story from a year or so ago. My son wondered if his Croc could be signed. @scalzi.com delivered.

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Dan @danielholmes.art · 25/05/2025

I’ve had to be away from arty things for a bit due to life. But I found myself in a Costco parking lot waiting for my tires to be changed. Storm clouds were moving very fast. I’ve never tried capturing clouds before. #pleinair #sketch #graphite

Graphite sketch of some hard edged storm clouds. Very few light values in the clouds,

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Reposted by Dan

International Association of Astronomical Artists @iaaa.org · 06/03/2025

One for your diary as an IAAA member! This Saturday's member's Zoom will feature Dr Pamela Gay of Cosmoquest! CosmoQuest.org

cosmoquest.org

- CosmoQuest

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Dan @danielholmes.art · 03/03/2025

Anyone going to attempt #pleinairpril ? A Plein air painting every day in April. I won’t be able to do every day but I think I can do 3-4 a week. More information: pleinairpril.com

pleinairpril.com

PleinAirpril

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Dan @danielholmes.art · 20/01/2025

Went to a taping of “Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me” in Chicago last Thursday. It was fun to see how the show was made—I had no idea the commercials are recorded live.

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Dan @danielholmes.art · 24/12/2024

Thanks again to @jayispainting.earthskyart.ca for doing the #ArtAdventCalendar. I’ve never really posted much publicly, and this got me out of my comfort zone.

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Dan @danielholmes.art · 24/12/2024

And for the last #ArtAdventCalendar, I give you Immortan Drumpf (Trump as Immortan Joe from Furiosa). Painted during the last reign, and not looking forward to the next one. I particularly liked the troll doll at his waist on this one.

Immortan Drumpf miniature. Trump as Immortan Joe from Furiosa.

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Dan @danielholmes.art · 23/12/2024

#ArtadventCalendar day 23. Another onsite drawing of an overlook in Death Valley. I have a photo as well, but I wanted to just capture the values and shapes of the area in graphite. It’s a study for a later Martian landscape. #pleinair #landscape

Rough graphite sketch of a canyon in Death Valley.

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Dan @danielholmes.art · 22/12/2024

#ArtAdventCalendar day 22. Driving through Cherry Creek Stare Park, I watched two deer eat. When the geese flew overhead, they looked up to watch them land on the next meadow over. I think it’s the first time I’ve seen two animals watch each other that wasn’t a predator/prey situation.

Picture of two grazing deer looking up and seeing a flock of geese coming in for a landing.

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Dan @danielholmes.art · 21/12/2024

So do starter packs and lists dynamically update? Like anyone added to them after I subscribed automatically get added to my feed?

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Dan @danielholmes.art · 21/12/2024

#ArtAdventCalendar day 21. Another scale model. A 1/35 Jeep from the Gundam universe. Acrylics through an airbrush, oils for weathering. #scalemodels

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Dan @danielholmes.art · 20/12/2024

#ArtAdventCalendar day 20. Study of a pitcher for an early #oilpainting class. There was no way I had the brush control to do the Grecian style image on the front, so I abstracted it. I liked the effect so much, it led me to want to study Impressionism. Don’t like the handle lighting. #stilllife

Oil painting study of a white water pitcher with abstracted blue shapes on it.

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Dan @danielholmes.art · 19/12/2024

#ArtAdventCalendar Day 19. The horrors persist, and so must I. I have a flask in my “Big box ‘o still life stuff” and wanted to try and paint a reflection in it—I had never painted glass before. #oilpainting #stilllife it really helped the “paint what you see, not what you think you see” skill.

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Dan @danielholmes.art · 18/12/2024

#ArtAdventCalendar day 18. Another scale model vignette. Bandai 1:144 scale Star Wars Snow Speeder and AT-ST. I hate decals, so everything is hand painted—nothing airbrushed on this one, and it was a test to use thinned artists oils. Lots of layers, but the weathering turned out well. #scalemodels

A small scale model vignette of a Star Wars snowspeeder and AT-ST.

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Dan @danielholmes.art · 17/12/2024

Talking to an old friend a few days ago. Was discussing lifelong hobbies. In learning a skill/hobby/trade, at what time do you consider yourself out of the realm of “beginner”, and what’s the next label? “Intermediate”? “Advanced”? I never see anyone label themselves “advanced artist” for example.

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Dan @danielholmes.art · 17/12/2024

#ArtAdventCalendar day 17. One of my earliest attempts at #astrophotgraphy. I broke apart a webcam, and made a focus adapter for my telescope. It was good for bright objects. Shortly after the image was made, I had to move and this generation of equipment was broken. This image of Saturn remains.

Image of Saturn through a webcam mounted into a telescope.

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Dan @danielholmes.art · 16/12/2024

#ArtAdventCalendar day 16. A copper bowl I liked the reflections on—because of the ridges, it almost looked 8-bit. I, used it in a class. I don’t really paint many still life objects, I enjoy being outside too much. But I really should try this a little more.

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Dan @danielholmes.art · 15/12/2024

#ArtAdventCalendar day 15. Two winters ago I went to a favorite painting spot near a river hoping to see fast rapids from the runoff. Nope. Hiked a ways, found this naked tree with light scattered around it. Quick sketch with the changing light. I’ve redone this a few times in other media. #pleinair

An oil painting of a bare tree along a small river with bits of snow on it.

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Reposted by Dan

Tom Grossman @tomgco90.bsky.social · 14/12/2024

#scalemodels #resinkits Are there any other resin figure builders here? Looking for like minds!

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Dan @danielholmes.art · 14/12/2024

#ArtAdventCalendar day 14. My son was fishing on the Big Thompson river, so I busted out the paints. It was completely overcast, and like being in a softbox. This is a small sketch, low dynamic range, just to play with shapes. I need to figure out if there is something here. #pleinair #landscape

Low dynamic range sketch of an overcast day on a river.

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