iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

This was a commission which I don't do anymore, but I felt like I owed it to him. He's been patient and very kind. Last year I was an illustrator with aspirations of greatness. Now the only aspiration I have is to take my medication on time.

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Gilead @gileadart.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

This one's finished and I like it a lot. Apparently the hero is gender ambiguous which is fine with me.

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Gilead @gileadart.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

When I said once that these paintings were just practice and not intended to serve a purpose or to even to be seen as ART, someone said I sounded preemptively defensive against imagined criticism. They're not wrong about how I sounded, but they're wrong about what I meant.

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Gilead @gileadart.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Years ago I read a book called Goblin Moon which I liked very much, but I liked the cover better. Here's a review with links. www.blackgate.com/.../teresa-e... Black Gate is a very fine website for reviews and essays. I think this sketch may have been inspired by that memory.

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Gilead @gileadart.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

It's a poor workman who blames his tools. So I'll blame my choices. The rough textured paper fought me at every step and all my little tricks to make it better just made it worse. I don't care at all, I'm enjoying the process and benefitting from the exercise. The end product is of no importance.

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Gilead @gileadart.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Here's another impressionistic landscape. Why, you say why aren't there any landscapes like this in the background of your fantasy paintings? That's a good question. Mostly because I'm keeping them simple, but still I may try it.

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Gilead @gileadart.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Eye hurt my I again so I only see in impressionism. Acrylic on a low-grade watercolor paper 9" X 12".

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Gilead @gileadart.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Some of these came out really nice which is unfortunate because it builds an expectation that future ones might be nice. Bad painting, good experience. I'm reconditioning broken nerves. I'm not creating art or illustrating a story or doing a job. Unless nerve repair is my job now.

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Gilead @gileadart.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

I have an old box of Crayola crayons. Some of them are rich in pigment and others barely make a mark. You can use the pale one to blend other colors together if you like. Most people don't think of blending with crayons but you can do some lovely blending.

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Gilead @gileadart.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

And after some tiny details with a pen, this one's finished. The Wizards of Kath-Odray.

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Gilead @gileadart.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Fanny is sick and tired of me inhibiting my art to appease other people's morality so she took her clothes back off. It's her life, her decision, I'm just recording what I see when I go there. I added white and blue and a tiny bit of red oxide to the pallet to build up all of the textures.

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Gilead @gileadart.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

I'm adding layers of transparent violet or "raspberry" as I sometimes think of it, but only if I'm hungry. The violet paint is quite dark, but I only added a drop of it to a puddle of clear acrylic medium. The darker areas were the same paint with less transparent medium mixed in.

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Gilead @gileadart.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Oh no it's another naked lady, my morals are burning! These characters are from different planets and have wildly different feelings about the weather. Arguing over the thermostat is a nightmare! OK I gave some clothes, but not a lot.

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Gilead @gileadart.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Happy Bunday ladies and gentlemen! Ned isn't keen on spiders, plus he's a little chilly so that's two reasons you're not seeing any more than you're seeing.

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Gilead @gileadart.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

With the spider obscured in dark blue I can now add lighter blue highlights to build him out. Ned's not keen on spiders, but Fanzina is here to protect him.

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Gilead @gileadart.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

It wasn't intended to look icey, but it does so I'm rolling with it. So far it's just blue for the sky, blue mixed with white for the lower sky and the same with a tiny drop of brown for the rocks. I don't mind the spider fading back a little bit, it gives the illusion of depth.

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Gilead @gileadart.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

Ladies and gentlemen welcome to Gilead's Miniature Sword & Sorcery Sketchbook of Doom...miniature painting thingie. Fanzina and Ned the Barbarian versus the giant mountain-spiders of Doom!

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Gilead @gileadart.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

I might add more flowers later because they're not as obvious as I like As an exercise it worked perfectly well and I'm pleased with the process. I really don't care very much about the results, just the fact that my brain is allowing me to sit and DO something without having a psychotic meltdown.

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Gilead @gileadart.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

The figures were coming along nicely enough but needed more definition so I added notes with a white paint marker and went over those with Pitt colored markers.

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Gilead @gileadart.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

I did 22 years painting signs. Every day I made art six feet tall and twenty feet long. These paintings I'm doing now are so much smaller and much more detailed, but there are some similarities in my process. In fact I'm using some of the same paints, brushes and blue tape that I used back then.

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Gilead @gileadart.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

A nice cheerful purple under painting because stories of monsters and horror need some sparkle. Acrylic paint mixed with clear glazing medium for transparency. A couple people expressed an interest in writing this story. I'd love that, but I can promise nothing in return.

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Gilead @gileadart.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

A mini sketched enlarged, traced and inked. The idea was a light hearted protagonist who uses a rapier and love poems to defeat a troll on behalf of a lovely village that grows flowers. All the benchmarks of sword & sorcery without the bleakness you so often get.

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Gilead @gileadart.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

Oh look, I drew a beaver, Isn't it cute. I kept meaning to post this on Fanny Friday, but then I missed my queue and yesterday felt particularly inappropriate. So anyways, happy weekend everyone!

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Gilead @gileadart.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

I made a couple Birthday cards for relatives. You can buy pre made watercolor cards to paint on. I have no point to make, no feelings to share and no opinions to burden you with. I'll just keep making my art because it's the only shred of self that I have left.

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Gilead @gileadart.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

On the twin moons of Kath-Ohdray ancient technologies vie with barbarism. I finished the small details with Pitt colored markers. Please don't use other markers without testing what they will do to your painting.

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Gilead @gileadart.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

Almost done. At this point if I try to pick in any small details with a brush I'm just going to mess up. I'll switch to my Pitt markers for the final details once I've let my hands rest. Shaky hands isn't something I used to have to worry about.

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Gilead @gileadart.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

I'm beginning work on the robot. She's shaded the same way as any other object or figure, but she's highly reflective so we maintain dark shadows with blue reflections towards the top and brown reflections from the ground.

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Gilead @gileadart.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

People ask why my female figures are always nude. The answer is look again. Females are dressed as often as males. But sometimes I like the figure being nude. The exposure and vulnerability compels me more than a clothed figure. This was one, but I balked at the brazenness and put clothes on her.

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Gilead @gileadart.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

When it comes to fine detail I'm too shaky for paintbrushes, but I can do better with pens at this point. I have some colored pens including white ones so I was able to get some detail. I was also at a point where I wasn't completely sure I was improving it, this happens a lot, so I stopped.

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Gilead @gileadart.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

Number 5 of Seven. I used some of the background colors mixed with white and a little blue for highlights.

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Gilead @gileadart.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

Used a mostly dried up brush-tipped marker to go over the surface to build up dark areas before painting over it with acrylics. The marker is a Pitt Indian ink marker from Faber Castell. I hate mentioning it because some will say Oh Gil says use markers. NO! Those specific markers or none at all.

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Gilead @gileadart.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

Parts One and Two of seven. The original mini sketch and a transfer onto art paper. I'm starting to ink it preparatory to painting.

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Gilead @gileadart.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

Sometimes the most important thing is knowing how little to do. This was very simple; pink wash over the whole drawing, blue wash over parts of that, white mixed into the blue for highlights on the rocks, white mixed into the pink for highlights on the lady and we're done in one sitting.

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Gilead @gileadart.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

Doing these little paintings is just an exercise. I'm reconditioning neural pathways in my brain and in my hands because they've been damaged and they don't do what they used to do. I can't prove that to you medically, but I need no proof for my own certainty, I'm up to my neck in proof.

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Gilead @gileadart.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

Happy Bunday everyone! Watch out for that monkey! This is one of my least favorite of this series of work, but one of my favorite sketches so I may have another go at this one in a year if I'm still interested. There's plenty to work with in the meantime.

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Gilead @gileadart.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

I got a set of paint markers and some brightly colored cardstock to play with.

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Gilead @gileadart.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

Sunrise at Freestone Park. I'm posting later because most of the people I know are in Arizona and it's rude to make their phone ping at 2 am.

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Gilead @gileadart.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

That body of water creating a blue stripe in the middle space really was there, but it looked wrong in the painting so I'm going to get rid of it. I do like the effect of "cutting away" the sky behind the trees. They look detailed without any details at all.

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Gilead @gileadart.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

Acrylic on cardstock. I'm not showing you my technique, my skills, or knowledge. I don't have any of that. I'm showing photos of what happened as we go along.

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Gilead @gileadart.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

Ladies and Gentlefish, It's Gilead's Sword & Sorcery Paint-Sketch of Doom! My assistant Lux is wound up and ready to spring into action. You never know what you may be required to pounce on at a moment's notice in a job like this.

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Gilead @gileadart.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

I've always done my best work on large boards, walls or windows where human figures can be painted life-sized. But now I can't, there's no room and my hands shake. No more intricate details. That's not a problem to be fixed, it's a circumstance to be adjusted to.

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Gilead @gileadart.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

Part 3 of 6 Same piece as yesterday with a diluted acrylic wash over it. This is a pleasing effect, but it does make all of the darks very close to medium. And the medium gray almost disappears. I often save a photo as grayscale at this point, to see where the image is weak or strong.

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Gilead @gileadart.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

Happy Bunday morning from Gilead's Miniature Sword & Sorcery Sketchbook of Doom!

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Gilead @gileadart.bsky.social · 22/08/2026

From our Saturday life drawing session...which we do on Sunday...and it's not from life. Ne'ertheless.

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Gilead @gileadart.bsky.social · 22/08/2026

From our Saturday life drawing session...which we do on Sunday...and it's not from life. Ne'ertheless.

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Gilead @gileadart.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

When I look at my sketches it's important not to focus on the accuracy of the drawing, the costumes, lack of costumes, social value or how well it displays the profundity of my grasp of the human condition. What I focus on is whether the sketch begs me to take it further? Not all of them do.

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Gilead @gileadart.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

Once grand and gleaming cities now fading to dust below a cold moon. Those flying things are planes if you want them to be or fish if you'd rather. Acrylic on paper 9x12 inch.

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Gilead @gileadart.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

Yesterday I showed you a lovely pen and ink drawing which I have now slopped all over with shades of sex and violets. I mixed a tiny amount of turquoise blue with white to paint the moon.

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Gilead @gileadart.bsky.social · 16/08/2026

Pen and ink is an art form that I've always admired and it's still extremely effective for printed illustrations so I dearly wanted to get good at doing it. But it takes a steady hand and for the last couple years my hands have been visibly unsteady.

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Gilead @gileadart.bsky.social · 15/08/2026

They're not nearly close enough to each other to be doing what you're think they're doing you dirty, dirty minx!

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