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The D stands for Disappointment @jenaciousd.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

I too am having A Time of it but I hope these distract for a short while.

Elsa, a ginger tabby Siamese cross, is curled up on the sofa next to my bare leg. She’s pressed the top of her head against me and her scalp has smooshed down a bit, giving her a scowl in her sleep.

This is a friend’s bengal cat. Friend’s daughter has, I quote, “turned the cat into a furry” by putting a pointed teal feather on her (the cat’s, not the daughter’s) head. The cat looks slightly befuddled but not annoyed.

A close up of a fluffy black cat paw pushed against my not fluffy bare toes.

Bruce Banner, a huge black mostly-feral cat, is sitting on the carpet in my spare room in front of a chest of drawers and some stacked baskets (and sundry other items of clutter). 2 bowls are in the floor next to him. He’s looking up and over what would be my left shoulder, if I was in the picture instead of taking it. The context is that he very much wanted the chicken I’d been spoiling him with, but absolutely did not want the pills that preceded it.

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The D stands for Disappointment @jenaciousd.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

What sort of idiot calls this “beautiful”? Oh, right. Someone who was apparently day drinking while tiling my kitchen. Ugh.

A selfie. I am a middle aged white woman with greying brown hair that’s somewhere between jaw and shoulder length. I’m wearing half-rimmed glasses and a New Model Army t shirt. My expression suggests simultaneously disappointment, irritation, and stabbing.

In the background are a bookcase with a lava lamp and Cthulhu Squishmallow, and a purple sofa with both bat print and bee print fleece blankets rolled up on the back.

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The D stands for Disappointment @jenaciousd.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

I love having art class in Duxford so very much.

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The D stands for Disappointment @jenaciousd.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

Saw @joznorris.bsky.social is Hugh Jackman is the Phantom of the Opera and yes it’s a WIP but the polished bits had me laughing so hard I couldn’t breathe (also it explained his @theacms.bsky.social set a while back). My only real feedback is that it needs more singing cos he’s got a great voice.

Joz Norris is Hugh Jackman (yes, I checked with the theatre staff and non-flash photography was allowed in small amounts). He’s wearing a black t shirt, jeans, and red shoes, and is singing his heart out with arms wide. A stool behind him has a Phantom mask on it.

Joz Norris is Hugh Jackman is the Phantom etc etc. He is now wearing the Phantom mask and a black robe thing, and has somehow transformed from a wholesome fit Australian into a dirty old man.

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The D stands for Disappointment @jenaciousd.bsky.social · 08/08/2026

Finished (stopped) the My First Gouache robin. It’s better than I expected, but I know what I want to get better at. Trying to fix it would have made it worse; hence, stopped. Also the start of a European Jay. I think I might have overtaxed myself with this one. #DrawingAugust #birdart #gouache

A gouache painting of a European robin. Its legs and feet are unpainted. A combination of inexperienced (mine) and a restricted palette means it looks a bit blobby and rather hungover. Nonetheless, it could be a lot worse.

A rough sketch of a European jay. It’s clinging to a vertical branch and facing left. I’ve put a first layer on its chest and the underneath of its tail.

I’m not expecting this to turn out brilliantly, but it will be *practise* and that’s the whole point.

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The D stands for Disappointment @jenaciousd.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

Hurrah! Jam all the way! This is a doughnut that has never seen an apple in its short but meaningful life.

I have now taken a large bite out of the delicious perfect doughnut. You can see the beautiful airy dough, scattered through with raspberry seeds, and the central well that is filled with superbly fruity raspberry jam.

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The D stands for Disappointment @jenaciousd.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

In the spirit of tormenting @brainmage.bsky.social, I am investigating a jam doughnut to see whether I have better luck than him.

A beautiful golden-brown doughnut, held side-on to the camera so you can see the little dollop of raspberry jam that spurted out of the filling hole.

I did not mean that to sound as filthy as it did. If you didn’t think it was filthy, never mind, carry on.

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The D stands for Disappointment @jenaciousd.bsky.social · 02/08/2026

Gouache has no right being so very different from watercolour. It’s so much easier until it’s so much harder. However. I shall persist and eventually have a “My First Gouache Painting” to which I’ll compare all future ones. Or I’ll donate it to the blue bin. It’s 50/50 right now.

A partly-painted, um, painting of a European robin. Its chest is blobby shades of orange, its head looks furry rather than feathery, and its back Needs Work.

This is very accurately known as “the ugly stage”.

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The D stands for Disappointment @jenaciousd.bsky.social · 13/07/2026

Oh, Carrot. I was genuinely touched for about 2 seconds.

A screenshot of Carrot, the weather app that’s almost as awful as I am 😍

The weather in Cambridge is 21°. The comment reads “RIP Sam Neill.” The advert under the hourly temperature changes reads “ROBOTS LIVE ROBOTS NUDE ROBOTS”, or alternatively “ROBOTS NUDE ROBOTS LIVE ROBOTS”, depending on whether you read down or across.

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The D stands for Disappointment @jenaciousd.bsky.social · 13/07/2026

Alas! I have maths to do! Please fit “BIG THROBBER” in the grid, as a reference to what this has done to my brain.

A fountain pen on a notepad, in front of a laptop. Coffee has happened. Maths is happening.

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The D stands for Disappointment @jenaciousd.bsky.social · 12/07/2026

Friday’s @chaoticdrawalong.bsky.social prompt was not “Punk Skunk”, but one of the longlisted ideas was. I am very pleased with how this turned out. (White Nights watercolour pencils, a little bit of Inktense pencil, and a couple of touches of silver pen. Absolutely no AI cos I have ethics.)

A watercolour pencil drawing of a Punk Skunk. It is facing us with its tail up but relaxed, and has its head turned to the right.

The white stripes on its tail have been dyed turquoise and blurple and waxed into spikes. Its black fur has a blue undertone. It has silver claws, several small silver earrings, and a silver nose ring. It has heavy blue eyeshadow and dramatic eyeliner. Other than that, it’s as realistic as I could make it.

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The D stands for Disappointment @jenaciousd.bsky.social · 12/06/2026

Question about adapting style as you age: I’m early 50s, cis woman but dress gender neutral / masc. I like an alt look (black, studs, boots, etc). A lot of rock/goth fashion assumes youth & willingness to show skin. How can I feel like me without living in jeans & t shirts all the time?

Bruce Banner, my former feral who moved in. He’s enormous, black, with raggedy ears and scattered white hairs from scarring. He also (though you can’t see it) has only 6 teeth left. He’s the biggest, shyest, sweetheart.

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The D stands for Disappointment @jenaciousd.bsky.social · 10/06/2026

Cambridge very rarely gets Proper Weather, what with being in a bit of a hollow and having weather fronts skirt around it. Today we are making up for it. It’s is GLORIOUS.

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The D stands for Disappointment @jenaciousd.bsky.social · 06/05/2026

I have no portfolio, but this is the sort of thing I do

A watercolour painting of a macaw, from the shoulders up. It has a green back and top of head, a red-orange chest and neck, and its wing is fading from green to blue as the feathers get longer. Its beak is slightly open and it seems to have a cheeky look in its eye.

Soft pastel and pastel pencil portrait of a gannet (genus morus; I’m unsure of the species) against a dark blue-grey background. It’s facing to the right and is drawn to about a head’s height down its neck. Through luck or judgement, the pastel texture gives the impression of small, densely packed feathers.

Soft pastel and pastel pencil drawing of a European barn swallow. It’s looking mostly to the right, turned slightly forwards, and is drawn down to the shoulders against a lime green background.

Watercolour painting of an Atlantic puffin. It’s sitting in the opening of a small cave, with its body facing slightly right but its head turned to the left. The inside of the cave is painted in purply grey-blues, and the outside in sandy beige with suggestions of moss. The rocks have most texture near the bird, and steadily less as the distance increases.

I painted this in an art class, but *I painted it* and therefore I reckon it counts.

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The D stands for Disappointment @jenaciousd.bsky.social · 12/03/2026

Next time I’m feeling miserable about art failures, I’m going to check the #badtattoo tag. But have a fountain pen ink attempt (and pls ignore the top right. The water went where it wasn’t supposed to).

3 cats, painted wet in wet with fountain pen ink. The ink is Diamine’s Ancient Copper. There’s a large tabby sitting with its back to us in the middle, a small ginger & white sitting up and facing right in the bottom right corner, and what looks like a solid ginger cat with mumps in the top right. This is what happens when you paint small with clean water and no pencil sketch.

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The D stands for Disappointment @jenaciousd.bsky.social · 09/03/2026

www.youraislopbores.me is going to keep me up all night

I prompted “Capybara science”. “ai” responded with a line drawing of a capybara in lab goggles with a flask, saying “EUREKA!”

I love this.

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The D stands for Disappointment @jenaciousd.bsky.social · 04/03/2026

The gif below is a metaphor for my experience of coding.

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The D stands for Disappointment @jenaciousd.bsky.social · 01/03/2026

BEST BIRTHDAY PRESENT ALL THREE CATS. NO FIGHTING. NO RUNNING AWAY. (Bruce Banner, on the bees, is terrified of Ripley, on my lap. Ripley knows this and leans into it. Ripley and Elsa, to my right, are married. Elsa tolerated Bruce Banner as a good pupil and occasional lap pre-warmer.)

I am sitting on a purple sofa. You can see my dark grey jumper and black jeans. To my right is a ginger tabby; a small fluffy black cat is on my lap; and an absolute unit of a black cat is to my left, on a grey fleece blanket printed with bees.

Nobody is bleeding, swearing, or walloping anybody else. This is *unheard of*.

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The D stands for Disappointment @jenaciousd.bsky.social · 01/03/2026

#franimals Late (cos brains) and rough (cos I’m figuring out how to paint with fountain pen inks):

A Budgerigarter snake. It is a lot less cursed than I might have been: it’s a green/yellow budgie, flying, with a snake’s tail. It’s very loosely painted, with the white of the paper being the white in its wings, and the dark stripe along its tail bleeding out into the surrounding brown.

NGL, I really like the “splot the brush down” method of painting feathers.

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The D stands for Disappointment @jenaciousd.bsky.social · 12/02/2026

Those are 2 of my favourite pigments ever 😍 I accidentally (but not regretfully) ended up with 2 versions of PY150: White Nights and D Smith (stick) and the subtle differences are great fun. Adding “Quinacridone” to a colour name seems to make it irresistible to me. Oops?

A swatch page of 7 White Nights watercolour paints: Aureolin (PY151), Cadmium yellow medium (PY35), India yellow (PY150), Ochre light (PY53), Golden (PY3, PO13), Orange (PO64), and Titian red (PO36). All were painted wet on wet at the left of the page, and allowed to spread towards the right.

A swatch page of 7 watercolour paints. The top is Sennelier’s Lemon yellow (PY3), and the others are Daniel Smith: Nickel azo yellow (stick; PY150), Buff titanium (PW6:1), Burnt sienna (PBr7), Quinacridone sienna (PO48, PY150, PR209), ditto but stick form, and Sepia (PBr7, PBk9).

All were painted wet on wet at the left of the page and allowed to spread to the right. The 2 painted from the sticks were done first by picking up pigment with a brush, and then (when the swatch was nearly dry) scribbling directly with the stick.

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The D stands for Disappointment @jenaciousd.bsky.social · 10/02/2026

Ripley and Bruce Banner support your acquisition of a mini panther and wish you both well.

A small, fluffy, black cat is very close to the camera. She is looking slightly down and to the left.

An enormous black cat is sitting next to me. My hand is under his throat, rubbing both cheeks at the same time. His eyes are closed and his whiskers are forward in bliss.

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The D stands for Disappointment @jenaciousd.bsky.social · 05/02/2026

I am out of coffee and on 7% phone battery.

A fluffy black cat is asleep in my lap. You can see a tuft of her paler finery-grey armpit hair, a front paw, and the side of her face. She is delightfully warm and the softest cat I’ve ever touched. Her timing, however, sucks.

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The D stands for Disappointment @jenaciousd.bsky.social · 31/01/2026

This is who runs* this account *wanders slowly

A baby lying on her front in a pram. Her bum is in a great padded terry nappy, shaded by a canopy. She has an Immense Frown: the living embodiment of the 😠 emoji.

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The D stands for Disappointment @jenaciousd.bsky.social · 31/01/2026

Another idea: I could figure out how to get prints of my art and do limited runs (no idea how many!) of some of my Badminton Gallery, and also sell the originals separately. Suggestions for numbers and minimum bids would be lovely, please!

Portrait of Rory Kinnear as Chauncey Badminton, in the style of Obama’s HOPE poster. The slogan reads “EMPIRE”.

Three Badminton Moon. A mostly monochrome watercolour painting of 3 Rory Kinnears and a moon. Each Rory has a wolfish neck & shoulders.

A riff on Warhol’s Marilyn prints, but it’s Rory Kinnear as Nigel Badminton. Painted individually in watercolour with ink.

Badminton With A Pearl Earring. A watercolour portrait of Rory Kinnear dressed as the girl in the Vermeer painting.

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The D stands for Disappointment @jenaciousd.bsky.social · 28/01/2026

Elsacat brought this mouse in. It was totally unharmed (just a little damp). My best guess is that she wanted a pet of her own - she did this regularly, with all sorts of small rodents, and just liked sitting back and watching them. I’ve got very good at grabbing mice (etc) as they run past.

A small wild mouse. It’s sitting on the back of my hand, facing to the left. I’m (loosely!) holding its tail in my curled fingers - it could have run off without harm if it had wanted to.

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The D stands for Disappointment @jenaciousd.bsky.social · 25/01/2026

I want to do more of these! For now, here are @louisdstrong.bsky.social, @queex.bsky.social, and @djnrrd.com’s prompts.

The Moustache Is Worms.

A simple line drawing of a nose and mouth, with a moustache in the expected place. The moustache, however is two fuzzy worms (strings not shown): the left is orange and the right is purple.

Sinister Cheese.

A stick man (whose head is a wedge of Swiss cheese) is forcing a second stick man (head of blue cheese) against a box grater. Crumbs of headcheese are suggested on the table on which blue cheese man is kneeling.

The Void Screams Back.

Against a black background, a small white stick figure stands in the bottom right and screams (a series of capital As trail up to the top). In the centre, a vast cat’s mouth and nose are drawn in line and dot shading, and are screaming back. The stick figure is about the size of a single piece of kibble.

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The D stands for Disappointment @jenaciousd.bsky.social · 23/01/2026

Taking this idea with permission 😁 I can’t promise I’ll do all of them before I forget, but I’ll do as many as I can. Or at least 2 posts’ worth.

Text on a greyscale background, reading “GIVE ME PROMPTS TO HORRIBLY DRAW”.

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The D stands for Disappointment @jenaciousd.bsky.social · 16/01/2026

(sincere moment) If there’s anything I can take off your plate and get done for you, lmk. I mean it. (back to regular awfulposting) Have some silly shit to take your mind off things

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