I came, I saw, I caught them all.
Actually, no, not yet. I'm only Level 11 and everyone who has captured gyms is way beyond my level. However, I've found Pokemon Go is a great excuse to get out of the house, go on evening walks, and enjoy the community even more! I've learned to get out and enjoy life and not stay cooped up in my little bubble. It's been a great ice breaker! As someone who enjoyed the original Pokemon TV series, Nintendo Gameboy, and Pokemon Snap on the Nintendo 64– I'm fairly attached to the original 150 Pokemon.
I've enjoyed exploring the (somewhat limited) app, and while I know at least until we will eventually be able to battle each other and trade, I hope the server issues are fixed soon. I enjoy hunting down Pokestops and finding the weird art murals and statues around the city, like ripped zombie Jesus statue below (I went to Catholic school for 9 years and I've never seen a crucifix that creepy). However, I'd like to be able to go on hunts without the app crashing. We went on a hunt at a historical park and drove to different parts of the city, only to find our adventure wasn't as satisfying since the servers were down most of the day. Oh well, it still got us out of the house and gave us a reason to explore!
Other than that, I've started a new project, Fiama from Cool Mini or Not. Unfortunately, 15 minutes into painting her, I came down with a violent case of the hiccups. I had 7 seconds in between each jolting hiccup and I wet blended furiously in between. I'm working on a more rugged skintone and practicing blending all the way up to white. I blocked out her skin with a grey primer to make it easier to apply the skin base coats. I'm working with Reaper paints and it's nice to practice my wet blending, though I find the end result is a bit thicker than I'd like. Either way, I'm enjoying this painterly approach and I look forward to seeing how it evolves. I ended up having to quit painting after 30 minutes since the hiccups were so frustrating. I tried holding my breath, sitting with my head between my legs, calming breathing techniques– nothing helped. I finally got in bed and they subsided eventually once I truly calmed down.
Later, I worked on my newest anthropomorphic figure project– "Cheetah Girl" from Reaper Miniatures. I'm going to paint her as a mountain lion and begin with a dark base coat and work my way up to a light khaki– probably "Terran Khaki" from the MSP paint line. I'm going to give her yellow eyes and I haven't yet decided on her jerkin color and overall color scheme. The musculature on this miniature is fun to paint and I look forward to blending and using a light feathering brush stroke to hint at the idea of fur on the highlights. We'll see how she turns out!
Until next time– happy painting and good hunting in Pokemon Go!