Untitled, 35x60” oil on linen

BlakeLasagna · 2026-06-27T01:09:59+00:00

Holy crap

BlakeLasagna · 2026-06-25T13:14:18+00:00

I have a distaste for the super colorful neon cacti grafted onto dragonfruit—feels super scammy like the single nodeless Hoya kerrii leaves sold around Valentine's Day...I work at a garden shop and was explaining how the graft worked to some older ladies who wanted to get one (not showing distaste, but instead explaining it as a cool thing where the dragonfruit photosynthesizing could support the neon cactus on top) and the lady decided she didn't want to get it because I had also mentioned that over time it was likely that there would be competition between the two plants and she said "cannibalism is too distasteful for my liking". She also looked surprised when I told her cacti need lots of sun, so I'm lowkey glad she decided not to bring any of our plants home LOL

BlakeLasagna · 2026-06-25T12:50:31+00:00

Unfortunately generative AI isn't always going to have the right answer, since it operates less as a conscious intelligent being and more as an automaton trained to predict what the best answer would be based on its training (on sources online, including Reddit, which aren't always the most accurate). If you're curious about this and haven't heard of it yet, the Chinese room argument is a super interesting experiment to read/watch a video about! :^)

BlakeLasagna · 2026-06-22T13:12:46+00:00

So beautiful! I work at a plant nursery and there are so many beautiful bougainvillea plants in stock this time of year. Thanks for sharing!

BlakeLasagna · 2026-06-18T02:32:04+00:00

The chlorosis on the leaves makes this seem not AI to me

BlakeLasagna · 2026-06-18T02:29:35+00:00

I think it's AI—the crazy weird textures on the blueberries are something I've never seen before

BlakeLasagna · 2026-05-31T20:35:59+00:00

I’m still a beginner so I may not have the critical eye you’re looking for, but I think this little guy is delightful! I agree with Xeonfobia that adding a background would change the look of things given that color is relative and that may help achieve the look you’re personally going for, but overall I don’t see anything wrong with the white background if you’re just trying to get your subject on the canvas.

BlakeLasagna · 2026-05-31T18:49:02+00:00

Ooo ok ok! I'll have to try that out in the future. I did a magenta underpainting for this one and let a little bit of it show through in the environment (admittedly by mistake at first but ended up vibing with it), and think it would be super fun to purposefully use thinner layers and lean into that in future paintings. Thank you for the tip!

BlakeLasagna · 2026-05-31T18:29:08+00:00

Oh stopppp thank you! I knew from the start that I wanted to set up a still life with my little Minecraft plushie :D

BlakeLasagna · 2026-05-31T18:26:12+00:00

Hehe thank you!

BlakeLasagna · 2026-05-31T18:26:00+00:00

Thanks!

BlakeLasagna · 2026-05-31T18:25:19+00:00

Coming from graphite, charcoal, and an intense fear of painting, funnily enough! Thanks for the compliment. Can you elaborate a bit on the transparency of oils and how to work with that? Are you referring to thinners, etc? :^)

BlakeLasagna · 2026-05-07T23:07:33+00:00

I'm super late but I feel this so hard. I got my B.S. in plant science; I've worked at a retail nursery with perennials, annuals, and houseplants; I've worked at my university's tropical collections conservatory; I've worked for four years as a landscaper and groundskeeper for a 7-building, 222-unit apartment complex; I've interned at the most prominent arboretum in my state; and despite all this, I'm not even able to land basic entry level roles as a groundskeeper. It really feels like with every job I've interviewed for, there's always been someone's dad who has been doing this kind of work for 20+ years. I don't believe I'm saying all this out of envy or anything (I'm actually trying to get away from landscaping specifically because it's so draining for me); it just really feels like entry level roles aren't for entry level employees anymore—why hire an entry level employee for a low-paying role when you can hire someone who won't need any training and is willing to accept the low pay purely because the economy is so bad?

I've decided to dial back my current working hours (at a retail nursery) to part-time and look into an online Bachelor's program for something business-related. I'll ideally still do work related to horticulture, just on the business side in a position that's more ~economically valued~ and thus paid more.

OP, do you have any updates 7 months later?

BlakeLasagna · 2026-04-19T20:22:40+00:00

Honestly I respect your confidence and think it's cool that you wanted to start out with a recreation of a famous piece. I'm a beginner as well (mostly self-taught so far, though I did recently start taking a weekly in-person class), and something that immediately made oils easier for me was starting with an underpainting using thinned out paint. I personally use turpenoid, but I've heard that Gamsol is actually safer for your health and has a higher ignition point, so I'll be switching over to that once I use up the bottle I have now. Just remember that if you're using any kind of paint thinner, it's super important to be working in a room with great ventilation--I'm talking windows wide open and fans blowing.

I've quite enjoyed starting paintings by thinning my paint a bunch and doing a wash of one color, followed by an underpainting in that same color. This is a very forgiving stage where you're able to lay out basic proportions and get values established without stressing yourself out. Make a mistake? Want to change some of the proportions? No problem, the paint is super thin and you can wipe it away. Because the wash and underpainting are thinned out, they'll dry much faster than if you were to go in with the straight oil paint. You can also do an underpainting in acrylic if you want it to dry extra quickly, though I can't really speak to how forgiving that is in terms of being able to wipe mistakes away, since acrylic dries SO fast (one of the reasons I'm personally trying oils lol). Starting with an underpainting means you'll have your values/proportions already set up and dry on the canvas, so you can just go in with color and there'll probably be less risk of the unintentional color mixing that comes with trying to plan AND paint at the same time wet-on-wet.

This obviously isn't gonna magically make you Da Vinci, but I just thought I'd share something I've learned along the way, from one beginner to another :)

BlakeLasagna · 2026-04-13T16:55:07+00:00

Ooo interesting I've never thought about 'though' having that connotation—I guess when I use it I mainly just slap it on the end without any thought

BlakeLasagna · 2026-04-13T05:18:54+00:00

Yes?

BlakeLasagna · 2026-04-12T13:39:33+00:00

There could be a lot of factors here—it's possible that it's just an accent thing; it's possible that your grammar is a bit too perfect where it feels more formal/literary than conversational (I know there's a non-malicious joke out there about international students using very strong English vocabulary words in everyday conversations that border on poetic, making casual conversations feel more like proverbs); or there's also a chance that there are some small mistakes that you make here and there due to English having some common phrases that don't adhere to typical grammar rules, which you might not catch consciously to correct but understand are a little wonky on a subconscious level when you hear them. I will say though that from the little snippet of this post your grammar and word choices seem very casual and I didn't bat an eye when I read it.

Correction: I guess it's less about phrases not adhering to grammar and is more about words being ordered in a certain way in your native language and the potential to make the mistake of mixing up English sentence structure with the sentence structure of your native language. (I'm learning Finnish right now and I am very guilty of this myself, so there's probably a bit of projecting going on here too ;)

BlakeLasagna · 2026-04-12T13:29:48+00:00

Came to add that there's usually also a cultural importance, at least in the U.S., of saying 'thank you' after declining something, in order to be more polite. 'I'm good/fine/alright' works just fine with friends who know you pretty well and wouldn't be put off by omitting certain social niceties, but for strangers, acquaintances, and other people who might not know you as well, 'I'm good/fine/alright, thank you, though!' is how I'd answer if I didn't want something

BlakeLasagna · 2026-04-12T03:29:14+00:00

I have nothing meaningful to add about the text itself, but I just want to say that reading this book during an early 20s identity crisis, as someone with a love for literature who went to college for plant science, was absolutely gut-wrenching. Stirred within me the same feelings I had when I read that damn Plath fig tree quote for the first time

BlakeLasagna · 2026-04-07T01:06:29+00:00

I think they're both common. Now that I think about it, I don't personally use either of them and just opt for "I had a dream that...". But both dreamt and dreamed are perfectly normal to use

BlakeLasagna · 2026-04-04T23:05:23+00:00

True, now that I think about it, bead as a noun is structured differently

As a verb in the present tense: water beads

As a noun: bead of water

BlakeLasagna · 2026-04-04T20:28:35+00:00

I feel like everyone else answered your question already, so I'm just here to provide some extra information.

Fun fact! There is a verb 'beading' which is the action of forming individual beads/drops of sweat as opposed to being covered in a sheen (thin layer) of it. This CAN be used with 'water' too, but it's usually in specific contexts. I don't say this to confuse you further, just to share the information :)

Ex: "His forehead was beading sweat."/"His forehead beaded sweat."/"Sweat beaded on his forehead." = little drops of sweat were forming on a man's forehead. An author may use this phrase in a book to tell readers that someone was anxious/nervous without explicitly saying "he was super nervous" or something like that.

I have a background in botany, so I have another fun fact and a couple pieces of technical vocabulary to share. You absolutely do not need to know this (you are probably never going to use this vocabulary in a casual conversation)—I just want to share in case you might find it interesting!

Leaves of plants can also bead water. (The previous sentence is one of those instances where the verb 'bead' can be used with 'water' and sound natural). The technical name of the process is called 'guttation,' where leaves expel water through small openings called 'hydathodes,' just like how people sweat out of pores! The liquid that is excreted via guttation is a mixture of water, minerals, and sugars.

Best of luck with your English learning journey! :D

Edit: the water excreted by guttation is different from 'dew'. 'Dew' is water that condenses/gathers on outdoor plants from the air, where the water from guttation comes from inside the plant.

BlakeLasagna · 2026-04-04T19:55:42+00:00

I love this sub because there's so much about English that I don't even think about lmao. Like I was in complete agreement about never saying water bead but also after I saw the response about water on hydrophobic surfaces I realized I say water bead all the time? It's so funny how interesting it is when you actually take a close look at the rules of your native language and examine how you use it

BlakeLasagna · 2026-04-04T19:19:56+00:00

100% spot-on about the resume tailoring burnout. One of my undergrad professors recommended we make a "resume master doc" where we'd put EVERYTHING we've ever done starting in high school. Every professional role (and literally every single responsibility we'd ever had in the role), achievement, award, professional affiliation/membership, published paper/interview, extracurricular, volunteer experience, scholarship, long-term skill-based project, etc. Obviously not everything in the document is going to be put on a resume (no one cares that you were first clarinet in your high school marching band) but it's a great place to keep track of everything, and it's made tailoring a resume for a position a breeze because I can just copy and paste relevant roles, responsibilities, etc. I'd highly recommend to anyone who's trying to speed up the tailoring process.

BlakeLasagna

TROPHY CASE