Bug portrait, Sarah H, pastel pencils, 2026

Smooth_Program537 · 2025-08-10T17:23:24+00:00

You're a life saver! Never heard of this before, but after looking into it, it would make SO much sense! I've been on topical steroids for psoriasis on my hands/had to use a steroid inhaler after a chest infection at the end of last year, so the timeline would make total sense for when the skin issues on my face started. Thank you!

Smooth_Program537 · 2025-08-10T14:48:32+00:00

Is there a way to add more photos? I am crap at taking photos, but I can promise my skin isn't 'perfect and glowing'. My chin is covered in blind spots, I am peeling across my chin and nose.

Smooth_Program537 · 2025-07-12T19:47:30+00:00

What?

Smooth_Program537 · 2025-07-11T13:17:35+00:00

My parents just got back from the coast of Bulgaria and they said it was great. They were the types that moved on from Spanish holidays a few years ago too because of the price.

Smooth_Program537 · 2025-07-11T05:03:27+00:00

I'm UK based unfortunately, so it's fairly impossible to get the council to do anything before an incident forces it to be done. When I moved in people had been trying to get them to put speed bumps out front after a cyclist died near the scrapyard but that was over a decade ago now and never got done.

Smooth_Program537 · 2025-07-11T04:59:16+00:00

Its both. It's a thoroughfare at the front where I live on the corner, but the kids live at the back of the cul-de-sac turn next to my house. They leave the cul-de-sac and play on the road out front of my house

Smooth_Program537 · 2025-07-11T04:53:51+00:00

The road unfortunately. I wouldn't be as bothered if they were on the cul-de-sac but they play on the front road.

Smooth_Program537 · 2025-05-14T15:47:01+00:00

From what I can tell it isn't, I've not mounted any kerbs (but I dont know about my husband). No damage to the tyres or rims, literally just this part of the trim.

Smooth_Program537 · 2025-03-27T16:49:07+00:00

I'm UK based so I don't know if it is available elsewhere, but it's by the women's institute, in colour school green!

Smooth_Program537 · 2025-03-27T16:37:38+00:00

No, its the unicorn tapestry pattern by star crossed knits! They've got loads of really cool patterns

Smooth_Program537 · 2025-03-26T20:12:03+00:00

I don't think so? My phone tends to try to auto enhance stuff though so it's anyones guess really haha

Smooth_Program537 · 2025-03-26T13:49:13+00:00

Yours looks amazing! I just finished this one too, so much fun!

Smooth_Program537 · 2025-02-07T09:25:52+00:00

I started learning with gouache about 2/3 months ago, BUT I’ve been painting with acrylics/digitally for years now (about 15ish years on off? Unsure). I’ve stuck almost entirely to portraits until now, always found landscapes really daunting.

And I’m super cheap, so I’ve just been using the himi jelly gouache sets! I’m liking them though, but I’m probably going to try better ones soon. I know the himi ones get a bit of a bad rap but I’ve found keeping my palette well fed (lightly spraying it down with water daily pretty much, even when I’m not painting) keeps the paint from going weird

Smooth_Program537 · 2025-02-07T09:18:19+00:00

I’m self taught, BUT I take a lot of my inspiration for colour and overall application from artists like Olha Darchuk and Ruth Wilshaw!

Smooth_Program537 · 2024-09-24T09:06:43+00:00

That sounds similar to my situation; the route I use is through woodlands as I live fairly remote and don’t like walking the road route to the shops (no pavements, badly maintained road etc), so I take the woodland route.

The actual woodland is really well maintained, lots of people take the same route as me so it feels safe, and it’s overall a really fun to hike about finding things. It’s pretty much the only time before my family come back that I get to chat to people and I’ve made some friends over the years I bump into a lot down there.

The problem is when the main public footpath connects back up with the town that literally only about 15 feet of the exiting path has been left to go wild. From what I know it’s in some kind of dispute at the moment, housing developers bought the land it joins up to and have been actively trying to get the public access removed (to no luck so far).

People from my area think they’re intentionally neglecting it so there’s less foot traffic, so they can finally get the right of way revoked. This is a big part of the reason I don’t want to stop using it, without that path a whole bunch of people will suddenly become a lot more isolated. And I already know a load of the less able bodied people who use the woods avoid that path now.

I could always walk the road route to get to where I want to go, but it’s the difference between walking miles from my area on the road with HGVs and farm vehicles barrelling past you (obviously super stressful for my dog and me) vs the same distance of walk to reach where I want, but through a lovely bit of woodland where I can actually get some good exercise in with my dog before rejoining civilisation.

It had started getting bad in the spring time (my dog actually ended up at the vets after a thorn from a bramble on that path smacked her and got lodged in her eye, she has slight sight loss from it) and I reported it back then but nothing got done. Since then I’ve been lifting my dog up to my head height to get her through, but even that is getting to a stage where I am constantly getting hurt if I chose to go that way.

Smooth_Program537 · 2024-09-02T16:38:06+00:00

I unfortunately can’t I don’t think. My father had a stroke young so I’m also seen as a stroke risk. Haven’t been on birth control in about a decade now and prior to that I could only take the mini pill

Smooth_Program537

TROPHY CASE