Mag Magazine

Editorials

Long form posts containing more detail, discussion, and in depth analysis

  • Faith the Church Cat

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    Rather than follow my normal formula of telling these cats’ stories and then going into the artistic inspirations behind this piece, I’m just going to have the briefest summary of Faith and instead link to this article on the website Purr-n-Fur. It’s a much better story than I could ever write, and made me cry multiple times the first time I read it. I highly recommend reading it.

    The tl:dr if you didn’t want to commit to the article is this: Faith was a stray adopted by the rector of St. Augustine and St. Faith’s Church on Watling Street in London in 1936. In 1940, shortly after having her kitten Panda, she suddenly decided to live in the basement. A few days later while the rector was out, the church was nearly completely destroyed during a German Blitz attack. The rector found her safe and sound, sheltering her kitten in the basement while the church lay in flaming shambles around them. She was awarded an honorary PDSA Dickin Medal for her courage, and when she died at the age of 14 she was buried by the church gates.

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  • Making a Stardew Valley Themed Early 20th Century Calendar Postcard

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    For this month’s mail club I decided to make a Stardew Valley themed bundle, both in honor of the 10th anniversary of the game, but also because it’s been my lifeline while I’ve been sick, giving me just enough mental stimulation while my body figures itself out. In my mail club I always include a post card with the month’s calendar in the style of these old lithographs from The Strobridge Litho. Co. in Cincinnati, Ohio. They were a poster and ad manufacturer for over 100 years, from the mid 1800s to the mid 1900s and employed some major artists of the time to make illustrations including Alphonse Mucha. My favorite ones are by Harry Loud Birdwell, and his prolific portfolio has been the largest inspiration for my postcards.

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  • Romantasy Drop Announcement

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    If you’re my age, you remember the glory days of LiveJournal and following your favorite fantasy authors as they posted behind the scenes and bonus content from the books they’d written. The author of my favorite book, Crown Duel, blessed us with scenes from the POV of the enemies-to-lovers antagonist of the story, which were later included as bonus content in future publications. I read this book when I was twelve, and I’ve been a romantasy die hard fan ever since. My foray into modern romantasy has been a mixed bag, with A Court of Thorns and Roses being just as rough and it was enjoyable, and Fourth Wing being a bit of a slog. But I have hope I’ll be able to find my next hyperfixation yet!

    I found the first editions at a a Half Price Books recently and I almost cried . I read these after they’d been put back together in a single two part novel, but they were originally published as two separate books, Crown Duel and Court Duel.

    For Valentine’s this year, I wanted to show my love for the genre. Bookmarks have been in my repertoire for a while now, but I wanted to expand my book accessories and include e-reader users. There will also be some romantasy themed jewelry and suncatchers, as well as other fun things! I’ll actually be using the toille de jouy dragons and roses pattern I made, as well as coming out with some new designs. Stay tuned for more updates and announcements, and make sure you’re signed up for my newsletter to get something special on February 1st!

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  • Floral Sketches

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    These past few months have been full of adventure. My husband and I were technically already married in July for insurance reasons (love living in the US), but we had our big ceremony in November. On the way back from our honeymoon we hit some road debris that completely wiped out a couple of wheels on my husband’s truck. Because insurance has been awful, we’ve been without a vehicle in suburban Texas for over two months. I’ve also had a bit of family drama that surfaced during the holidays, and then I had my wisdom teeth removed and it’s been having a rough recovery. All in all, I need a break.

    I have so many plans I want to work on. I’m still planning on having a Valentine’s drop, aiming for February 1st, and I’m working on my next historical animal piece, but I can tell I’ve been swimming against the current trying to get things finished. So, I’m stepping back, just a little. I’ve never been much of a doodler, I’ve always felt like I need to be working on something complete and purposeful, but yesterday I decided to just sit down and draw some flowers.

    And it was fun. It only took me an hour or so, and then a friend recommended I turn it into a wallpaper, which took another hour. Now all I want to do is draw plants. The weather here is dreadful in all the best ways, so this morning I sat down and started sketching some bleeding heart orchids. These might get used in something in the future, but for now I’m just taking a deep breath and enjoying art for art’s sake and nothing more.

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  • Simon of the HMS Amethyst

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    An illustration of an a tuxedo cat in the Art Nouveau style. There is a blue and green border with swirling waves, a painting of the HMS Amethyst ship, and the text "Simon of the HMS Amethyst: Throughout the Yangtse Incident His behaviour was of the highest order"

    The year was 1948, on Stonecutters Island in Hong Kong when a young seaman of the Royal Navy by the name of George Hickinbottom, who had a penchant for rescuing animals, found a malnourished tuxedo kitten wandering the dockyard. He smuggled him onboard the HMS Amethyst in his coat, named him Simon, and made him the ship’s chief mouser.

    The next year the Amethyst was heading up the Yangtze river to Nanking to guard the British Embassy during the Chinese Civil War. About 100 miles up river they fell under fire by the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) when they ignored the warning to stay away. Who was at fault for starting what became known as the Yangtze Incident is not my place to say. I am not a historian, nor am I familiar with the Chinese political landscape and British involvement of the time. What I can say is that many people on the Amethyst were killed or injured and the ship ran aground when trying to escape the gunfire. Attempts of escape or rescue were foiled by the PLA, and they remained stranded for ten weeks.

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  • 30+ Gift Ideas for Digital Artists

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    I’m so bad at getting gifts for people. I have plenty of ideas, but when it comes time to actually buy or make them, my brain is empty. I always intend to write down ideas as they come to me throughout the year, but the ADHD strikes and I move on before I get the chance. I know I’m not alone with this, and I hear people constantly saying they don’t know what to get me either, so I decided to do something about it. There’s tons of gifts tailored to traditional artists, and plenty to people with desk jobs, but there aren’t a lot for people who are artists who work at desks, like myself. If you have a digital artist in your life, I can almost guarantee they’ll like at least a couple of these.

    Disclaimer: I am NOT affiliated with any of these products or brands. These are honest ideas I have had organically through research online and amongst friends, as well as my own experiences and wishlist. I try to link to the original creator of each item and avoid places like Amazon where I can. Shop small and shop local when possible!

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  • How I Use Art Nouveau in My Art

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    I’ve been implementing Art Nouveau styles into my art for a few years now. I always struggled defining my style, but back in 2023 I did an Alphonse Mucha study and it opened my eyes to all the possibilities. The general concepts of what I recognized as Art Nouveau, like the flowing lines, strong outlines, florals, and the the circle behind the figure, were all present and I wanted to do more. These are the ways I’ve taken those ideas and use them in my art.

    My study of Mucha’s F. Champenois poster
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  • What is Art Nouveau?

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    Art Nouveau as a style is pretty striking. With its flowing lines and abstract shapes, it sometimes looks almost like it’s something out of science fiction. But what is it and where did it come from?

    History

    Art Nouveau began in Europe as a direct response to the Industrial Revolution in the late 19th century. The advent of factories and heavily populated cities created an environment that to many was crowded and oppressive. Work hours were long, industrial waste was polluting the sky and water, and people were becoming more and more separated from nature. By the 1880s some artists and architects began experimenting with a mix of old and new concepts as an answer. They looked to the romantic ethereal nature of the Pre-Raphelites of previous decades, the graphic styles of the newly accessible Japan, and the new possibilities of modern materials. The main goal was to bring nature indoors, to reintroduce the beauty of natural concepts to an increasingly manufactured world, using inexpensive materials such as paper, concrete, iron, and glass.

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  • A Trial of Dragons and Roses

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    I recently rediscovered the joys of reading. Like many gifted and talented undiagnosed neurodivergent kids in the 90s and Naughties, fantasy worlds were my haven from a world that didn’t understand me. I burned through books faster than a furnace set to 451 degrees Fahrenheit, nearly clearing out my local library’s JFIC and YA sections between the ages of 11 and 15. And then as the story goes, college extinguished that one unadulterated joy. The responsibilities of adulthood coupled with coming out as queer in the conservative southern United States left me too exhausted to do much of anything outside of work and surviving. Then the pandemic hit and with the extra time I got a tiny taste of getting lost in a book again. It was Crown Duel by Sherwood Smith, my favorite book as a teen and still one of my favorites today, but it still wasn’t quite enough to break through that wall that had been cultivated over the previous eight years. But then this summer I swallowed my physical book purist pride and got a Kobo e-reader. The wall was destroyed and the furnace rekindled. I reread Crown Duel to get me back into the swing of things, then demolished A Court of Thorns and Roses and Fourth Wing in short order. While neither of those were the most wonderful series ever, I was inspired to add a bit more whimsy to my art.

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  • Laika

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    In total the Soviet Union sent seventy-one dogs up to space during the thirty years of 1957 and 1987, in a frantic race with the United States to establish their superiority in space technology. Though public interest began in 1951, it wasn’t until six years later that the Soviets won their first victory, on October 4th of 1957 when they successfully launched Sputnik 1, the first artificial Earth satellite. Buoyed by the success, Premier Nikita Krushchev wanted something even more spectacular only a month later, to celebrate the 40 year anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution on November 7th.

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