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2023/12/13

December 13, 2023
A giant, furry red creature with two pointy ears and round, shiny, insect-like eyes pilots a white two-wheeled vehicle. The vehicle looks like a bicycle, but instead of a seat and pedals, it has a tiny basket that looks like the lower half of an egg. There is no obvious engine or propulsion system. The creature is, impossibly, squeezed into the basket. A creature this size would presumably have very large legs, but no legs are visible. The overall effect is of a giant red bear riding a cartoonishly tiny bicycle. The background of the drawing is black.

2023/12/12

December 12, 2023
An irregularly shaped, translucent object, sort of like a lump of frosted glass or ice. Sitting inside the object is a blurry figure of a person holding a glowing object in their hand; perhaps a phone. The drawing is white lines on a black background.

2023/12/11

December 11, 2023
A clear, starry night. In the middle of a meadow stands a tall, boxy stone column with the word "here" carved into it. Visible in the sky behind it is an asteroid flaming towards earth, presumably headed for the designated landing spot.

2023/12/10

December 10, 2023
A skull and crossbones, except the skull is that "grimace" emoji: a round face with two dots for eyes and a mouth in a straight, horizontal line showing teeth. The face and bones are white, on a black background.

2023/12/09

December 9, 2023
A person stands under a streetlight, holding a phone. The streetlight looks like it may be placed in a city park at night. The scene is rendered in an impressionist style; the light is surrounded by a blast of yellow, neon green, and white. The glow is rendered in thick brushstrokes. Behind the light is the suggestion of a deep blue night, and symmetric rows of lights suggesting buildings. There are a few bright red dots that might be traffic lights or warning lights on buildings. In the top right is a smaller glowing object that could be the moon.

2023/12/08

December 8, 2023
A tall, jagged, rocky promontory, of the sort you'd find in a desert. There are blurry suggestions of similar formations in the background. The red sun blazes high in the sky. This looks like high noon on some remote desert, perhaps even on a different planet. The drawing is composed primarily of four colors: a yellow sky, a red sun, and the black rock that's blazing red on the side towards the sun and a deep blue on the side facing away from it.

2023/12/07

December 7, 2023
A person wearing a sharp blue suit and tie stands, arms akimbo, controlling a small marionette-figure in each hand. The person's head is a giant rage emoji, styled to look like the one used by Facebook: a scowling icon with the top part flushed red-orange, flames appearing to leap from the top. The background is white, and the marionettes and the ground they stand on is a dark navy blue.

2023/12/06

December 6, 2023
A person stands on a grassy hillside, silhouetted in the dull afternoon light. Buried in the ground below the person is a huge red speech balloon with some strange alien writing in it. The tail of the balloon points to the figure's mouth, snaking out of the ground like a red sprout from a giant red seed. It looks as though the person is consigning a vast, weird secret into the earth. The sky is yellowish green; the hillside, drawn like a cutaway, is gray-black; the intricate writing inside the balloon is yellow.

2023/12/05

December 5, 2023
A spooky, abandoned castle looms out of the fog on a dim evening. Visible is a tall, wide tower the size and shape of an apartment building, with a crenellated top, and—in front of it—a smaller wing with a sloped roof and a round window at the top. Behind it is a forest. Standing in front of the castle is a small figure holding a glowing yellow lantern. The figure appears to be standing in a low layer of fog. At the top of the tower, looking back, is another figure: a glowing white one. The background is mostly a dull blue with hints of green and yellow. The drawing is shades of dark blue.

2023/12/04

December 4, 2023
A creature with no arms, two short legs, and a round, bulbous body that is also its head. The creature has no mouth or nose, just one large, emerald-green eye in the middle of its head. It is primarily white, with a slight blue texturing. Bizarrely, it is wearing a black top hat. The background of the drawing is crimson with tints of yellow. The drawing looks like it was drawn in oil crayons.

2023/12/03

December 3, 2023
A person wearing a long cloak and top hat stands near a light. The person's face is disturbingly clownish, with garish pink makeup on their lips and eyes. The person appears to loom towards the viewer. The drawing looks like it is rendered in oil; the texture is rough, the details blurry. The background of the drawing is yellow, and the figure is blue. The left side of the figure has white light reflecting off of it; the right side has a bluish-green tint, as though reflecting a pale green light from somewhere else.

2023/12/02

December 2, 2023
A tall, blocky object that looks like a spaceship or a machine built for traveling. The object is roughly the size and shape of a small tenement building. It has angular, irregular sides, and an overall alien shape and appearance. It has two mechanical legs that keep it upright. On the top and on the lower left side are placed two glowing red lights. The object has two glowing green slots in the top left and a glowing green window in the top right. White steam is pouring out of the object from the middle of the lower left. On the lower right of the object, a hatchway is opened, revealing internals. Someone is standing on a platform, looking into the hatchway and making repairs. The background is blue; the drawing is black; the lights and windows have white highlights, and are red and neon green.

2023/12/01

December 1, 2023
A creature with no arms, a sharp nose, and two large horns. The creature is viewed in profile, with only one eye visible. The creature seems to be wearing a monocle in that eye. The creature looks as though it's wearing large, iron pants; that, or seated in a baby-carriage-like conveyance that has two legs instead of wheels. The background of the drawing is bright orange; the pants are black, the creature is white.

2023/11/30

November 30, 2023
A large yellow speech balloon, containing no text, just an enormous face with two round, empty eyes and a large toothy smile. It looks like a cross between the standard smiley-face icon and a monstrous jack-o'-lantern. The speech balloon is coming from a small figure in the lower right of the drawing. The figure is a silhouette with no defining features and stands in the middle of a small round shadow. The background of the drawing is bright red; the speech balloon and face is yellow; the figure is off-white; and the shadow is dark purple.

2023/11/29

November 29, 2023
A large, blobby, red smiley-face that seems to be made of candy, melted plastic, or some sticky substance. The smiley-face looks like it is suspended in the air; dangling from it is a long drippy strand. Standing below the face is a small person, holding the strand as though it's a balloon string. The face is much bigger than the person, and looks like it's the size of a weather balloon in comparison. The background of the drawing is light gray, and the person is midnight blue.

2023/11/28

November 28, 2023
A tall, wedge-shaped rock. It looks like a stone spearhead planted point-up in the ground. Emanating from two points in the rock is a ghost. A moon—or maybe the sun?—hangs in the sky. The drawing is black ink on a yellow background. The ghost is white, and the celestial body is also rendered in white.

2023/11/27

November 27, 2023
A large golden helmet, like that worn with a suit of medieval armor, seen from the side. While clearly made of metal, the helmet also has folds and striations that suggest cloth. The visor is down, and instead of a grill pattern, it has a smiley face: two eyeholes and a mouth. Since this is viewed from the side, only one of the eyeholes is visible. The helmet has a white plume on the top, and two legs emerging from below; someone is wearing it as a full body costume. This is either a very small person, or a very large helmet. The person has dark slacks and white shoes. The helmet is gold-colored on a bright purple background.

2023/11/26

November 26, 2023
Two black rubber boots, positioned as though someone is standing in them, with steam rising out of each to form a large, amorphous cloud. The background of this drawing is gray; the boots are black; the steam is white.

2023/11/25

November 25, 2023
A person, mostly covered by what looks like a popsicle. The person is immersed in a rectangular, semi-translucent block of something: straight sides and a rounded top. The person's arms aren't visible. The person seems to be walking. The drawing is black ink on a neon green background. The light reflecting off the top of the popsicle is white.

2023/11/24

November 24, 2023
A large, green, translucent block: maybe ice, maybe soap, maybe Jell-O. A human figure is partly embedded in the block, from the waist up. No arms are visible, just the blurry form of the figure's upper body. The figure's two legs extend below the block. The effect is of a person wearing a very realistic popsicle costume. The drawing is glowing, radioactive-green ink on a black background. The legs of the figure are gray; the light reflecting off the popsicle is white.

2023/11/23

November 23, 2023
A small, grassy island in the middle of the water. The only thing on the island is a large billboard-like sign, as wide as the island, with the words "here be dragons" on it in rough, weatherbeaten lettering. The sign is pretty weatherbeaten itself, with worn edges and a chunk missing from the lower right corner. The only other thing visible are wispy clouds behind the sign. The drawing is gray-green ink on a light gray-green background. The clouds and some of the water texture are white.

2023/11/22

November 22, 2023
A chaotic background of black and white stripes, like television static. In the foreground is a grotesque figure, visible from the chest up. It's a man with a broad, sallow face, wearing sunglasses with thick white rims. The man has a wide nose; a solid, cleft jaw; and short blondish hair the same color of his skin, arranged in an unnaturally neat style that looks like a parody of a fashionable haircut. The man's mouth is twisted into a leer, one thick pink lower lip visible. The man is wearing an ugly brown suit with a white shirt and a black tie. This, to anybody who's vaguely familiar with weird happenings, is Max Headroom—more specifically, the version of him that unexpectedly showed up on Chicago TV stations on this day in 1987. If you're wondering what's happened, so am I.

2023/11/21

November 21, 2023
A grassy field with a tall, thin building placed to the left of it. The building looks like the profile of a human face: more specifically, that "talking head" icon designed by Susan Kare for classic Mac operating systems. It's a thin, blocky head, comprised entirely of rectangles. The eye is a rectangular window high on the face; the mouth is just a horizontal line. To the right of the building is a misty white speech bubble, with a window set in it directly across from the building/face's eye. Both the window in the building and the window in the speech bubble have the profile of a human figure standing inside. The drawing is indigo ink on a bright yellow background. The speech bubble is white.

2023/11/20

November 20, 2023
A figure stands silhouetted against the sky. In the background is a city skyline of skyscrapers. In the sky, where the sun would be, is a giant black ball, sort of an inverted sun that resembles a black hole or a vortex. The figure, mostly black, has small yellow rectangles on it, suggesting the windows of a skyscraper. Other than those specks of yellow, the drawing is black and indigo ink on a light blue background.

2023/11/19

November 19, 2023
A creature with a giant head, in profile, and three legs. The head looks vaguely like the talking head icon from old Macintosh operating systems: elongated nose; very simple facial features; a vertical line for an eye and a horizontal line for a mouth. On the side of its head, where its cheek would be, is a large, slightly dimensional speech balloon with a blue lightning bolt inside it. The drawing is blue ink on a green background. The creature's eye, and some of the shading on the speech balloon, is white.

2023/11/18

November 18, 2023
An intricate pattern of geometric shapes, lines, and textures that form a rough, robotic face. It looks like a blueprint for a mask or a microchip. The drawing is mostly white ink on a medium-blue background, with some shapes drawn in yellow, green, and a translucent highlighter pink.

2023/11/17

November 17, 2023
A large figure with two small legs, no arms, a bulky upper body, and a head that looks like a space helmet with horns. Where the face would be is a round glass window with nothing visible through it. On the creature's chest is a lightning-bolt symbol. Extending down from the upper side of the creature's chest is a cable attached to a small rectangular box, making it look like the creature is recharging or refueling. The drawing is bright leaf-green ink on a dark brown background.

2023/11/16

November 16, 2023
A dark night. Rearing up out of the ground is what appears to be a tree, although it's hard to make out in the gloom. The tree does not have any branches, it's just a winding trunk, extending upward. Hanging in the sky, right behind the tree, is a large orange moon with a smiley-face on it. Below, to the left of the tree, emerging out of the gloom, is a figure wearing a tall hat and carrying a lantern, which casts an orange light on the trunk of the tree. The figure is dimly illuminated by both the lantern and the smiling moon in the sky. The drawing is black ink on a dark blue background. The moon is orange; the lantern and lantern light is yellow.

2023/11/15

November 15, 2023
A large, spherical cartoon bomb, but upside down and hovering in space, so the fuse is hanging below it. Standing under the bomb, holding the fuse as though the bomb is a giant balloon, is a small figure. The fuse is lit. The drawing is black ink on an orange background, with the lit fuse and reflections rendered in white.

2023/11/14

November 14, 2023
A large torso with two legs and no arms. Where the head and shoulders would be is a grassy surface. This is the lower half of a creature, made from soil. The creature stands on a field at night. No moon is visible, but there seems to be moonlight reflecting off the creature. Stuck in the grassy top part of the creature is a short shovel. Buried inside the creature is a crumbling skull, off which the moonlight is also reflecting even though it's totally buried in the soil. This is a black drawing on a dark blue surface, with the moonlight rendered in very pale blue.

2023/11/13

November 13, 2023
A flat plane: maybe a desert, but it kind of looks like a frozen lake. In the distance are craggy mountains. Positioned on the plane nearer to the viewer, like an iceberg poking out of the ice, is a sharply angular mountain or boulder. Walking across the plane next to the boulder is a small figure, casting a shadow. The drawing is dark blue ink on the light blue background. In the sky, the clouds are rendered in white.

2023/11/12

November 12, 2023
A scene at night. A ramshackle construction sits on a beach: a small shack, with another shack raised on stilts, fused into one corner of the first one. Both have windows, but the window in the ground-floor shack is lit. A television aerial is planted on the roof of the second shack. Flying over both of them is a large pirate flag, fixed to a pole emerging from roof of the ground-floor shack. This is a slightly different design of a pirate flag, though: instead of a skull, there's a smiley-face. The moon sits right above the horizon, reflecting on the ocean, either rising or setting. The drawing is rendered in black ink; the lit window is yellow; the moon is a pale white, and the rest of the scene is dark blue.

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    All work © Chris Silverman