Christopher Paulsen

Kittens

When it comes to art, I’m still super broken and I basically never get further than drawing a head in a sketchbook before my body collapses. And a key reason for the extra ugly downfall is… KITTENS!

At the start of the year, I told everyone that I scheduled dental work for June, and to be ready cuz it always wrecks me. Instead, they all went on vacation when I needed them the most. Including my mother, who left me with a house of kittens to watch over as well - so I was doing EXTRA ...

I made a keychain

Health update first, as has become my habit: IT BAD.

I am still baffled over how many times I *almost* got over the hump, only for some RIDICULOUS bad luck event to destroy me.

We know the crash began when I was mostly better, when a pharmacy nightmare destroyed me. Then… no idea. Something I did mid-December put me far away from even seeing that hump, and I’m not sure what. (I know doing the big art piece after was… ungood on me.) So I’m getting worse and terrified I was...

Months and months…

It’s a little sketch. A sketch that would be 20 minutes of work to the old Chrispy, while at a convention, drawn as I talked to a client about their idea, so they could approve the thumbnail and be confident they’d get what they wanted.

Folks, this little sketch took *months* to reach. Because - say it with me, like the chorus of the worst song - “It’s. THAT. Baaaaad!”

Last time I made sketches, seen in the prior Patreon post, someone asked for a commission a...

Would if I Could

I finally got a clear week - first one since early November - and indeed I suddenly looked down to find myself doing chores and idly sketching, cuz it was the immense pain blocking me.

I decided to devote a day to trying to make sketchbook works that were worthy of sharing. And I made a few! (Sorry for focusing on counting stripes and forgetting pants, Nate. I want a ref sheet for her and Aaron, and it’s ridiculous how it’s been 5 years with that mission and I still haven’t had th...

The Blueybacle

It’s me, so everything is at mimimim a *little* cursed at all times.

Short summary before the massive spiraling: Waiting until things re-synced, I shut down and just watched Bluey on repeat for a week or so. I couldn’t process anything else, so that’s infected my first post-Botox finished drawing! That Twitter thread of madness only represents a fracti...

On to the next cycle…

TL;DR - I got my Botox injections, so treatment has resumed. And I use some energy on a Fancy Feast drawing in order to have something to share here and justify writing this update:

So we know now I lost 3 months of my life - and probably much longer in recovery time setback - due to a perfect storm of American healthcare awfulness. Now is the time to hope I can start setting things right, even if much is still stacked against me and my EASY TO MAINTAIN DISABILITY THAT COULD’VE BEEN S...

None of this has been fair

Tried shaking off some rust with Rhenna and Aaron sketches. Don’t have to be good. Just gotta be SOMETHING. And it’s just about the ONLY thing done in months. Took fasting, resting/resetting in bed for 16 hours, and a once-a-month medicine to calm the churn enough to cover one sketchbook page. I’ve been trying this whole time, but I’ve been devastated by the worst of American healthcare.

It never occurred to me my pain management office would betray me like they did. I had verba...

Better photos?

What has happened to me is both typical and absolutely beyond what should be possible. Doctors made mistakes and refused to acknowledge them. Then they ignored a dozen calls/letters pointing out I couldn’t survive their mistakes - especially since my Botox injections have expired. Oh, and my new Botox injections were canceled because everyone at Medicare went on holiday and left weeks of claims to sit. I don’t know where they’ll happen now, and every day I get worse.

So, uh, anyo...

It’s so bad, so look at kittens

I am currently suffering from some truly evil actions from my doctor, and I can’t even focus enough to doodle right now. I do not have the energy left to fight properly, and that is being exploited. I’m in a situation where, with reduced help and constant interruption of my treatment plan, I am forced into a Hail Mary. That will cost me ~$9000 out of pocket, as Medicaid won’t cover it, and the holiday season means it’ll take time for me to start it I qualify. I am just so tired.

Donation Drive Art is gaining COLOR

Ok, so, I thought a newer post was here. But, uh, I left a post for this place in my drafts by mistake. And now I’ve gotta write a new one, as I’ve taken multiple steps since then, WHICH I SHOULD HAVE BEEN POSTED HERE TOO. Brain blank. I started one update, but the piece leading it was claimed as a thank you gift, so I wanted to make another to lead off, then THAT one got claimed, so I needed a new headliner, and that’s when I forgot what rewrite I was on, or if I had even published. Wh...

Another slow step

First, the medical update: After my tragedy combo, my body had to hold out until my next Botox injections. Instead, it crashed a few weeks early with me (apparently?) TMJ-ing to the point every meal was excruciating. Now, I’m supposed to get extra help during the Botox period, cuz it wears off earlier than I can get it renewed, and the bruising kicks my ass for two weeks after. Buuuut, my doc decided I was a monster for being in crisis two months in a row, and threw me to the wolves. I shou...

Another foster kitten

The health update is I’m near the end of the 3-month Botox limbo, where it simply didn’t/couldn’t do anything to improve me because so much bad stuff happened to my body that the damage was too great, and it got ugly. It’s been harder and harder for PT’s trigger point therapy to keep up, and skipped areas eventually blew up to the point where I spent weeks unable to eat properly without lots of planning and help. So I’m shut down until we see what the new injections do to help. Th...

Adoption Bribes

If you follow my Twitter - @chrispco - you know me fostering kittens always ends in my body giving out, because if I’m gonna take the hit, I’m not doing a task half-assed!

This time I wasn’t tapped to foster, except a brief stay to prep them, but show off the fosters at an adoption event. And I was REALLY nervous. Not just cuz I fear diseased townspeople, or how my body would give out when I talk for hours - but because I knew these kittens start out extra shy, and take time to wa...

It’s a continue?

Because I’m a huge fragile baby, all it took was some unproductive physical therapy visits to grind me to a halt. But I did get some more done before that… I just forgot to post them here!

Whoops! Things did stagnate after that, tho. Partially cuz Bud’s hair requires a blend of many colored pencils, and enough key pencil colors were down a nub that I put in a reorder. (The ord...

It’s a start…

I had held out hope for a miracle recovery, but it does seem I need to earn my way back from all the horrors I experienced this years.

Well, I don’t really have proper PROOF I’m now starting to break out of the spiral - in the “going from 100 feet down a well to 70 feet down a well, when I was 30 feet down the well a year ago” fashion - but I’ve started to have physical therapy sessions where my trigger point treatment is getting THOROUGH, and may finally be clearing accumula...

Weed Kitty

I did not plan for this dumb joke to be the lone “finished” piece of artwork done during this cursed and tragic period of Worst Botox Cycle Yet, but it happened, and I might as well post it.

It started with a comment on Twitter - @chrispco is where you gotta go to check on my daily rambles and bad sketchery, btw - with me giving myself a busywork task to look at my Momentum OCs and decide what type of Pokémon they’d use if they were a Pokémon game gym boss. Nate was the easiest ...

One more week…

Another filler post just to say I’m here, I’m still waiting for my function window, and I’m sorry.

This nightmare stretch of errors and delays finally had a chance to end, when I get my month-overdue Botox injections on Tuesday. There will still be a recovery period, and I’ll have to juggle returns to sketching with nearly a year of overdue tasks I put off during this mess, but there’s at least a CHANCE of escaping the spiral now.

This past week, after things going badly...

A bajillion directions

Here’s your reminder I was chipping away at a bunch of ideas, cuz my meds had finally been fixed after 6 months of me pointing out what needed to be done, and then I got screwed by insurance big time, so I was already at the point of collapse when my scumbag brother died and broke everyone in the family - cuz EVERYONE was stretched as thin as I was. He filled his destructive role to the end and beyond!

I don’t wanna share my half-posts, cuz I was enjoying building up themes - “Asc...

Power Children

I am currently fostering a litter of five kittens. They are taking up a lot of time that could go to sketching, but I’m fairly certain no one will complain over cat pics while I let my brain percolate on what to write for the latest Momentum sketches. (Which, once again, you can find on Twitter during the lull between sketching and my write-ups. Visiting my media tab lets you directly access the best stuff - aside fr...

A Cursed Life

Stop me if you’ve heard this before: A doc - who is most know for making lots of mistakes, while having a big ego that refuses to admit wrongdoing - is told a med plan is turning out to be a mistake, but his ego makes him stick with the plan instead of listening… which, of course, leads to three months of absolute hell, as the one mistake leads to an improbable run of terrible misfortune, impossibly bad timing to maximize damage and consequences, and the resulting symptoms entering into a...

The Big Dipper

I couldn’t choose just 4 to put in a Twitter post, so I went over here, where 10 are allowed.

I was trying to get Pearl to play for photos, but they got sabotaged by her moving too fast, then the iPhone - once she stood still - insisting what I actually wanted to focus on was the pattern on a background object, or a small line of text on another background object! Definitely not the cat it’s been putting the “this is clearly the subject of the photo” box! That’s just there fo...

Aaron Overflow

Ok, did I really post my quick ref sketchbook pages before I finished Aaron’s? If so, here he is. I suppose I was waiting to finish Phoebe’s - since I technically have a Meret ref already - for the full Top Five. But I just don’t have the style to design Phoebe’s fashion, and keep eject buttoning it, so that post will sit in the “he started it, and one day…” file. Folks, I am so out of it right now I legit don’t know what I’ve shared and where, so I’m going with the option...

The Surname Debacle

DISCLAIMER/ASIDE:

(It took waaaay too long to get the post done, after I wrote most on my phone in a quick burst. But it's superbruise procedure recovery week, so maaaaaaybe planning a colored illustration, then writing an entire followup post inside the initial post was a mistake? Anyway, read deep for why I made this particular sketch! If you care at all about the “salvaging 15yo Chrispy’s bad ideas” aspect of the Momentum busywork, this text may be worth actually r...