Ben Bittner

A sketch of a penguin, covered in transparent orange paint.

Starting a painting.

Oil painting of a tree in a yellow field against a blue sky.

Oil on canvas board 8" x 10"

I'm sure that guy has also been condescended to thousands of times by people who don't look like that.

Holy shit! That's a video I regret watching. That fucking ICE agent just fucking murdered that person! The statement the feds released on the Minneapolis shooting is entirely a goddamned lie! Yes, they shouldn't be throwing around the word "terrorist" so casually, but also that guy murdered her.

I noticed someone advertising a white Chrysler LeBaron for sale. I'll never trade.

No, no, that's what makes a rolling release fun!

It's weird that cruise and crews are homonyms, and I feel like there is potential there for punning, or at least difficult sentences like "The cruise crew crews cruises." I wonder if there's a way to extend it in the manner of n buffalo.

I tell ya, It's getting harder and harder to not blame this on Republicans.

A rectangular spaceship flies across the sky. Space is blue with red and yellow clouds at the top. Loose watercolor sketch.

I've been looking at a lot of John Berkey and John Harris paintings lately. They are both so good, painterly, and wonderful! Space is almost never black in their paintings. Anyway. Another spaceship sketch.

#drawSpaceships #watercolor 6" x 6"

A small space fighter completes a bombing run on a larger ship moored to an asteroid. The ships are white and light blue, space is black and gray. Rough gouache sketch.

4.5 x 6 gouache sketch on black paper.

#DrawSpaceships #gouache #sketch

A small delta wing fighter flies away from a burning cruiser. In space. The ships are white, space is black and blue. Rough watercolor sketch.

Spaceship sketch. Watercolor on paper 5"x7"

#watercolor #spaceShip #drawspaceships

A 9x9 grid of three inch squares, depicting a small white dog rolling around in the grass. Five of the squares have had the grass painted, and there is blue painters tape outlining two of the squares. A watercolor work in progress.

This painting just got to the point where it's starting to look cool, but I could easily fuck it up. It's a dog portrait, but instead of picking one photo of the dog rolling joyfully in the grass, I decided I needed to show them all. Comics! A work in progress, watercolor on paper 10"x10"

People in Handmaid costumes holding up a "release the Epstein files" sign on an overpass.

This Silksong cosplay is getting out of hand!

#nokings #handmaidstale #releasetheepsteinfiles

J/k. Photo of a moment of impressive coordination at Coupeville No Kings protest.

Fierce, unruly joy in Portland at the emergency naked bike ride

That's a big turnout for a naked bike ride, considering the weather. I miss Portland.

Oil sketch of a red and yellow apple, against an off-white background.

My first ever oil painting. I just sort of dove in without paying a lot of attention to how and why, and I guess I learned a lot, mostly that oil painting is challenging and I have a lot to learn.

#oilpainting

Got my annual flu and COVID vaccinations. It's that time of year again.

...a view of the ridge they have spent the last 25 miles working their way up. When I got to this point, at sunset, I knew I would finish, barring injury, because the PCT doesn't get much more difficult. That sunset is one of my favorite trail memories. I'm working on a larger version.

Watercolor study of mountains at sunset. Most of the image is in shadow, with sunlit peaks rendered in orange.

151 miles into the Pacific Crest Trail, hikers will begin their ascent up San Jacinto. 25 miles after that, and 3000 feet higher, the trail turns east for a quarter mile or so, and just before the trail crosses into the woods on top of San Jacinto, a hiker can look south and see...

#pct #sanjacinto

Photo of a watercolor drawing of a black and white cat. The cat is looking at the viewer. There are thumbnail sketches on the right, and a ruler below the drawing.

Cat portrait.

#catart

I just sent a letter to my US Rep, where I politely lit him up over his YEA vote on H.Res. 719. I told him some Kirk facts, said I thought ”Kirk reeked of fascism when he was alive and he doesn't smell better now that he's dead," and asked my Rep not to vote like that again.

A black skunk with a majestic tail runs through the green spring grass. Watercolor.

A skunk. I've only ever seen one in the wild, and I was very glad it wasn't running towards me.

Watercolor on paper, 8"x8"

#skunk #watercolor #animalart

Didn't they just push AGI off to ten years? Sounds like they are taking a page out of the fusion playbook, which has been ten to twenty years out, since before I was born.

I went to the Coupeville arts festival today, and bought a tiny black and white print of some cedars and owls and ferns from @tinyhousebigwoods.bsky.social Fun, though waiting in line for parking kinda sucked.

A spaceship that looks a bit like a world war 2 p38 without wings zooms across a blue-black starfield.

Spaceship.

Watercolor on paper, 4.5" by 6" more or less.

A crow on a power line viewed from below. The sky is overcast.

I like crows.

Watercolor on paper, 4.5" by 5.5" ish.

#crow #watercolor #birdonawire

A crow sits on a branch of a dark tree, silhouetted against a bright green background.

I love being in the dark woods and looking out on a bright patch of sunshine, and it's this amazing blown out green.

#Watercolor on paper, 4.5" by 6"

#crowdrawing

Watercolor sketch of some sailboats on a lake.

Watercolor sketch of a dinghy with a triangular red sail, rounding a bouy. The background is green.

They were racing penguins on the lake this morning, and I managed to notice and get set up in time to paint the last 20 minutes or so. I think I'm starting to get the hang of this plein air thing. Feels less weird to set up and go than it did at first.

Watercolor, 4" by 5"

#pleinAir #SailboatRace

Loose watercolor sketch of a sapling growing out of a mother stump. Colors are green, reddish brown and yellow

Sketched on my morning walk.

Watercolor 4"ish by 5"ish.

#pleinAir #watercolor #sketch

A watercolor drawing of a boxy park barbecue on a post

One of those metal grill things at a local park. It would not take much to turn it into a gruesome, rusting robot head on a post. #pleinair #parkinfrastructure