Ellen Bryn

@sepdet

Former classics major (greekgeek), art dabbler, fandom old (whovian, lotr, et alia), lifelong learner, chronic illness haver, and cat servant. Californian. She/her. 🏳️‍🌈

96 Folgt201 Follower505 Posts

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Ist das dein Profil?Übernimm es — dann gehört dir sepdet.dirty.social.Profil übernehmen

Ellen Bryn@sepdet· Jul 19

🫡 I hail your humorously symbolic prowess. On the eve of Nov 5 2024, I found a takeout place to order Orange Chicken and left a votive lit under my orange juicer. Alas, my powers of woo were not up to the task.

photo of a lit votive candle on the bricks in front of a fireplace between the feet of a sturdy metal kitchen appliance, shaped to be place over a glass or mug like a coffee maker. In place of water reservoir and coffee filter is a chonky metal hemispherical cap over a simple conical juicer attachment meant to hold half an orange over a cup or glass. A metal swing atm like a slot machine brings the cap pressing down to crush the fruit against the strainer.
murky orange lighting has been applied by a filter.

Ellen Bryn@sepdet· Jun 1

I need to take another photo when the paint's dry so it's not reflecting ceiling lights, but last week I finished a portrait of my big ol' buddy Pumpkin who passed away two years ago, age 19. #oilpainting #myart #catportrait

Ellen Bryn@sepdet· May 19

My cats, long train journeys and breakfast on the Southwest Chief, California poppies and Spaaaaace (and my unistellar telescope that makes it look like I know what I'm doing)

Photo of two cats, brown and white and black and white, snoozing on a bed, sprawled on either side of what is obviously a human leg or legs under the blankets.

photo inside a train private compartment with a scrumptious-looking breakfast of bacon, french toast, strawberries and eggs laid out, a sunny scene of the Great Plains outside the window.

Photo of California hillside covered in orange poppies. (own photo, as are all of these)

Astrophoto of Orion Neba seen through unistellar telescope. Amazingly, taken by pool at LAX Marriott right next to airport! Stacking is the GOAT.

Ellen Bryn@sepdet· May 18

First Tumblr's mad scientists + #lotr fandom brought us the Eyestalks of Legolas - www.tumblr.com/sepdet/77955... Then Ent Palm Trees became the new Winged Balrog debate (the comics are great) - www.tumblr.com/sepdet/81693... Now I'm adding my humble contribution: The Prototaxites of Cuiviénen.

Loose digital ink doodle on black background. White glowy stars scattered across top third, pale blue shimmery curved outline of lake to the right, 5 weird brown columns with rounded tops, possibly treetrunks with no branches, are scattered around shore on left.

Two small green stick figures with simply-drawn robes, pointed ears, and long hair colored blonde and silver respectively stand on either side of one of the pillar-trees, looking up at it.

The same Elvish letter is written over each of their heads in reddish-brown calligraphy. If you look up a chart of Tolkien's Tengwar alphabet and writing, it's a question mark.

Ellen Bryn@sepdet· May 15

PS the funny thing is that when I was an art history TA, I heard the story attached to Michaelangelo (establishing his credentials to paint the Sistine Chapel), while just last week, someone in my studio ascribed it to Vermeer, of whom I'd started a study. I made no comment. 😉 I love folklore. (WIP)

Cropped version of Vermeer's "Astronomer" showing a young scholar l in academic robes seated at a desk reaching across his books and papers to grasp a Renaissance-period globe depicting the constellations as if seen from the outside of the heavenly sphere. A close examination reveals Vermeer's rendering of the globe's perimeter is nowhere near circular, and shadows can't account for the discrepancy.

Art study. Black and white tone painting, aka grisaille, of the preceding painting. The details need some correction and refinement.

Ellen Bryn@sepdet· May 15

That took far longer than it should have (20 minutes) although I missed saving one before this

red hand-drawn circle with very slight irregularities, perfect green dashed circle overlaying it on black background, below in large letters the white word "circle," red "98%", and faintly below that in small gray italics "draw your own at mino.mobi.com"

Ellen Bryn@sepdet· Apr 13

So anyway, latest #oilpainting from my #artclass - a Titian study, and WIP portrait of my late, great housemate Pumpkin using same technique (underpainting light/shadow, then glazes of translucent color on top which appear slightly luminous bc light passes through instead of bouncing off)

Copy of Renaissance painter Titian's painting "Flora," cropped to just her head & shoulders. 3/4 view looking left, statuesque rather impassive expression. Elaborate partial updo of dark honey-colored hair held up with thin braids.

black & white painting of very fluffy cat, side view, just head and shoulders, looking out window

Ellen Bryn@sepdet· Apr 7

My personal highlight for yesterday's historic #artemis #lunarflyby : During Victor Glover's vivid reporting on the "scifi" solar eclipse, my cat Luna — who'd been scared, silent, and hiding under the bed when I adopted her and her mom a year ago — came over and started yelling at me for attention😅

Photo of green-eyed black and white cat, standuing looking up with mouth wide open. Text caption below reads, Look at meeeeeee!

Ellen Bryn@sepdet· Apr 7

The most difficult part of the #Artemis mission. I feel a strange urge to quote NASA on why this crew chose the name "Integrity" for the capsule where they'd be spending 10 days in each other's laps.

Screencap of blog post.
Title:
Artemis II Crew Members Name Their Orion Spacecraft
Author: Rachel H. Kraft
Date: September 24, 2025
Main text:

The Artemis II crew members named their Orion spacecraft Integrity during a news conference Sept. 24. The name Integrity embodies the foundation of trust, respect, candor, and humility across the crew and the many engineers, technicians, scientists, planners, and dreamers required for mission success. The name is also a nod to the extensive integrated effort – from the more than 300,000 spacecraft components to the thousands of people across the world – that must come together to venture to the Moon and back, inspire the world, and set course for a long-term presence at the Moon. Integrity is rooted in a shared core value of NASA, the agency’s astronaut office, and the CSA (Canadian Space Agency).

Ellen Bryn@sepdet· Feb 16

Luna's tail has not ceased to enchant me almost a year after I adopted her and her mom. It is soon expressive!

Ellen Bryn@sepdet· Feb 16

Bonus:

Ellen Bryn@sepdet· Feb 16

i am sad and dealing with severe eye discomfort thanks to covid-aggravated autoimmune issues and my pharmacy sneaking me a generic that is NOT THE SAME. If this has set off a flareup so my t cells are attacking my cornea again, I will be PISSED. Anyway here is my cat being cute to cheer me up.

top of cat head peeking out of cat tunnel, which has a skylight/opening on top. Other images are close-ups.

Ellen Bryn@sepdet· Feb 16

Maybe the great Dolly Parton can give you some insight. (His response was to reply "HOLY SH*T!" and get very emotional about it in interviews: he admires her.)

Dolly parton's 2021 tweet: I was so excited when someone told me that Lil Nas X had done my song #Jolene. I had to find it and listen to it
immediately...and it's really good. Of course, I love him anyway. I was surprised and I'm honored and flattered. I hope he does good for both of us. Thank you.

In fact this is a retweet of Lil Nax X's music video of the song, which is playing below her tweet. The screen cap shows an Ernest looking and very beautiful young black man in a loose white collared shirt holding a mike to his mouth in an upscale lounge with an electric guitar player behind him.

subtitles show he's singing "please don't take my man."

Ellen Bryn@sepdet· Feb 11

Post a tree you photographed

closeup of a joshua tree with gnarled gray trunk twisting and dividing into stumpy branches whose bark goes shaggy, then blends into spreading clumps of grayish-green spiky leaves like thin sword blades. Two scrub jays, blue-gray birds, are well-camouflaged on the tip of one dead branch and on the shoulder where several branches split. The reddish-tan desert, dotted by scrub and more joshua trees, spreads out in the background to rocky foothills in the hazy distance under a turquoise blue cloudless sky.

Ellen Bryn@sepdet· Feb 10

Phone managed to cut through the glare of kleig lights (jk) on the @gallifreyone.bsky.social stage and catch most of our @bigfinish.bsky.social guests. #Gally1

Kai Owen, Samir Arrian, Comrad Westmaas, Lisa Greenwood, Miranda Raison, Michael Troughton standing & clapping onstage

Jason Haigh-Ellery, Daphne Ashbrook, Peter McTighe, Samir Arrian, Conrad Westmaas standing side by side on stage with Yee Jee Tso in front speaking into mic

Mark Strickson, Matthew Waterhouse, Sarah Sutton, Peter Davison standing side by side onstage

Peter Davison stepping onto stage from TARDIS at stage left

Ellen Bryn@sepdet· Feb 9

This dear lady hooked me on #DoctorWho with her space elf character — in Time Flight, of all things — during my first glimpse of the show 43 years ago. Sarah, consummate actor, usually has no IDEA what Nyssa is talking about, but sounds convincing. One trait they share: she is SO sweet. #Gally1

Ellen Bryn@sepdet· Feb 9

The only person in the universe who *might* be able to keep these two in line. #Gally1 @gallifreyone.bsky.social #DoctorWho #cosplay #FourthDoctor #Romana #SpyMaster

Three cosplayers posing together: fourth doctor, Roman in her pink Destiny of the Daleks coat and white scarf, and Spymaster in his Rasputin disguise.

Ellen Bryn@sepdet· Feb 9

@barnabyedwards.bsky.social Feels self-indulgent to go to a con these days, but the kids are all right. Giving me deja vu to the 80s, in an odd way— community coming together with extra kindness during a time of existential threat. #gally1 @gallifreyone.bsky.social

Cosplayers gathered around in paved outdoor hotel patio talking. Their costumes are all vaguely punk. Woman in black jeans, doc martins, black cap with long thin blond ponytail and black leather vest with no shirt has back to camera.
Back of jacket handpainted says exterminate hate above the Progress Pride Flag.

Weeping angel holding sign that reads"Kindness is Punk"

Ace cosplayer in wheelchair posed about to lob exploisives canister at "Exterminate Hate" cosplayer — I think the vest with all the buttons may mean a punk dalek.

Real Malamute dog wearing top half of cardboard box painted silver and marked with letters k9. Leash held by eleventh doctor with Amy cosplayer holding Sunflowers.
Crowd of punk cosplayers in background. Back of a different vest reads: no one else will ever have to live like this. No one else will ever have to feel this pain. All caps: NOT ON MY WATCH. THESE TWO LINES BRACKETED BY PALESTINIAN AND MEXICAN FLAGS.

Ellen Bryn@sepdet· Feb 9

@barnabyedwards.bsky.social Found a new Dalek for you at @gallifreyone.bsky.social this year. Steel drums and scratchboard music. #gally1 #DoctorWho

Ellen Bryn@sepdet· Feb 9

#gally1 #DoctorWho #cosplay @gallifreyone.bsky.social The best doggo (and his inspiration) @weratedogs.com

white malamute husky cosplaying Doctor who robot dog named K-9. He's got red slotted plastic sunglasses and a heavy cardboard casing on top and sides, painted silver, with extra pieces added for K9 label and rows of square colored plastic buttons on top

Replica of K9 metal dog from Doctor Who TV show, the body a sort of rectangular boxy shape with the sides slightly trapezoidal so the corners slant out, made to look like legs or struts because of a recessed panel on the bottom half of each side leaving the edges raised. The head is also metal, a dog's shape suggested by boxy polygons with the nozzle of a tiny raygun for the nose and a slatted red plexiglass panel for eye sensors, with radio dishes on top for ears and and an accordion-folded hose for the neck. The tail is a telescoping antenna sticking out of the back at a jaunty angle. There's a lit computer screen on the upper side of the body and buttons on top.A soft blue glow shines around the bottom from unseen led lights.

The robot dog is sitting on an ordinary gray hotel conference room carpet, in the dealers' room to judge by the table of boxes, books, plastic cases and oddments in the background. The edge of a full-sized Tardis is behind K9 at edge of frame on the right. someone's back and shoe on the left for scale to show the replica K9 is full-size, ie about the size of an end table.

Ellen Bryn@sepdet· Feb 8

Attention #Gally1 @gallifreyone.bsky.social - Next to airport, but cloud cover 3% — which will win, light pollution or my telescope? Answer: my 'scope by the pool tonight saw Orion Nebula, Jupiter, and Flame Nebula—NO AI, just digital stacking (2-4 minute exposure to sift real photons from noise)

astrophoto of blue & ruby-colored cloudy nebula and stars surrounded by circular border with caption: UNISTELLAR - M12 - Great Nebula in Orion - 4min.-34°N116OW-FEB072026

Small slightly fuzzy photo of jupiter showing ball tipped 45° to left, slightly wider than it is tall, white stripe around equator with prominent reddish-brown stripes above and below eit, upper left cap a mottled sandy brown, lower right cap slightly separated by white strips and more beige. caption around circular frame:
UNISTELLAR-Jupiter-34°N116 W- FEB 07 2026

dim starfiels with bright bluish-white star lower right, center of view filled with fain reddish-orange flame-shaped or leaf-shaped gas cloud with dark thick lanes of dust forming shadowy veins.

Ellen Bryn@sepdet· Jan 17

That sounds as fun as Uber's lost & found process requiring you to use the phone connected to your account to contact your driver about retrieving your lost phone

Ellen Bryn@sepdet· Jan 6

Anna's #hummingbird Found this little guy banging weakly on upstairs window. He must've flown in when the garage was open, with patio glass door visible through the kitchen. I was worried, but once he tanked up at the honeysuckle outside my patio, he rocketed up and zipped away.

photo of a green hummingbird from above, indoors. It's resting on its tummy on the palm of a gently upturned hand with fingers forming a cage loosely steadying the bird. Both wings are spread at about a 50° angle from the body. The beak is resting across the pad of the first finger, and the spread tail feathers, a bit bedraggled, or across the pad of the pinky finger, which is threaded behind the left wing.

hummingbird outside sitting on a green succulent kalanchoe plant close to the ground sipping from a cluster of its pinkish-orange blossoms.

hummingbird perched on a tan fake wood concrete wall with a tree behind it, 2-story condos or apartments in the background with backyard patio umbrella, green bushes, eucalyptus trees in sunshine.

Ellen Bryn@sepdet· Jan 4

Feeling really depressed yesterday and couldn't squeeze a sketch out until after midnight, when I was curled up in bed with my cats. Sometimes I do better just fingerpainting on my phone. #myart #procreate

loose, scratchy digital painting of gangly black and white cat asleep with head pillowed on stretched-out legs, while dark brown fuzzy lump of a cat is curled into a perfectly round almost oval shape with just one dark ear visible above silhouette.

Ellen Bryn@sepdet· Jan 3

Bio Update: Childless cat lady, currently looking after Mama Mimi (left) and hija Luna (right). Journeyman oil painter, chronic illness haver, Doctor Who fan, lifelong learner, and Californian.

photo of two cats resting back to back on a cat bed in a window, one cat brown with white markings underneath as if dipped in icing, the other a little larger with similar markings except black and white.

Ellen Bryn@sepdet· Dec 22

#ArtAdventCalendar Day21 The world of fanfic is strange and wonderful, and someday you may be inspired to draw Peter Davison as a werewolf. (No, it's not THAT kind of fic. In the #AlbertCampion novels, an alleged witch curses him. A friend of mine wrote a fun "what if the curse worked?" AU.)

Stark, almost savage digital portrait of a man's head tilted and turned towards the viewer. His mouth is open in a snarl or scowl, lips pulled back to show his teeth, although they are in deep shadow — but not enough to conceal pointed canines.

He has a long face, hawkish nose, and high smooth forehead with receding hairline, and might be good-looking if not for the haggard expression. Horn-rimmed spectacles cover deep-set eyes hidden in dark hollows, and there's a hint of a coat's high collar.

The image is drawn in thick, rough lines like charcoal or chalk, reduced to shades of blood red, black, grey, and off-white. The head is backlit with a white area like the mouth of a cave behind it, while the face itself is rendered in shades of very dark red, black, grey for the teeth, and white reflections like moonlight on one side of the upper forehead and nose. The background of the picture around the white is mostly filled with blood red strokes on a dark grey ground

Ellen Bryn@sepdet· Dec 21

#ArtAdventCalendar Day20 - Pen & ink portrait of the late, great Jean Marsh in her role as Morgan Le Fay in 80s #DoctorWho. Wish I'd gotten this one autographed before she passed last spring.

Ink drawing of a gaunt, scowling woman in pseudo-medieval garb with hands raised menacingly, fingers spread wide and flexed as if casting a spell. Her nails are long and pointed.

On her long pale hair sits a simple crown, a circlet of flat metal with four tall spikes, or rather, tongues that end in jeweled fleur de lis. A chainmail collar falls to mid-chest, her left sleeve is chainmail (her right may be too, but the shadows on it make it unclear), and the top of a cloak is visible over her left shoulder, which is turned slightly towards the viewer although she's mostly facing forward.

Ellen Bryn@sepdet· Dec 20

#ArtAdventCalendar Day19 - #ChronicPain Parasite - brush markers on paper for #inktober 2019, showing how it felt when arthritis/fibromyalgia began digging into my hands such that I could no longer dissociate discomfort using Spock's "There is no pain" trick I learned watching #StarTrek as a kid.

line drawing with thick, rough strokes showing a large, alien black insect covering the entire back of a right hand like a horrible glove, its many-jointed legs wrapping around and in some places piercing through the fingers with beetle-like claws. The creature looks like a cross between a spider, an ant, and an earwig, with large lobed head and rear segment, a cluster of dozens of eyes on top, earwig pincers on the back resting against the skin above the back of the wrist, and about four segments in the middle of the body. It's hard to tell how many legs there are, as they are slightly asymmetrical with some curling under its body digging in like talons and others forking and digging in like treeroots, but it's probably 10 or 12.

Ellen Bryn@sepdet· Dec 20

#ArtadventCalendar Day 18 - two hour sketch of Gila woodpecker on Saguaro cactiI I drew two days ago on #Procreate and a photo I took outside Scottsdale ten years ago

digital drawing of five pillarlike cacti looming upwards against intense sky blue background with black silhouette of woodpecker on shadowed side of tallest. Vanishing point above top of image causes lines of cactus ribs to converge, and dark shadows on left sides, light yellowish-white lines of spines or highlights on top and right of each cactus add drama.

Photo with similar image, except no vanishing point so cacti are straight up and down and farther away, colors a little less intense with sky lightening to paler blue towards bottom of frame, and woodpecker is smaller so it's easy to miss at first glance.

Ellen Bryn@sepdet· Dec 19

#artAdventCalendar Day17 - Is this your cat? A couple years ago I saw a photo of this cat sitting in the corner of an empty room and felt compelled to draw a caricature on #procreate. Imagine my surprise a few days ago when my parents' cat nearly copied it, except his markings are different.