Monica
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keystricken.bsky.social
Monica
@keystricken.bsky.social
830 followers 230 following 160 posts
she/her, President of the Too Many Projects club, has a lot of thoughts about robots. ardentfigments.com
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keystricken.bsky.social
If you see this, post your bird art.
A profile photo of a three dimensional bird sewn from of stiff fabric panels. The background is a solid black, and the fabric is white with tiny black hand stitches. The chest panel is attached loosely with a brad, allowing it to move up and down with the neck. A silly line drawing of an ornamental egg, standing upright on bird legs wearing puff-and-slash pants like a Renaissance prince. The egg is wearing a crown at the very top and it’s hinged in the middle, and open to show a statue of a baby pigeon (with its ugly face that’s all eyes and beak) smiling and holding a scepter under one wing. The baby pigeon has a medal attached to its chest, which is ridiculous because it’s a baby and obviously not in any shape to win military battles.
November 10, 2025 at 5:59 PM
keystricken.bsky.social
Here you see the contrast between first and final (?) draft. And I was already writing backstory for the pumpkins, because of course I was.
A partial sketchbook page of messy handwriting and thumbnail sketches of pumpkins with eyes — really just circles with two smaller circles inside them. One note says “don’t forget the vine!” By contrast, a detail from the finished page: two pumpkins with eyes growing next to each other, peeking coyly from behind their vine. Another messy sketchbook page, reading: “As a hopeless overthinker, I was drawing this little guy the other day, and found myself unable to stop thinking about how to make it more ‘realistic’. It’s a globe with eyes, but it should be more realistic! No, not by removing the eyes, OBVIOUSLY”. Another messy page with only notes, reading: “Two, security systems. Want to catch deer entering your vegetable garden without wasting valuable golems? Add eyes to a few surplus produce (you won’t be eating these — GROSS) and trigger alerts if large things move. Grow too many squash to eat? Keep ‘em in the root cellar, pull one out every once in a while, and let it watch out the windows until it starts to rot. Lots of practical applications”.
November 1, 2025 at 3:02 AM
keystricken.bsky.social
I had an idle thought tonight — didn’t I write some silly notes about pumpkins last year? — and holy shit, look what I found. I have no memory of cleaning them up like this.
A black and white inked page of illustrations: pumpkin leaves and vines, pumpkins and squash with glaring eyes, and handwritten notes saying things like “skull eye sockets: trite?” and “squashes are exoskeletal”. A larger unfinished page of illustrations only, showing more vines and a pumpkin patch with eyes growing from a wine barrel container.
November 1, 2025 at 2:52 AM
keystricken.bsky.social
The thumbiest thumb
A sketch of a two-panel comic. The first panel shows two hands gripping a cliff face, with the caption “Every return to project work feels like a desperate scrabble for elevation.” The second panel shows a person lying flat on the floor, gripping the top of a box and reaching helplessly upward, while a cat watches quizzically. The second caption reads: “Any elevation.”
July 7, 2025 at 3:56 PM
keystricken.bsky.social
I despair for this guy, who has clearly never seen the sketches and cartoons of master artists. How the hell are you going to work out how to place your figures (and then LIGHT them) without geometric solids? With the power of your perfect mind? Fuck’s sake, not even Michelangelo was that arrogant.
A red chalk study of the Libyan Sibyl by Michelangelo — a super buff woman drawn from the back, with a few extra line sketches of her incredible shoulders. The long hatching lines on her right hand and the side of her head clearly shows he’s modeling her with flat planes at an early stage.
February 9, 2025 at 6:31 AM
keystricken.bsky.social
I’m Monica! I started as an artist drawing the things I wished I could make, and have since branched into electronics and general fabrication (the fancy word for “crafting”) but without the discipline to push any single thing forward at one time. Maybe someday.
A portrait of the artist as seen from the back, adding light green accents to a large wall mural she’s drawn of cute boxy robots swarming a kitchen and trying to be helpful. A photo of an articulated fabric bird model on a stand, posed against a black background. The fabric is a stiff white interfacing, and it’s been sewn together with high contrast black thread to show the edges and faces of the original pattern, which was exported from a 3D model.
November 21, 2024 at 4:46 PM
keystricken.bsky.social
Hello everyone! My name’s Monica and I work on painfully exacting, impractical projects. One day I might even finish one. I also write notes. Here is a quick look at what I have on the table right now.
A two-page spread of illustrated notes in cursive handwriting with a piece of LED circuitry laid over the paper, featuring thin red magnet wire and decorated with silver jewelry ornament. The notes read: “For a while now, I’ve been working on the challenge of how to have sleek, solder-free mechanical connections for my projects that don’t have to be shamefully hidden away. Enclosures are all well and good, but I’m hunting the techniques that will give me a more organic form factor with, let’s call it, a jeweler’s finish.
October 20, 2024 at 12:46 AM
keystricken.bsky.social
I literally thought of Jarvis, by name, when I met this little guy in the Art Institute. Same “little creature” energy.
An earthenware tomb figurine of a squat, curly-eared dog wearing a harness. He’s standing inside a display case in the Art Institute of Chicago.
October 13, 2024 at 2:46 PM
keystricken.bsky.social
This is an old meme but it’s the one I immediately thought of. Draw your basketboys, draw anything and everything you want, draw nothing you don’t. Fuck ‘em. Faces are high in protein. ❤️
A meme of a shark that reads: You aren’t a disappointment. You are super great and if people get down on you for not being perfect all the time then bite their faces off. You are super great and faces are high in protein. Super great.
July 4, 2024 at 7:02 AM
keystricken.bsky.social
That is the Transmetropolitan guy. Never thought I’d see him on a bike.
An issue cover from Warren Ellis’s Transmetropolitan graphic novel, showing the main character reclining while smoking and making a weird face.
June 26, 2024 at 4:53 AM
keystricken.bsky.social
Can you draw me a helper robot? This was my old webcomic from, like, 2008.
A hodgepodge of line drawings of robots and text. A scan of an old page of line drawings with the caption: “Oracle Robots: parsing the ineffable for extra credit”.
April 25, 2024 at 3:39 AM
keystricken.bsky.social
just sayin’
Car exit meme with the options being “Jar Jar” and “Divorce”
April 12, 2024 at 2:21 AM
keystricken.bsky.social
One theory that was too obvious to mention in my earlier comic is that I MIGHT find my embroidery subpar not because of thread or needles, but because I suck at it and need more practice. 🙃 So, time to practice.
A large embroidery hoop holding white cotton fabric with a detailed drawing of a skeleton drawn with a hot pink thermal pen. In the background, a book of Bernard Albinus’s anatomy plates open to the page that shows the same skeleton, as a means of explaining the source.
April 10, 2024 at 3:36 PM
keystricken.bsky.social
I enjoyed the comic enough that I decided to write an appendix for it, although it may be anticlimactic to explain exactly *what* got me into such a lather in the first place. This time I actually scanned the damn thing instead of taking lazy pictures on my phone.
Appendix 1, titled "What drove me to write this comic in the first place". Woven fabric is made of horizontal (weft) and vertical (warp) threads, and the diagonal is called the bias. A small cartoon of the author pops up to say she knew all of this already (defensive much?). Appendix Panel 2. The angle at which you cut fabric determines how well it will drape around you if you wear it as clothing, which doesn't explain why I've been cutting my leaves on the bias all this time (it's not like I'm planning to wear them). A puzzled-looking cartoon of the author appears in the corner, wearing a very large leaf. Appendix Panel 3: I also had the misfortune to learn more about needles. Should I be using sharp or dull needles for embroidery, or perhaps, have my sharp needles *become* dull with use, and now that's bad? I can never remember what specific type I buy at the store, or how long it's been since I bought them. Appendix Panel 4 (Conclusion). I've decided it's all mostly, probably, fine. I definitely need to try cutting the leaves at a different angle. I may need to try stranded embroidery floss instead of perle cotton. I wrap up with a mention that it may be a good idea to build a small sampler book, but surely this project will not balloon out of control... and a small cartoon of the author waves goodbye with a sleeping cat in her arms.
April 9, 2024 at 2:32 PM
keystricken.bsky.social
I got frustrated working on projects today and sublimated it into comics. They’re very rough, but if I tried redrawing them that would be its own project, and just, No. 🚫

Hope you like them. 💕
Panel 1: Explaining a tech tree in video games and how orderly the progression is to greater and greater things. Panel 2: In real life, tech trees go backwards. You learn more and suddenly your ignorance is better understood; it’s like you have earned -137 points. Panel 3: What once was a simple choice is now something with fractal borders of complexity. It’s like shrinking in a Mario game, except this time it’s the world getting bigger. Panel 4: We can never truly be sorry when the world gets bigger, but it’s still frustrating to know you’re even further away from your goal than you thought. Nothing left to do but keep digging. (The end.)
April 8, 2024 at 1:01 AM
keystricken.bsky.social
It’s a travesty that your work has been stolen alongside so many of your friends and colleagues. Cat and Girl has meant so much to me over the years, and it has pride of place in my guest room, which I’ve been catering to my niece. And the zines are exceptional! Thank you for still creating.
A bookshelf with Cat and Girl vol. 1-3 on prominent display, and the zines stacked up on small display frames for easy access.
January 16, 2024 at 5:52 PM
keystricken.bsky.social
I was going through some old notes and I found one that so perfectly sums up My Whole Deal, I should just put it on business cards and hand it to every new person I meet. Would save a lot of time.
Handwritten and illustrated notes on graph paper with a highly structured rectangular flowchart on one side, the word “vs.” in the middle, and a curvy “mind map” style network of lines on the right. The notes read: Do I fulfill my dreams by methodically conquering one goal at a time, or subdividing fractally in pursuit of everything at once? BOTH CHOICES ARE INSANE.
January 15, 2024 at 10:00 PM
keystricken.bsky.social
RIP to my dumb ass for packing a whole separate bag for my craft supplies, carefully setting up all this work in advance, and then forgetting to bring any NEEDLES. Guess I’m glad I brought all those books as backup!
A square of green cotton fabric and hair canvas stretched over a small embroidery hoop, with leaf designs drawn over it in fabric pen, balanced on the author’s lap in an airport. Not shown: embroidery needles.
December 20, 2023 at 6:22 PM
keystricken.bsky.social
I submit: Valence (big) and Arity (little). Arity is new to the household and teaching his sister a lot about cuddling.
Two gray cats snuggling on a gray couch. The bigger one is draped over the kitten and almost appears to be smothering him in her elbow. Two gray cats snuggling on a gray couch; the kitten is stretched out and the larger cat is using him like a pillow for her head and front paws.
October 3, 2023 at 4:29 PM
keystricken.bsky.social
When your projects involve a little bit of everything, it can be very hard to track progress. Progress in *what*? And is it the “right” kind of progress? I like to pretend that new notation systems will fix all my problems, and here’s my latest effort — feel free to adopt if it looks useful to you!
A 3x5 index card with a grid drawn on the left side, each box representing one day (seven days per row). You’re meant to fill in each day as it passes. On the right side, a hand drawn legend where a line inside the square (horizontal, vertical, etc.) represents one kind of activity. The activities are: writing/drawing, building, electronics, code, and “published something” (represented as a dot in the center of the square).
August 7, 2023 at 2:45 PM
keystricken.bsky.social
How about some REAL art for a change? This is from a preview of Kim Slate’s exhibit in the Antler Gallery, one of my very favorite galleries in PDX. I adore these little guys and wish I could have one on each shoulder, dispensing advice that I would unquestioningly follow.
A painted clay sculpture of two grinning hedgehogs by Kim Slate, on a glossy wooden base. The hedgehogs have narrow slitted eyes and are grinning in a very sinister way, but the overall effect is endearing, or else I’m just built wrong.
July 27, 2023 at 12:26 AM
keystricken.bsky.social
I got all the July 4 grilling and lawn games out of the way this weekend, so I have the whole day at my disposal. I’m starting things off by drawing some notes about the wire wrapping experiments I showed you all earlier! I’ll take proper scans when I have more pages.
A two-page spread of hand-drawn and illustrated notes on A4 graph paper, with a micron pen, ruler, and circle template in the background. Detail view of page 1. There are raspberry leaf ornaments in the corners and a drawing of a soldering iron inside a slashed circle (the universal NO symbol). Text reads: “For a while now, I’ve been working on the challlenge of how to have sleek, SOLDER FREE mechanical connections for my projects that don’t have to be SHAMEFULLY hidden away.” Detail view of page 2. There are more raspberry leaf ornaments, the word “Enclosures” is drawn inside a box with a battery and switch, and there’s an illustration of a sphere with kohlrabi-like leaves that terminate in LEDs at the end of graceful wire tendrils. All of this is so much easier to draw than to make, mua ha ha. Text reads: “ENCLOSURES are all well and good, but I’m hunting the techniques that will give me a more ORGANIC form factor with, let’s call it, a jeweler’s finish.”
July 4, 2023 at 4:22 PM
keystricken.bsky.social
This is all very much still in need of refinement, and I’ll have more to show later, but it’s truly remarkable how the wire wrapping tool is willing to play ball with almost any length of post and wire you give it. I did not expect THIS to work, for instance.
A red LED is plugged into a pair of female headers, each of which has a VERY short post which nonetheless has stripped magnet wire wrapped around it. The LED is lit, proving the technique creates an electrical connection.
July 3, 2023 at 3:09 AM
keystricken.bsky.social
Yes it does!
A lit red LED against a white card, proving that the crimp tubes do create a solid electrical connection.
July 3, 2023 at 2:59 AM
keystricken.bsky.social
My first thought was to use crimp tubes as the mechanical force, but this is actually harder (and uglier, alas) than you might think. It *does* work, though, with a bit of practice.
A red LED with magnet wire wrapped around both legs. One leg is wearing a crimped tube, and one is wearing a still-uncrimped tube for sake of comparison. There’s just not much that can be done to make a crimped tube attractive or finished-looking.
July 3, 2023 at 2:57 AM