One comment about my shading totally changed how I paint faces

I've been posting my digital portraits in this group for maybe 6 months now. Last week someone said my shadows were all too warm and I should try cooling them down near the edges of the face. I always just used a darker version of the skin color and called it done. So I gave it a shot on my latest piece, a portrait of my sister from a photo we took at the beach. I pulled in a desaturated blue-purple for the core shadows and kept the midtones warmer. The jawline and nose shadows actually look like they sit on the skin now instead of being painted on top. It took me like 3 tries to not overdo it but the final result has way more depth. Has anyone else gotten that one tiny piece of feedback that made a huge difference in their workflow?

Learned a hard lesson about mortar mix in the rain in Louisville last week

Tbh I never paid much attention to weather forecasts before mixing. Got caught in a surprise shower about 20 minutes into laying brick on a retaining wall job near Bardstown Road. The mortar started washing out and I had to tear down about 30 bricks and redo the whole section the next day. Has anyone else had a batch go bad from unexpected rain, or am I just the unlucky one?

Found an alternate ending for The Descent on YouTube that completely changes the movie

I always thought the US ending where Sarah escapes was fine until I saw the original UK ending on a deleted scenes channel. In it she never actually gets out of the cave, it cuts back to her hallucinating in the cave while still trapped with the crawlers. Found it late last night and it made the whole movie way darker and better. Anyone else seen which version they liked more?

Spent 3 hours trying to fix a plot hole that took 10 minutes to solve

I was writing a thriller and realized my protagonist's alibi totally fell apart in chapter 7. I sat there for three whole hours, rewriting scenes and moving timelines around like a maniac. Finally I got frustrated and just asked my partner to look at it, and she pointed out I forgot about a voicemail I wrote in chapter 2. Has anyone else wasted a whole afternoon on a problem that had a super obvious fix right in front of them?

Vent: A rainy day at the bus stop made me rethink fabric choices

I was waiting for the bus in Portland last week when a downpour hit, and I saw this woman's coat just bead the water right off while mine soaked through in minutes. It made me realize I need to design more with performance fabrics, even for everyday wear. Anyone have a go-to water-resistant material that doesn't look like hiking gear?

Pro tip: I tried a $15 foam brush from the hardware store versus a $2 china bristle brush on a mahogany table...

The foam one left streaks and bubbles in the oil-based poly, but the cheap bristle brush laid it down smooth as glass. I wasted half a day sanding out the mess from the first try. What's your go-to brush for clear coats on dark wood?

Bought a $40 'universal' washer lid switch from a parts truck that didn't fit a single machine in my shop.

Had to pick between a safe job and a risky startup offer

Got a full-time offer from my old company in Phoenix and a contract role at a new tech startup. Took the startup gig for more money, but they folded after 8 months. Anyone else get burned chasing a bigger paycheck?

I used to think paying for a loan audit was a waste, but it saved my house.

About a year ago, I was drowning in a home equity line of credit that kept changing terms. The payments jumped and I couldn't keep up. My wife found a firm that does deep loan audits for complex cases like mine. I thought it was a scam, but we were desperate. It cost us $1,200 up front, which felt insane to pay when we were already short. They went through every document and found the lender had made a major error in how they calculated the adjustable rate from the start. They gave us a full report we used to negotiate. The lender had to recast the loan and we got a fixed rate we can actually afford. Has anyone else had a good result from one of these audits, or did I just get lucky?

Tried to find a show to watch with my wife and it took us two whole nights

We sat down Friday ready to watch something new, but spent an hour just scrolling through Netflix and Hulu. Every time one of us picked something, the other would say 'maybe not that' after reading the description. We finally settled on a show called 'The Diplomat' on Saturday, after wasting our whole Friday evening. Has anyone else had this problem of taking forever to just pick something?