In my experience, academics are never impressed by anyone but themselves.

In the Exorcist, there is a scene in which the priest is walking through the city and mourning his mother and for a split second the demon face flashes on the screen. I was probably 12 at the time and that image has stuck with me my entire life. That quick and subtle imagery is more potent and frightening than any of the other ridiculous bs in that movie.

Walking Dead spoiler alert: The humans are the monsters.

Anyone interested in horror art might want to check out the Dark Art Society. It's a podcast done by Chet Zar who has done work for the film industry, with the band Tool, and is known for doing oil paintings of monsters. He interviews a lot of other horror artists on the show about their careers and work, and there is a lot of discussion there and in the affiliated social media communities surrounding dark art and its merits.

“But I hate your answer” lol

Thanks for this - I found the spotting blacks question particularly useful as I struggle a lot between trying to be accurate, and trying to find what looks good through design. I have mostly been doing this (without success) with figure and portrait work so I'm going to start some landscapes. Guess I'm going back to square 1!

Enjoyed this one... I have a quote for Marshall leading on from his comment about working in Universities - something I heard early on in my own university career - I was warned about the ferocity of competition between staff and this was encapsulated in the phrase - "The battles are so fierce because the rewards are so small!" - and he was right.