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Five Cecilia Beaux Artworks To Discover

Cecilia Beaux (1855–1942) was, in the words of her colleague William Merritt Chase, “not only the greatest living woman painter, but the best that has ever lived”, yet most people today would draw a blank at her name. A Philadelphia-born portraitist of the Gilded Age, she became the first woman to teach art at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and painted everyone from First Lady Edith Roosevelt to French Premier Georges Clemenceau. She was routinely compared to John Singer Sargent, her male equivalent in fame and prestige. The fact that Sargent is a household name and Beaux is not hints at something depressingly familiar about how art history gets written.

To mark her birthday, here are five paintings by Beaux to feed your artistic soul.

1. The Last Days of Infancy (1883–85)

Les derniers jours d’enfance by Cecilia Beaux. Photo source: Wikimedia Commons

2. Sita and Sarita (1893–94)

Sita and Sarita by Cecilia Beaux. Photo source: Wikimedia Commons

3. Ernesta (Child with Nurse) (1894)

Ernesta (Child with Nurse) by Cecilia Beaux. Photo source: Wikimedia Commons

4. New England Woman (1895)

Cecilia Beaux – New England Woman, 1895 at Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts – Philadelphia PA. Image source: Wikimedia Commons

5. Man with the Cat (1898)

Man with the Cat (Henry Sturgis Drinker) by Cecilia Beaux. Image source: Wikimedia Commons

The Best Albums of April 2026

In this segment, we round up the best albums released each month. From Wendy Eisenberg to Friko, here are, in alphabetical order, the best albums of April 2026.


Angelo De Augustine, Angel in Plainclothes

The backstory looming over Angel in Plainclothes is that, after being hospitalized with an undiagnosed illness in early 2022, Angelo De Augustine had to relearn how to walk, talk, see, hear, play music, and sing again. But though at times emotionally devastating, the singer-songwriter’s latest album is no document of suffering; it’s unguarded and mystical in its intimacy, shimmering with the kindness of those who have helped him survive. “Sometimes life is too much, you know,” De Augustine told me in 2023. Angel in Plainclothes captures an artist determined to live it. Read our inspirations interview with Angelo De Augustine.


Friko, Something Worth Waiting For

Something Worth Waiting For .wSomething Worth Waiting For, the sophomore album by Chicago band Friko, obviously, instantly lives up to its title; the ironic part of it is that we didn’t have to wait that long. You could call them kids when they burst onto the scene with Where we’ve been, Where we go from here, and its follow-up sounds like the sort of epically anthemic record an indie rock buzzband might deliver over a decade after their debut. Just two years later, Friko return with an expanded lineup, with vocalist/guitarist Niko Kapetan and drummer Bailey Minzenberger – who formed the band right out of high school – being joined by bassist David Fuller and guitarist Korgan Robb. While building on the raw, explosive dynamics, anthemic choruses, and infernal yearning of their first record, Something Worth Waiting For feels anything but rushed, just riding the wave of relentless touring instead of letting it subside. Read the full review.


Jessie Ware, Superbloom

Superbloom cover artworkJessie Ware achieved disco nirvana with 2020’s What’s Your Pleasure? and 2023’s That! Feels Good!, and she isn’t abandoning it just yet. The singer’s new album, Superbloom, affirms her confidence has only been blossoming thanks to her adoring fanbase, but also feels torn between lifting her dance music up to the heavens and grounding it in domestic life, assuming the role of a goddess and staying clear of cosplay. Springtime, after all, is as joyful a season as it is transitional, and Superbloom closes a chapter as much as it opens up new lanes. Read the full review.


Lucy Liyou, MR COBRA

MR COBRALucy Liyou’s revelatory new album, MR COBRA, is adapted from her semi-autobiographical theatrical work Mister Cobra, weaving together free jazz, Korean folk opera, musique concrète, 2000s-era pop, drag-inspired performance, and more. Skirting the line between shame and desire, the artist’s discordant sound poetry is juxtaposed with her reverence for pop, from ambiently interpolating Taylor Swift to going full-on nu disco. “Sometimes trying to adhere to the ‘facts’ of my experiences made other emotional truths feel distorted,” Liyou has explained. Stripped of the context of Liyou’s multimedia performance, the illusory nature of MR COBRA is all the more replete with meaning.


My New Band Believe, My New Band Believe

My New Band BelieveThe original idea for My New Band Believe was to make a collaborative album with the avant-folk octet caroline, but the project of ex-black midi member Cameron Picton ended up being a more open-ended studio endeavour that included most of that group, as well as members of Black Country, New Road, shame, and more. Just as he handled most of the writing by himself, Picton then helmed the editing process, creating a magnificent illusion of natural coherence – the way dream logic convinces you this scene makes sense after that one, before the waking mind offers ambivalent interpretations. Fluidly arranged and no less tender than it is delirious, My New Band Believe makes the frantic possibilities of a single night, record, and group structure feel infinitely, intimately mutable. Read our Artist Spotlight interview with My New Band Believe.


Robber Robber, Two Wheels Move the Soul

Two-Wheels-Move-the-Soul-album-artwork-1200x1200-1-768x768Two Wheels Move the Soul was recorded in the wake of an apartment fire that left Nina Cates and Zack James displaced. Relying on the generosity of the Vermont music community, they couch surfed for months, and while that infrastructure may have now seemed like a distant dream, music remained their only constant – “a new familiar place,” to quote ‘Backup Plan’ from their first LP, Wild Guess. Once again, the pair, along with guitarist Will Krulak and bassist Carney Hemler, returned to Little Jamaica Studios to lay down their new album for Fire Talk, Two Wheels Move the Soul, with engineer Benny Yurco. At once groovier and grimier than their debut, it hammers down on the same themes of shaky communication and perpetual unrest as if almost no time has passed between records. Yet through the rubble, they find new ways to navigate their shared space. Read the full review.


Wendy Eisenberg, Wendy Eisenberg 

Wendy Eisenberg

If Wendy Eisenberg’s 2024 LP Viewfinder sought to loosen the parameters of the conventional song form, their self-titled album leans into the timelessness – or, more precisely, the eternal weirdness – of classic songwriting, in part as a call back to the inner child that began to show curiosity around it. As playful and genuine as it is beguiling, Wendy Eisenberg is shaped by its contributors – bassist Trevor Dunn, drummer Ryan Sawyer, and co-producer Mari Rubio (aka more eaze) – in different ways than its predecessor, warmed by their camaraderie while mourning past lonelinesses. “Looks like luck’s inherent humour pushed you past your sense of loss,” they sing on the opener. So when Eisenberg describes self-titling as a “locus point for jokes” that “offsets its vanity by making you laugh,” it’s not a bad way of looking at what makes life itself transcendable.

8 Albums Out Today to Listen To: American Football, Kacey Musgraves, Lip Critic, and More

In this segment, we showcase the most notable albums out each week. Here are the albums out on May 1, 2026:


American Football, LP4

ILP4 covern the decade-plus since American Football’s reunion, Mike Kinsella has reserved some harrowing lyrical specificity for his other project Owen, aware that it’s much less subject to scrutiny. Reeling from a divorce he’s already addressed on the last couple of Owen records, however, he leans into the vulnerability on the band’s first album in seven years, pointing fingers while claiming responsibility for the mess he’s created. “I can’t bathe in your malaise anymore/ I’d rather be profane than chaste and bored,” he sings deep into the storm of the record, which is dramatic and ambitious, yes, but will probably prove less divisive than some of us early listeners assumed. It’s exploratory, unmoored, and self-aware, though never to the point of rupturing the mythos of American Football. Read the full review.


Kacey Musgraves, Middle of Nowhere

middle of nowhereKacey Musgraves is going back to her roots on Middle of Nowhere, the follow-up to 2024’s Deeper Well. It arrives via the revived Lost Highway Records, where she originally signed in 2011, and was produced by longtime collaborators Daniel Tashian and Ian Fitchuk. Taking its name from a sign located outside her hometown of Golden, Texas, the record features guest appearances from Willie Nelson, Miranda Lambert, Billy Strings, and Gregory Alan Isakov. “The bulk of this record was made during the longest single period of my life,” Musgraves explained. “I found that for the first time, it actually felt incredible being alone and existing in a space not defined by anyone else. I became fascinated with the concept of liminal space, both geographical and emotional. We don’t linger in these transitional, empty spaces long enough and rush to define where or whatever is next. I became so at ease with being in the ‘middle of nowhere’ in many senses and sitting in the un-comfort of the undefined.”


Lip Critic, Theft World

theft worldLip Critic have followed up their 2024 debut Hex Dealer with a new album, Theft World. “The whole record is about this idea of the yin-yang of stealing, the concept of theft, how it’s very pervasive in the world,” Bret Kaser explained in our interview. “It comes down to small things, like your attention span, housing prices, inflation, all these things are becoming more expensive. Things being taken from you without you having any say in it.” He cited the Internet Archive, music piracy, and passwords as some of the inspirations behind the record, along with films including Andrei Tarkovsky’s Stalker and the Banksy documentary Exit Through the Gift Shop.


Tori Amos, In Times of Dragons

In Times of Dragons album cover artworkTori Amos is back with her 18th album and first since 2021’s Ocean to Ocean. An allegorical epic replete with dragons, tyrants, and witches, In Times of Dragons is framed as a response to the erosion of democratic structures in the United States, continuing her tradition of blending the personal and political through elaborate song cycles. On social media, Amos pitched the story’s premise as such: “As I’m fleeing from the character that is my sadistic billionaire Lizard Demon husband, I came across people I had not been allowed to see in years, and they had not wanted to see me because of the relationship I found myself in. To avoid being captured and dragged back to the Lizard Demon’s penthouse, I run to the deep south of the US to throw him and his henchman off my trail.”


Maya Hawke, Maitreya Corso

MAITREYA CORSOLike her last album, Chaos Angel, Maya Hawke’s latest deploys a self-mythologizing persona, and it’s a full-length collaboration with her now-husband, Christian Lee Hutson. But Maitreya Corso is more ambitious and mature in its fantastical worldbuilding, taking more than a few musical risks that complicate its amiable folk-pop. “This album generally is about learning to protect the precious from the poisonous,” Hawke shared in press materials. “Protect creation from pride. Protect love from control. Protect collaboration from jealousy.”


youbet, youbet

youbet - Album Cover.youbet, which has expanded from the solo project of Nick Llobet into a duo with fellow music educator Micah Prussack, have released their self-titled album. The nervy yet meticulously arranged record was recorded over 10 days last year at Katie Von Schleicher’s parents’ house in Maryland, with Julian Fader also co-producing. “Micah has brought a lot of order to my chaotic neurodivergence,” Llobet said in press materials. “I consider her my musical confidant. She can be cleverly critical and extremely encouraging. She’s probably the most opinionated person I know. Together we build this musical balance.”


Ana Roxanne, poem 1

Ana RoxanneAna Roxanne has released her first solo album in over five years. poem 1, which is populated by sparsely decorated piano songs, may sound plaintive, but it reflects a newfound confidence in the experimental artist’s approach. “I can’t believe the time has finally come to share this with you, after years of working, ruminating and somehow pushing through to the end,” Roxanne wrote on social media. She previewed the LP with the tracks ‘Keepsake’ and ‘Untitled II’.


Weird Nightmare, Hoopla

hooplaAlex Edkins, formerly the frontman of METZ, has come through with another radiant, supremely catchy power-pop collection under the moniker Weird Nightmare. Following the project’s 2022 self-titled debut, Hoopla was co-produced by Edkins and Spoon’s Jim Eno at Seth Manchester’s Machines With Magnets in Providence, RI. Drummer Loel Campbell and bassist Roddy Kuester make up the record’s rhythm section.


Other albums out today:

Kneecap, Fenian; Isaiah Rashad, It’s Been Awful; Thurston Moore & Bonner Kramer, They Came Like Swallows: Seven Requiems for the Children of Gaza; duendita, existential thottie; Jesca Hoop, Long Wave Home; Hiss Golden Messenger, I’m People; The Black Keys, Peaches!; Octo Octa, Sigils for Survival; Toadies, The Charmer; Modern Woman Johnny, Dreamworld; Seefeel, Sol.Hz; The Boo Radleys, In Spite of Everything; Eli Moore, The Power Line; Devin Sarno, Flowers on the Ocean; Cindy, Another Country; Super Furry Animals, Precreation Percolation; Corrado Maria De Santis, Thresholds of Light.

Lady Gaga Shares Two New Songs From ‘The Devil Wears Prada 2’

Lady Gaga has shared two new songs, ‘Shape of a Woman’ and ‘Glamorous Life’. They’re taken from the soundtrack to The Devil Wears Prada 2, which also features her previously released Doechii collab ‘Runway’. Take a listen below.

The soundtrack boasts an all-women cast of artists, compiling familiar tunes from SZA (‘Saturn’), Dua Lipa (‘End of an Era’), Raye (‘Worth It’), Olivia Dean (‘Nice to Each Other’), and more. Laufey, Ledisi, and the Maríasan also appear on the album, along with an edit of Miley Cyrus and Brittany Howard’s ‘Walk of Fame’.

 

Isabelle Bscher And Galerie Gmurzynska’s Picasso & Wifredo Lam Exhibition

In a historic reunion that bridges the gap between European Modernism and Afro-Caribbean identity, Galerie Gmurzynska has announced a major exhibition dedicated to the intimate  relationship between Pablo Picasso and Wifredo Lam.

Running from now through June 30, 2026, at the gallery’s iconic Fuller Building location on East 57th, the exhibition marks the first comprehensive exploration of the duo’s mentorship and friendship. The exhibition, titled to reflect their lifelong bond, follows the finissage of the Museum of Modern Art’s (MoMA) acclaimed retrospective, “Wifredo Lam: When I Don’t Sleep, I Dream,” and will include several key works previously seen at MoMA.

The story began in Paris in May 1938, when Lam, a Cuban artist of African and Chinese descent, arrived with a letter of introduction from Salvador Dalí. The meeting was instantaneous in its impact. Picasso famously recognized a kindred spirit in Lam, declaring: “Lam, I think that you have my blood in you; you must be one of my relatives, a primo, a cousin.”

While Picasso served as a mentor, the relationship was one of mutual respect. Picasso’s fascination with African art found a living contemporary in Lam, who would eventually use the tools of Modernism to embark on what he called an “act of decolonization.”

“What we thought was interesting was that there was never a show done on the two of them together [since 1939],” says Isabelle Bscher, the third-generation owner of Galerie Gmurzynska. “The last dedicated two-man exhibition was at the Perls Gallery in New York in 1939. It was Lam’s first show in America.”

The exhibition will feature approximately 50 works spanning 1918 to 1978, including paintings, frescos, ceramics, and collages.

Highlighting the breadth of their careers, the Picasso selection includes two rare frescos from his 1918 honeymoon in Biarritz, as well as oil paintings from the 1940s that showcase his lifelong engagement with “primitive” arts. For Lam, the centerpiece is a rare Étude pour La Jungle (1943), alongside masterpieces from his estate and selections from his personal collection of indigenous art.

The venue itself holds historical weight. Between 1940 and 1946, the two artists frequently exhibited together at the Pierre Matisse Gallery, which was housed in the very same Fuller Building where Galerie Gmurzynska now stands.

In a contemporary twist, the exhibition will feature a fashion component highlighting Lam’s enduring influence on Caribbean creators. Rachel Scott, the Jamaican-born creative director of the brand Diotima and a recipient of the prestigious LVMH Prize in 2023, has collaborated with the Lam estate to create a collection inspired by his work.

“A lot of the pieces are jungle-inspired, much like Lam’s paintings,” Bscher explains. “His work couldn’t be more poignant today.” Several of Scott’s fashion pieces, featuring prints derived from Lam’s canvases, will be on display alongside the artworks.

To cement the historical importance of the event, Galerie Gmurzynska will release a 350-page scholarly volume. Featuring new research by experts such as Jérôme Neutres and archival materials never before published, the book is the first major publication to focus exclusively on the Picasso-Lam dialogue.

Isabelle Bscher, an art historian who took the helm of the gallery founded by her grandmother, sees this show as a continuation of the gallery’s mission to champion Modernist masters. Having grown up in the art world—joking that she “learned to walk at Art Basel”—Bscher has curated major shows for the likes of Sylvester Stallone and Joan Miró. This upcoming exhibition, however, feels particularly personal.

“Lam really met most of the 20th century’s greatest artists,” Bscher says. “But his relationship with Picasso was foundational. Bringing them back together in the Fuller Building, where they once showed during the 1940s, is a full-circle moment for art history.”

“Lam/Picasso” runs from April 23 to June 30, 2026 at Galerie Gmurzynska, Fuller Building, 595 Madison Avenue, 6th Floor, New York City. Visit gmurzynska.com for more information.

Photo credits: Top image, Isabelle Bscher, Diana Picasso, Ulla Parker, Vikram Chatwal, Photo Credit Michael Ostuni PMC. Second image, Isabelle Bscher by Gilles Bensimon, third photo, Isabelle Bscher by Udo Spreitzenbarth.

Number One Rated Product Image Editor for Amazon Listings

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Ready to get clicks and boost your sales? Discover the best product image editor for Amazon listings that makes online selling easier.

Much like a person finding their way out of the Amazon rainforest, customers on the Amazon marketplace can easily get lost. Yes, they can be overwhelmed, as there are too many similar products, and choosing almost feels like navigating identical trails in the forest. For this very reason, Amazon sellers see product photos as the deciding factor between a scroll past and a sale. And that is a big deal, whether for established brands or small-scale vendors.

In a highly competitive world of e-commerce, AI tools can help you upgrade the way your products stand out through better images. That’s why having a product image editor for Amazon listings, like Simfa, can be very helpful. Haven’t explored this yet? Keep reading to the end, where this article explains how this creative tool fits in the demands of crowded online shopping platforms like Amazon.

Why Product Images Matter in Amazon Listings

In case you haven’t realized it yet, Amazon is a visual-first marketplace. As with eBay and Etsy, customers cannot physically touch or test products. It is a bummer for them. That means all they have are product images. It is where buyers rely most on their purchasing decisions outside reviews and prices. And it is your responsibility as a seller to provide photos that truly showcase the item.

Whether you value it or not, images can also make or break your sales. Photos with poor lighting, cluttered backgrounds, or unprofessional edits instantly reduce trust and lower conversion rates. Mind you, it is not just about them not buying one product. It is more about them even considering your shop for future needs. In an age where the power of images is unparalleled, tools like a product image editor for Amazon listings become critical. With studies showing that over 50% of online consumers make purchases based on visuals, using tools to improve images can help you maximize buyer psychology.

In most cases, high-quality listings use:

  • Clean backgrounds
  • High-resolution product photos
  • Several angle shots
  • Images showing real-world usage
  • Consistent branding across all photos

Simfa: A Modern Solution for Amazon Product Images

product image editor for Amazon listings

Simfa positions itself as the ultimate toolkit that caters to the needs of digital creators, marketers, and e-commerce sellers. Instead of relying on multiple complex editing software and expensive professional product shoots, Simfa brings everything in one AI-driven platform.

When you break the app down, you will see it is specifically built to produce materials that benefit online stores. From an image upscaler and an image generator to a background remover and a product enhancer, Simfa clearly enables the creation of visually compelling content faster. On top of these, the app also features various presets and templates that are effective for product staging. Among the available configurations, you can find stages for food and beverage, jewelry, electronics, furniture, and fashion.

Guess what? This is just the tip of the iceberg. If you really want to explore how to be more efficient in creating product images, Simfa offers face and outfit swap features. These expand the possibilities of how much you can do with one single shot. And with the help of its description creator tool, your listings can have more optimized descriptions that work hand in hand with visuals to drive conversions.

How Simfa Helps Amazon Sellers

For Amazon sellers, having all of these means getting better product images without needing advanced design skills or spending bucks on professionals. Not that supporting creatives is wrong. But the Amazon report shows that over 60% of sales come from independent sellers. And adding more to overhead expenses may not be ideal for small-scale businesses looking to maximize profit margins.

As a product image editor for Amazon listings, Simfa focuses on accessibility and automation. Yes, that means sellers no longer need to worry about making time and learning editing skills. With this creative app, you can improve click-through rates, elevate sales, and build a stronger brand identity with ease. Selling alone is tough; let Simfa make it easier.  

Level Up Your Product Listings Today

Amazon sellers who invest in AI tools like Simfa for their product images are doing the right thing for their businesses. Save time, effort, money, and bring in higher profits. Circling back to our opener, it helps shoppers navigate Amazon and find their way to your store — guided by product images that lead the way.

Get started with Simfa and turn your listings into conversion machines!

Three Famous Patterns Created by Artists

Some patterns are so distinctive they become inseparable from the artists who made them, transforming from design choice into an entire worldview. Our Culture reflects on three iconic patterns crafted and immortalised by visual artists:

Yayoi Kusama’s polka dots

Kusama’s polka dots might be the most recognisable pattern in contemporary art, covering not just canvases but sculptures, furniture, buildings, and Kusama herself. For Kusama, the dots are deeply personal, rooted in childhood hallucinations in which flowers spoke to her. She leaned into this experience, using repetition as both therapy and philosophy: the dot, she has said, represents the infinity of the universe, and she its single, dissolving point.

Naoshima landscape in Shikoku, Japan. Photo source: Deposit Photos

William Morris’s botanical repeats

Morris’s botanical pattern defined a whole movement. Working in Victorian England against the grain of industrialisation, Morris hand-designed intricate wallpapers and textiles, including Willow Bough, Strawberry Thief, and Acanthus, built from densely layered leaves, birds and flowers drawn straight from nature and medieval tapestry. His patterns were a statement about craftsmanship and beauty in the everyday life.

Keith Haring’s interlocking figures

Haring’s figures began their journey on the blank black advertising panels of the New York City subway in the early 1980s, where he would drop everything chalk his bold figures in looping sequences— crawling babies, barking dogs, you name it. The pattern-like repetition was intentional, for Haring wanted art that felt urgent and democratic.

Pisa, Italy – July 5, 2019: Some figures painted by Keith Haring, horizontal. Detail from a huge outdoor artwork (called Tuttomondo) painted in Pisa, Italy, in 1989. — Illustration. Photo source: Deposit Photos

Three Iconic Spanish Painters of the 17th Century

Seventeenth-century Spain was a Habsburg empire fraying at the edges through costly wars and economic strain, yet simultaneously bursting with creative energy in what became known as the Siglo de Oro, or Golden Age. The Counter-Reformation gave artists urgent purpose, with the Church commissioning imagery designed to move the faithful and assert Catholic glory. Seville became the crucible in which all three of these great painters were forged.

Francisco de Zurbarán

Zurbarán is best remembered for his renderings of austere monks and candlelit stillness, but his palette was far broader than his reputation suggests. His still lifes, for instance, are inviting in their warm tones while The Virgin of the Rosary venerated by Carthusians speaks to the rich range of colour he worked with. Where he truly dazzled was in his extraordinary rendering of fabric, whether depicting the heavy wool of Franciscan habit or embroidered vestments so tactile you can practically feel the thread.

gnus Dei (c. 1635–1640), 38 cm × 62 cm. Oil on canvas. Museo del Prado. Image source: Wikimedia Commons

Diego Velázquez

Velázquez worked at the summit of Spanish power as court painter to Philip IV, resulting in a proximity to privilege that gave his work an intimacy with the ruling class. Notably, though, he used it to quietly subvert hierarchy, most famously in Las Meninas, where the king and queen appear only as reflections in a mirror while servants and a dog occupy centre stage. His technique was quite ahead of its time: loose impressionistic brushwork that edges into realism at a distance, influencing the French Impressionists two centuries later.

Las Meninas (oil on canvas, 318 × 276 cm) Image source: Wikimedia Commons

Bartolomé Esteban Murillo

Murillo was perhaps the most beloved of the three in his own lifetime, and his works hint as to why. Where Zurbarán could feel severe and Velázquez cerebral, Murillo brought warmth and tenderness. His Immaculate Conception paintings, for instance, bathed the Virgin in silvery light and adoring cherubs. He co-founded the Seville Academy of Fine Arts in 1660 alongside Velázquez.

Immaculate Conception by Murillo. Image source: Wikipedia

Vampire Crawlers: How to Heal and Restore HP

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Not sure how to heal in Vampire Crawlers? The strategy card battler has you pushing through dungeon runs, building decks as you go, and chaining cards together to take on increasingly tough enemy waves. You’ll constantly be picking up new cards, upgrades, and effects that affect how each run plays out, and in order to survive, your build needs to hold up.

Taking damage is inevitable, especially during longer runs, and with limited health, knowing how to heal and restore HP can help keep your run going. Here’s how you can easily heal in Vampire Crawlers.

Vampire Crawlers: How to Heal and Restore HP

You can heal in Vampire Crawlers by using floor chickens, Chicken Stands, Recovery upgrades, and Pummarola cards, and by unlocking healing effects through weapons, Gems, and Crawlers. Here’s how you can use each healing option in Vampire Crawlers:

Pick up floor chickens

This is the first healing method most players will come across. As you explore dungeons, break torches and other light sources since they can drop a floor chicken. Pick it up to restore 10 HP. If you find one while at full health, you can leave it and come back for it later on the same floor.

Use a Chicken Stand

Chicken Stands appear occasionally and let you sacrifice a card in exchange for 30 HP. This is one of the strongest direct healing options early on. It also helps clean up weaker cards from your deck, so you are getting value in two ways.

Upgrade the Recovery Power Up

Once you unlock the Village Shop, the Recovery Power Up will become a steady source of healing. It restores HP after each battle, starting at +1 HP at level 1, increasing to +2 HP at level 2, and reaching +3 HP at level 3. It may not seem like much at first, but over multiple fights, it stacks up and helps keep your health from slowly dropping over a run.

Use Pummarola cards

Pummarola provides Recovery instead of instant healing, which means the health is restored after a battle ends. You can use it to offset chip damage across multiple encounters, and over time, Pummarola also helps unlock the Restore Health Gem, which boosts Recovery when slotted into cards.

Use healing weapons

Some evolved weapons also restore health while dealing damage, making them more efficient than they first appear. For example, Bloody Tear heals you when you land critical hits, while Soul Eater restores 2 HP when used and can also disarm enemies.

Use healing Gems, Crawlers, and Arcana

As you progress through the game, you will unlock more healing tools via progression systems. Clerici provides direct healing support, certain Gems can add Healing or Recovery effects to cards, and Experimental Medicine doubles healing from other sources.

Healing and Recovery work differently in the game, as healing restores HP immediately, so you can use things like floor chickens or Clerici for instant recovery in the middle of a run. On the other hand, Recovery restores health after battles, such as Pummarola or the Recovery Power Up, which work great for offsetting damage over time.

And that does it for our Vampire Crawlers’ healing guide. For more gaming news and guides, be sure to check out our gaming page!

 

Four Bird Photographers To Follow On Instagram

Late April marks a peak moment for bird migration in the Northern Hemisphere, as species return to the UK and Europe to breed after winter in warmer climates. It’s one of the best times of year to look up. Whether you’re drawn to the jewel-bright flash of a kingfisher, the almost implausibly beautiful song of a nightingale, or the endearing absurdity of a puffin, there’s no shortage of reasons to pay attention. Here are four photographers doing exactly that.

Karen Miller (@karen.miller.photography)

A Highland-based wildlife photographer and guide, Karen’s work is deeply rooted in the landscape she lives in: think wrens, snow bunting, coal tits moving through Scots pine. Her images demonstrate her delight in spending time with animals in their habitat.

Melissa Groo (@melissagroo)

A conservation photographer whose work has appeared in Audubon, Smithsonian and National Geographic, Melissa is well known for her thinking on ethics. She co-created the National Audubon Society’s guide to ethical bird photography and has sat on the jury for Wildlife Photographer of the Year. Her stunning photographs are indeed clearly captured by someone who considers the animal’s experience as much as the frame.

 

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Jan Wegener (@jan_wegener_)

Known to his 220k followers as the Bird Whisperer, Jan’s portraits are delightful, painterly shots — birds caught in considered poses against beautifully blurred backgrounds, with talent in expressing their varied personalities and expressions. German-born and now based in Queensland, he shares his methods generously, making his feed educational.

Mark Smith (@mark.smith.photography)

Based in Florida, Mark has built a following of over two million around one primary subject: birds of prey in full pursuit, filmed and photographed at an excitingly close range. Ospreys and pelicans diving for fish are his signature, while his ultra-slow-motion video work in particular has a way of stopping his audience mid-scroll.

 

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