Art and stuff.
Saturday, 22 October 2005 07:33 pmGoing to do some selling on eBay (or trying to). Went through all my old books and stuff, and decided there's a lot I can stand to part with. Plus, of course, some of it may be "in vogue" at the moment, what with certain new series on the TV bringing certain old series back into the public eye... So I'm going to try sell them. If they don't sell, well, I can't say I'd be too distraught, but it's worth a go at least.
In other news, I'm getting on well with my "Ammut" picture - although I've chosen to change some of it very slightly, and do the border in real papyrus (mostly because I was an idiot and forgot to leave enough room to properly work the border on the paper I used, and when I stretched it to prevent cockling I went and lost even MORE border space. I'm just getting frustrated by how little time I'm getting to do it - or rather, how little time in good daylight, I'm not short of time otherwise. I've taken to taking it and my pencils to work and sitting in the hot-desking room in the top of the new department - nobody bothers going all the way up there, normally, aside from to use the photocopier (and there's another of those downstairs) so it's quiet, has plenty of work-space, and a convenient computer for the accessing of reference images. :) And it means I can make the most of my lunchtime sunshine. I hate trying to colour by synthetic light, as all my bulbs have a yellowish tinge and you can't see yellow pencil well. :P This is an update!
And lastly, I have another new species. :) They're called DuPhee (aka "cuttlepuppies") at the moment; from the same homeworld (now dubbed "Skai'i") as the DuSkai, and as they're domesticated they were one of the few species to escape when the invaders arrived. Just don't let a cuttlepuppy lick your hand if you want to keep all your skin; they have a radula, which basically means they have teeth on their tongue. Info and development here! (PS I like ideas. ;))
PS since starting to listen to this track at 1.142x speed, it sounds stupid and too-slow at normal speed. :P
In other news, I'm getting on well with my "Ammut" picture - although I've chosen to change some of it very slightly, and do the border in real papyrus (mostly because I was an idiot and forgot to leave enough room to properly work the border on the paper I used, and when I stretched it to prevent cockling I went and lost even MORE border space. I'm just getting frustrated by how little time I'm getting to do it - or rather, how little time in good daylight, I'm not short of time otherwise. I've taken to taking it and my pencils to work and sitting in the hot-desking room in the top of the new department - nobody bothers going all the way up there, normally, aside from to use the photocopier (and there's another of those downstairs) so it's quiet, has plenty of work-space, and a convenient computer for the accessing of reference images. :) And it means I can make the most of my lunchtime sunshine. I hate trying to colour by synthetic light, as all my bulbs have a yellowish tinge and you can't see yellow pencil well. :P This is an update!
And lastly, I have another new species. :) They're called DuPhee (aka "cuttlepuppies") at the moment; from the same homeworld (now dubbed "Skai'i") as the DuSkai, and as they're domesticated they were one of the few species to escape when the invaders arrived. Just don't let a cuttlepuppy lick your hand if you want to keep all your skin; they have a radula, which basically means they have teeth on their tongue. Info and development here! (PS I like ideas. ;))
PS since starting to listen to this track at 1.142x speed, it sounds stupid and too-slow at normal speed. :P
Whee. Finally just about happy with my linework for Swandog's "Beasts of Yore" portfolio.

(Goes to devART, the Photobucket version got shrunk, for some reason.)
Scanner cut a bit off the side. Grr.
Now, to work on my other pic, just to "refresh my palate". (Like so many, I guess, I find if I work on one pic for long enough I can't see errors. Working on something new in the interim clears the "stale images" from my mind and lets me see the older one with new eyes. :) ) I'm illustrating "The Fox and the Elephant", from the Panchatantra, which is sort of like Aesop's Fables but from Ancient India; it means I can draw a Bengal foxes. OMG LIEK YAYS.
Going to try finish that one of Azure I started ages ago, as well. The legs were making me unhappy, but I think I've got it sorted now... So... yays! Artsu.
In non-art news, I'm TRYING to finish off a couple of old stories - one which I started in 2001. Buh. Technically, it's finished, as a friend and I wrote it in IM (as one character was mine, and one was hers. If we borrowed characters off each other, we often "roleplayed" the dialogue and wrote it up after so neither of us could nag the other that we were writing a character "wrong" ;) ). It's getting the cheesiness out of some of my lines that's getting to me - four years is plenty of time to develop your writing style and learn to hate your old work. :P

(Goes to devART, the Photobucket version got shrunk, for some reason.)
Scanner cut a bit off the side. Grr.
Now, to work on my other pic, just to "refresh my palate". (Like so many, I guess, I find if I work on one pic for long enough I can't see errors. Working on something new in the interim clears the "stale images" from my mind and lets me see the older one with new eyes. :) ) I'm illustrating "The Fox and the Elephant", from the Panchatantra, which is sort of like Aesop's Fables but from Ancient India; it means I can draw a Bengal foxes. OMG LIEK YAYS.
Going to try finish that one of Azure I started ages ago, as well. The legs were making me unhappy, but I think I've got it sorted now... So... yays! Artsu.
In non-art news, I'm TRYING to finish off a couple of old stories - one which I started in 2001. Buh. Technically, it's finished, as a friend and I wrote it in IM (as one character was mine, and one was hers. If we borrowed characters off each other, we often "roleplayed" the dialogue and wrote it up after so neither of us could nag the other that we were writing a character "wrong" ;) ). It's getting the cheesiness out of some of my lines that's getting to me - four years is plenty of time to develop your writing style and learn to hate your old work. :P
Revised colours
Tuesday, 23 August 2005 09:36 pmGave up trying to do those extra bits - I wasn't happy with the body shape to start with, and then it scanned shoddily, so I thought I'd just crop the whole thing off. I'm sure I'll have something other than back-to at some point in the not-too-distant future. :P
Keaalu - revised colours (platinum cross)
I DID add in a little photo-reference at the bottom, just to be all useful, like. Now to scan my little fifteen-minute teabreak chickenscratch idea for the portfolio I'm going to be participating on, all being well...
Scratscrat... Thinking about stuff here. Is it just me that thinks Ancient Egypt (well, Bast, Anubis and Sekhmet, and to a certain degree Sebek) has been overly "sexed up" in "furry" circles lately? I mean, they're so over-used (or is that "abused"?) that they're not exactly ancient myths any more but just conveniently-pre-made non-copyrighted easily-recognisable characters for one's characters to bonk. *shrugs* Anyway. This is a 15-minute teabreak-sketch (there's more around the edges of the pic, with ideas for clothes and stuff, but that's even more illegible) of a really hasty idea for Ammut. The other creature I'd been thinking of is the "Akhekh", which is like a hawk-antelope/dog-uraeus, but there's something about this massive, terrifying goddess that appeals to me to draw - perhaps it's the simple fact that she's so UGLY, and makes a nice counterbalance to all the "OMG-CUTE-SEXY-YIFFY-HUNG-LIKE-A-DONKEY-ANUBIS!" pictures out there. ;) Anyway, opinions good. Now I want to get that doodle of Azure finished, since I have a possible solution to my "how the hell do I rework this anatomy?" problem.
On the subject of portfolios, I was pondering perhaps doing some sort of "Synthetica" folio - in spite of the fact I have NO CLUE whatsoEVER how I'd run it. *shrugs* Again, ideas, opinions?
Keaalu - revised colours (platinum cross)
I DID add in a little photo-reference at the bottom, just to be all useful, like. Now to scan my little fifteen-minute teabreak chickenscratch idea for the portfolio I'm going to be participating on, all being well...
Scratscrat... Thinking about stuff here. Is it just me that thinks Ancient Egypt (well, Bast, Anubis and Sekhmet, and to a certain degree Sebek) has been overly "sexed up" in "furry" circles lately? I mean, they're so over-used (or is that "abused"?) that they're not exactly ancient myths any more but just conveniently-pre-made non-copyrighted easily-recognisable characters for one's characters to bonk. *shrugs* Anyway. This is a 15-minute teabreak-sketch (there's more around the edges of the pic, with ideas for clothes and stuff, but that's even more illegible) of a really hasty idea for Ammut. The other creature I'd been thinking of is the "Akhekh", which is like a hawk-antelope/dog-uraeus, but there's something about this massive, terrifying goddess that appeals to me to draw - perhaps it's the simple fact that she's so UGLY, and makes a nice counterbalance to all the "OMG-CUTE-SEXY-YIFFY-HUNG-LIKE-A-DONKEY-ANUBIS!" pictures out there. ;) Anyway, opinions good. Now I want to get that doodle of Azure finished, since I have a possible solution to my "how the hell do I rework this anatomy?" problem.
On the subject of portfolios, I was pondering perhaps doing some sort of "Synthetica" folio - in spite of the fact I have NO CLUE whatsoEVER how I'd run it. *shrugs* Again, ideas, opinions?